Josey De Rossi

How is your research going?

This is a series of activities I moved through with the tutorial group in Year 7E. I created the booklet from the documents that all teachers use in the Information Writing and Oral Presentation unit, together with a small group focus to incorporate the direction the classroom teachers decided to take within the unit. Highlighting … Read more

Year 7 Autobiographical Writing

What's your story as a stimulus question

In this unit, students are enabled to learn about the following outcomes. Scattered memories into paragraphs Julius begins to flesh out his own stories A ‘cold ‘ reading of Roald Dahl’s Boy Ezekia tells his story, and I challenge him to remember feelings as well as happenings. Shane goes from mind mapping to writing his … Read more

Year 7 Information Writing and Oral Presentation

Learning Intentions: We are learning about informative texts  Success Criteria: The Initial Plan The organisation of the Year 7 unit for tutorial participants was as follows” Focusing on a philosophical discussion The Year 7 tutorial groups were given the following ‘broadsheets’ to discuss the features of information texts. For instance, how the essential assumption in … Read more

How should you respond to what you read?

Humans live in landscapes of make-believe. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It’s easy to say that humans are “wired” for story, but why? …Jonathan Gottschall offers the first unified theory … Read more

Character Insights

The following sentences and paragraphs are written from one of Tim Winton’s Blueback (2008) characters’ points of view. The name of the student writer is shown in (brackets).

The Art Of Parent-Friendly Resources

Thirty years since the introduction of ‘common core’ standards and progress maps have passed. However, what have we done to nurture parents’ understanding of education jargon like “thinking skills” and “learning progressions”?