Strand: Writing

Element: Communicating as a listener, speaker, reader, writer

Engaging in writing students should be able to

1. Demonstrate their understanding that there is a clear purpose for all writing activities and be able to plan, draft, re-draft, and edit their own writing as appropriate

2. Write competently in a range of text forms, for example letter, report, multi-modal text, review, blog, using appropriate vocabulary, tone and a variety of styles to achieve a chosen purpose for different audiences

From the two learning outcomes above we devised the following learning intention.

We will be able to write a book review

We will now explore one of Hattie & Clarke (2019) methods of co-creating success criteria. Hattie & Clarke describe one method of co-creating success criteria as Demonstrating good and bad examples.

'Demonstrating good and bad, showing good and bad examples of old student work. PE, music and art are examples of subjects for which a practical demonstration of how to do the skill well and how to do it badly both entertained students as well as helping them identify key features. Seeing a good example alongside a poor example helps students identify more clearly what should be included and what should not, or what makes the difference'.

We will explore the example of co-creating success criteria through working with a 'good' example.

Students are asked to co-construct success criteria from a 'good' example of a previous students work i.e. The Bad Beginning: A terrible tale.

Students engage on an online document and work collaboratively in co-creating success criteria. The students are assigned into groups for this task. They are provided the headings; Introduction, Plot Summary, Evaluation and Recommendation to scaffold the task.

This collaborative approach benefits the students as they can

• see other students work.

• work independently and collaboratively.

• amend or suggest changes to the document.

• engage in instant feedback.

• engage in problem solving, investigation skills and reasoning.

The Bad Beginning: A terrible tale

Do you enjoy happy endings? If so, The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket is a book you’ll want to avoid. This is a story with a bad beginning, a bad middle and a bad ending. Why would anyone want to read such a thoroughly bad book! It’s all in good fun!

The Bad Beginning is a story about the suffering of three orphaned siblings at the hands of their Uncle, Count Olaf. Although Violet, Klaus and Sunny are the inheritors of an enormous fortune, they cannot claim the money until they are older. For now, they must live with Olaf and cook and clean for him and his terrible theater friends. Why would such a cruel character take in three orphans? He wants to steal their fortune, of course.

I can’t tell you how the story ends, but I can tell you what I enjoyed most about the book. Snicket makes his readers laugh and want to continue reading, even in the most terrible situations. For example, he constantly warns his reader to put down the book because nothing good could possibly come of the orphans’ unfortunate situation. He writes: ‘It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once….’ Of course, Snicket’s warnings only made me even more curious to find out what would become of the siblings in the end.

Will Olaf’s evil plot win out? Or will these three crafty kids outwit him? If you’re not afraid of a little misery and a whole lot of mischief, then I recommend you read The Bad Beginning and find out for yourself.

Once the students have identified what makes a good book review (under the headings above) in their groups, the students then guided by the teacher collate and summarise the success criteria. An example of final success criteria for the learning intention 'We will be able to write a book review' can be seen below.

Students are then asked to use the final co-created success criteria to determine what is missing from the 'bad' example i.e. Lemony Snicket.

Lemony Snicket

I read a Lemony Snicket book for my book report. I enjoyed it.

The book was about three orphaned kids who were sent to live with their uncle. They were going to inherit a lot of money when they grew up. Their uncle wanted the money for himself.

I liked this book. It was written in a different way to other books I’ve read. I really wanted to know what the ending was.

Will Olaf’s evil plan succeed in the end? Will all these three crafty kids get the better of him in the end? If you’re looking for a thrilling read, then I recommend you read The Bad Beginning and discover more about this exciting adventure for yourself.

The example below shows a single-point rubric which can be used by the teacher and/or students to give effective feedback. In the centre of the single point rubric contains the co-created success criteria. The column on the right is used to give feedback on the work which exceeds standards. The column on the left is used to give feedback on the area which needs work. It can be short tick the box feedback, or it can provide descriptive feedback.

The example below shows effective feedback from the teacher or student using online comments. The comments are structured using an example, scaffold and reminder prompts (Clarke, 2005).

An example prompt

• Can you add a question here, to hook the reader?

A scaffold prompt

• Describe by using effective language, how the 3 orphaned kids may have felt because of their Uncle.

A reminder prompt

• To improve this work you need to include a quote from the book.

• Good use of questioning, these questions make me want to read the book.

When planning effective questioning it helps to focus on why you are asking the question in the first place (NCCA, 2015). The questions below show some purposes for asking questions in relation to this English example.