Writing
At age 5, 95% of children are enthusiastic about writing. At 15, this percentage has decreased to 5%.
Interactive writing - walking children through steps of writing a sentence, on whiteboards. Children are all writing the same sentence.
Shared writing
Make sure you are clear about what your model is going to be - if it is hard for you it is going to be hard for the children. Teacher can write all the words while children sound out.
Guided writing
What do good readers do? What do good writers do? Can refer to this when you see things incidentally.
Be clear about what your children are working on. Make sure teacher time is spread fairly between groups.
Literacy Learning Progressions says 'plan for writing using talk or drawing' so you don't always need a picture plan. Talk is part of planning.
Practise writing name at the end of writing, not beginning.
Andy's sample plan
Purpose: To describe
WALT: plan our ideas by talking
Use words appropriate to our purpose.
Reread our story as we write.
(Quite generic WALTS - for lower kids could be 'use my alphabet card,' 'hold an idea in my head.' )
SC
I will have included:
Appropriate words for my purpose.
Motivation:
Winter
Storytelling - going to bed now it is colder. What are the things we do or notice?
New vocab: Snuggle, huddle, cozy, chilly, frozen
What are the things we notice about Winter coming?
Talk about purpose, audience and LI
Shared Writing
Work through my model text using think alouds and including the new vocab.
Guided writing
Continue to work with target group needing help to use appropriate verbs and adjectives.
Conclusion
Share their writing and link to model text.
Revisit purpose and LI to see if it has been achieved.
Sample plan headings
Audience/Purpose/Motivation and context for writing or task/Model and or mentor text/LI - based on LLPs and students' learning needs/Vocab/Teacher's model/Group tasks (group rotations).
Sample model text is prepared in planning. In this case: "I notice the air is chilly. I pull on some thick warm socks. Grabbing a cosy blanket, I snuggle under it and try to go to sleep. It's not my favourite season."
For grouping, maybe have a tag on each book. See one group first, then another, then try to see the last group. Switch this every day.
Heart map - map of things that are important to you. Could be a good early finishers' activity - "write about something from your heart map."
The mechanics of writing need less focus.
'Quick writes' are included more frequently.
They will begin to juggle more than one piece of writing at a time.
They will build writing stamina.
Activities for early finishers not working with T
Free writing book
Silly sentences
Puppet activity
Highlighting words they used from their alphabet card
Writing table - make blank books from the photocopy scraps.
Putting in initial letters
Matching letters with alphabet card
Items from $2 shop - match with big laminated circles
Customised word bingo with words individual kids have trouble with.
Lacing letters - fine motor skills.
Copy out poems
Alphabet stamps
For rotation, pouch for everyone with customised activities.
Include phonics knowledge in shared writing. Make it an integral part of reading and writing. Sound Sense is a good resource to support this.
School Journals
Quick writes -e.g. 'A place to sleep' - Where is your favourite place to sleep?
What to write about?
Ready to Reads
Own favourite books
Fairy tales - persuade, explain, describe...
Watching diggers etc. around school
Solving problems around the school - eg. teacher losing her earrings
What's in the box?
Photos of themselves
Colours - what do different colours remind you of?
Effective teachers of writing
Have high expectations
Are well planned
Use the literacy learning progressions to inform next steps
Exude a passion for language and literature
Know about language and grammar and the impact it can have
Share and explore high quality examples of writing
Encourage students to write about topics that are personally significant to them
Have a good understanding of writing progression
Motivate writing in a variety of ways
Model/demonstrate/scaffold writing
Involve kids in rich conversations about their topic
Provide specific feedback
Use courtesies to the reader like punctuation.
No comments:
Post a Comment