Inquiry aside, I have learned a lot about young year 3 kids and the writing process. Apart from the contexts that each child brings to the classroom on any given day that can impact on their writing on that day, I have realised that there are a multitude of teaching decisions that can affect the quality and quantity of writing that might be produced.
Some of my kids are very easily distracted which is hard to manage in a room full of 27 children. These kids benefit from a quieter learning environment. I have tried a lot to create this by thinking carefully about where the children sit but this only creates surface changes, what is needed is a "culture of quiet" (I would settle for "quieter"). I plan to get this going next term with the teacher as The Volume.
For some reason, I have shifted the focus of my writing scaffold away from helping kids produce longer texts to concentrating on the input of vocab. I need to shift back again - but keep the vocab focus there. Perhaps this will provide the framework some of my weaker writers need - not the vocab.
So going into term 3 there is going to be a big shift in the way writing is taught - primarily in the classroom noise level and the structure provided that will support my writers.
