Lorraine Beveridge

Scaling new heights

When the results of 2005 Basic Skills Test arrived at Metford Public School, they showed, yet again, that students’ writing skills were at the lower end of the scale in relation to other schools in the district. This was continually happening, despite the teachers’ concerted efforts to improve students’ writing.

We were working as hard as we could and yet we were not making progress.
Lorraine Beveridge, Assistant Principal and Early Stage 1 teacher

This worrying situation provided the impetus for a change of direction in the way that writing was taught at the school.

Deborah Morrissey
Video WMV movie file (1.7 mb)

A team of six teachers, representative of each stage of learning, embarked upon an Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme funded project that used the NSW Quality Teaching model as the basis for teacher learning about writing. The goal was to improve student learning outcomes in writing by ensuring that teachers had a deep knowledge of how to explicitly teach writing.

Formulating a K—6 rubric

The team’s starting point was the careful reflection upon, and analysis of, students’ writing strengths and weaknesses in the Basic Skills Test. When these were tabulated by stage, it became obvious that, across the grades, students displayed common weaknesses related to particular aspects of writing. For example, few could write introductions for specific types of text, or construct paragraphs. This data was then analysed and discussed in relation to the syllabus and the Quality Teaching documents. As a result, the team developed a K—6 rubric for writing, which was to form the basis for planning new approaches to the way that writing was taught.

Sam King
Video WMV movie file (2.4 mb)

There was a lot of arguing to come up with the rubric, but we worked through the syllabus stage-by-stage and managed to keep the rubric small and achievable.
Deborah Morrissey, team member

A decision was made to focus on one type of text each term. Each team member buddied-up with a colleague from the same stage to discuss, plan, program and trial a variety of explicit teaching strategies that addressed both the rubric and the targeted text type.

Using the rubric

One example of a strategy trialled by the team was the use of a rubric with students. Sam King gave her Stage 1 students a modified form of the K–6 rubric as a self-assessment task. The students, working on the task both individually and in small groups, assessed a piece of their own writing against the rubric. They were able to identify areas of weakness by noting those aspects in which they scored the lowest. These weaknesses were then translated into a personal goal for improvement, which Sam addressed through explicit teaching. The use of writing rubrics meant that students gained a clear idea about what was expected in their writing. Teacher-buddies observed each other’s classroom practice as part of the trial process. They made notes and used checklists to verify coverage of the Quality Teaching elements. As well, students were tested before and after the implementation of a new strategy, and work samples were collected.

Whole school implementation

Armed with evidence about which explicit teaching strategies improved students’ writing skills, including videotapes of their lessons showing these strategies in action, team members presented the new approaches to the whole school staff. This triggered professional learning across the school as teachers built their deep knowledge and understanding of how to teach writing. What was the outcome for student learning? Staff nervously awaited the arrival of the 2006 Basic Skills Test results. When they finally arrived, the teachers discovered that Metford Public School had registered the highest score in writing amongst the schools in its district. It had rocketed from near the bottom to the top. The Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme project had given teachers time and direction to plan and implement ways of radically improving students’ writing skills.

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