3 Composing, re-composing, decomposing
This resource looks at the writing process and the ways in which a multimodal approach can impact upon it and make it explicit. As for previous resources, we’d like you to reflect on a practical example before thinking about how this might be helpful in developing your own teaching in this area.
Making writing better
Spend a few minutes jotting down bullet points in answer to these two questions:
- What, in your experience, are the main difficulties involved in helping pupils to improve their writing?
- Which of these might be aided by the use of some form of ICT?
Look again at the first of the lessons in the Teachers TV film referred to in Resource 1, http://www.teachers.tv/ video/ 34475 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
In this lesson, Phil Grosset demonstrates the use of the visualiser as part of a lesson in which pupils are moving from a prose description towards poetry composition. Look particularly at the points at which the teacher intervenes and the way in which the visualiser is used.
Reflection
Reflect on the way the technology is employed in the lesson. If you had access to a visualiser, would you use it in a similar way? When would your interventions take place and what would they focus on? In particular:
What does the visualiser enable the teacher to achieve which would otherwise be difficult or less effective?
What effect does the use of the visualiser have on the writing process?
What are the disadvantages, if any, of using this technology?
Finally, how far could this approach be used in your own teaching? What would you need in order to do so?
Further thoughts
Compare the interventions made possible by the visualiser with those you most frequently make in your own teaching. Which have the greater impact on the development of pupils’ writing?
What are the implications for Assessment for Learning and Assessing Pupil Progress?
What other methods might there be which would encourage pupils to look carefully and critically at their work in progress and, on occasions, that of others? Would ICT be helpful?
Thinking more broadly
What other forms of assistance in the writing process might ICT enable? You may like to think about some of the following but will probably come up with others:
- the ‘Insert Comment’ facility in Word and other word processors
- sharing feedback via the school VLE/learning platform
- responding to pupils’ work using email or a message board
- modelling the writing process using a blog. (You can read two case studies, one by Martin Brennan and another by Mark Ellis, which consider the use of blogs in English on the NATE website – see reference below.)
Other resources