Three Point Plan for NAPLAN

Here are three simple ways to help students practise for NAPLAN and have fun! YES it is possible.

NAPLAN is ranked out of 48 points. Of these, over 37 marks are for higher order thinking and writing skills. However why does everyone seem to be trying to bump up

Spelling (6 marks) and Punctuation (5 marks)

...which (if you do the maths) only accounts for 11 marks in total?

If you have ESL students, kids with a learning difficulty or just poor spellers in your class you know spelling is a long term (maybe even a lifetime) problem. You certainly can't make a difference in a few months.

Yet you can make a difference to children's writing – and NAPLAN scores – if you think BIGGER and HIGHER.

Here are three ways to practise Persuasive writing using the Seven Steps.

1. Run the 'Jump' Activity

The NAPLAN rubric gives 5 marks for Ideas. Ideas are easy to bump up!

For those of you who have done the Seven Steps PD in the last eighteen months, you know the score. For the NAPLAN task, you need three strong ideas for the main body paragraphs. If you want three great ideas, first you have to brainstorm TEN ideas on the topic – then pick the best three ideas for the body paragraphs.

Get students to practise brainstorming ten ideas to get three great ideas.

Do this 5-10 times so students learn that their first ideas are usually the boring and basic ideas - and everyone else thinks of them too. Brainstorm regularly to get beyond this.

2. Practise Sizzling Starts

There are BIG points awarded in NAPLAN for engaging the Audience (6 marks) and Persuasive devices (4 marks).

Practise writing Sizzling Starts to immediately engage your reader. Do this 5-8 times.

NAPLAN instructions say you need to state which side you want to argue - but they don't tell you to bore your reader to death. Which would you rather read?

Basic text book introduction:
I think that TV is better than books because of Idea a)... Idea b)... Idea c)...

This is writing by formula. It also wastes a whole paragraph saying what you are going to do – when you should be using this to engage and persuade your reader.

So go for Persuasive, not basic:
On trains and planes, by pools and in schools, look around you. Books are in the hands of so many people. Do you see a TV? I don't think so – because books rule!

Bonus marks: Good scores going for Vocabulary (5 marks) and Sentence structure (6 marks).

3. PLAN for Success

Think of all the marks available for good quality planning skills. Text structure (4 marks), Cohesion (4 marks), Paragraphing (3 marks).

Yet how many students cram all their ideas into the first two paragraphs - and then repeat and waffle for the rest of the writing? We've seen it all too often.

Do you remember the Food Fight activity from the Seven Steps course? Or the persuasive writing activity Cats and Dogs? In both those activities the work is divided up so that one person is responsible for only ONE paragraph of the writing. It shares the load, makes brainstorming a breeze and teaches students highly effective planning skills.

Most text books agree that a persuasive writing article goes like this:

  • Introduction (i.e. Sizzling Start)
  • Body Paragraph 1 (i.e. Idea 1)
  • Body paragraph 2 (i.e. Idea 2)
  • Body paragraph 3 (i.e. Idea 3)
  • Conclusion (i.e. Ending with Impact)

So divide your students into groups of five, give them a topic and give them brainstorming time (see Point 1). Then each student selects ONE paragraph of the persuasive article to work on. The group brainstorm further ideas to help each other with their paragraphs. Finally they write just their paragraph to create a full persuasive piece.

Bonus marks: Good scores going again for Vocabulary (5 marks) and Sentence structure (6 marks).

It's important to remember that sticking ideas in a neat formula does NOT persuade. You have to go beyond that.

So encourage students to loosen up. Use humour. Be manipulative. Ask rhetorical questions. Use the rule of three. Be clever. State statistics. Employ emotive language.

Above all, have fun! NAPLAN is only one small part of the writing curriculum.

NOTE: These activities are taken from the Seven Steps to Writing Success full day teacher PD. See more details of our fast moving and practical Seven Steps PD.

Or contact us for a full list of our PD presentations.