Writing for Real

1. Writing for Real Gill Matthews The Professional Literacy Company www.theplc.org.uk

2. Agenda Introduction – What is ‘Writing for Real’? A ‘Writing for Real’ Experience Coffee Examples of ‘Writing for Real’ Experiences Making the most of the Learning Environment Lunch Impact on Teaching and Learning Dinosaur Discovery Plenary

3. What is Writing for Real? Giving children: something to write about a context for their writing a purpose for their writing an authentic audience for their writing an engaging and motivating ‘experience’

4. Creating Writing for Real experiences

5. Real, Realistic or Pure Fantasy? • Real • Realistic – could be real – but it isn’t! (or maybe there are elements of truth?) • Fantasy – developing the imagination – having fun!

6. Creating Writing for Real experiences Classroom based e.g. artefacts, letters, visitors, teacher/TA in role School based e.g. playground or field event Out of school e.g. visit or trip

7. Making the most of the Learning Environment • Writing area • Research zone • Role play area • Whole classroom transformation • Outside space

8. Impact on teaching and learning

9. Data collection survey data on pupils’ perceptions of themselves as writers samples of pupils’ writing and teacher assessments and commentaries. contextual information about the schools, classes, pupils and teaching unit teacher observations and evaluations

10. Sub levels of progress

11. Do you like writing?

12. Dislikes about writing Doing it for too long Writing it up again Hand aches It makes my head ake I get sweaty and we can’t have the door open Comprahenchun Punctuation Handwriting Everythink!

13. Advice for younger writers (before) Write slanted Use a long, sharp pencil Do a writing test Write a hole side Use lots of hard words Have steady hands Meet your targets Up level your sentences

14. Advice for younger writers (after) Put in lots of description Read examples and take like a line of a book and put in your own words It’s the little things that make a difference Think first and plan what to write before you start writing Read the success criteria Be adventurous and creative and remember good words what you know Keep your readers interested Don’t give up it will pay off one day

15. Impact on children and learning Motivated Excited Confident Involved Awareness of audience Wanting to write Writing at home Independent Attendance improved

16. Impact on teachers and teaching Raised awareness of how to teach How to engage the children Getting children to think about impact of writing Audience and purpose Will continue this approach Impact of TfW More flexible planning Cross curricular links Aware of previous missed opportunities

17. Judgements are made on the basis of: how well pupils learn the extent to which well judged teaching strategies successfully engage all pupils in their learning the extent to which teachers enthuse, engage and motivate pupils to learn and foster their curiosity and enthusiasm for learning

18. Recent Reaction from OFSTED • Teaching is consistently good with some outstanding use of imaginative role play and other creative activities to enliven lessons. For instance, a mock battle in the playground between invading Roman soldiers and defending Celts brought history vividly to life for Year 4 pupils. The impact of the stimulating curriculum is particularly positive on boys’ writing, where progress had previously been slow. Year 6 boys, for instance, became engrossed in thinking about how to enliven a story because of the imaginative way the teacher had presented it.

19. Planning and developing a Writing for Real unit

20. The unfolding narrative

21. Think about … • Whole school coverage • Balance of text types – fiction/ non-fiction/ poetry • Objective led • Differentiated to meet needs of pupils • Clear outcomes (spoken and written) • Providing a context for writing • Flexibility

22. Where to start... • With the units – intended outcomes • With a text • With the experience • With the topic • With the interests of the pupil • With a topical subject or immediate need

23. Research process Activate prior knowledge Identify research questions Set a purpose for reading Navigate non-fiction texts Interrogate the text Record and evaluate information

24. Record and evaluate information Key words Notemaking Change the form Children’s quiz Next steps

25. Phase 1 Reading Immersion Analysis Reading as a writer Phase 2 Speaking & Listening Capturing ideas Drama Oral rehearsal Phase 3 Writing Writing as a reader Presenting

26. 10 steps to planning a unit • Identify the key types of writing that you want to teach. • Identify learning objectives for the unit. • Establish the context and create the hook or opening experience. • Develop the unfolding narrative that will hold the unit together. • Identify the major written outcomes, along with authentic audiences and purposes for the writing. • Identify any incidental writing opportunities, along with authentic audiences and purposes. • Establish what needs to be explicitly taught and what the children already know. • Create a medium term plan that gives you an overview of the unit and an idea of its length • Explore venues for visits, source artefacts, book theatre groups – whatever you need to bring the unit to life. • Create weekly plans for the first two or three weeks of the unit but be prepared to be flexible.

27. Remember: Key elements of the experience an engaging opening event or experience that ‘hooks’ the children into the unit a lively and interesting context that can be sustained over a number of weeks an unfolding narrative authentic audiences and purposes for writing opportunities for children to work in role literacy at the heart of the unit

28. Think Ahead Note down three action points that you can do as soon as you are back in the classroom