English Writing
'If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot'
At Little Waltham C.E.V.A Primary, we believe that it is vital that children are equipped with the skills to communicate confidently and eloquently. In accordance with the National Curriculum, we want our pupils to develop a strong command of the written and spoken word, as well as a love of language and reading.
Children from Reception to Year 6, receive English teaching every morning, covering a range of writing styles and skills.
Throughout the school we use the Talk for Writing principles to teach writing.
Talk for Writing is powerful because it enables children to imitate the language they need orally before reading and analysing it and then writing their own version. We want our children to become independent speakers and writers of a wide range of genres of text.
The Talk for Writing learning concept reflects the following pattern within a sequence of lessons:
- Cold Writing task: where children are given a prompt to write about, with very little adult input – this is to assess their knowledge and any gaps within the genre and shows the progress the children have made by the time they write the final task at the end of the unit.
- Imitate – Story map images of the text are drawn by an adult, the children actively learn it by heart along with actions for the images. The children love acting out the actions and find the visuals from the story maps really help them learn.
- Innovate – Children make changes to the text by sharing ideas, generating vocabulary and phrases.
- Invent and Application – Children write their own version allowing them to use their own ideas within the genre of writing for their intended audience.
At Little Waltham C.E.V.A Primary School we carefully select the texts we use with the children so that they are age appropriate and engaging. Through building excitement in reading the children become active learners. We provide opportunities to teach end of year expectations for grammar, spelling, punctuation and vocabulary (appropriate for the writing genre) within all children's writing.
In addition to this the following aspects of writing also help the children to maximise their learning success throughout the Talk for Writing approach:
- Shared and Guided writing – the teacher models how to innovate and invent with the children, talking through their thought process.
- Boxed up plans - a method of segmenting the text which can be used throughout the process to enable children to plan their ideas and refer to the original text.
To ensure the writing lesson is accessible to all and we provide adequate challenge to those pupil who need it
Scaffolding: story maps and actions enable all children to access high quality writing. The use of story maps in books offers less confident learners a guide to help them to innovate and invent. Less confident learners are encouraged to use the model text and to make changes based on this until they are ready to reach the invention stage.
Some pupils may also use Clicker on laptops to develop greater independence when writing.
Challenge: model texts embed sufficient challenge and opportunities for most pupils and are easily extended for more confident learners to venture further from the model text.
Learning Environment: flip chart paper is used and learning is presented on the working walls for children to easily refer to. Their final written pieces of work are shared amongst the class and across the school.
Talk For Writing Progression of Skills Within Genres Taught
Talk For Writing Grammar and Punctuation Progression
In addition to our writing lessons, we develop pupils’ reading skills through daily whole class reading lessons, where pupils develop their word knowledge, comprehension and analytical skills. We want to encourage your child to not only be able to decode words and understand the meaning of a text, but to also ask questions of the text and to be able to infer meanings. Studies show that reading, above all else, is the key to academic progress, we believe that by encouraging a love of reading, the more we open up the world of learning to our children.