Developing an Effective Writing Programme
by Sheena Cameron &Louise Dempsey
Developing an Effective Writing Programme
Lipogram- Ask children to write a sentence about an image, not using a specific letter for eg the letter 'e'
Discuss purpose and audience with students before writing.
Support students to transfer their knowledge toolkit to new writing purposes.
Learn about the knowledge toolkit during reading
Older kids- Looking at authors writing while shared reading, introduce the book and ask them what they expect from that text, what kind of text it is, different features. The first sentence how the author hooks you in? , punctuation, Sentence starters. Shares reading is a great approach.
Younger kids - while reading notice titles, capital letter, full stop, wow words, bossy verbs, time connectives. Read the sentence and clap at the full stop.
Punctuation is a courtesy to our readers. It helps them to tell what the writer is trying to tell.
Spellings - Routines around spelling ( know to listen to the sound, underline the spelling mistakes, find the resource and fix it.Word choices very important.
Editing- Model the process explicitly as children cant see that in a book.Need to show them.
Positive Class environment
The physical environment of the class helps children, put writings or charts where they can read from.
Be encouraging from day 1 even though the kids say they can't write. t!'st week make them write at least 1 sentence, get them in a routine to write.
Set the noise level.
Roving is powerful and saying have you got this in your writing and praising them would make the kids learn better.
Don't try to do too much, do few things until they are embedded.
Long feedforward for next time to the kids doesn't work as they forget what to do next time, better to show them then.
Writing Groups
Mixed ability groups- Set days for groups.
Mixed ability during writing and then pulling in an ability group.
Grouping children according to their needs- capital letter, spacing, sounding, punctuation, sentence starter group.
Have a week in between to share and celebrate their writing.
Other Writing Forms
It is good for children and for us to do different forms of writing like a newspaper report, comics and plays. Keep your text styles short.
Refer for fun and silly ideas to the book.
One chunk in a day, there's another for another thing. Less is more, leave kids with clarity. By keeping it shorter you allow yourself more time to review and kids learn more that way. Be comfortable with the idea that not everyone will finish. Lesson wrap up - how did we get on, it's good to know how the lesson went - this way know the needs and requirements of the students and are able to plan for the next day.
Chunk the task
Plan your lessons in chunks, which is achievable.
Day1-
let the kids plan
Day2-
Chunk, write first two paragraphs
Day3-
Chunk, explanation(teacher modelling and kids doing)
Day 4-
Chunk - editing
It is a good idea to chunk the idea when you start the new type of writing.
Does not need to do big activities like going to the zoo.
Best writing for kids would be something that they can relate to.
Drama
Teachers can do an impromptu drama act using rich oral language and getting the children to experience the learning. It gets the kids moving, unlock their imagination, which supports their understanding of their writing.
Choose your own topic
Let kids choose their own topic for writing sometimes, AT the start of the year brainstorm some ideas about what they would like to write about at the back of their books. On Monday they can write from the list, rather than recount writing all the time.
Clear criteria and challenge
Learning intentions set the scene. Success criteria (checklist) unpacks it. Block sometimes publish their writing and celebrate it. Good idea to follow the same planning template every day, they will gradually learn to add a lot of variety to the same format.
If you have an active main goal, you can add two things to the criteria.
Icons/symbols help remind children about the success criteria. Encourage to add details not just actions.
Hooks
Start with dialogue
Start with an action
Start with a beautiful description
Editing
When the student has finished writing teach them to self-check by reading to themselves in a quiet voice, spot three mistakes. Keep it simple and same for the next three weeks, until they have mastered self-check. After this, introduce partner check. Children can put their initials after they have done self-check, even the partner out their initial after doing partner check. Children can fix their mistakes using another coloured pen. Use a highlighter to highlight the success criteria. Reward the child for working hard on their goals. Partners can help to make the last sentences as a super sentence.
Recommended Books & websites
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