Teaching Writing in Today’s Classrooms: Looking Back to Look Forward Sample Dedication We dedicate this book to: Donald H Graves 1930–2010 and The SampleAustralian Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA): its presidents, office bearers at national, state and local levels, and all its members for their ongoing commitment, dedication and professional interests over the past forty years! Teaching Writing in Today’s Classrooms: Looking Back to Look Forward SampleEdited by Jan Turbill, Georgina Barton and Cynthia Brock Australian Literary Educators’ Association Ltd PO Box 3203 Norwood, South Australia 5067 www.alea.edu.au First published 2015 © Authors of individual chapters, 2015 All rights reserved.Sample This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Enquiries should be addressed to the publisher. ISBN 978 0 9775468 5 5 Cover design by Karen Argus Designed and produced by Michael Deves, Lythrum Press Printed and bound by Finsbury Green, Adelaide Contents Acknowledgements _________________________________________ viii Foreword __________________________________________________ xi SECTION ONE 1. Sense and sensibility in the Donald Graves writing curriculum: An exploration, a remembering, and a plea ________________________ 3 Mem Fox 2. Writing as process ________________________________________ 13 R.D. Walshe 3. Understanding writing and its relationship to reading ___________ 26 Brian CambourneSample 4. A conversation with Ralph Fletcher: Writer and teacher of writing __________________________________ 41 Ralph Fletcher with Jan Turbill 5. Exploring teachers’ identity positions as teacher-writers and writer-teachers in the classroom _______________________________ 51 Teresa Cremin 6. The contribution of genre theory to literacy education in Australia ________________________________________________ 69 Beverly Derewianka 7. Drawing + Talk = Powerful insights for teachers of writing _______ 87 Lisa Kervin and Jessica Mantei SECTION TWO 8. Imaginative children’s literature, educational drama and creative writing ____________________________________________ 107 Robyn Ewing, Jackie Manuel and Amy Mortimer 9. ‘I hope my writing will change your opinion’: A critique of disciplinary writing instruction in a Grade Six classroom ________ 123 Cynthia H. Brock, David Caldwell and Lynda R. Wiest 10. Learning to write: Analysing writing samples as part of considering how children become writers _____________________ 138 Annette Woods 11. Two First-graders intentionally become better writers _________ 154 Jane Hansen and Cathy Meaney 12. Teachers-as-writers: Writing information texts in English and vernacular _____________________________________________ 168 Beryl Exley, Wendy Carss and Apolonia Tamata 13. Berry School Book Club: Engaging readers and writers _________ 181 Jan Turbill, Susan McAuliffe and Brett Sutton 14. Developing writing and writers – whole school approaches _____ 198 Jo Padgham Sampleand Christine Topfer 15. The writing process as it plays out in the writing workshop _____ 218 Christine Topfer and Jo Padgham SECTION THREE 16. Writing practices today and in the future: Multimodal and creative text composition in the 21st century ____________________ 241 Georgina Barton, Julie Arnold and Rebecca Trimble-Roles 17. Curriculum literacies: Accessing disciplinary discourses ______________________________ 262 Len Unsworth 18. Examining the writing process for digital literary text construction ___________________________________________ 281 Kylie Lipscombe, Lisa Kervin and Jessica Mantei 19. Race, the senses, and the materials of writing and literacy practices ___________________________________________ 301 Kathy Mills and Neal Dreamson 20. English language learners, multimodality, multilingualism and writing ________________________________________________ 316 Misty Adoniou JAN TURBILL is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the School of Education, and a part-time Teaching and Learning Consultant in the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong. She served as President of the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA) for eight years (2003–2011). Jan is an active member of the International Literacy Association (USA) serving on several key committees, and review boards. Her research interests range from early literacy development to professional learning and practices. She is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators and a Life Member of the Australian College of Educators (ACE), Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA) and the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA.) In 2008 she was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame in the USA. SampleGEORGINA BARTON lectures in English and literacy education in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Georgina was a classroom teacher and literacy educator in schools for over 20 years, including teaching English in South India. She has worked with teachers, particularly in socially-disadvantaged areas, in developing literacy programs to improve students’ outcomes using arts-based practices. She researches in the areas of literacy, multimodality, teaching of writing, arts and music education, and teacher education with a focus on the international student experience. Georgina is currently the Vice-President of ALEA’s Meanjin Local Council and co-organises the Meanjin Writers’ Camp. CYNTHIA BROCK is a Senior Lecturer in English Literacy at the University of South Australia. She currently serves as an ALEA (South Australia) local council member. She studies the literacy learning opportunities of primary children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and she explores ways to work with pre- and in-service teachers to foster the literacy learning of children from non-dominant backgrounds. She has conducted qualitative research in different cultural contexts including the United States, Australia, Thailand, Loas, Spain, Chile and Costa Rica. vii Acknowledgements An edited book just doesn’t happen. Many people are involved in the process from the inception to the final book. We three editors live in different states in Australia and had never met. However over the period of the year we have come to know, trust, and support each other as we brought the book to fruition. We have thoroughly enjoyed working together, learning from each other and from our many contributors. It truly has been a very rewarding experience. We want to acknowledge and thank ALEA National Council for initiating the concept underpinning this book. In particular, we must acknowledge our friend and colleague Beryl Exley, ALEA’s Publication Director, for inviting us to be co-editors, for trusting in our expertise to get the job done, and for quietly guiding and supporting us when needed. An editedSample book needs contributors and we are indebted to our 33 writers. Our task was made easier by their willingness to write on our suggested topics, work within our deadlines, respond quickly to any suggestions made and, their overall expertise as educators. It truly has been a joy working with them all. Many of the chapters have been peer reviewed by a willing group of experts in the field. We are very grateful for their time and critical thoughtful reviews to our authors. Thank you all. We would like to acknowledge and thank the Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA) for their co-sponsorship of the Donald Graves Address that funded the presentations of Mem Fox (2012), Teresa Cremin (2013) and Ralph Fletcher (2014) at ALEA’s national conferences. A big thankyou goes to Karen Argus, who has designed so many of ALEA’s publications’ covers. This particular cover represents not only the key content of the book, but the celebration of 40 years of ALEA as a professional association. Karen you have again demonstrated such inspiration and talent. Finally our gratitude is extended to the person who put our words into this published format; Michael Deves from Lythrum Press in Adelaide has produced a book that we believe will be a best seller! Jan Turbill would like to acknowledge all those who have inspired her with respect to the teaching of writing: Bob Walshe, Don Graves, Brian Cambourne, Frank Smith, Andrea Butler and of course the many teachers viii and children who have shared their writing experiences with her. Most recently she has loved ‘playing’ and learning with the wonderful readers and writers in her upper primary Book Club. Jan thanks Sue McAuliffe, Brett Sutton, Di Hill and Bob Willetts at Berry Public School for letting her become a part of their school. A final thanks must go to Bebe, the wonderful four-legged spoodle, who has patiently waited for Jan to finish writing, and at times even demanding she stop and get some exercise! Georgina Barton would firstly like to thank both Jan and Cindy for making this project such an enjoyable one – it was fabulous to work with you both. Thank you to Beryl Exley for always being supportive. And finally Georgina would like to thank her family for supporting her in each of her exciting ‘work’ endeavours. Cynthia BrockSample extends special thanks to Jan, Georgina and Beryl for making this project such a fun learning journey. She also thanks her family (Joe, Julietta, Macy & Stevie) for their love and support. The reviewers Jan Turbill, University of Wollongong Cynthia Brock, University