BIG WRITING
Mrs MacLean and Miss Bradbury
WHAT IS BIG WRITING?
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A framework to children’s writing
Adds structure
 Enhances and improves writing
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Previous schools have reported dramatic improvement in
children ‘s writing after adopting Ros Wilson’s Big Writing
Grammar cluster schools all use this approach to
writing
Leads to consistency
 All use the Ros Wilson marking criteria grid for writing
assessment greater consistency.
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BIG WRITING LESSON PLAN
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Complete focus on writing
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20 minutes of Big Writing games and background
of writing task
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This helps children to focus on the aspect of writing
you are looking for
10 minutes planning and discussing what
children are going to write about
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No reading or other language tasks undertaken
during Big Writing
Given targets based on VCOP checklist so children
are aware of what it is that the teacher is looking for
30 minutes of writing

After 10 minutes of writing, 5 minute regroup
reading some of the children’s writing to maybe help
others who are struggling to begin their writing.
BIG WRITING LESSON PLAN CONTD

P2 are planning to introduce to soft, background
music to help children know when it is time to focus
on writing.
WHAT IS VCOP?
Big writing is based on VCOP
 Vocabulary

Encouraging children to use ‘WOW’ words to enhance
their writing e.g. huge instead of big amazing
instead of nice
 Introducing adjectives to make writing more
interesting e.g. The girl had a small, brown dog. The
girl had a dog.
 Children encouraged to use words they have seen in
other books, heard people use or any other source.
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WHAT IS VCOP?

Connectives

Using a word to join two shorter sentences to make a
longer, more interesting sentence e.g.
The boy went to the shops. He wanted an ice-cream.
 The boy went to the shops because he wanted an ice-cream.
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In P2 children are introduced to using ‘and’, ‘then’,
‘because’ and ‘so’. As they progress through the school
they are encouraged to use more sophisticated
connectives.
WHAT IS VCOP?

Openers

Children are encouraged to use different ways to
start a sentence.
Think about who, when, why, how
 Who e.g. The boy crossed the road
 When e.g. Yesterday the boy crossed the road
 Why e.g. To get to the shops the boy had to cross the road.
 How e.g. Quickly the boy crossed the road.
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As part of VCOP checklist children maybe given a list
of openers to include in their writing,
WHAT IS VCOP?

Punctuation
In P2 much of the focus is still on capital letters, full
stops, finger spaces and towards the end of the year
introducing question marks.
 In P3 speech marks, exclamation marks and commas
(used in a list) are introduced.
 When reading to children point out different
punctuation as this encourages them to experiment
with the punctuation in their own writing.
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Thank you very much for attending our workshop
and we hope you found it informative.