Writing Workshop
Teaching writing at Pixies Hill
Work shop Aims.
• To share with parents how we teach
writing at Pixies Hill School.
• To share expectations and strategies.
• To enable parents to support children at
home with greater confidence.
We aim:
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to inspire children to write
to encourage children to inspire each other to write.
to provide a purpose for writing
to expose children to and to model, high quality examples of writing.
to use drama and talk for writing strategies to support, inspire and
encourage writing.
to teach children the necessary skills to become confident writers. (the
sky’s the limit!)
to encourage children to be their own writing critics- to enable them to
learn by improving their own work.
to encourage children to share their own writing and to view each other as
writers.
to celebrate, share and value children’s writing.
Inspire!
• A pathway to where?
Share ideas as table groups
and then write them on post it
notes provided.
Be as imaginative as possible!
Inspire!
Who lives here? A character from a story you already
know, a character you invent yourself or maybe a
character the reader would least expect.
Why? How did this house end up in the sky? Ideas?
Inspire!
http://www.literacyshed.com/the-sports-shed.html
Possible lessons.
Men's 5000m Final - Mo Farah
Children could write newspaper reports for this race including mock interviews with Mo,
his wife and his old PE teachers. There are many great headlines to have fun with 'Not
so slow Mo' etc
Children can use puppet pals to put themselves in the action as a presenter or
commentator.
Show children the image of Mo crossing the line. What things would be going through his
head? Can they imagine winning a gold medal? Who would they thank?
Diary Entry
Letter writing.
Dimensions.
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Strong and effective literacy links with topics, which we hope will
enhance children’s writing, providing a purpose and context in
which to write.
Opportunities for high quality writing taught through topic based
lessons. (OFSTED)
Spiral approach to learning- revisiting previously taught literacy
skills through current topic tasks. For example literacy units while
studying Whatever the Weather in year 2, include story writing
and poetry, but instruction writing will be revisited linking with our
DT sessions- How to make a kite.
Full coverage of the New Curriculum requirements.
The Teaching Sequence
• A whole school approach
• Children know from the very beginning of the
unit what the product/final independent writing piece
will be.
Read/ Caputure.
Talk
Act
Model-teach skills
Share
Write
Quality Texts
“Look—” he murmured, holding out his arm to stop Malfoy. Something bright white was gleaming on the
ground. They inched closer.
It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long,
slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on
the dark leaves.
Harry had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made him freeze where he stood. A bush on
the edge of the clearing quivered. . . . Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across
the ground like some stalking beast. Harry, Malfoy, and Fang stood transfixed. The cloaked figure
reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal’s side, and began to drink its blood.
“AAAAAAAAAAARGH!”
Malfoy let out a terrible scream and bolted—so did Fang. The hooded figure raised its head and looked
right at Harry—unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward
Harry—he couldn’t move for fear.
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From J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (NY: Scholastic, 1997), pages
255–256.
Quality Texts
“Look—” he murmured, holding out his arm to stop Malfoy. Something bright
white was gleaming on the ground. They inched closer.
It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so
beautiful and sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it
had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves.
Harry had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made him freeze
where he stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered. . . . Then, out of
the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some
stalking beast. Harry, Malfoy, and Fang stood transfixed. The cloaked figure
reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal’s side, and
began to drink its blood.
“AAAAAAAAAAARGH!”
Malfoy let out a terrible scream and bolted, so did Fang. The hooded figure
raised its head and looked right at Harry, unicorn blood was dribbling down its
front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Harry, he couldn’t move for
fear.
From J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (NY: Scholastic,
1997), pages 255–256.
V.C.O.P
Vocabulary
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During shared/guided writing sessions, when reading/sharing texts
and specific skills lessons, we identify, model and encourage the
use of ambitious vocabulary.
We teach and encourage children to up-level their own vocabulary
eg If a child has written the sentence- He saw big rain drops
falling quickly from the dark sky. The children would through
self/peer or as a response to teacher marking and feedback,
choose a more exciting and ambitious word for –big, and change it
in their work
Word banks are created together as groups, whole class,
individuals and displayed in and around the classroom or on working
walls.
Children have access to thesaurus’ and are encouraged to Magpie
when listening to the ideas of others.
Ambitious Adjectives
Beat the Thesaurus- Think of as many words as you can to
describe how the sand paper on your table feels.
1. Rough
Count up how many you have on your table. More than 10?
Nearly 10?
Use all 5 senses to describe this picture
I can see…
I can smell….
I feel……
I can taste….
I can hear……..
Connectives
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Raising the level of writing by using varied and interesting connectives
when opening and joining 2 sentences.
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Examples are displayed in classroom.
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High quality use of connectives is discussed when reading texts, modelled
during shared/guided writing.
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Practised during sentence writing activities in phonics sessions.
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Taught in skills based lessons
Addressed as vocabulary in self, peer, teacher marking and feedback.
Openers
• Opening sentences and new paragraphs in a variety of ways
and different complexities.
• Using contextual phrases of time, place or scenario to
introduce ideas and events.
• Displayed in class.
• Identified and discussed when reading/sharing texts.
• High quality use modelled in shared writing.
• Marking and feedback.
• Taught in skills based lessons as part of teaching sequence.
SPAG
• A greater focus since SPAG test in SATS.
• Higher profile in new curriculum.
• Stand alone lessons/sessions taught as
well as all aspects being interwoven into all
literacy/writing lessons, activities.
• Year group expectations provided on tables.
Spelling
• Year 2-6 using Schools Links Scheme, children
tested weekly.
• Marking and feedback policy. Spellings corrected
in work- written out 5 times by children in
response to marking.
• Phase 6 phonics lessons.
• Word mats/banks used to support children when
writing.
• Key topic words displayed in classroom.
Phonics
• Taught daily in R and Year 1, 3 x
weekly in year 2.
• 20 min differentiated sessions.
• Embedded and interwoven
throughout literacy lessons and
indeed in all writing/reading
activities.
Handwriting.
• We have a new scheme in school. Introduced to children in
year 1.
• Daily opportunities to teach/practise handwriting in KS1.
• Joining by end of year 2.
• Joint handwriting has an impact on spelling.
• Higher expectations- especially now a greater importance
has been placed on handwriting (new curriculum) .
• Presentation and quality of work is an important part of
teaching writing. Children should feel proud of how their
work looks to others. Writing is displayed and celebrated
throughout the school.
Punctuation
Refer to it every time the pupils work and use the activities to embed
the pyramid in the ‘mind’s eye’ of all pupils.
Taught discretely as part of SPAG sessions/lessons.
Identified and discussed when reading.
Modelled.
Use of a wide variety of punctuation always celebrated.
Activities such as Kung Fu Punctuation, The work of an imaginary
friend, self/peer, teacher marking and feedback.
Up Levelling. Remember VCOP- use resources on tables to
support you to write a “Super Sentence”
The man sat down.
The old man sat on the wooden chair.
Slowly, the ancient man sat on the wooden chair while he waited for his
morning cup of tea.
After a while, the ancient man sat down slowly on his favourite chair while he
waited patiently for his morning tea.
Try these with your child… remember VCOP
The dog barked.
It was a windy day.
He played the recorder.
Please take your shared writing
examples home with you!
• We hope you have found this workshop helpful.
• Please take 2 minutes now to complete the
evaluation form
• Thank you for coming.