BIG Writing
A Ros Wilson Strategy
The Big Writing Philosophy
• Big Writing is the development of the
‘writing voice’ through fast, fun, lively and
predominantly oral activities
• Pupils talk the ‘writing voice’ in a dedicated
‘Big Writing’ session & at other points in a
week
• Based on the premise,
IF A CHILD CAN SAY IT, A CHILD CAN
WRITE IT
Philosophy Continued ….
• The talking voice is not the same as
the ‘writing voice’
• BOYS LOVE TO TALK!
• WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE BOYS IS
GOOD FOR THE GIRLS
The Four Generic Targets
VCOP
Summary
Vocabulary
The range of ambitious vocabulary a
pupil knows; WOW words.
Connectives
The range of ways pupils have of joining
ideas, phrases & sentences
Openers
The strategies pupils have for opening
sentences; especially the 3 key openers:
connectives, ‘ly’ words & ‘ing’ words
Punctuation
The range of punctuation a pupil can use
& the accuracy with which they use it.
Level
1
Level
2
Level
3
Level
4
Level
5
.
. ?
. ?, !
. ? , ! … ’ “”
. ? , … - ! ’ “” : ; ( )
The Punctuation Pyramid
BIG WRITING – The Method
• One hour per week, plus daily
stocking fillers
• Time comes from one literacy hour,
Time should be split into 2 x 30 min
sessions across a morning
BIG WRITING – Different
text types
•
•
•
•
•
Poetry
Story
Non Fiction
Recounts
Letters
BIG WRITING – Teacher’s Role
• To maintain the silence
• To provide 10min brain breaks
• To prompt pupils to build in VCOP
[These are known as time prompts]
10 mins
30 mins
Check your
targets!
20 mins
Check your openers
and connectives.
Check your
punctuation!
30
MINS
15 mins
Check your WOW
words!
Time Prompts
A clock should be visible to all pupils,
ideally colour coded in 10min intervals.
1. ‘You have had 10 minutes. Count how
many sorts of punctuation you have
used?’
2. ‘You have had 15 minutes. How many
WOW words have you used?’
3. ‘You have had 20 minutes. Look at your
openers. Have you opened with
connectives…’ly’ words, ’ing’ words?
4. ‘You have 5 minutes left.’
Stocking Fillers
• Every day aim to finish one lesson 5
minutes early to do some quick VCOP
activities.
• Encourage the children to ‘steal’ good
examples of VCOP from authors.
Write on Target
• The next day “Target Friday” the children will work
in small groups or independently to focus on their
target.
• This target will be set by the class teacher in direct
response to their Big Write work.
For example
Target “Please use more adjectives”
Work could be
• Write a list of interesting adjectives.
• Write three sentences that include two adjectives.
• This instant response means that children will make
clear improvements in their writing before starting
the next week’s work.