Working towards a shared understanding of Writing micro goals, PLD 8th April 2025

We are all in the process of experimenting with using small, personalised writing goals for our students, which we are calling micro goals. In coming to grips with this approach, it is clear that we have some 'working through' to do of how this will look in our different spaces, with children working at different stages with their Writing.

Our conversation today was aimed at moving closer to a shared understanding of what we mean by a micro goal, and also what the implications of this approach are for our lesson planning and - especially - feedback to students.

Helen Walls' How to Teach Writing, Spelling and Grammar provides a model of how to develop and use small, personalised goals to move children forward in their Writing. Helen Walls recommends asking: 'What is next small step that will make the writing more readable, or the process more manageable, for this student?' (How to Teach Writing, Spelling and Grammar, p. 58).

Walls also champions 'Fast Feedback': spending a 30 seconds conferencing with each child during the writing process as a means to keep these goals in sharp focus. 

(ibid, p. 59)

She also recommends a sticker chart or similar at the back of a child's book to capture the goal and record successes. The approach we are using, based on what has been working well in Autahi for the last year or so, is to use pictorial or other notation to record the goal at the top of the next day's writing page. Then, as children come to write, their personal goal is waiting for them on the page.

In this way, we have a daily opportunity to feed back directly to each student. We can praise content, language and creativity. We can notice efforts toward meeting their personal goal. We can also ask them to fix up mistakes in real time. Marking goes on during the lesson, in conversation with the writer.

Designing appropriate micro goals for our students

Micro goal skills need to be modelled each time we write. They will also need to be explicitly taught. We may choose to use needs-based workshops to do this. However, it is vital that we also maintain plenty of opportunities in our programme for children to have lofty goals for content, purpose, language features and creative exploration. These provide contexts for Writing and stimulating opportunities to work on our goals. Working with clear personal goals helps to control the cognitive load in play (we're not expecting our students to work on too many things at the same time) and offer opportunities to experience success.

Things to bear in mind:

• A micro goal is not the same as the learning intention for your writing lesson. It is on-going and relates to an individual’s own writing development journey. (Our lesson learning intentions can be lofty and may take a long time to master: micro goals are small, incremental improvements.)

• Micro goals relate to curriculum expectations. Transcription will be the major focus for at least years 0 to 3.

• A micro goal is personalised. Ask yourself: what is the next small step that is going to help this writer the most?

• Micro goals are about cumulatively building skills: if you’ve mastered adding finger spaces to your writing, it stays in your writing skills kete forever, with more skills added alongside.

• Students must be able to say what their own micro goal is.

• When you conference with a student, the spotlight is on their micro goal.

We experimented with using the curriculum to design some goals that could be used for our students.

What will micro goals look like for your students?

Choose a skill set from the curriculum (e.g. Transcription Skills, Composition). 

For each year group in your space: use the NZ English Curriculum and  Helen Walls’ examples as a resource to help you design 3+ possible micro goals for this skill set. (This won’t be an exhaustive list, but this is about finding an appropriate challenge level.)

A useful question to keep in mind as you do so is: what are the ingredients for ‘a good sentence’ at this level? 

Some students will be working above or below these levels, in which case we can draw micro goals from appropriate alternative levels to move them forward.

For example:

More goals can be found here.

Some next steps:

• We can add to our bank of goals. We are also evolving some symbols that we can all use to capture goals on the page.
• Our upcoming peer observations will focus on using micro goals and will be a good opportunity to share practice.
• We have questions around how to manage Writing in this way with many different writing levels and specific learning needs in play in our classrooms. Workshops, different styles of groupings, peer support/writing circles have all been suggested. It's clear that we probably all need a mixed menu of Writing lessons of different kinds going on during the week. 
• We have juicy questions about how our focus on transcription skills is reflected in how our students write in other contexts such as during Inquiry, note-taking, diagrams etc. 
• It will be useful to check in how we are all doing with this in two or three weeks.

Presentation Notes Article for Reference

 My most brilliant clients write the worst notes.

 

I was reminded of this just last week while working with an exceptionally bright technical analyst.
 

He relied on his notes constantly, filled pauses with "ums" and "ahs," stopped and started in a disjointed way, and -  despite his deep expertise - came across as hesitant and unsure. We were getting about 20% of him. And it was clear there was so much more to give.
 

So, I did the unthinkable. I took his notes away.....

 

Then, I asked him a few simple questions about his topic - something he knew inside out.

And just like that, the transformation happened.
 

He looked up. He connected. He owned his content like the expert he is. Gone was the hesitation. We got 100% of him - engaging, natural, confident. It was incredible to watch.
 

I see this all the time: highly intelligent, technical people, pouring effort into detailed notes, only to bury themselves in them when they present. Because they don’t want to get anything wrong.
 

I'm sure that same perfectionism has fueled their success - but when it comes to speaking, it's holding them back.
 

Now, I’m not anti-notes. I use them all the time. But they need to be the right notes.
 

Here’s what I suggest:

• Prepare your presentation.

• Practice your talk at least ten times - but in ten different ways. Rephrase your ideas each time. This gives you far more freedom than trying to memorize exact sentences.

• Avoid using notes when you practice. This forces your memory to work harder and makes your rehearsal more effective.

• Then, and only then, write a new set of notes - no full sentences, just key words or prompts. These will be much shorter and far more useful.
   

And if you are a die-hard perfectionist -  I see you -  you might not be able to avoid the temptation of reading any  notes! So, if you can, turn them over and only use them if you really need to. 
 

Don’t let your notes steal your personality.

Handwriting PLD, Tuesday 25th February, 2025

Handwriting is a key component of our students' transcription skills that we are keen to improve. Taking inspiration from The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge, we are committing to 15 minutes of handwriting practice daily, in each classroom.

Why should we be investing in handwriting?

• Teaching students how to automatically write letters leads to better quality writing. When children can form letters easily, they gain memory space to express more interesting ideas.

• Practising letter shapes builds brain pathways for reading, helping students learn and remember letter patterns and words.

• Handwriting builds confidence and motivation. When students are able to hand-write easily, they feel better about their writing and are more motivated to write.

• Teaching handwriting is easy and fun. Students love it, and we can teach it effectively in just ten minutes a day.

From The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge

Also, it’s now a requirement  in the new English Curriculum!

The objective of this meeting was to arrive at a common understanding of the key components of our handwriting programme and what handwriting will look like for our students as they progress through the school and build their skills. 

Prior to the meeting, we reviewed these resources, including material from Dr Helen Walls and The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge, plus relevant sections of the new English curriculum.

These provided foundational knowledge that enabled us to draw up a plan for each year group, from beginner writers in Autahi to writers with greater fluency in Mahutonga and Matariki.

Handwriting: the Worser Bay plan

Initial resources

Year 0/1

Curriculum requirements	First 6 months Form most lower-case letters and numerals correctly and legibly, with each letter or numeral on the line. Sit comfortably, apply a comfortable amount of pressure, and use a functional pencil grip, with support. During the first year Form most lower-case letters and numerals correctly and legibly, with each letter or numeral on the line, and attending to size and spacing. Sit comfortably, apply a comfortable amount of pressure, and use a functional pencil grip, independently.
Benefits we hope to see	Correct book orientation, sitting position and pencil grip. Increasing hand strength and writing stamina. Correct formation and orientation of letter shapes, starting at the top, sitting on the line. Lower case letters a priority, followed by caps. Correct use of caps and no random mixing of caps and l.c. Growing speed of letter writing. Letter writing develops alongside, and supports, letter i.d. (e.g. especially with tricky mirror image pairings like b/d, m/w, n/u. Growing awareness of relative size (short/tall) of letters, use of descenders, finger spaces. Children are able to write their own names correctly. Growing knowledge of number writing (shape, size, orientation).
When? 15 mins per day	Taught Caterpillar writing using mini black boards and chalk, 1.45 - 2.00, daily. (Other opportunities to engage with is knowledge: PHoM, Writing, independent practice, Reading groups.)
Who? Target writers; differentiation	All Students with a sound grasp of letter shapes may graduate to doing Caterpillar writing in 12mm lined exercise books.
Which?  Which programme or guidance resource will we follow?	Caterpillar writing (provides key language for all component letter shapes). Letters using the same formation are taught together (e.g. c, a, d, g, e).
What? What resources will we use e.g. writing instruments, seating?	Mini chalkboards and small chalk (to ensure pinchy grip) OR 12mm exercise books. For Writing: all at tables, a variety of pencils available, including tripod grips. Erasers in play for corrections. Alphabet cards available for reference. For those building hand strength/fine motor skills: big writing (outdoor chalk boards, pavement, felt tip pens and large books); beading, Lego, tweezers, drawing and painting, playdough modelling (rolling balls, sausages etc.), PMP and yoga.

Year 2/3

Curriculum requirements	During the second year Form all letters and numerals legibly, attending to the size, placement and spacing. Consistently practise good posture and comfortable grip when writing. During the third year Print all letters and numerals correctly and legibly, attending to size, placement, spacing, and slope with ease and automaticity. Consistently practise good posture and comfortable grip when writing across the curriculum.
Benefits we hope to see	Correct book orientation, sitting position and pencil grip. Continued increase in hand strength and writing stamina. Maintaining correct formation and orientation of letter shapes, starting at the top, sitting on the line.. Lower case letters are a priority, followed by caps. Correct use of caps and no random mixing of caps and lowercase. Growing speed of letters, words and numerals. Letter and word writing develops alongside, and supports, letter i.d. (e.g. especially with tricky mirror image pairings like b/d, m/w, n/u. Growing & continued awareness of relative size (short/tall) of letters, use of descenders, finger spaces. Legibility of letters and words. Growing & continued knowledge of number writing (shape, size, orientation) Introducing slope. Getting into the flow of writing, forming letters correctly every time.
When? 15 mins per day	Monday - Thursday straight after lunch.  Tautoru iti for Spiders.
Who? Target writers; differentiation	Names of target writers provided here but removed for Blog.
Which?  Which programme or guidance resource will we follow?	Caterpillar writing language - Casey the Caterpillar Story  Helen Wall grouped letters - including capital letters and numbers
What? What resources will we use e.g. writing instruments, seating?	Books and 6B pencils Sit at tables Dragonflies  go to Tautoru Iti classroom

Year 4

Curriculum requirements	During the fourth year Handwrite with increasing stamina and fluency while maintaining legibility when writing multi-paragraph texts. Organise their writing environment, including seating position and the position of their book.
Benefits we hope to see	Teaching Considerations from the Curriculum may give you a starting point for this.  Students developing greater fluency and legibility leading to improved engagement in writing.  Increased self-confidence among target writers. Taking pride.  Writing with ease and automaticity when working across the curriculum.
When? 15 mins per day	10:45-11:00
Who? Target writers; differentiation	Names of target writers provided here but removed for blog.
Which?  Which programme or guidance resource will we follow?	Casey Caterpillar: Handwriting Programme Practicing spelling patterns. Phonemes: incorporated.
What? What resources will we use e.g. writing instruments, seating?	Blackboards and chalk for some Handwriting: initial resources

Year 5/6

Curriculum requirements	During the fifth year Handwrite with ease and automaticity when writing longer texts. Consistently maintain a comfortable writing posture. During the sixth year Handwrite with ease and automaticity when writing for multiple purposes throughout the school day. Consistently maintain a comfortable writing posture when handwriting and using a keyboard.
Benefits we hope to see	Teaching Considerations from the Curriculum may give you a starting point for this.  Students developing greater fluency and legibility leading to improved engagement in writing.  Increased self-confidence among target writers. Taking pride.  Writing with ease and automaticity when working across the curriculum.
When? 15 mins per day	10:45-11:00
Who? Target writers; differentiation	Yes Names of target writers provided here but removed for Blog.
Which?  Which programme or guidance resource will we follow?	Casey Caterpillar: Handwriting Programme
What? What resources will we use e.g. writing instruments, seating?	In the air, on the carpet, on your hand Blackboards and chalk for some Handwriting: initial resources Etymology

Teachers in years 2-6 have already taken handwriting samples, providing a baseline against which we can measure progress. It will be important to revisit and refine our strategy as we beginning putting our plan into action. 

It will be exciting to see what differences to our students writing legibility, fluency and confidence we begin to notice...