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Writing from the front line. Sarah Duke. Improving writing. ‘ Attainment in writing lags behind that in other subjects .’
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Writing from the front line Sarah Duke
Improving writing ‘Attainment in writing lags behind that in other subjects.’ • ‘Clearly the writing strategy across the whole school is having a really positive impact and the school is now in a much stronger position to sustain the improvements in writing.’ • ‘The writing leader has been instrumental in raising standards especially in classes where the teaching of writing has not been good enough.’ • ‘The writing leader has taken immediate action to support and mentor other colleagues which has resulted in rapid improvements being made and can be evidenced in children’s books.’ • ‘Outcomes are improving, particularly in English. ‘ • ‘Effective training has supported teachers in delivering better-quality learning, particularly in English. This has led to improving pupil outcomes and their accelerated progress.’
The teaching sequence • 4 phases to every writing unit (fiction/non fiction/poetry) • Differentiation through bronze, silver, gold and challenge. Linked to teach, fluency, reasoning and problem solving stages of maths teaching. • All children work towards the same LC
WAGOLL • A WAGOLL needs to be year group specific, an example of exactly what you want the children to produce, with all the relevant grammatical features included and based on a good quality text. • Some websites to get you started but you must write your own. If you can’t, how will the children? • As you write your WAGOLL, think of the parts you found tricky and why. Plan for these. Pie Corbett’s WAGOLLs Literacywagoll.com
The Sleeping Army ‘Gods damn you!’ Hattie’s father held the phone away from his ear, as her mother continued bellowing. ‘ Why do you always mess things up? I wish you would pay attention!’ Hattie stopped listening. Her father’s eyes, under his furrowed eyebrows, scrunched up tightly. She felt sorry for him, although it was unusual to feel sorry for your father. For the first time, Hattie accompanied her dad on his night shift at the Royal Armouries. She much preferred visiting on a night-time with her dad, as she could avoid all the clustering crowds around the artefacts. Tonight she was going to take advantage of this or so she thought. Dad insisted that Hattie sit quietly in the Viking room and finish her homework. ‘There’s an alarm,’ he said, ‘so don’t move or go touching things. Okay?’ Hattie nodded. Twiddling her hair, she glanced around the room. Her Henry VIII homework really wasn’t grasping her attention. Hattie stood, stretched and stomped around the room. The first case she came across protected two round, earth-red medallions. Nothing of much interest. In the middle of the room was a large display case containing several Viking dolls. They looked weary and glum, with bulging startled eyes, frowning mouths and hunched shoulders. They looked sad. ‘I wonder what they’re so worried about,’ thought Hattie. Then there it was, resting on an open stand behind the dolls, like an offering. The delicate, carved ivory horn, decorated with silver enamel and ruby red jewels. It was small but powerful looking. The urge to touch it was overwhelming and irresistible. Carefully, she reached out her hand and stroked it. Whipping it back, she peered around. No alarms. No footsteps. She was fine. Hypnotized, Hattie picked it up and put her mouth around the horn’s narrow mouthpiece. She blew. A thunderous roaring ringing shrieking blast blared around the room. She jerked her mouth away from the horn but the sound continued. She pressed her hands against her ears but the blasts were so loud they were inside her now. The white walls cracked, pottery smashed, a gigantic gash zig-zagged across the floor. Every alarm in the museum went off. There was a humming in her airs and it felt as if the air was moving around her. There was an overpowering smell of frost and fur. Smash. The glass case containing the Viking dolls shattered. Hattie was caught up in an icy vortex, snatching and swirling at her ankles, spinning her through space. Bob, who was running into the room shouting her name, was shocked by the scene. A Viking doll and Hattie, spiralling into a whirlwind of flashing lights. They vanished. Ow. Something sharp was jabbing her in the ribs. ‘Get away from me, ‘ mumbled Hattie. Something she instantly regretted. Someone beside her was screaming. Harsh, angry words in a language she didn’t understand. Reluctantly, she lifted her head up. Feet and trousers, wrapped in leather throngs up to their knees. A musky green cape, bellowing in the wind. A stick with a sharp point of metal on the end. A wind-beaten face, with long, wispy brown hair plaited at the sides. An iron helmet protected their head. It had a strange nose guard riveted onto the helmet. This person wasn’t one she should mess with. In the distance, small wooden houses surrounded a long building with smoke rising out of the roof. The walls looked like they were made of mud and the roof from bundles of straw thatched together. To the side of the buildings were areas of land with crops growing. Healthy, tall corn was growing. Luscious green leaves, from the vegetables waved in the wind. This looked like a safe, warm place to stay. If only she could get to it. I have to move. She thought, but her legs hurt. ‘Get up! Now! Run,’ yelled a voice. It was the Viking doll she had seen earlier at the museum. He grabbed her arm and dragged her away. Her legs couldn’t go fast enough. But she followed. ‘RAAAAA,’ she heard a crowd of jeers from behind. She was too afraid to look.
LCs and differentiation • All Learning challenges/objectives etc are skills based and from the curriculum (sometimes rephrased to be child friendly) • In a lesson, all children are working towards the same LC but at varying stages of ‘mastery’. • Bronze, Silver, Gold and challenge: • Bronze is using resources or adult support to achieve the LC • Silver is becoming fluent at the LC • Gold is a reasoning or problem solving task, where the children need to justify or explain choices made.
Phase 1 • By the end of phase 1, children should know the story and WAGOLL very well and be able to retell them orally. • They’ll need a good understanding of the characters (how are they similar and different to each other/words and phrases used to describe them), the plot, key vocabulary and key features of that genre.
Phase 1 LC: To infer characters’ thoughts, feelings and motives from their actions Bronze: Supported - Complete a decision wheel for a dilemma we have acted out using conscience alley. Silver: Independent - Complete a decision wheel for a dilemma we have acted out using conscience alley. Gold: Complete a decision wheel for a new dilemma
Create a series of lessons to address these LCs • identifying how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning • distinguish between statements of fact and opinion • retrieve, record and present information from non-fiction
PHASE 2 • The grammar skills taught are the skills children will need to use in their assessed piece of writing and will be seen in your WAGOLL. • Your grammar objectives must be taken from your year groups’ curriculum where appropriate. • If children are working at greater depth, broaden the context of the grammar skills rather than teaching from the year above. As in maths, you can also set reasoning and problem solving tasks. • When teaching this phase, your activities must be linked to the text/WAGOLL
Family fortunes Some sharks eat algae.
Secret sentences Similar set up to consequences but the first simple sentence/picture from the text is written at the bottom of the A4 sheet. Children take it in turns to write a specific sentence type, fold their paper and pass it on. At the end, open up the sheet, choose the best sentence and explain why.
Non chronological report - animals • How will you teach the following objectives? • Which activities will the children use to practise the skill? • How will you differentiate? • using relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that or with an implied (i.e. omitted) relative pronoun • using modal verbs or adverbs to indicate degrees of possibility • using expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely
PHASE 3 • By the end of phase 3, the children should know how to compose, structure and organise a text using paragraphs and cohesive devices. (Text level work) LC: develop initial ideas, drawing on reading and research where necessary LC: use a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs
PHASE 4 • By the end of phase 4, the children should be able to plan, write, edit and improve a piece of writing based on the WAGOLL. LC: assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing LC: propose changes to vocabulary, grammar and punctuation to enhance effects and clarify meaning
MARKING AND FEEDBACK Making marking manageable and effective • Positive comment relating to LC –e.g. Great understanding of how to add ‘because’ to add detail to your sentences. • A next step for them to complete but instead of writing the whole comment, just put a symbol e.g. NS1/NS2/NSCh/NSQu/NSSilver These will relate to the LC e.g. NS1: Write out the following sentence and add in the missing commas NSQu: Which relative pronoun would you use to complete this relative clause and why?
