Category: Practical Writing Strategies
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Teaching Writing with Generative AI
This post is based on a presentation I ran recently at the AATE conference. It takes the writing cycle approach from our book ‘Practical Writing Strategies‘ and applies Generative AI at various stages. One of the most pressing concerns at the recent Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) conference was the implications of…
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Teaching Writing: The Challenges
This is the second post in a series responding to feedback from my mailing list members. I asked people about the highs and lows of teaching writing: what do we enjoy the most, and what are the issues or concerns. I’ve received hundreds of responses to the surveys, and have broken them down into three…
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Teaching Writing: The Joys of Writing
This is the first post in a series responding to feedback from my mailing list members. I asked people about the highs and lows of teaching writing: what do we enjoy the most, and what are the issues or concerns. I’ve received hundreds of responses to the surveys, and have broken them down into three…
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Crafting Texts: What Crafting Texts Means for the English Curriculum
This is the final post in a series which goes deeper into the new VCE English and EAL Crafting Texts outcome. Each post includes some discussion of the Area of Study along with practical lesson ideas. Even if you’re not a VCE English teacher, you’ll find this post useful if you use mentor or model…
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Crafting Texts: Assessment and Reflection
This is the third post in a series which goes deeper into the new VCE English and EAL Crafting Texts outcome. Each post includes some discussion of the Area of Study along with practical lesson ideas. Even if you’re not a VCE English teacher, you’ll find this post useful if you use mentor or model…
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Crafting Texts: Ideas
This is the second post in a series which goes deeper into the new VCE English and EAL Crafting Texts outcome. Each post includes some discussion of the Area of Study along with practical lesson ideas. Even if you’re not a VCE English teacher, you’ll find this post useful if you use mentor or model…
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Crafting Texts: Using Mentor Texts
This is the first post in a series which goes deeper into the new VCE English and EAL Crafting Texts outcome. Each post includes some discussion of the Area of Study along with practical lesson ideas. Even if you’re not a VCE English teacher, you’ll find this post useful if you use mentor or model…
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Teaching Writing in the Age of AI: Asking Questions
This is the third post in a series exploring how teaching writing will change in the face of Artificial Intelligence large language models. The first two posts explored the kinds of writing that can and can’t be done with AI, and academic integrity. In my book Practical Reading Strategies, I covered six reading strategies that…
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Using Comparative Judgement to Assess Writing
If you’ve ever formally assessed senior English (at least here in Victoria), then you’ve used comparative judgement to assess writing. Comparative judgement, as the name suggests, is an assessment method based on comparing responses to determine their overall placement on an assessment scale. It’s an effective method supported by research, much of which is outlined…
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Why write?
This is an early extract from our book Practical Writing Strategies, which will be published in 2023 by Amba Press. The elephant in the room Most of the time, we get students to write so we can assess them on their knowledge. Simple. It’s a sad truth that the main purpose of most writing in…