Seven Action Activities for NAPLAN

How did your students go in the NAPLAN writing task? Were you pleased with their success? Did most of your students:

  • engage the reader
  • use strong ideas
  • plan powerfully
  • and actually persuade the reader?

Hope so!

NAPLAN rewards creativity, quality ideas and powerful planning.

OK so we may not agree on HOW the NAP data is used, but when it comes to scoring a piece of writing, the NAP markers got a lot right.
It is most useful to look at the marking criteria on the NAP website.

Many teachers worry about the spelling (6 marks) and punctuation (5 marks) of students. Unfortunately we all know it takes a long time to get a weak speller up to scratch. Sometimes years...

So for next NAPLAN, why not work on the more interesting and powerful skills which reward students with high marks. (37 marks in total.) These include planning, brainstorming ideas, persuading and actually engaging the audience. These skills are far more empowering and interesting for students to master.

Seven Action Activities for NAP 2012

Using each of the Seven Steps techniques, here are seven easy ways to not only prepare for NAP in 2012, but more importantly to show students how to write with more skill and power.

Step 1: Plan for Success

NAP marking: Planning is vital and is highly rewarded in many of these marking categories. Text structure (4 marks), Cohesion (4 marks), Paragraphing (3 marks), Ideas (5 marks).

Action Activity 1
Great writing starts from great ideas. If students need three strong ideas for a persuasive piece, they should always aim to brainstorm ten ideas – and then pick the best ones. Get students to regularly brainstorm LOTS of ideas on topics for 5–10 minutes before they write. Group work is excellent for this. (NOTE: Remember the 'chunking' system of the Seven Steps. Keep it just to planning – students don't have to actually write the piece every time, that's too much hard work.)

Step 2: Sizzling Starts

NAP marking: Engage the reader (Audience – 6 marks).

Action Activity 2
Practise Sizzling Starts in all genres.
e.g. The minute my dog hears me at the door, he's there to greet me, barking, tail wagging, giving me delighted, excited dog kisses. Meanwhile the cat sits on the couch and barely opens an eyelid. I swear the cushions are more animated than that cat. If you want a real pet, not just something that takes up room on a couch, then dogs definitely rule.

Step 3: Tightening Tension

NAP marking: Text structure (4 marks), Cohesion (4 marks), Persuasive devices (4 marks).

Action Activity 3
The role of a persuasive piece is to persuade – not just state facts! The second last paragraph, before the ending, should use tension techniques such as shorter sentences, more passionate words and of course the famous 'rule of three'. Study famous speeches – this is a wonderful way to show how to build up to great climax. Then teach students to build up their arguments to a crescendo.

Step 4: Dynamic Dialogue

NAP marking: Audience (6 marks), Vocabulary (5 marks), Punctuation (5 marks).

Action Activity 4
'But Mum, I want Nike!' He's only five years old and already brand marketing has got him in its grasp.
Dialogue gives life to writing and quotations from 'experts' give authority. Practise setting topics and getting students to use 1–2 sentences of dialogue to reinforce their point.

Step 5: Show, Don't Tell

NAP marking: Persuasive Devices (4 marks).

Action Activity 5
Don't just teach a 'list' of persuasive devices, tap into the world! Advertising is all around us and it is all persuasive writing. Get students to look at ads on TV, in magazines, on billboards and in their mailbox and learn persuasive devices from them. Show, Don't Tell is one of the most powerful techniques of the Seven Steps and it is used in advertising all the time.

Step 6: Ban the Boring

NAP Marking: Sentence structure (6 marks), Vocabulary (5 marks).

Action Activity 6
The vocabulary is marked separately to spelling, so encourage students to take risks. It's hard to persuade if you just say 'I think toys are good.'

Train students to be creative first – and edit at the end. The last five to ten minutes is the best time to have students check their spelling and grammar and punctuation in ALL writing. Trying to make this 'perfect' while they are actually writing can lead to a lack of creativity. You can't think of detail and big picture things at the same time. (For those of you who have done a Seven Steps teacher PD, remember the Alpha and Beta brain waves?)

Step 7: Ending with Impact

Some text books suggest the conclusion should be a summing up of the main points of the persuasive piece. It is hard to engage the reader and persuade using this formulaic technique.

Instead give students topics and challenge them to 'Top and Tail' a persuasive piece. (They should not write the whole piece, just the introduction and conclusion.)

e.g. In the dog and cat topic in Step 2 above, the conclusion could go like this:
The sun is shining, so I grab the lead and my dog leaps around me in delight. We head out the door, it's a time of friendship and fun. I think he's even smiling – I know I am. The cat sleeps on obliviously.

IMPORTANT: Information on NAP is continually updated, so check the website regularly for changes. www.nap.edu.au

By the time students sit the NAP tests in May, here's the ideal:

  1. They will have learnt each of the Seven Steps and practised them in small chunks.
  2. Every student will be used to working in groups and learning from each other.
  3. All of them will be experienced in brainstorming ideas and planning BEFORE they start writing.
  4. They love writing because it's fun.

NOTE: This material is extracted from the Seven Steps Teacher Manual – Persuasive Writing