An Approach to Factual Writing I. The demands of differing nonfiction text —Much of the research into the development of childr

An Approach to Factual Writing
    Good morning. Today we are going to talk about a new approach to factual writing. It is an observable fact that many of the texts we, as adult members of society, encounter everyday and need to deal with are nonfiction texts. Much of the research of the last few decades into the development of children’s writing has tended to concentrate on personal and fictional texts:(2)nonfiction writing often has been neglected.
     (4)Persuasion, explanation, report and discussion are powerful forms of language that we use to get things done.(3)These forms have been called the language of power, and it can be argued that students who leave our classrooms unable to operate successfully within these powerful genres are denied access to becoming fully functioning members of society.(5)This fact suggests that it is not sufficient for us simply to accept the overwhelming dominance of recounts in our students’ nonfiction writing. We have to do something about broadening their range.
    Students too often are expected to move into the independent writing phase before they are really ready: often the pressure to do so is based on the practical problem of teachers being unable to find the time to spend with them in individual support. What is clearly needed is something to span the joint-activity and independent-activity phase.
     (6)We have called this additional phase the scaffolded phase—a phase where we offer our students strategies to aid writing but they can use without an adult being alongside them. One such strategy that we are going to explore is writing frames.
     (7)A writing frame consists of a skeleton outline given to students to scaffold their nonfiction writing. The skeleton framework consists of different keywords or phrases, according to the particular generic form. The template of starters, connectives, and sentence modifiers that constitute a writing frame gives students a structure within which they can concentrate on communicating what they want to say while it scaffolds them in the use of a particular generic form.(8)By using the form students become increasingly familiar with it, and they also help students overcome many of the other problems often associated with nonfiction writing.
    Next, I’d like to talk about the genres of writing frames in practical use. There are mainly two kinds of writing frames in common use.
     (9)First, the recount genre. Using a recount frame designed to encourage the use of previous knowledge. 9-year-old Rachel wrote about her trip to Plymouth Museum. Her writing suggests that the frame had helped her structure her ideas and allowed her to make sense of what she had seen. It had encouraged her to reflect upon her learning. Her writing is also noticeably different to that which children often produce after an educational visit, that is, a simple retelling of what they did during the day. Rachel here is recounting her learning.
     (10)Secondly, the discussion genre. Using a discussion frame helped 11-year-old Kerry write a thoughtful discussion about boxing. The frame encouraged her to structure the discussion to look at both sides of the argument. Many students of this age have difficulty with discussion because they find it challenging to see things from someone else’s point of view.
    We have found writing frames helpful to students of all ages and all abilities. Teachers have commented on the improved quality and quantity of writing that has resulted from using the frames with these students. That’s all for today’s lecture. Thank you.