1. Learning Outcomes
Teachers-in-training should be able to:
Explain why writing should be done at the primary and early
childhood levels after conducting field visits at both institutions.
Outline the writing elements and essential conditions that
should be considered when writing in the class wiki.
Discuss the relationships between technology and writng in
today’s classroom in a discussion forum.
3. Activities
Student teachers will:
• Visit primary and early childhood institutions to observe
writing programs and report on the negatives and positives.
• In pairs, use the class wiki to outline the writing elements and
essential conditions that should be considered when writing.
• Examine writing technologies and discuss their relationship to
writing in today’s classroom. This will be done in the
discussion forum.
4. Content
• Elements of writing
– composition, transcription and review
– Writing used to communicate, inform, express,
• entertain, persuade, learn, record, display and organize.
• Domains of writing
– sensory/descriptive; imaginative/narrative;
practical/informative;
• analytical/expository; poetic
5. Content contd.
Types of writing
• journal, letter, expository, narrative,
• persuasive, poetic, biographical
• Functions of language
– instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal,
• imaginative, heuristic, informative (Halliday, 1975)
6. Content contd.
Conditions
• Purpose, audience, form, outcome
• Technology and writing
– can support and enhance writing development,
motivate young writers to learn, to be creative, to
locate and collect information.
– Technology (using word processing, the internet,
cell phones)
