Writing

The language experience approach integrates speaking and listening, reading and writing through the development of a written text based on first hand experiences.

Through scaffolded talk, the teacher supports students to document experiences and ideas, using familiar and expanded vocabulary, and modelling ways in which their thoughts and words can be written down and later read. 

Typically, the language experience approach involves a shared experience such as everyday happenings, common school experiences, a classroom event or hands-on activity, excursions but can also include students’ personal experiences or ideas. 

The text might be written by the teacher or by the student. As the writer, the teacher acts as a model, demonstrating how thought and words can be represented in writing as students dictate their ideas. Individual children might dictate a sentence, or a longer text might be written. 

Alternatively, students will write their own texts. Here, the teacher can guide students’ writing, encouraging them to understand that what they think can be said, and what they say can be written down by them or others (Hill, 2012).