Year 7 Writing Practice Statement trackers

Audience, purpose, and language choice

• Planning and writing with a specific audience and purpose in mind, making choices in form, genre, and style to communicate meaning and anticipating the reaction of the audience
• Selecting and using a range of language features (e.g. listing, repetition, rhetorical questions) to meet the purpose of the writing and explaining how they help to communicate ideas to the audience
• Selecting and using words that clearly express the intended meaning, including deciding between synonyms for effect
• Using a physical or appropriate digital thesaurus to locate synonyms

Sentence structures, grammar, and punctuation

• Writing complex sentences with relative or adjective clauses
• Using their understanding of different sentence structures to craft sentences that effectively communicate ideas, using complex sentences with adjectival or relative clauses to illustrate the connections between ideas
• Crafting sentences that communicate meaning clearly, correctly using: abstract nouns; verb tenses; adverbial phrases
• Distinguishing between active and passive voice and making deliberate choices about which to use when writing
• Using colons for introducing a list after a complete sentence (e.g. 'The recipe calls for several ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, and butter')
• Using colons for introducing explanations or examples (e.g. 'There was only one thing left to do: finish the project')
• Using semicolons to separate two independent clauses (e.g. 'The weather was perfect for a hike; the sun was shining and the sky was clear')

Writing to entertain

• Writing texts to entertain that present real or imagined experiences or events
• Writing texts to entertain that introduce a situation and setting that help the reader, listener, or viewer understand what is happening and where
• Writing texts to entertain that are well structured, using paragraphs, stanzas, or scenes to create a sense of sequence
• Writing texts to entertain that include carefully selected words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events
• Writing texts to entertain that provide a resolution or sense of closure that follows from the rest of the text

Writing to inform

• Writing texts to inform that clearly introduce the topic and organise ideas and information logically into paragraphs
• Writing texts to inform that include headings and visual features such as illustrations, charts, tables, and multimedia (when useful for aiding comprehension)
• Writing texts to inform that include words and phrases to clarify, illustrate, or compare ideas
• Writing texts to inform that include relevant facts, definitions, examples, and quotations
• Writing texts to inform that provide references for the sources of information used in the text
• Writing texts to inform that include precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to explain the topic
• Writing texts to inform that provide a concluding paragraph which highlights the most important points
• Considering whether a digital or media text is trustworthy by considering who created it, what evidence it presents, and how the information is supported or sourced
• Using digital content responsibly by citing sources and, where appropriate, asking permission before sharing

Writing to persuade

• Writing texts to persuade that introduce a preferred position and organise the reasons and evidence clearly
• Writing texts to persuade that support the stated position with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using trustworthy sources
• Writing texts to persuade that include emotive language that is compelling but respectful
• Writing texts to persuade that have a concluding section that clearly restates their position

Handwriting

• Handwriting with fluency while maintaining legibility, size, spacing, and slope

Keyboarding

• Using efficient keyboarding with fluency and accuracy

Spelling

• Spelling words with ambiguous vowel spelling including: <ei> representing /long a/ (e.g. 'reign') or /long e/ (e.g. 'ceiling'); 'ou' representing short /u/ (e.g. 'enough'); 'a' representing /o/ (e.g. following 'w' as in 'was' and 'qu' as in 'quad')
• Spelling words with ambiguous consonant spellings, including <gh> representing /f/ (e.g. 'enough') and <ch> representing /ch/, /sh/, or /k/
• Spelling words with less common silent letters: <gn> = /n/, <gh> = /g/, <ps> = /s/, <pn> = /n/, <mn> = /m/, <rh> = /r/, and <pt> = /t/
• Spelling words with two-syllable prefixes (e.g. 'inter–', 'over–', 'circum–', 'contra–', 'ambi–', 'ante–', 'anti–')
• Spelling words with suffixes '–able', '–ible', and '–ure'

Drafting

• Transferring ideas from planning to writing, including transferring main ideas to topic sentences
• Using structural features such as linking words across the whole text to support cohesion
• Writing multi-paragraph texts for specific purposes, organising the information and ideas using structures that best suit the purpose and audience (e.g. chronological order, cause and effect, compare and contrast, or narrative sequencing)

Planning

• Using appropriate planning and note-taking strategies for specific writing tasks
• Taking notes using key words and phrases to support idea development
• Organising ideas logically into paragraphs, sections, or stanzas
• Setting, working towards, and self-evaluating against specific writing goals based on analysis of writing content and processes

Revising and editing

• Making revisions to the content, style, features, and tone of draft texts and adding, deleting, and re-sequencing words and sentences to improve clarity, focus, grammar, and coherence for the intended audience and purpose
• Requesting and selectively using peer feedback to determine where revision is needed, justifying their decision when the feedback is not used
• Editing draft texts, checking for errors in spelling, punctuation, and formatting