A remarkable school in Northern Queensland has taken tremendous strides in improving student writing. Since implementing the Seven Steps at the end of 2014, principal Claudine Moncur-White and the teachers of Rasmussen State School have transformed their school from one of the worst performing Queensland schools to significantly outperforming the state in writing improvement between…
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Step by Step Blog
Write Like a Witness
Stepping Up Student Ideas
Teachers often tell us that one great pain they wish to change is how little their students have to say. Students’ writing, they tell us, is often curtailed by limited experience and a lack of observation, or by unformed opinions. We understand why teachers say this, but we don’t think it’s the whole story. Every…
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Sky-High Ideas
Seven Steps and the Curriculum in Australia
Here’s how the Australian Curriculum defines literacy. It is ambitious, empowering and will give students vital skills to move into the modern world. Literacy involves students listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using and modifying language for different purposes in a range of contexts. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/literacy/…
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Starting Out with Inspiration
Everyone loves the smell of fresh, new pencils. Or maybe it’s the smell of ideas? At Seven Steps to Writing, we’ve dreamed up something fresh for you for the new year. We want to help you in your daily writing class. We also want to grow students’ confidence in themselves as communicators with something to…
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Ending with Impact in Informative Writing
The whole reason you watch a TV show is because it ends. If I wanted a long, boring story with no point to it, I’ve got my life. – Seinfeld The ending is what gives a piece of writing that final impact. Like the movie that makes you cry or a book that makes you…
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Ban the Boring? This should be fun!
Indeed, it should! Making a text fun IS the point of Step 6: Ban the Boring. This is the step that focuses students’ attention on taking out all the extra bits in their writing. Not just words, but actions and descriptions that distract the reader from the main story and that make writing flat….
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