NAPLAN results with the Seven Steps
Our Writing result in Year 9 is against the national trend which showed a 1.7% drop from 2014 to 2015, where our result went up by 11.4%. I can guarantee our writing success was due to students being exposed to the Seven Steps of Writing Success. Students love it.
– Valissa Bauer, Literacy Coach
What does NAPLAN want?
The National Australian curriculum values the important things in writing. Here’s a quote directly from their web site:
‘As writers develop their capabilities they should be encouraged to move away from formulaic structures…’ – Source: NAPLAN.
They are being polite, but what NAP markers are talking about is the rigid text structure touted by so many people as The Only Way. i.e.:
- Introduction: State your side and your three reasons.
- Paragraph 2: Firstly, reason a) is this….
- Paragraph 3: Secondly, reason b) is this….
- Paragraph 4: Thirdly, reason c) is this….
- Conclusion: Sum up your argument by summarising your three reasons.
This is writing by numbers. It insists students repeat their three reasons THREE times. That leaves little room to ‘engage the audience’ or even persuade. It certainly stifles the life out of most writing. As for ‘strong voice’ – there is no hope of having much originality when you are writing the same as everyone else.
NAP does NOT want ‘The Formula’
It may (as NAP suggests) be an adequate structure for our youngest writers, but it is certainly flattening out our strongest writers. As is proven by the National test data going down steadily across Australia.
As you can see from the NAPLAN Marking Criteria table below for Persuasive writing, they value writing that is well-rounded and engaging.
NAPLAN Marking Criteria
| 1. Audience (6 marks) | The writer’s capacity to orient, engage and persuade the reader. |
| 2. Text structure (4 marks) | The organisation of the structural components of a persuasive text (introduction, body and conclusion) into an appropriate and effective text structure. |
| 3. Ideas (5 marks) | The selection, relevance and elaboration of ideas for a persuasive argument. |
| For Persuasive: 4. Persuasive devices (4 marks) |
The use of a range of persuasive devices to enhance the writer’s position and persuade the reader. |
| For Narrative 4. Character & Setting (4 marks) |
Character: The portrayal and development of character. Setting: The development of a sense of place, time and atmosphere. |
| 5. Vocabulary (5 marks) | The range and precision of contextually appropriate language choices. |
| 6. Cohesion (4 marks) | The control of multiple threads and relationships across the text, achieved through the use of referring words, ellipsis, text connectives, substitutions and word associations. |
| 7. Paragraphing (2-3 marks) | The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assists the reader to follow the line of argument. |
| 8. Sentence structure (6 marks) | The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences. |
| 9. Punctuation (5 marks) | The use of correct and appropriate punctuation to aid the reading of the text. |
| 10. Spelling (6 marks) | The accuracy of spelling and the difficulty of the words used. |
Sourced from the 2012 NAPLAN Persuasive Writing Marking Guide
