Reading into Writing.

Reading into Writing. Autumn term 2009

Objectives • To support your role in monitoring and evaluating teaching and learning in literacy. • To explore the elements of quality first teaching and raise awareness of relevant support materials. • To investigate the links between assessment and teaching and learning. • To identify links between the AFs and Renewed Framework for Literacy.

Teaching is a complex activity! Take some time on your tables to discuss your own ideas about how children learn and how teaching supports this learning.

As a school group, identify strengths and any gaps in your teaching and learning As managers of your school, how do you know the strengths and weaknesses? What evidence do you have to support your judgements of teaching and learning?

Pedagogy is the art of teaching and the rationale that supports the actions that teachers take. It is what a teacher needs to know and the range of skills that a teacher needs to use in order to make effective teaching decisions

Pedagogy – Core principles. • Ensure that every learner succeeds; set high expectations. • Build on what learners already know; structure and pace teaching so that they can understand what is to be learned, how and why. • Make learning of subjects and the curriculum real and vivid. • Make learning enjoyable and challenging; stimulate learning through matching teaching techniques and strategies to a range of learning needs. • Develop learning skills, thinking skills, and personal qualities across the curriculum, inside and outside the classroom. • Use assessment for learning to make individuals partners in their learning. • DFES 2003

These principles recognise that learning has both cognitive and affective dimensions. Factors such as motivation or self esteem have an important impact on behaviour and consequently on learning.

Pedagogy. Teaching repertoire of skills and techniques Subject and curriculum knowledge Quality first teaching Teaching and learning models. Conditions for learning

Good Teaching involves; • Planning and structuring learning. • The generic teaching skills of questioning, explaining and organising group work. • A range of active engagement techniques designed to draw the learner in and demand participation.

Meet Kaycee Year 2 Low Level 2 – entering Year 3.

Activity. • In small groups, work together to analyse the writing samples from Kaycee’s Standards File. • Please consider; • the quality first teaching that has taken place. • the written outcome • the range of the writing i.e. fiction/non • fiction/curriculum area. • the context of the activity i.e. individual/group etc. • Do you agree with the judgements recorded on the guidelines sheet? • Take time to discuss your responses – use post-it notes for questions and comments.

Where next for Kaycee and her group? What are the next steps in their learning? How can we best plan for progression?

How are teachers in your school using assessment/AFL to inform their planning? • Are you looking at Standards Files to confirm your judgements? • Are there planned opportunities for moderation of teachers’ judgements?

Support for Writing…… …..Steps in Learning. ……Progression Papers ……Writing Targets ……Text type information • http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk • Primary Frameworks • Literacy Frameworks • Support for Writing – Steps in Learning • OR Objectives – Steps in Learning.

Talk for Writing Materials • http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk • Primary Frameworks • Literacy Frameworks • Talk for Writing • Pie Corbett clips and tips • NOT A BAG OF TRICKS!. • Book Talk • Writer Talk • Role play and drama • Word Games • Story Telling and Story Making including • Boxing Up.

Writing Assessment Focuses linked to Framework Strands. AF1 write imaginative, interesting and thoughtful texts. 9 AF2 produce texts which are appropriate to task, reader and purpose 9 AF3 organise and present whole texts effectively, sequencing and structuring information, ideas and events. 10(9) AF4 construct paragraphs and use cohesion within and between paragraphs . 10 (9) AF5 vary sentences for clarity, purpose and effect. 11 (9) AF6 write with technical accuracy of syntax and punctuation in phrases, clauses and sentences. 11 (9) AF7 select appropriate and effective vocabulary. 9 AF8 use correct spelling. 5 & 6

A clearer structure for Literacy STRANDS Speak and Listen for a wide range of purposes in different contexts 1. Speaking 2. Listening and responding 3. Group discussion and interaction 4. Drama Read and write for a range of purposes on paper and on screen 5. Word recognition: decoding and encoding ( R, Y1, Y2 only) 6. Word structure and spelling 7. Understanding and interpreting texts 8. Engaging with and responding to texts 9. Creating and shaping texts 10. Text structure and organisation 11. Sentence structure and punctuation 12. Presentation

AS July 09.

YEAR 3 Strand 11 Sentence structure and punctuation Progression summary Children begin to use subordinate clauses during Year 3 to explain why, using causal connectives (because, so). They use their growing vocabulary to make increasingly effective, precise and appropriate choices when composing sentences. The range of punctuation they use independently extends to include exclamation marks. Learning objectives; Compose sentences using adjectives, verbs and nouns for precision, clarity and impact Do your teachers know what constitutes progression within a strand and how to plan for that learning to take place?

Step in learning 1 Children focus on using verbs (adjectives) for effect. In shared writing, the teacher models how to compose sentences for a story. Through supported composition, children contribute to choosing and using verbs (adjectives) carefully for precision and for their impact on their reader. Step in learning 2 Children write the first part of a myth in guided writing. They focus on choosing vocabulary (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) for maximum impact on their reader as they compose sentences that introduce the first setting and main character. Step in learning 3 Writing independently, children apply what they know about sentence structure and vocabulary.They adapt sentence structure for effect.

AS July 09.

Three phase planning process. How does this model reflect planning in your school? Do your teachers understand the ‘big picture’ of planning? Do teachers understand the essential links between reading and writing?

Year 3 Narrative Unit 1 – Stories with familiar settings. School setting - ‘Crunchem Hall’ from ‘Matilda’ by Roald Dahl (Book and DVD) WOW start – Use novel as class story. Open up ‘dialogue’ between class and Matilda to provide purpose and audience. Start with letter/email from Matilda describing her first impressions of Crunchem Hall – use as text. PLANNING PHASE 1. FAMILIARISATION WITH GENRE; Reading comprehension; investigation of setting. Learning Objectives: 8. Identify features that writers (and film directors) use to provoke readers reactions. 7. Explore how different texts appeal to readers using varied sentence structure and descriptive language. Learning Outcome: Children can express a view clearly as part of class/group discussion. Children can form opinions of a text and use evidence in the text to explain their reasons. Assessment Focus Reading AF2 and AF4.

The extended opportunity to use talk to explore pupils personal and collective response to text as readers Book Talk Explore letter and raise discussion and questions. Repeat with DVD clips – camera angle, colour, visual impact. • Step 1: Eliciting response • After careful reading of a shared text the teacher initiates ‘book-talk with very open ended invitations such as: • ‘Tell me about…’ • ‘What came into your mind when you read…’ • ‘Have you come across anything like this before?’ • Step 2: Extending response • The teacher focuses on extending children’s responses with prompts • such as: • ‘Tell me about…’ • ‘What led you to think that?’ • ‘Can you extend/unpack that idea for us?’ • Step 3: Encouraging critique • Frequently groups of children can be supported and encouraged to feed off each other’s thinking and talking, with prompts such as: • ‘Do you agree?’ • ‘Did anyone have a different response to the story/paragraph/sentence/word?’

The Wolves in the Walls By Neil Gaiman Personal Response Lucy walked around the house. Inside the house everything was quiet. Her mother was putting homemade jaminto pots. Her father was out at his job, playing the tuba. Her brother was in the living room playing video games. Lucy heard noises. The noises were coming from inside the walls. They were hustling noises and bustling noises. They were crinkling noises and crackling noises. They were sneaking, creeping, crumpling noises. Lucy knew what kinds of things make noises like that in walls of big old houses, and she went and told her mother. “There are wolves in the walls,” Lucy said to her mother. “I can hear them.”

Key points to model: • Teacher models before the class tries • Personal response, not a list of ‘comprehension’ questions • Open prompts/questions/invitations • Critical/evaluative thinking (‘real’ comprehension) • Can’t be wrong – but should be prepared to change/adapt/amend in response to others • Building group dialogue

“No,” said her mother. “There are no wolves in the walls. You must be hearing mice, I suppose.” “Wolves,” said Lucy. “I’m sure it’s not wolves” said her mother. “For you know what they say……… …..If the wolves come out of the walls, then it’s all over.” “What’s all over?” asked Lucy. “It,” said her mother. “Everyone knows that.”

What was the talk teaching? • generating words and phrases • selection and choice • training imaginations • modelling and setting standards • inviting all to participate • prompting and digging deeper • oral rehearsal and revisiting. • Key points. • first idea not the best. • value all contributions • model • short writes • fun games for vocabulary. • training the brain.

Writer-talk Reading as a writer, writing as a reader Writer Talk ‘Magpie’ - reading as a writer. Focus on sentence structure and word choices. Draw out five or six key features to reflect impact of both text and DVD to use as a map for writing.

The articulation of the thinking/creative process involved in all stages of writing • Talk that helps children to think/behave like a writer (consider themselves to be one) • Externalising/making explicit, through talk, the thinking involved in both: - ‘reading as a writer’ – understanding the response the writer wishes to get from the reader and how they achieve this - ‘writing as a reader’ – applying the same understanding when making the choices involved in planning, creating and improving their own writing

Key points to model: • Teacher models before the class tries • At all stages verbalise/make explicit the reader’s/writer’s thinking • Not just about ‘spotting grammar’ • Key question: what effect is the writer creating? (text level paramount) • Key follow-up: how is he/she achieving this? (may involve some word/sentence-level-thinking – but always in the context of the effect created) • Identify key features – appropriate to the age of the class

How did we feel about Matilda when we watched her walk into the school under the arch? How were we made to feel like that? How did the director manipulate our emotions? What would this look like in a written text? How did we feel about the school buildings and environment? How were we made to feel like that? How did the director manipulate our feelings? What impressions have we made about Miss Trunchbull? How were we made to feel like that? How did the director manipulate our opinions?

PLANNING PHASE 1. FAMILIARISATION WITH GENRE; Reading comprehension; investigation of setting. Learning Objectives: 8. Identify features that writers (and film directors) use to provoke readers reactions. 7. Explore how different texts appeal to readers using varied sentence structure and descriptive language. Learning Outcome: Children can express a view clearly as part of class/group discussion. Children can form opinions of a text and use evidence in the text to explain their reasons. Assessment Focus Reading AF2 and AF4. • Short Writing opportunities • Short replies to Matilda; ‘My school isn’t like that….’, ‘My first day at school’, • Use Zone or relevance to sort adjectives to describe Crunchem Hall and build into shared/individual descriptive passage. • I like/dislike Crunchem Hall because…….. • The film clip made me feel ………………………..by………………………… • Letters to HT – ‘What I like about my school…’.

Lunch!

Painting a picture You can see…

Storytelling and Story Making • IMITATION – familiarisation Retelling a story till it can be told fluently Multi-sensory approach, made memorable • INNOVATION – adapting a well-known tale Substitution, addition, alteration, change of viewpoint and reusing the basic story pattern • INVENTION – creating your own story Building up a story – drawing, drama, images, video, first-hand experience, location, quality reading, etc.

What does the reader internalise? • Memorable blueprints – patterns that are revisited, eg the power of 3, ‘quest’ stories. • Building blocks – common character, setting, action, the rise and fall of narrative patterns. • The flow of sentences, the syntactical patterns. • Vocabulary – connectives that link crucial elements such as ‘once upon a time’, one day, so, next, but, finally etc. • Images in the mind – most importantly they develop an imaginative world that may be visited to draw out new ideas and possibilities.

Story Maps What a monkey sees…

How do the children in your school develop a ‘storehouse of stories’? Are they passionate about stories? How many children’s authors or poets do you think your teachers could name? Is story-telling timetabled? Do children have access to good quality books? Is reading at home seen as ‘homework’? As a school leader, how are you creating an inclusive, engaging and exciting reading environment?

Assessment & Review End of phase: assessment of teaching and learning Teachers need to: Provide ‘closing the gap’ marking/feedback – against success criteria/targets Review attainment against objectives – identifying areas that need consolidation/further teaching Set new targets (if you need to) Begin to collate evidence for APP from both planned and AFL opportunities Children need to: Have opportunities to review their own/peer learning Respond to marking/feedback Revisit/review personal targets

Reading into Writing.