The Writing Hub: Supporting writing in years 1–8
Welcome to The New Zealand Curriculum Update
Curriculum Updates support school leaders and teachers as they work to design and review their school curriculum in line with the New Zealand Curriculum and with current knowledge and understandings about effective classroom teaching.
Curriculum Updates are published in the Education Gazette and are available online.
This Update introduces the new Writing Hub on Literacy Online.
The Writing Hub is a “one-stop shop” providing teachers of students in years 1–8 with a broad range of support for teaching writing across the curriculum.
The hub was developed in response to research findings that many New Zealand teachers need support to help their students achieve the appropriate levels in writing as set out in The New Zealand Curriculum Reading and Writing Standards and in The Literacy Learning Progressions. The hub’s resources include practical information, a planning tool, teacher support materials (TSMs), assessment support, and links to other useful resources.
As students move through primary schooling, they meet with increasingly complex tasks and texts. From day one, they need to make the expected progress in writing. Students in years 1–3 must build the foundation skills they require for further learning.
In years 4–8, they have to develop their knowledge and skills so that they can use their writing to meet the demands of the curriculum. By year 8, they need to be confident, self-regulated writers.
Research has also shown that effective teachers can make the difference for students who are not yet making expected progress in their writing. With strategic and focused teaching, students can make greater than expected progress in a single year.
The resources found on the Writing Hub will support you to plan effectively, to strengthen your teaching knowledge and skills (particularly for teaching writing across the curriculum), to increase your students’ rate of progress in writing, and to make precise judgments about students’ writing at levels 5–8.