1. ‘ Above all, boys want to feel and be
competent. Boys want to look good and
sound smart. Thus, focusing on teaching the
tools and skills of the writer’s craft rather
than focusing on the person or choice of
content seems to be critical in supporting
boy writers.
Anne F. Goiran-Bevelhimer
"Boys and Writing: Implications
for Creating School Writing Curriculum
and Instruction that is Boy-friendly"
Wednesday, 3 October 12
2. Levins, Martin
24601
martin@levins.net
Wednesday, 3 October 12
3. www.oflc.gov.au
• Bare Facts
• Course Language
• Textual References
• Extreme Violence
Wednesday, 3 October 12
13. ‘ The school will continue to be a
technologically-enabled environment
where technology is used to maximise
academic performance and
communication.
Wednesday, 3 October 12
14. Goals
Strengthen the currency and depth of
teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills
Increase their capacity (through interactions
with students) to provide all students with
opportunities to access and apply relevant
learning in ICT?
Wednesday, 3 October 12
15. The central purpose of the project is to conduct
action research on the efficacy of
strategies to improve boys’ substantive
communication (definition for purpose of this is
complex writing and use of multimedia to
communicate). Traditionally, boys are not very
good at producing writing in volume. We aim to
increase quality and volume of writing
so that neither is compromised, by using a
range of evidence-based ICT
strategies.
Wednesday, 3 October 12
16. Aims
Improve teaching of writing
Improve writing outcomes for boys, particularly
through the use of ICT
Learn to deploy successful strategies such
as those outlined in “Boys’ Education Lighthouse
Schools Stage Two Final Report”.
Use these strategies to perform action
research in writing improvement
Document these strategies and their outcomes
using peer review and collaboration
Wednesday, 3 October 12
20. ‘ The project also focused in the
development of writing and visual
literacy skills, particularly the production
of multimodal texts.
Students studied The Hunger Games
and persuasive language techniques, and
produced a suite of advertisements,
including a video, print media, social
media and radio ads.
Wednesday, 3 October 12
22. I am this sort of writer
20
Survey One
18
Survey Two
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Confident Sophisticated Clear Logical Fluent Coherent
Wednesday, 3 October 12
23. I am this sort of writer
30
Survey One
27
Survey Two
24
21
18
15
12
9
6
3
0
OK Hesitant Awkward Disorganised
Wednesday, 3 October 12
24. I enjoy the following types of writing
90.0%$
80.0%$
70.0%$
60.0%$
50.0%$
40.0%$
30.0%$
20.0%$
10.0%$
0.0%$
Analy3cal$(essays$ Fic3on$ Nonfic3on$ Poetry$
or$reports)$
Survey 1 Survey 2
Wednesday, 3 October 12
25. I like to use the following technology when I write
60.0%$
50.0%$
40.0%$
30.0%$
20.0%$
10.0%$
0.0%$
g$
$
$
g$
t$
$
g$
t$
g$
r$
ng
te
iki
as
ha
pe
sin
gin
lin
gin
no
w
x4
dc
/c
pa
ai
es
og
sa
ey
te
m
po
em
d$
oc
es
bl
r$k
ru
an
pr
t$m
fo
$o
n$
d$
nt
an
pe
or
oi
st
w
$p
in
er
w
po
Survey One Survey Two
Wednesday, 3 October 12
26. I prefer to write using
90.0%$
80.0%$
70.0%$
60.0%$
50.0%$
a$pen$
40.0%$
my$computer$
30.0%$
20.0%$
10.0%$
0.0%$
Survey 1$ Survey 2$
Wednesday, 3 October 12
27. I draft and edit my work
90%#
80%#
70%#
60%#
50%#
Survey#1#
40%#
Survey#2#
30%#
20%#
10%#
0%#
Always# Some7mes# Never#
Wednesday, 3 October 12
28. I know how to use ICT tools to make editing easier
80.0%$
70.0%$
60.0%$
50.0%$
40.0%$ yes$
no$
30.0%$
20.0%$
10.0%$
0.0%$
Surrvey$1$ Survey$2$
Wednesday, 3 October 12
29. The comments on my work help me understand
how to improve my writing
70%#
60%#
50%#
40%#
Survey#1#
30%#
Survey#2#
20%#
10%#
0%#
Strongly#agree# Agree# Disagree# Strongly#
Disagree#
Wednesday, 3 October 12
30. The comments on my work help me understand
how to improve my writing
100.0%$
90.0%$
80.0%$
70.0%$
60.0%$
50.0%$
40.0%$
30.0%$
20.0%$
10.0%$
0.0%$
Parents$ Teachers$ Friends$ Classmates$
Survey 1 Survey 2
Wednesday, 3 October 12
31. I am a good speller
60%#
50%#
40%#
30%# Survey#1#
Survey#2#
20%#
10%#
0%#
Strongly#agree# Agree# Disagree# Strongly#
disagree#
Wednesday, 3 October 12
34. Susan Cooper expresses righteousness in “King of
Shadows” and motivates responders to do the right
thing. An example of this is shown when Nathan
saves Roper from choking to death, even after he
had tried to kill Nat. Roper’s debt to Nat is clearly
stated when Roper exclaims, “I thought I was dead!
Tha saved my life.” Nat’s actions change Roper’s
perspective on Nat, and his envy
evaporates. Righteousness is a key theme in “King of
Shadows” because responders see that acts of
selflessness, like Nat’s, reverse negativity in others.
Wednesday, 3 October 12
35. Susan Cooper explores many “big questions” and
themes through “King of Shadows” such as
righteousness, friendship and family. These themes
and questions are expressed through the characters
of the book and their relationships with each other.
There is more to a book than the plot, as the
context is certainly very important. Themes included
in the context challenge readers to consider
significant issues about real life, such as, how we
behave ethically, the importance of family and the
value of friendship.
Cooper explores ethical behaviour in “King of
Wednesday, 3 October 12
36. novel “King of Shadows”. She attempts to motivate
readers to do the right thing by expressing the
importance of morality throughout the text. She
shows a detailed understanding into loss and other
issues and questions associated with loss. Cooper
weaves friendship throughout the text and expresses
this in a very socially realistic form. She delivers the
realistic interpretation of everyday competition
through the text. The scenarios Cooper creates
reflect real life situations and explore important
questions about life, such as, arrogance, the need for
friendship, the effects of loss and how emotional
scars can be healed. All these questions are asked
and challenge readers to consider and think about
the book after they have read it.
Wednesday, 3 October 12
37. The value of blogging
• Parents are able to access the work tasks
and engage
• Students are able to access the class
materials beyond the school room
• The act of posting their work to a live
audience… (provides) an incentive not only
for prompt completion but also for due
effort and quality in the finished product
Wednesday, 3 October 12
38. Term 1
www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp
Term 2
Wednesday, 3 October 12
39. Have we made progress towards improving
the teaching of writing?
Teacher1 - starting to teach writing better -
explicitly working with boys editing work etc.
Multiliteracies - boys posting complementary
material
Wednesday, 3 October 12
40. My professional belief is that the use of ICT has
enhanced student learning.
one-on-one laptops allow students to process, edit
and enhance their expressive capacity utilizing the
word processing functions.
They are increasingly accessing and utilizing the
dictionary functions to improve their vocabulary,
while students challenged by reading are utilizing the
text-to-voice functions to assist in their processing
and understanding.
Wednesday, 3 October 12
41. Have we made progress towards improving
the teaching of writing?
Teacher 2 - teaching of text types - form - analysing
features of texts
purpose, audience, language features - now make
one, concrete way of teaching form to boys with
gratification and understanding clear.
Wednesday, 3 October 12
42. What else is possible?
Teacher 3 - Explicit scaffolding - use of Word
application template with hidden text that tells boys
what to do.
Didacticism is still important in skill development,
esp. for boys
Wednesday, 3 October 12
43. Multimodal
http://wordpress.as.edu.au/ldonalds/2012/06/05/
the-hunger-games-video-ad/
Social
http://www.classtools.net/fb/87/kMEAfS
Wednesday, 3 October 12
44. Martin Levins
martin.levins.net
martin@levins.net
@martinlevins
bit.ly/LEVINS22
Wednesday, 3 October 12
