Henry Kendall High School, Gosford, NSW

Carly, a Year 7 teacher at a NSW High School in Gosford has seen her students’ ‘engagement skyrocket’ in a short time after rolling out the Seven Steps to Writing Success.

After first learning the Seven Steps in a Workshop, then taking her skills to the next level in a Two-Day Coaches Course, Carly integrated the Seven Steps into a Project Based Learning environment in her classroom.

You can read all about the changes she made in her classroom here, but first, see what amazing results she saw in a short time:

  • “The amount that they can write! I asked my students to write a book review the other day and I had year 7 students producing over 1000 words of QUALITY writing in just two hours!
  • “Student perception of their abilities changed. I surveyed the students before the program and MOST students said they were not good writers. Now they all have confidence in their writing and believe they are great at writing. My lowest student who would not write a sentence at the beginning of the year is on the twelfth chapter of his novel!
  • “Writing quality. ‘Ban the Boring’ has to be one of my favourite tools and something my students hear over and over again from me. They are now excellent at monitoring their writing to ensure it is engaging. I really enjoy reading my student work because it is quality and it makes sense!”

Below are a couple of samples from Carly’s students – we all know that it is sometimes difficult to motivate students, particularly teenagers. But if you do – wow, what magic!

Before

Once upon a time there was a small family that lived in Melbourne Australia. They were going on a family holiday to the bahamas. They didn’t have much luck that day. It started off by waking up too late and missing the plane ride.

After

My throat is burning, my eyes are stinging, I am slowly coming into focus. Where am I?!. I cannot remember what has happened. As I look around, everything is mind blowing. The water is crystal clear. There are so many animals, my mind is spinning with excitement as I’m walking through the sand, it’s incredible. There’s just one problem, I have no food, water or any shelter. Will I survive the night?

Before

Two kids fell to the underground full of monsters. This kids name were Frisk and Friz. These two were best friends, they would stick with each other no matter what. So when Frisk fell down a whole, Friz followed.

After

The girl walked and walked, head down, hands in pockets. She stayed silent. People gave her weird looks but she didn’t notice. She just kept walking down the cold, snowy road. She got to the edge of the road and walked into a forest. She just kept walking straight.