How can we use best practice to raise student outcomes in writing?

In our Year 5 and 6 hub our inquiry was about ways we could use best practice to raise
student outcomes in writing? Each of the four teachers within our hub chose a particular focus area.
My focus for writing was to use quick writes to promote. I first chose this after reading the following:
Six Ways to Use Quick Writes to Promote Learning

In our hub we noticed that our achievements levels of below and well below were higher than expected.
We wondered if behaviour might be a contributing factor? There were some exceptions in terms of
engagement and some surprises and even some students that we know are capable of more.It was a
concern that there were so many in the below and well below sections. We considered that the
problem may be engagement, shyness, or other learning factors: learning issues.

We investigated what we knew:
Students are enjoying writing, therefore engagement isn’t a priority. We know this because the children love silent writing. It is more organic. There are no learning
intentions/expectations. Good for fluency and engagement but our data tells us that it not having
enough impact on improved quality. We enjoy teaching writing and there are some good quality writers
in this hub.
Many of the girls are the quiet plodders - they don’t seek help or feed back. 
Of the boys - most are easily distracted.

We need to find out what their gaps are and let them know this so that they can self monitor and

plan their own next steps.

Our data told us:

That we need to change the something in order for the achievement data to improve. If we keep doing the same thing we will get the same results!

What we needed to do:

We needed to give the children an authentic audience. We don’t share their writing enough, so believe that we need to increase sharing. We also need to look at the data and analyse it. Specific acts of teaching is our focus. We need to
brainstorm what we will try.

As a team we could say engagement is now less of an issue. Data conversations and TAI can be married. Could look at 2 focus questions of PBL aspect individual teacher is responsible for. Other students

can look at other aspects: targeting specific writing functions: deeper features, creating key sentences,

surface features. Using their own learning journey prove that they have nailed it. Do we need to look at the learning journey progressions and make it more student friendly?

Actions to improve our practice:

We will each choose one of the strategies outlined in the brainstorm below, to trial for the a few
weeks.

We will report back anecdotally at our next data meeting. All teachers will use LI for writing sessions Feed back box on the document. (Include focus) Respond to the LI only. Authentic Audience. (Buddies, blog, PBL presentations) Shifts in Practice From using the same strategies that we have always used to focusing on deliberate acts of teaching
(trialing one at a time). We needed to move from ‘doing’ writing to looking critically at the quality of our
teaching. From Teaching writing to Teaching writers.

My quick writes focus was chosen so we could give attention to recognising success, fluency and
quantity, crafting good quality sentences, using precise vocabulary. My next step was to find some
evidence to support my Inquiry. I located Evidence Based Practices for writing instruction by Gary
Troia from Michigan State University.

In this paper there are 10 essential component categories highlighted:
1.Writing Is an Essential Part of the Curriculum- it should happen everyday. 2.Varied Approaches to the Teaching of Writing. All students will require instruction that is
comprehensive, but teachers must be comfortable with adjusting their instructional approaches to
match individual learner needs.
3.Instruction Focused on Process Elements- instruction should focus on developmentally appropriate elements of the writing process.
4.  Instruction Focused on Product Elements. This should help to make text plesurable.
5. Utilizing Technology in Writing Instruction.
6.Effective Assessment and Feedback for Writing-Feedback from both teachers and other students is a key part of effective writing instruction.
7.Instruction Focused on Writing Skills. Explicit, systematic, and sustained instruction in such skills, especially in the context of authentic writing activities, to ensure correct and fluent application of basic writing skills during text production.
8.Learning Through Writing.
9.Promoting Independent and Reflective Writers.
10.Promoting a Supportive Writing Environment.

There are many aspects that contribute to the overall success of students writing. It has been pleasing to see many positive shits in terms of increased quality writing that the students are now producing. It is difficult to determine exactly what has attributed to the progress, however as a team we believe that our focus areas and support for students is a significant contributor. Providing increasingly clear feedback and next steps seems to have provided students with clear guidance and goals. We also view that we are not there yet and that what we do requires ongoing work!