Building Student Agency in your Writing Programme

Presenter: Debbie Thorpe - Rototuna Primary School

Link to the Presentation

One way student agency can look in the classroom:

• Student choice
• Writing motivations
• Student planning and preparation- having something to say
• Explicit lessons- grown over the week.
• Student tracking/goal setting- taking charge of their learning
• Teacher roles
• Growing students range and self selection to write different text types.

Main points noticed..

student agency impacts

1. Student Choice of topic -for a purpose.
2. Student’s taking control of their learning
3. Student’s tracking their learning
4. Children do the learning/talking- active participants.
5. Student Progress is easily tracked/evidenced

Writing Motivations: (refer to panda lesson outline sheet)

Panda Video:

I wonder if all pandas are this playful?

This reminds me of . . .

Did you know facts shared

Records the wonderings on the board

Discuss what our purpose for writing could be

Group ideas using different colours

Student choice with planning - try to encourage structure

Explicit lessons

• Monday to Thursday
• See three flexible groups each day.
• Each 10-15 minute session builds on from the day before.
• Purpose of the lessons are to discover the new learning, collaborate and build understand together with the new learning and then take this new learning to independence.
• In the last session the goal and how we are going to know we have done this learning is written on their goal sheet.
• The following week the students may have another learning goal- or will be proving their learning.

Student tracking

• Build into your explicit lessons
• So what will this/could this look like?  
• Wait until the learning has been discovered before children are expected to track it..otherwise it will be tracked for you, not for them.  
• Give time to build what this looks like over the week.
• Give time to write in the goal and how to show this...this must be owned by the students.It needs to be in the students own words- and doesn’t have to be exactly the same for each student in the group.
• Give time each day for students to track their learning in their books.