S5 E4 - Help! My Students Aren't Writing Enough!

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In this episode of the Structured Literacy podcast, Jocelyn addresses the common teacher concern about insufficient student writing by sharing her own failed experiment with "30 Days of Writing" that highlighted the importance of prerequisites for successful composition. She emphasises that automatic handwriting, spelling, and fluent sentence production must be in place before expecting quality writing, and advocates for explicit teaching of writing structures while ensuring students can speak what they intend to write before putting it on paper. 

Rather than confining writing to the literacy block, Seamer suggests distributing writing opportunities across the curriculum through activities like responding to learning situations, summarising lessons, and recording ideas, which research shows both improves writing quality and enhances content recall. 

The episode challenges the misconception that only multi-paragraph genre writing counts as meaningful composition, providing practical strategies for increasing authentic writing practice while maintaining realistic expectations based on students' developmental readiness and transcription skills. 

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