Shape Your Writing

Overview

Students unpack the requirements of a CAA writing task and practise moving from a broad idea to a purposeful, shaped plan. They examine a short model text, identify how audience, purpose, register, structure and language choices work together, then create their own plan ready for sustained writing in a later lesson. This lesson supports the writing process but does not complete the assessment.

Learning intentions

• WALT understand what the writing task requires and identify its audience, purpose and form.
• WALT generate, select and sequence ideas for a specific purpose.
• WALT use structural, stylistic and language choices deliberately.
• WALT apply written conventions so meaning remains clear and controlled.

Success criteria

• I can explain what I am being asked to create, for whom and why.
• I can develop connected ideas with relevant details, examples or explanations.
• I can plan an effective opening, middle and ending, using an appropriate register.
• I can identify choices that could move my writing towards:
• Achievement: developed ideas, appropriate stylistic choices and generally clear conventions.
• Merit: connected ideas, stylistic choices used for effect and accurate conventions with only minor errors.
• Excellence: insightful ideas and integrated stylistic choices that command attention, with controlled conventions.

Curriculum links

• Develop ideas in writing using stylistic and written conventions: shaping meaning according to purpose, audience and interest.
• English Curriculum Refresh: creating texts by selecting, developing and organising ideas for particular purposes and audiences.
• English Curriculum Refresh: making deliberate choices about vocabulary, syntax, language features, structure and text conventions.
• Key competencies: thinking; using language, symbols and texts; managing self; relating to others.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook: a message with a job. Teacher displays the provocative question, “Should our school ban mobile phones during the school day?” and asks students to imagine writing for younger students, the principal or a local news website using the same topic. Students briefly discuss how the audience and purpose would change the language, tone and structure, then share one difference. Open with the provocative hook and audience comparison.

2. 5–14 min · Unpack the task. Teacher introduces a representative CAA prompt: “Write a text that encourages your audience to reconsider an issue that matters to young people. Choose an appropriate form, audience and purpose.” Model how to highlight the action word, topic freedom, audience, purpose and possible forms. Students annotate the prompt on the task-unpacking and writing choices sheet, recording what they must decide before writing. Clarify that the final assessment requires a developed piece produced through an appropriate writing process.

3. 14–25 min · Model-text investigation. Teacher reveals this short model, written as a persuasive post for a student audience: “A phone ban sounds simple: remove the screens and the problem disappears. But school is not a screen-free island. We use phones to translate, photograph experiments and contact whānau when plans change. The answer is not a dramatic confiscation box; it is a clear agreement about when technology helps learning and when it gets in the way. Give students responsibility, and make the rules worth following.” Students annotate the model for audience, purpose, register, viewpoint, structure, vocabulary, syntax, metaphor and persuasive effect. Pairs identify one choice that supports clarity and one that creates impact. Use the model text and annotation prompts.

4. 25–35 min · Explicit modelling: from idea to plan. Teacher thinks aloud, turning “phones at school” into a sharper central idea: “Responsible phone use is better than an absolute ban because it protects learning while recognising real needs.” Model a planning sequence: audience and purpose; position; three connected points; specific examples; structural order; opening image or question; ending that leaves the reader with a clear action. Demonstrate changing register for a formal school report versus a conversational opinion post. Students complete the first sections of the Extended Response Planning Frame, while checking choices against the model on the planning think-aloud and register comparison.

5. 35–49 min · Guided practice: shape an idea. Teacher offers three age-appropriate issues: school start times, fast fashion, and assessment pressure. In groups of three, students select one issue and develop a shared plan: audience, purpose, form, position, three connected ideas and possible evidence or examples. Each group must suggest one structural feature and two stylistic choices, such as a rhetorical question, contrast, anecdote, metaphor, precise vocabulary or varied sentence lengths. Teacher conferences with groups, asking, “Why this audience?”, “How does this detail build the idea?” and “What effect do you want?” Students record and improve their thinking on the worksheet, then compare their plan with another group.

6. 49–56 min · Independent planning. Teacher asks students to choose their own issue and begin an individual plan for a later writing session. Students complete the remaining planning sections, including opening, sequence, details, intended effect and a conventions check. They write at least one possible opening sentence and one purposeful sentence using a deliberate stylistic choice. Students needing support may adapt the group plan; confident writers should consider a less obvious viewpoint or integrate a wider context. Refer to independent planning instructions and quality ladder.

7. 56–60 min · Exit ticket and next step. Teacher asks students to complete the final boxes on the exit ticket, then collects plans or checks them at the door. Students state their chosen audience, purpose and form; identify their strongest idea; name one stylistic choice and its intended effect; and write one convention they must check before drafting. Teacher uses responses to form the next lesson’s mini-lessons and reminds students that planning will be developed, reviewed and drafted over subsequent lessons.

Resources

• the complete writing-process slide deck
• the task-unpacking, model-text and exit-ticket sheet
• the Extended Response Planning Frame
• Representative CAA writing prompt
• Projector or interactive display
• Highlighters or coloured pens
• Exercise books or digital writing folders
• Timer

Assessment

• During task unpacking, check that students can distinguish topic, audience, purpose, form and register.
• During group planning, listen for connected ideas, relevant supporting details and reasons for stylistic choices; question students to move from naming a feature to explaining its intended effect.
• Use the exit ticket and planning frames to identify whether students are ready to draft, need support with idea development, or need a conventions or structure workshop. Do not award an assessment grade from this lesson alone.

Differentiation

• Provide a teacher-created word bank of forms, audiences, purposes, connectives and language features; read the model aloud and allow students to annotate collaboratively.
• For students needing substantial support, offer sentence starters: “My audience is…”, “I want them to…”, “My main idea is…”, and “This choice will make the reader…”. Allow speech-to-text or a scribe where appropriate.
• EAL learners may rehearse ideas orally before writing, use bilingual dictionaries and work with a supportive partner. Explicitly clarify register, idiom and figurative language.
• For extension, students can plan the same issue for two contrasting audiences and explain how their register, structure and stylistic choices would change. Encourage an insightful angle rather than simply adding more points.