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**Teaching Writing **
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// Teaching Writing  //

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'The most important idea when teaching writing is to ensure that children can see a purpose for their writing’ (Hill, 2006, p.306). Teachers can help their students see purposes, by engaging them in all aspects of the writing process, and scaffolding their learning by using effective strategies. The strategies commonly used for teaching writing in the early years are: modelled writing, shared writing, language experience, interactive writing, guided writing and independent writing. In modelled writing, students observe the teacher creating a piece of writing, and ‘gain insights into the thinking and conventions involved in the construction of a text’ (Early Years: Approaches to teaching writers, 1998). The teacher picks out specific elements of the writing process, and demonstrates to the children what they need to learn. This is taught during the whole-class focus time. Shared writing includes student’s ideas and suggestions in the creation of the text. As the narrator informs viewers, on the Early Years video (1998), ‘(shared reading) enables students to compose more complex pieces than they would normally write for themselves’. This strategy is also used for whole-class groups, but can be used for small groups too. The other small-group teaching strategies are language experience, interactive writing and guided writing. These involve ‘creating links between spoken and written language’, ‘the teacher and students jointly composing and recording a shared text’, and, in guided writing, ‘students (creating) individually written texts’, with the teacher acting as a guide (1998). Lastly, in independent writing, children are able to put their new knowledge and skills into practice. Here the students can choose their own topics, and create their own texts. ======

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Teachers can provide further support to students in roving conferences, where they talk to children one-on-one. As Helen Smith-Tudor, the Early Years co-ordinator, commented, ‘(when) you’re there with the child, you’re able to support their learning, as they learn, and you’re able to scaffold their learning from what they know to, perhaps, what they need to know today’ (1998). Another important factor in the writing process is whole-class share time, in which children share their pieces of writing, and gain feedback from their peers. The purpose of this is to help children understand that writing is sometimes created for themselves, but most often it is for sharing with an audience. ======