Writing goals

 This year we are doing some Writing PD and as part of that process we have been observed, collaborative teaching, videoed and had lots of feedback and feedforward sessions.
I have really enjoyed this Writing PD and it has given me a whole new view on Writing and the importance of oral language. In my class I always try to extend and develop oral language in all areas of the curriculum, however I now see that I need to do much more explicit teaching and modelling for my students.
In the past a Writing session in my class would consist of me coming up with a sentence, choral reading it and then the students finding the muddled up words and writing them in the correct order. This was due to my belief that having the kids write something was better then drawing out all the oral language associated with a topic and letting the kids come up with their own sentence.
I now believe that the oral language is the most important part of Writing in a new entrant class. My focus has changed from teaching the children about using full stops, capital letters and finger spaces to using time words and pow words. We explore using these words through lots of oral language experiences and I model the correct sentence structures and build on what the children say. I provide lots of time for this and often the children do not write an independent piece of Writing until the 2nd day/session.
I have a target group of 6 writers and I can see great progress in their confidence and use of vocabulary. I am yet to see their amazing oral language skills transfer to Writing but I can see the huge difference that this approach has had on my target students and I know that this will reflect in their Writing soon.