Last week, the NSW Government unveiled a revamped primary school curriculum, launching the last four syllabuses of the new K-6 curriculum which focuses on essential knowledge, with more detailed and specific content.
While the new curriculum gives a useful structure and resources to teachers who need more guidance, there are concerns that there are not enough writing activities and that the creative side of writing is not covered in enough detail.
Many teachers are also concerned that they will not have sufficient time to deliver the curriculum as they struggle under the pressure of enormous administrative workloads. Regardless, teachers will need to deliver it.
Seven Steps to Writing Success has been developing Read-to-Write units, available on their Teacher Hub online platform, that align with the NSW units and support teachers in rolling out the new curriculum.
Sarah Bakker, Strategy Manager of Teacher Resources at Seven Steps, says key to these units – and any Seven Steps lesson – is teaching authorial skills. The most important skills to learn; the hardest skills to teach.
“The best way to improve students’ reading and writing is to develop their understanding of the techniques professional authors use,” Bakker told The Educator. “This helps students think like an author and experiment with the techniques they have learnt in their own writing.”
Teachers love the units
Below, Bakker shares some feedback of the program that was collated from a survey:
“I absolutely love how you have simplified the lessons for the department unit. Brilliant that it is linked to Seven Steps. Helps keep track of learning and points can be expanded on during lessons.” - Relle Ann
“This is so easy to follow and engaging for the students. Thank you so much for sharing.” - Gretchen Randich-Potts
“Glad to see Seven Steps hasn’t been thrown out with the bath water! Amazing resource.” - Sophie Cutler
“Teachers understand the value/importance of teaching reading and writing together: “… the opportunity to teach reading and writing together provides teachers the chance to embed a love of both and dig deeper into texts and text structure.” - Tanya Cox
Bakker said these units have been popular, not just with NSW teachers but teachers across Australia.
“For many teachers, the mentor texts chosen by NSW have challenged their understanding of different text types, particularly persuasive and informative texts,” she said.
“The mentor texts have demonstrated how narrative techniques and creativity can (and should!) be used across all text types to engage an audience. This is what Seven Steps is all about.”