Developing Writing

Aims To clarify understanding of The statutory requirements for writing in the N.I.C. The essential elements of good practice in the teaching of writing The range of writing genres and their key features Presenter-You may decide to concentrate on all of these aims or just one or two, depending on the time you have available- adjust power-point accordingly

Workshop 1 Work in Key Stages in pairs. Read the section on Writing in the NIC document which relates to your stage. What are the recommended knowledge and skills for this stage? The key teaching approaches? The key learning approaches? Record on flip chart and share. NIC “Golden Book”- each teacher should bring Flip Chart Page for each- FS, KS1,and KS2-divided into 3 Display and discuss

Genre Recount Report Procedure Narrative Explanation Exposition See booklet on Genres on the website for details

Workshop 2 Consider each of the genre on the previous slide. Brainstorm purpose? key features? Record on flip chart NB Presenter- Notes on each genre are included in the website materials

Which Genre ? Last Thursday we went to the shopping centre to sing carols. Indian elephants are smaller than African elephants. Soon it was growing dark. Sam crouched behind the rock. Read each sentence and decide which genre and why

5. Attach the wheels carefully with glue. 4. The problem with this solution is that people still like driving their own cars to work to have some independence. 5. Attach the wheels carefully with glue. 6. As the water reaches boiling point, pressure builds up and a whistling noise is emitted.

Developing Guided Writing

Teaching Sequence for Writing Familiarisation Problem-solving Modelled Shared Guided Independent Response to writing Need to see where Guided Writing sits in the teaching and learning process. All the ground work and specific teaching needs to be done before the Guided Writing sessions.

Workshop 3 Consider each stage in the writing process on the previous slide. Identify the following - Purpose/why do you do it? - Approach/how do you do it ? Record on flip chart NB Presenter-Notes on each stage are included in the website materials

Workshop 3 continued Read the notes on each stage of the writing process which are included in the Guidance Notes Identify what you are already doing well and which areas you need to develop further.

Guided Writing (pairs, small groups) - provides the opportunity for children to practise and consolidate skills - has the same learning intentions as previous learning through modelled and shared work - provides a bridge between shared and independent work - uses the framework jointly constructed with the children - the teacher’s role is to guide and give explicit feedback

In Guided Writing…. Children are ability grouped The purpose is: - to use AfL strategies to improve writing - to identify what children can do and the next steps in their learning - to give specific feedback on the quality of the writing to agree the improvements to be made to allow time for the children to make them Note the emphasis on the quality of the writing rather than spelling and punctuation. This is where knowledge of the features of the genres is important – equally so the use of language such as similes, adverbial phrases, sentence structure etc

Feedback for improvement Read the piece of writing aloud Respond to text as a whole first Give specific praise linked to success criteria Choose one area and prompt to improve – at text, sentence or word level Discuss and agree how the writing might be improved Give child time to make improvement – it may be only a sentence or two Re-read aloud – does it sound better? Check/plan next steps This will take time but it does not need to be done with every piece of writing. It may slow the process down but it will improve the quality of the writing especially for those children who are underachieving and have the potential to raise the standard of their writing.

Workshop 4 Read the notes on ‘Marking for Improvement’ which are included in the Guidance Notes Consider the piece of writing on the next slide - what prompts might you give to improve word choice? Refer teachers to the “Prompt” Page in booklet

Prompting to Improve The pantomime was very good and so was Buttons. I liked him the best. He was very good. He was very good to Cinderella.

Workshop 4 (b) Read the sentences on the next slide In pairs rewrite them as a Romance Horror story Science fiction

Jack walked up the lane. The house was in darkness Jack walked up the lane. The house was in darkness. He rang the doorbell. A nice lady opened the door. He said his car had broken down and asked to use her phone. He phoned the breakdown people. They came and fixed it.

Workshop 4 (c) Read the sentences on the following slide Rewrite, improving sentence structure so that ‘He’ is used no more than twice.

Buddy Buddy is a Jack Russell dog. He is black and tan. He is small. He has short legs and a short tail. He is nine months old. He likes to chew bones and things he shouldn’t chew, like socks. He chewed the TV cable.

Tracking Pupil Progress in Writing Why track pupil progress? To monitor effectiveness of teaching and learning To identify strengths and areas for improvement To raise standards

How is progress tracked? Teachers may use the following; KS1 and KS2 – End of KS Level Indicators F Stage-Indicators in Language and Literacy in the Foundation Stage Data analysis from Progress in English Significant observations during Guided Writing sessions Analysis and monitoring of writing samples throughout the year Pupil’s self assessment All monitoring and evaluation outcomes should be evidence based

What does the teacher monitor and evaluate? the new learning that has taken place in relation to - the Learning Intention(s) - the statutory requirements for Writing in the Northern Ireland Curriculum the knowledge and understanding the children bring to their writing the skills and strategies they use to write the attitudes they have about writing