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PART B: Rationale

Children are creative beings and they have vivid imaginations. As

teachers its important to foster their creativeness and provide opportunities
for a child to be creative in their learning and writing. Its important to grow and
develop the transferability of creative and analytical skills to other areas of a
childs life. (Bowell, 2011, p. 100) This is one of key foundations behind this
lesson plan. This makes the purpose of this lesson seem much more
sophisticated than learning about words and structure because it goes beyond
that. It starts to stimulate a childs cognitive process for different areas of
learning.

Children love stories, as Owocki (2001) believes, stories enrich our lives
(p.100). Children come to school full of stories to tell (Owocki, 2001, p.102).
Therefore, as Owocki (2001) says, it makes sense to make room for stories in
the classroom (p.104). Since children are exposed to different kinds of
narratives from a young age they usually become quite familiar with these
structures and can use them in their writing. (Emmitt, Zbaracki, Pollock &
Komesaroff, 2010, p.106) However there is a disadvantage in the texts that
are used in the learn to read process because they do not possess any real
structure. (Emmitt et al, 2010, p.106). However after completing this lesson,
children would have the ability to use the structure of narratives and start
using their imaginations to create their own. Emmitt et al (2010) argues that
the knowledge of the structural features of different types of writing provides
us with a hook to write more powerfully (p.116).

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Elbow (as cited in Harris, McKenzie, Fitzsimmons & Turbill, 2003) argues,
Writing is a very complex, difficult and time consuming process (p.23) but
Harris et al (2003) argues that children only learn to write by practicing writing
themselves (p.32). One of the difficulties behind writing is the tension between
spoken and written language. Children can tell more complex stories than
they can write (Hill, 2012, p. 312). However to undertake this lesson, children
have gone through an extensive developmental process and they now
understand that language is more than just sequestered sounds or letters but
they lead to words then put together to become sentences and these are
organized into texts and discourses (Emmitt et al, 2010, p.104), which
convey meaning (Hill, 2012, p. 312).

Writing influences other aspects of literacy learning such as reading. Harris et

al (2003) instructs that they are both acts of composing (p.27). Hill (2012)
believes that When children begin to write, they are making links between
speaking, writing and reading (p.321). Durkin and Monterssori (as cited in
Hill, 2012, p. 319) viewed writing as the foundation of reading. Butler and
Turbill (cited in Harris et al, 2003) also shared this view, the writing process
could be mirrored in the reading process and vice versa(p.27). Hill states this
is shown by the way that children have to slow down and think about written
symbols when they are writing, and this helps them apply the symbols when
they are reading (Hill, 2012, p. 329). Emmitt et al (2010) also argues the
knowledge of discourse/text structure in particular the concepts of genre is
important in assisting the development of writing and reading (p.104).

Students will also understand the importance of flexibility of genre in

participating in this lesson. Harris et al (2003) argues that children need to

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know a variety of genres in order to be successful in their future lives (p.32).
This equals to Emmitts et al (2010) argument that such knowledge enhances
the power of our speech and other language codes (p.116. Its important to
create an environment where the children can build on their ability to select
the appropriate genre for different purposes, Emmitt et al, 2010, p116).

There are a lot of advantages for students when studying the genre of
narratives. The first thing is to ensure that children can see a purpose for
their writing (Hill, 2012, p. 342). Hill (2012) explains that the sole purpose of a
narrative is to entertain, to teach and extend the imagination (p. 351).
Narratives have the potential to empower the students (Emmitt et al, 2010,
p.107). Nieto (as cited in Owocki, 2001) believes its important to learn to
approach reality form a variety of perspectives (p. 112). This is a reason why
in this lesson children are encouraged to find well know fairytales in different
perceptions and view points.

Hill (2012) suggests that there are numerous ways that a teacher can
scaffold childrens writing development (p. 342). Its important to provide
these learning opportunities for the children because they assist the children
move to independent learners. When using modeled writing on the board with
the whole classes the teacher might demonstrate various purposes of writing
(Hill, 2012, p. 99). This activity provides opportunities for teachers to explicitly
demonstrate how a writer encodes written texts (Harris et al, 2003, p.99).
Shared writing is similar but it allows the children interact with the teacher and
each other tribute to the writing by sharing the pen (Hill, 2012, p. 99). This
builds confidence within the group and individual and can be the starting point
for guided writing (Hill, 2012). Harris et al (2003) explains guided writing to be

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where the encoding responsibly is shared with the children (p.100). Hill
(2012) suggests, children might use writing frames or templates as a scaffold
for writing (p. 100). Where Owocki (2001) also recommends possible
planning devices of stories, include timelines and story webs (p.64). Some of
the students who are working in this group have difficulty dealing with
figurative language and some other aspects of narratives and language and
will need explicit support, especially ESL learners as Derewianka, (2011)
advises. (p.182). Independent writing is the final stage of development where
students can build fluency and motivation, express and experiment. (Hill,
2012). Every child should be working at their own pace to get to this stage of
writing.

To add a different dimension to a childs learning incorporate multimodal

resources. Krause, Bochner, Duchesne & McMaugh (2010) advocates that
this way of teaching may be a factor in learners personal and social
development and enhance motivation, increased students engagement and
improved learning outcomes (p. 454). According to Hill (2012) the educational
system needs to be meaningful and relevant to the lives of young children in
the 21st century (p. 382). Literacy can be transformed by digital or electronic
text says Emmitt et al (2010, p.222). When using multimodal resources in this
way, children are being exposed to words that arent being fixed and controlled
on a page but are flexible and in a reader-controlled environment also open to
manipulation (Emmitt, 2010 p.222).

Overall, learning about narratives is imperative at primary school. Owocki

(2001) stresses the importance since it provides a rich context for children to
construct knowledge about the world (p.101). We can distinguish a lot about

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a child through the writing they produce. Hill (2012) insinuates, Childrens
writing provides a window into their thinking and problem-solving.(p. 321).

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