Steps for encouraging early independent writing: A language perspective on whole class literacy learning inclusive of EAL/D learners
In the Language Perspectives team, we take the view that students' proficiency in Standard Australian English (SAE) is a fundamental consideration in classroom approaches to literacy teaching. Yet often language considerations are not prominent in education documents, teacher education or teaching resources. Unsurprisingly then, in classroom contexts there is often little reference to whether students' language resources in SAE match those of the teacher or the curriculum expectations. Sometimes, language is just obscured by or confused with literacy. (McIntosh et al. 2011)