1. What is independent writing ?

2. Success criteria (1)
Success criteria provide pupils with a means of successfully demonstrating their learning. They can also support teachers’ judgements as to whether a pupil has achieved specific learning intentions in a piece of writing. Pupils can use success criteria to assess their own work, address their own concerns, and identify areas for improvement.

3. Success criteria (2)
If success criteria are over-detailed, they can impact on the independent nature of the writing, for example:
I have started a sentence with If, When or Because. X
I have used subordinating conjunctions
I have inserted a comma after a fronted adverbial. X
I have used fronted adverbials
I have used commas
I have written a sentence in the passive voice to create X suspense, eg They were trapped!
I have used the passive tense
Success criteria should encourage pupils to focus on the criteria against which the work will be assessed, without modelling or over-scaffolding the expected outcome.

4. Editing/redrafting/marking/ feedback/response
Let children independently edit before marking, using the success criteria
Redrafting – let children redraft just one paragraph not the whole piece of writing
Use success criteria to mark, feed back and to support children’s responses to marking
Direct/indirect marking

5. Gathering evidence