Mr.

Hampton's English
Language Arts
Grade 7 Writing Program
 ▪ Research has proven that:

▪ Writing improves communication skills

Writing Overview: ▪ Writing helps students review and remember material

and course content
Why Focus on
Writing? ▪ Writing encourages creativity and exploration of ideas

▪ Writing is essential for self-understanding

▪ Writing helps educators assess student learning

 ▪ According to the BC Grade 7 Curriculum, an effective writing
program should meet the following goals:

Program Goals: ▪ To exchange ideas and viewpoints to build a shared

understanding and extended thinking

Mr. Hampton's ▪ To use writing and design processes to plan, develop, and create
engaging and meaningful literary texts for a variety of purposes
and audiences
Grade 7 Writing ▪ Theses goals can be broken down into 3 essential skills that will be
Program the focus of our writing:

▪ Revising

▪ Editing

▪ Considering Audience
Writing Practices We will incorporate the following
practices to help meet these goals:
▪ 1) Journal Writing

▪ 2) Collaborative Writing

▪ 3) Inquiry Activities

▪ 4) Writing for Content Learning

▪ 5) Specific Product Goals

▪ 6) Process Writing Approach

 Journal
Writing ▪ Journal writing will become a regular practice
throughout the school year where you will be given
space to develop ideas, reflect on what you have
learned, make personal connections to class content,
and, most importantly, develop and practice your
writing.

▪ While grammar and spelling are important, this will

NOT be the primary focus of your journaling. The
primary focus is to develop your thoughts, ideas, and
writing voice.

Note: You may be required to share selected writings with the class and submit them to Mr. Hampton.
There will often be an element of choice in this regard.
 Journal Writing ▪ Transform ideas and information to create original texts

Curriculum ▪ Exchange ideas and viewpoints to build shared

understanding and extend thinking
Connections

▪ Use and experiment with oral storytelling processes

Collaborative Collaborative writing involves working together to
plan, draft, revise, and edit written work to help
Writing improve the quality of writing.

During these writing activities, peers will help

each other with meaning, organization, spelling,
punctuation, generating ideas, creating a draft,
rereading essays, editing essays, choosing the best
copy, and evaluating the final product.

Studies have shown that collaborative writing has a

strong positive impact on the quality of writing
produced
 ▪ Assess and refine texts to improve their clarity,
effectiveness, and impact according to
Collaborative Writing purpose, audience, and message

Curriculum
Connections ▪ Use writing and design processes to plan, develop, and
create engaging and meaningful literary and
informational texts for a variety of purposes
and audiences
 Inquiry Activities

▪ Inquiry means engaging in activities that develop ideas and content for
a particular writing task by analyzing immediate and concrete data.

▪ Writing activities that sharpen student's inquiry skills improves the

quality of their writing.

▪ Effective inquiry activities are characterized by a clearly specified goal

or question, analysis of contrete and immediate data about that
question, use of specific strategies to conduct the analysis of the
question, and applying what was learned through the process.

Example: How can we use water/energy in more sustainable ways?

 ▪ Exchange ideas and viewpoints to build shared
Inquiry Activities understanding and extend thinking

Curriculum ▪ Transform ideas and information to create original texts

Connections
▪ Select and use appropriate features, forms, and genres
according to audience, purpose, and message
 ▪ Another way we will use writing this year is to help us in
learning and remembering content in other subject
areas.

▪ This will require you to:

▪ Write summaries and answer questions in writing to
increase the ability to explain information
Writing For ▪ Elaborate on knowledge to show deeper understanding of

Content Learning the topic

▪ Comment on and interpret information presented and
new ideas learned
▪ Describe changes in belief or understanding that may
have occurred
Note: In this case, your writing will be a tool for learning,
rather than a piece to be evaluated or assessed.

I write to find out what I didn't know I knew. -Robert Frost

 ▪ Exchange ideas and viewpoints to build shared
Writing for Content Learning understanding and extend thinking

Curriculum ▪ Assess and refine texts to improve their clarity,

effectiveness, and impact according to
Connections purpose, audience, and message

▪ Transform ideas and information to create original texts

 ▪ Provides specific objectives to focus on particular aspects of
writing.

▪ For example, some goals may include:

Specific Product ▪ Writing a specific kind of paper for a specific audience

▪ Assigning goals for specific structural elements in a composition

Goals
▪ Adding more ideas to a paper when revising

▪ This writing practice will require you to:

▪ Complete writing tasks to meet specific, reachable goals for a
variety of audiences
▪ Identify the purpose of the writing assignment
▪ Identify writing characteristics expected of the final product

Assigning specific goals for writing tasks has a positive impact on improving writing quality
 ▪ Select and use appropriate features, forms, and genres
according to audience, purpose, and message

Specific Product Goals

▪ Use writing and design processes to plan, develop, and

Curriculum create engaging and meaningful literary and

informational texts for a variety of purposes
Connections and audiences

▪ Assess and refine texts to improve their clarity,

effectiveness, and impact according to
purpose, audience, and message
Process
Writing ▪ The process writing approach stresses activities that

Approach
emphasize extended opportunities for writing, writing
for real audiences, self-reflection, personalized
instruction and goals,
and cycles of planning, editing, and reviewing.

▪ The process writing approach includes:

▪ Writing multiple drafts
▪ Revising and making changes to improve writing
▪ Evaluation of the written work by teacher, self, and
peers
 ▪ Select and use appropriate features, forms, and genres
according to audience, purpose, and message

Process Writing Approach

▪ Use writing and design processes to plan, develop, and

create engaging and meaningful literary and

Curriculum informational texts for a variety of purposes

and audiences
Connections

▪ Assess and refine texts to improve their clarity,

effectiveness, and impact according to
purpose, audience, and message
 ▪ https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/english-
language-arts/7

▪ https://www.scilearn.com/blog/5-reasons-students-
should-write-every-day

References
▪ http://all4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/WritingNext.pdf

▪ https://d2l.educ.queensu.ca/content/CTE186SUM/BC/CO
NT970/downloads/BridgingEnglish.CONT770.pg361-
372.pdf