ABSTRACT
New Zealand enjoys a broad national curriculum, with overarching achievement objectives indicated for each curriculum level. For writing, these objectives are contained within the English curriculum. Schools are encouraged to implement the curriculum to fit the local context. In this chapter, views of, and expectations for, writing are analysed, drawing on the curriculum document, the Standards, a national writing assessment, Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning: Writing and the Literacy Learning Progressions. To investigate how writing and its development are conceptually framed, both the discourse of the curriculum and the theoretical basis or stated rationale underpinning the documents are examined. Analyses show the overlap and synergy among the documents with some differences in terms of the link between theory, framing and exemplification. The curriculum discourse suggests a balanced emphasis in terms of the different communicative intents or dimensions of writing. The only pedagogy mentioned is teaching as inquiry into practice in relation to the needs of learners. While teachers have considerable professional autonomy in implementing the broad curriculum, there are practices common to effective writing classrooms, including assessment for learning practices that align with the notion of inquiry and the tools discussed here. Research in relation to these practices is discussed.
