Caught in the middle: Improving writing in the middle and upper primary years

Educators in Australia have raised concerns about the quality of writing in the middle and upper primary years, suggesting that many students reach a plateau in their writing development either before, or as, they transition from upper primary through to secondary school. An initial pilot study set out to explore this issue by examining how teachers implement the writing process in their classroom. The outcomes of this study suggested that teacher knowledge is critical in enabling educators to provide support for students to further develop their writing after the initial years of school. This paper reports on a continuation of this research, which is being conducted in 14 primary schools in Western Australia. The second phase focused on building teacher professional knowledge and began to highlight those links between student needs, the areas of essential knowledge that support the composition of text, assessment, and appropriate pedagogies. The paper argues that teachers must develop a deep understanding of a number of grammatical dimensions in order to teach writing more effectively. They must build knowledge about words, sentences and paragraphing as well as improve their understanding of those linguistic devices that aid coherence and cohesion. This study provides schools with an evidence-based research approach to teaching children who are underperforming in writing.