Writing

Intent

At Great Wishford, we are determined to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators of the written and spoken form.

We use high quality texts and models to enable pupils to accurately choose grammar, vocabulary and punctuation which is effective for both audience and purpose. We make the planning, drafting, writing and editing stages of writing explicit so that children experience ‘live’ the choices a writer makes.

We aim to:

• Provide children with the Ideas, tools and  techniques for writing so that they are able to communicate their own ideas
• Link our reading,  history, geography and science topics with our writing curriculum so that pupils are able to write knowledgeably and effectively across all subject areas
• Ensure that pupils are taught a range of genres across the school which means they can communicate their learning appropriately
• Develop a consistent approach to teaching writing in order to close gaps and ensure that all children leave in Year 6 being able to write effectively

Implementation

We believe that having ideas, understanding how to use grammatical constructs to turn these ideas into meaning, and bringing this meaning to life through authorial language choice are essential in enabling children to communicate effectively.  We ensure children are immersed in a flourishing environment that values speaking, listening and the development of language as a vital part of the writing process. We use Jane Considine’s The Write Stuff methodology to ensure pupils are explicitly taught the craft of writing.

Teaching sequences include experience days and sentence stacking lessons, that have modelling at the heart of them. Sentences are taught under the structural framework of The Writing Rainbow where  teachers prepare children for writing by modelling for the ideas, grammar or techniques of writing.  

Explicit teaching:

• Experience lessons stimulate ideas, and are used thoughtfully to further generate ideas and vocabulary for writing
• For non-fiction texts, we ‘find the shape’ first, or look at model narratives to understand the writer’s craft
• Each Sentence Stacking lesson is organised into three learning chunks to stimulate, model and enable pupils to build clear and progressively rich language alongside contextualised application of specific writing objectives
• Each sentence stacking lesson is based around another ‘plot point’ for narrative, or part of the ‘shape’ for non-fiction genres

Lesson structure

Initiate: teacher shares a stimulus e.g. Film clip picture, drama; word gathering and discussion; ‘chotting’ – pupils chat and jot words they want to use in their exercise books.

Modelling: the teacher  demonstrates writing, explicitly explaining choices of words etc, using 2-3 lenses from the Writing Rainbow, modelling thesaurus thinking – to write three sentences, using vocabulary gathered in the initiate stage.

Enable: Being clear about the sentence idea, the children are then asked to write their sentences sticking to the focus. The children have their ‘chottings’ to support their word choices.

For every sentence written: children need to think about the IDEA of writing and the INTENT – e.g. positive or negative – that will affect word choice.
 

Independent Writing

Pupils apply their learning from the sentence stacking lessons to a new task based around the text/genre. They plan (choosing lenses from the writing rainbow) and write independently, using the vocabulary they have gathered, and examples of sentences structures and generic features they have learnt. Pupils are given the opportunity to practice writing in a range of styles and genres.

Editing: During the Independent Write it is crucial that children’s errors or amendments are highlighted directly but in a way that expects the children to use their knowledge and understanding to address. The final part of the writing process looks at revision of what has been crafted. The suggested approach is to interrogate the writing in three ways. Teachers use this code to encourage pupils to edit their work:

• E1 = Revise spellings, punctuation and omitted words
• E2 = Rewrite a sentence because something isn't right (no guidance is given regarding why it needs a rewrite)
• E3 = Re-imagine and tell me more by writing additional sentences or a section.       Pupils work independently and in small groups to edit and improve their writing.

Support and Challenge: The use of a visual narrative or shape map in the classroom for sentence stacking lessons, the structured explicit nature of those lessons, and the writing rainbow supports weaker writers. More able writers are encouraged to ‘deepen the moment’, and to extend detail or make independent choices in the sentence stacking lessons  and in independent work, using their knowledge of the writing rainbow.

Links to reading

Choice of text: The fiction books used as stimulus for writing are sometimes the guided reading book, or a book linked to history, geography or science. For non-fiction pieces, the stimulus is also used as a model.

Cross curricular opportunities: By the end of KS2, most genres of writing are familiar to pupils and teaching can focus on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills when writing in other areas of the curriculum.

SpaG

Spelling: From Year 2 up: The Jane Considine Spelling Book is used as an effective and fully comprehensive approach that targets reading patterns of spelling, the pressures of spelling and the remembering of spelling. Pupils learn spelling rules and exceptions and how to apply in their writing.

PaG: from Year 2 up – new PAG knowledge is taught in discrete lessons, in line with progression documents. Within writing lessons, PAG knowledge is revised and consolidated in context. previously taught knowledge is also revisited during Guided Reading lessons when looking at authorial choice. 
 

Handwriting

From EYFS pupils are taught how to hold a pencil and to use the Little Wandle letter formation to be able to print words.  Pupils throughout the school are encouraged to take pride in their presentation.

Impact

Children’s work is assessed as an on-going process to give feedback and editing prompts to help them refine their skills and improve their accuracy. To ensure accurate assessment across the school, staff moderate independent writing as a team.  Our MAT also supports cross school moderation of writing.  By the end of their time at Great Wishford, we aim that pupils: 

•  can write effectively to engage with the reader and apply their learning from exposure to a range of high quality models.
• are accurate and creative writers who have increasing stamina for writing
• can draw on a range of ideas, tools and  techniques for writing so that they are able to communicate their own ideas AND apply these in reading
• can effectively articulate their knowledge in other subject areas through the accurate use of writing skills
• can  confidently write using the features, vocabulary and structure of each genre
• achieve the age-related expectations for writing, and those that find writing challenging have been given focused support to help them catch up