Mount Stromlo High School sees improvement with the Writing Revolution method

Their challenge was to write and illustrate an entire book in a day, from 8am to 8pm, to raise funds for the Kid's Cancer Project.

It forms part of a significant effort at Mount Stromlo High School to embed explicit teaching of writing throughout every faculty of the school.

Year 9 student Lacey Rose O'Brien signed up with her friends straight away when the "write a book in a day" challenge was announced.

"I only just moved from a different school to the school, and my old school didn't do that sort of thing. So this is a really exciting experience," she said.

After an initial frenzy of planning and allocating roles the students settled into creating their 5000-word story designed for 10 to 16-year-olds.

Year 9 student Benjamin Hancock was tasked with drafting the ending of his group's story, which is set in a school-turned-maze and features a talking crocodile.

"I think we've been quite productive. I guess it's been more challenging in that we have to go with the idea that we have and then pursue it rather than have time to change our ideas," he said.

"I think it'll be exciting to see ... what our 12 hours of work has produced."

English teacher Siobhan Johnston said it was a great team-building experience.

"A big draw point is they can do it with their friends. We need writers as well as illustrators and team leaders, so they were able to reflect on the skills that they bring to that," Ms Johnston said.

"You can feel the vibe in here. It's so encouraging and productive."

The school is following the Writing Revolution, a method developed in the United States by Dr Judith Hochman.

"It's embedding it through the subject and it starts at sentence-level activities and then progresses to single paragraphs and multiple paragraph structures," Ms Johnston said.

"The most popular activity has been conjunctions, so using the conjunctions because, but and so. In PE they might do, 'healthy eating is important because', 'healthy eating is important but', 'healthy eating is important so'.

"It's having those kids get to use those conjunctions and see what they look like in writing."

The English department began using this method at the end of last year and then all of the other teachers did professional development at the beginning of this year.

A sample of 52 students did a pre-test and mid-test and will do a post-test next term to track their progress. So far the results between the first and second test have been much improved and they also saw a lift in NAPLAN results.

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Head of English Jordan Windley said staff thought it was the best personal development session they had done.

"The excitement around teaching writing in all areas was just so high. There's so much alignment across the school and we're all using the same method, which is why we've had an impact, I think," Mr Windley said.

"So often, we're teaching writing to students who read a lot and they just get it. But then the students who don't get it, they need that explicit instruction to get it."

Belconnen, Campbell and Kaleen High School are looking to roll out the Writing Revolution programs following the success at Mount Stromlo.

Catholic systemic schools in the ACT have also invested heavily in explicit teaching methods for literacy.

To continue the celebration of writing, Mount Stromlo is also hosting the second year of its MSHS scholar writing competition. Students are given an essay topic and attend a workshop, with gift vouchers awarded as prizes for the best junior and senior essays.

"It's so good to see writing and academic things celebrated as opposed to sports and music that is normally celebrated," Mr Windley said.

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