About DiscoveWRITE
DiscoveWRITE lessons supports have been developed to support teachers in explicitly teaching sentence and paragraph-level writing, based on The Writing Revolution® methodology.
Some lessons have been adapted from existing quality resources including:
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Write2Learn
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The Grammar/Syntax Project
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Core Knowledge Curriculum
This has been done under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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Unit Structure
All DiscoverWRITE units follow a common unit structure. Each unit focuses on a specific writing skill (referred to as Toolkit Skills), with each unit containing 4 lessons. The curriculum material is
Individual units are not specifically linked (so can be taught out of order), however, the review component of each lesson is based on the suggested order. If teaching out of order, it is recommended to check Review slides to ensure content has previously been covered by students.
Units 1-5 of each term focus on sentence and paragraph-level grammar skills. Punctuation and handwriting skills are embedded throughout the lessons.
Units 6-8 of each term focus on purpose and process through text-level genre writing (imaginative, informative or persuasive).
Units 9-10 review content from weeks 1-5.
Year Level Sequence
The scope and sequence has been divided into four key stages (K, 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6). This is intentional to allow teaching in both straight and composite/mixed-aged classes.
It is suggested to repeat the lesson sequence the following year (eg. Year 1 students moving up to Year 2). Each skill takes significant practice to master, and lessons can be easily differentiated up or down using more complex content knowledge (using the content to drive the rigour).
Lesson Structure
Each lesson follows a common instructional format, based on Explicit Direct Instruction.
Recite, recall and apply knowledge that has been taught previously to assist in transferring knowledge to their long-term memory.
A statement describing the skill and concept that is being covered in the lesson.
Teach the concept, rule or content using written definitions. This often includes the use of labeled examples.
Follow written instructions to model the skill to students using clear academic language.
Guide students to solve matching problems. This is a highly structured step-by-step process where teachers are able to check for understanding at each step. It is recommended that this step is completed by students on mini-whiteboards.
Some lessons also include an optional independent activity/practice opportunity. Not all lessons include this, as it is suggested to align independent activity with other content knowledge (eg. HASS, Science) being taught alongside the skill.
Throughout concept development, there are additional "checking for understanding" questions. Within these questions are sentence frames to support students to answer in full sentences.
