The power to write

Before

Once upon a time there was a small family that lived in Melbourne Australia. They were going on a family holiday to the bahamas. They didn’t have much luck that day. It started off by waking up too late and missing the plane ride.

After

My throat is burning, my eyes are stinging, I am slowly coming into focus. Where am I?!. I cannot remember what has happened. As I look around, everything is mind blowing. The water is crystal clear. There are so many animals, my mind is spinning with excitement as I’m walking through the sand, it’s incredible. There’s just one problem, I have no food, water or any shelter. Will I survive the night?

Before

Two kids fell to the underground full of monsters. This kids name were Frisk and Friz. These two were best friends, they would stick with each other no matter what. So when Frisk fell down a whole, Friz followed.

After

The girl walked and walked, head down, hands in pockets. She stayed silent. People gave her weird looks but she didn’t notice. She just kept walking down the cold, snowy road. She got to the edge of the road and walked into a forest. She just kept walking straight.

Before

I lived near a temple that was deserted near rocks. One day I had the greatest idea, I decided to go down to the temple but when I got there it was covered in vines, so I knew I would have to get the chainsaw and chop it down bit by bit.

After

Flaming fire, black ash, broken glass and ripped rust. I only taste heat and smell petrol, I can barely open my eyes, but I can see a pair of glasses that are smashed and then I think in my head, what happened? But then I realised we had hit someone because of the smashed and shattered glasses on the road.

Carly: “I started teaching writing in chunks. The kids started having FUN as they were learning to write. I started using rapid recall and the students practised their skills over and over again!

“I integrated Seven Steps to Writing Success into a Project Based Learning environment and my students’ behaviour problems disappeared, their productivity increased, engagement skyrocketed and the students demonstrated huge growth in their abilities in such a short time. My teaching became student-centred and my students rewarded me for it.

“I moved from a typical teaching structure (teacher stands out front, delivers lesson content, student do an independent or group activity) to a structure where:

• It’s all about creating – not copying notes or practising essays.
• Chunk, Chunk, Chunk! Teach writing in parts.
• I dedicated TIME to the Seven Steps program and taught it thoroughly (what can be more important than learning to WRITE?)
• I use engaging and attention-grabbing multimedia resources.
• Students had flexible seating (no seating plan, beanbags, ottomans, tall stools, stand up desks, wiggly stools).
• Students have choice (what will I write about today?)
• I do short, fast activities, lots of times over (students maintain attention and can SEE their improvement).
• I ALWAYS publish student work (so they care, they are proud). (Seven Steps: and we asked students for their permission to share their work here, so they are getting external validation and positive encouragement.)
• Students can work together (so they can help each other).
• I use Google Apps so that students can collaborate using technology.
• Students have given feedback on the program and I have improved how I teach it each year.”

Seven Steps: What has been the greatest change you have seen in students since implementing your changes?

Carly: “The amount that they can write! I asked my students to write a book review the other day and I had year 7 students producing over 1000 words of QUALITY writing in just two hours!

“Student perception of their abilities changed. I surveyed the students before the program and MOST students said they were not good writers. Now they all have confidence in their writing and believe they are great at writing. My lowest student who would not write a sentence at the beginning of the year is on the twelfth chapter of his novel!

“Writing quality. ‘Ban the Boring’ has to be one of my favourite tools and something my students hear over and over again from me. They are now excellent at monitoring their writing to ensure it is engaging. I really enjoy reading my student work because it is quality and it makes sense!”

Seven Steps: What one or two things surprised you most about the change and students’ reactions?

Carly: “I knew that I loved the Seven Steps program from my first professional development, but I never expected my students to love it so much … They all use the same dialogue and say to me, ‘Miss Brien, what do you think of my Exciting Ending, should I put some Six Senses in it?’ It does not matter which text type I ask them to write, I can SEE evidence of Seven Steps to Writing Success all the way through it. It WORKS, the kids LISTEN, and EVERY STUDENT demonstrates improvement.”

Before

One day I got up from bed got dressed and went to a friends house. And him and I went fishing on my bote. BUT!!! Out of the medal of knowear a jiggint swrename cassle into me and my friend Izca.

After

I am starting to panic. It’s cold, cold like antartica. And ever worse it’s super dark. My freezing hands are trembling like a humongous earthquake. I can smell my worse nightmare my fear. And EVEN creepier I can heat the shadow deep voices.

Before

I was going on a trip with my mum, dad, 2 brothers and my two best friends to Greece.

After a few hours aboard a plane, we arrived in Greece. It took us a few hours to get to our amazing place dad was telling us about but when we got there it was a rusty old cabin on the edge of a darkened forest.

After

My weary, sore eyes start to flicker open. I see the blur of my friend lying next to me. She looks lifeless. No movement in her soul. My squinted eyes open a little bit more.

“Errr.” I goran. Melissa is still lying next to me, frozen one the ground. I move my head around, trying to recognise the place my friend and I are lying in.

Nope, I can’t recognise a thing. I try to stand to get closer to Melissa. Bad idea. My leg starts to ach in serious pain. It was no use. We are stranded, but where.

Seven Steps: What do you believe is the ‘secret’ to engaging students?

Carly: “Each of the Seven Steps must be taught as their own skill and then at the END students can combine all of their skills to create a written task. Short, sharp, engaging activities and the teacher can’t talk for more than 5 minutes at a time!

I think the MOST IMPORTANT thing is practise, practise, practise. My key to success is rapid recall. I want my students to be able to write on cue, anywhere, anytime, about anything (very helpful for NAPLAN tests!)”

Seven Steps: What would you like to do next (to engage students, or to continue to refresh your writing classes)?

Carly: “I want to spread the word and show people how this program can really produce amazing results! I want to continue to produce great resources that apply to an even wider range of text types – so far I have used Seven Steps when teaching narrative, persuasive, reflective recounts, book reviews, poetry and even critical responses. In the future, I want to gather data which demonstrates specific strengths and weaknesses in my students’ writing and use Seven Steps to target these skills.”