COURSE 3
Notice. Don't Diagnose. — Writing
Who it is for
Primary and secondary teachers, English/literacy teachers, EAL/D teachers, learning support staff and literacy leaders who see students producing writing that is difficult to interpret or significantly below expectations.
The classroom problem
A student's writing may:
be very short
contain limited or repetitive vocabulary
consist mainly of simple sentences
lack cohesion
contain ideas that are difficult to follow
show weaknesses in grammar or sentence structure
fail to meet the demands of the task or genre
appear “below level” without making it clear why.
The danger is responding with generic advice such as “write more,” “use better vocabulary,” “add detail,” or “check your grammar” without identifying the underlying difficulty.
What the teacher will be able to do afterwards
Teachers will be able to:
notice specific features of a student's writing
distinguish between different possible sources of difficulty
analyse writing against the demands of the task
use student writing as evidence rather than relying on a broad judgement
consider possible explanations for what they are seeing
NOTICE → UNDERSTAND → RESPOND → IMPLEMENT
NOTICE
What is actually happening in the student's writing?
UNDERSTAND
What might explain the pattern?
RESPOND
What teaching response matches the identified difficulty?
IMPLEMENT
How will the teacher apply the response and determine whether the student's writing changes?
Practical activities
Writing sample observation activity
“What do you notice?” analysis
Writing-feature identification
Task-demand analysis
Possible-cause analysis
Comparison of student writing samples
Companion document
A downloadable course companion/workbook containing:
course notes
realistic student writing samples
guided analysis activities
worked examples
Completion/badge mechanism
Notice. Don't Diagnose — Writing Badge
Awarded after completion of the course and final application activity.
Price
$69