The Working Wall
The purpose of the working wall is to support children’s independent writing. It evolves as a unit of work unfolds, and is not intended to be a tidy display of
finished work. The wall should exemplify the writing process from the ‘reading as a writer’ stage to the ‘nearly finished’ stage. Final presentations can be
displayed in public areas of the school or in anthologies, portfolios or folders. The wall represents a workshop approach to writing – where the ‘tools of the
trade’ are accessible, and added to, as the process develops. It is a good idea to allow children to make contributions to the wall; post-it notes are an ideal
resource for this. Not all classrooms have a large, spare wall on which to create a working wall. However, the writing process, and appropriate prompts, should
be evident or accessible within the classroom.
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Genre Checklist
Gathering Content
HOW TO WRITE
WHAT TO WRITE
‘Reading with a writer’s
eye’
This is compiled at the
analysis stage.
Notes are made on
purpose, audience,
structure, language
features and writer’s
knowledge. These are
ideas and techniques
identified in shared texts
and noted down to inform
writing.
They can also be written
as bullet pointed lists.
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This stage comes
between ‘reading as a
writer’ and writing.
Children need to be
taught different
techniques.
Ideas for plots, settings,
characterisation can be
explored and noted.
Non-fiction content can
be researched and noted.
The KWL grid is one
method. K (What do we
already know?) W (What
do we want to know?) L
(What have we learned?)
Brainstorm what is
known. Discuss
questions to be
researched. Note down
information found.
Organise facts into
paragraph headings
(post-it notes can be
used and moved to the
appropriate paragraph)
Use cross-curricular
knowledge.
Teach skimming,
scanning, note-taking,
note-making, text
marking, highlighting.
Planning
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Planning techniques
need to be demonstrated.
Different ways to plan
should be used so that
different learning styles
are catered for.
Sue Palmer’s planning
skeletons are effective,
visual and efficient.
Other techniques:
spidergrams; bullet
points; paragraph labels;
pictures; diagrams; mindmaps; story maps.
Drafting
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Writing follows teacher
demonstration and
shared composition.
The shared text can be
displayed each day to
support independent
writing.
In the shared writing
session, demonstrate the
age-related skills and
techniques that the
children are to apply in
their independent writing.
Support their writing with
prompts and models to
help them achieve the
success criteria.
Display the relevant:
- organisational and
structural devices;
- sentence types;
- connectives;
- sentence starters:
- punctuation
- vocabulary
Be explicit about how
long; how much; which
skills are to be applied to
the independent task;
Identify which prompts on
the working wall will
support the children’s
task.
Editing and Revising
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The best editing and
revising occurs at the
point of writing. Children
can see that writing can
be changed, rearranged
and ‘messed about with’
as you write. This is
easier if all sentences are
orally rehearsed before
writing.
Demonstrate the
processes of editing and
revising during shared
writing sessions.
Agree upon symbols to
be used by you and the
children for editing
writing.
Discuss the ‘whole’
finished outcome and
ways to improve or make
more coherent.
Annotate drafts to inform
the writing of the final
presentation copy.
Create ‘marking/editing
partners’ to evaluate
each other’s work.
Present final outcome for
an audience.
Be creative!
Main Objective:
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Genre Checklist
Purpose and
Audience
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Structure
and
organisation
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Gathering Content
K
W
L
Planning
Introduction
Diagram
Genr
e
Language features
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Writer’s
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Key Features:
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The Daily Gossip
Annotated Example
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Drafting
Shared writing
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Marking Ladder
Success Criteria
Objective
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Editing and Revising
Symbols
Connectives
Planning Skeletons
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Editing and Revising
Punctuation
. , ? ! “” : ; -… ( )
Spelling
Paragraph
Re-order sentence
Better vocab
Missing word
Add detail
Punctuation
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p
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Bright Ideas and Brain Waves!
Technical Vocabulary
WAGOLL
What a good
one looks like