Enhancing Writing Skills in Children

Overview writing whole school 2024-25

 

Our objective is to nurture all children into adept writers capable of writing to entertain, persuade, and inform. The main method employed in our school is the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach, which we believe fosters the growth of ideas and bolsters confidence in young writers. Through multi-sensory and interactive teaching, children of all ages and abilities are encouraged to learn to write a diverse array of text types. This is achieved through various methods, including:

• Listening to and reading a variety of texts such as stories, poetry, and non-fiction
• Engaging with texts through drama and role play
• Using pictures and story mapping to explore ideas
• Building vocabulary and spelling strategies
• Growing an understanding of grammatical concepts

At Jennett’s Park, we strive to engage our writers in multiple ways, recognising that stories are not solely confined to the written word! Literacy Shed offers a collection of thought-provoking and inspiring videos that our writers enjoy using as inspiration for their writing. Our writing sessions ensure that children’s writing serves a purpose while reinforcing the importance of writing as a vital life skill – for when writing is real, it really matters. Writing genres encompass stories, letters, scripts, leaflets, spoken presentations, comic strips, and posters, illustrating the various purposes for which writing can be employed.

‘Talk for Writing’ is a writing approach developed by the literacy specialist and author, Pie Corbett. It employs high-quality model texts to familiarise children with the material, which they commit to memory, allowing them to analyse it both as readers and writers. Story maps facilitate an exploration of how writers structure their ideas effectively.

Process

Talk for Writing comprises three interrelated phases designed to cultivate knowledge, confidence, and independence in writing:

Imitation

In this phase, children learn a model text or a segment thereof through the use of actions and story maps. The key to success for the children lies in internalising the text type through repetition and rehearsal. They investigate the structure of the text and acquire new vocabulary. We refer to this process as “reading as a reader,” which closely aligns with our Whole Class Guided Reading. Additionally, they closely examine the language used and its effect on the reader—this process is termed ‘reading as a writer’. The skills gained during this phase contribute to the development of their writing toolkit. We also delve into genre-specific writing skills via short bursts of writing, fostering both confidence and independence.

Innovation

In this phase, the teacher and students collaboratively modify aspects of the model text by infusing their own ideas. They explore the text, making alterations while adhering to the underlying structure. Children draw upon their ideas from previously completed short burst writing to aid this process. Together, they will create a class shared write for each paragraph, section, or stanza of the text, which will support their own independent writing efforts.

Independent Application

During the independent application week, children plan and compose their own stories based on the text type they have been studying. They apply the skills and key features from the writer’s toolkits to their own creative ideas. This phase provides them with the opportunity to experiment with different ideas and begin to refine their own writing style, incorporating sentence structures from the model text.