1. Accelerating progress through guided writing

2. Aims
To know how guided writing can be used effectively to support & challenge pupils at various stages within the teaching sequence – learning walk and Hilary’s observations

3. What are the differences between the teaching strategies to improve writing ?
Activity

4. What is the definition of guided writing
What is the definition of guided writing? It is a personalised intervention . . .
It provides an additional supported stop towards independent writing
It should be carefully targeted towards groups of children according to their current targets or specific needs
The aim is to provide support that is going to help children to improve their writing

5. It doesn’t have to be writing!
Guided writing can be focused on anything that supports children with improving their writing

6. What are the benefits of guided writing?
It enables the teacher to tailor the teaching to the needs of the group
It facilitates the teaching and learning of individual children – the teacher is able to observe and respond to the needs of individuals within the group
It provides the teacher with the opportunity to extend and challenge more-able groups of children

7. It encourages the children to be active participants in discussions about writing
It builds confidence – the group are all grappling with the same issues
It allows the teacher to give immediate feedback on success and the opportunity to discuss further areas of improvement

8. The development of guided writing across school is a process . . .
Identification of key priorities and target groups
CPD
Further CPD opportunities to strengthen teaching and learning
Collaborative development of improvements in classroom practice (lesson study)
Evaluation of impact on children’s progress

9. Guided writing is closely linked to assessment . . .
Gaps identified when assessing against the national curriculum

10. Guided writing is underpinned by effective assessment for learning
Guided writing sessions provide opportunities for ongoing assessment
Teachers identify the learning needs of children based on their assessments
They set precise writing targets that will address the needs of each group and that are regularly reviewed with the children
Feedback is provided at every stage

11. When guided writing is used effectively . . .
Children are clear about organisation of guided writing and how to learn as part of a group
Children are fully aware of their next steps and understand the process of reviewing them
Success criteria are clear and understood by the children

12. Teachers use effective day-to-day assessment strategies:
- questioning
- observing
- discussing
- analysing – marking and
assessing writing with the
children
- checking children’s understanding

13. It’s a mini lesson within a lesson
Children are clear about the next steps needed to improve their writing
It’s a mini lesson within a lesson

14. Planning and organising for guided writing
Begins with assessment and the identification of the learning needs of the class
Teacher groups together children with similar needs
Number in group will vary – usually six to eight children
Groups should be flexible
Several sessions in a row makes the most impact

15. How does guided writing relate to shared writing and independent writing ?
May be general, e.g. to understand the concept of a sentence, paragraphing etc.
It might be genre specific, e.g. to use emotive language in persuasive writing or to organise a non-chronological report

16. The guided writing session may simplify the shared session for less confident writers or extend the shared session to challenge more- able writers
Guided writing may be focused at whole text level, sentence level or word level

17. At what stage of the writing process do I teach guided writing ?
Before writing – support in formulating ideas, teacher modelling planning process, sentence level work
During writing – support for rereading to check writing makes sense, using alternate vocabulary, manipulation of sentence structure

18. After writing – checking work against success criteria, editing, proofreading, reviewing progress and targets, discussing next steps in writing and setting new targets where appropriate
NB no need to glue yourself to the group !

19. Case study – film clip Points to note – The learning environment
Clear sentence level focus
Teacher’s emphasis on writing for a reader
Teacher’s use of technical language
The structure and clear focus of the guided session
Children applying learning to their own work
Effective work with boys in this group

20. An example of how to plan for a guided writing session . . .
Improving sentence structure and punctuation is one of the quickest ways of accelerating progress in writing and is a perfect way of beginning to use guided writing in your classroom.

21. Objective from Y3/4 Programme of Study
Pupils should be taught to use fronted adverbials.

22. Learning intention – we are learning how to make our sentences more interesting for the reader by adding fronted adverbials.

23. Success criteria
You will be able to improve the writing you produced last week by adding fronted adverbials that work together to produce a piece of writing that engages the reader and makes them want to read more.

24. What would several sessions look like
What would several sessions look like? (may be 2 sessions, 3 sessions or 4 sessions)
Revise - quick recap of the relevant aspects of grammar and punctuation
Teach - children how to use these elements through modelling their use – use one of the children’s pieces of writing to demonstrate this

25. Practise through a game such as a game or a building sentences activity
Give children the opportunity to apply their learning using their own writing – at this stage they should reflect on their writing and share it with others

26. Give children the opportunity to check their writing against the success criteria
Don’t forget to tell children their next steps – this might be to apply what they’ve learnt every time they write independently or the next step might be specific – to apply what they’ve learnt in their end of unit writing outcome the following day/week

27. Lesson study – one way to develop the practice
The Quick Win version of lesson study

28. Gap task Who are your target children ?
What are the gaps in learning ?
How can you address these gaps through guided writing this term ? (think about current topics or themes and practical implementations)
You will be asked to share practice at a staff meeting later this term