Writing, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

Children are taught the value of editing as a crucial part of the writing process and are encouraged to be reflective of how they can improve their own writing.  Teachers give verbal feedback to children during the writing process, which is purposeful and relevant.  This allows children to edit and redraft their work independently.

Talk for Writing 

Talk for Writing 

Our aim is to help all our children develop into thoughtful readers and creative writers and it is through the Talk for Writing approach that we believe we can achieve this.

Through multi-sensory and interactive teaching it enables children of all ages and abilities to learn to write a wide range of story/text types using various methods including:

• listening to and learning texts and stories
• taking part in drama and role-play
• drawing and story mapping
• collecting words and language strategies
• building their working knowledge of grammar

At Fox Hill we are all very enthusiastic about this approach as it brings out the best in the children and the teachers. We are all writers together! Writing becomes a joint adventure and the results are exciting!

Talk for Writing is an innovative approach to teaching writing developed by the literacy specialist and writer Pie Corbett. It uses high quality model texts to introduce the children to different story/text types which they then learn off by heart and scrutinise with a writer’s critical eye.

They learn the underlying structures and the process of planning using story maps. They also learn about the key strategies for creating interesting characters and settings and how to use a range of sentence types to create different effects including suspense or adventure.

Process

Talk for Writing has three key phases which work together to develop knowledge, confidence and independence in writing:

Imitation

We usually like to start our Talk for Writing units with a ‘hook’ starter which fires up the creativity and imagination of the children before they immerse themselves in the model text.

During this phase the children learn a model text using actions and story maps. The key to success for the children is that they internalise the text type through repetition and rehearsal. They explore the structure of the narrative and investigate the different characters, settings and events. We call this process "reading as a reader" which links closely to our Whole Class Guided Reading. They also begin to look closely at the language used and the effect this has on the reader. We call this process ‘read as a writer’. The classroom becomes a dynamic, interactive resource filled with word ideas, sentence types and language tools collected by the children to use in their stories later.

Innovation

During this phase the teacher and the children begin to change aspects of the model text using their own ideas. They explore the text using different characters, settings or events and new ideas for descriptive language whilst sticking closely to the underlying structure.

It is during this phase that the children work using their toolkits. The toolkits, based on the features and ingredients of the model text, remind children of the different strategies they could use in their stories and helps them to see the progress they are making.

Invention

During the invent week the children plan and write their own story based on the text type they have been learning. They experiment with the ideas and begin to explore their own style of writing using sentence types from the model text.

Impact

By the end of their learning journey with us, our learners will:

• Take home a writing anthology they have produced to share with their chosen audience.
• Be able to identify, discuss and be proud of their progress in writing across the years.
• Make progress in their writing year on year, which is tracked and assessed by the class teacher.
• The majority of children will be working at the Expected Standard or better in their end of Key Stage 2 assessments.

Writing is assessed through regular teacher assessment against National Curriculum objectives.  At the start of each unit of work, children will produce a piece of independent writing that the teacher will use to identify existing knowledge, strengths and gaps.  From here, the teacher will plan their lessons with this initial assessment in mind.  At the end of the unit, children will complete a second independent task that the teacher will use to measure progress from the starting point.   

Teachers will complete a termly summative assessment of the children's writing and RAG (red, amber, green) rate each national curriculum objective.  This will give them a clear picture of what the child needs to progress in the following term.  Teachers receive termly internal or external writing moderation training/practice to ensure that their assessment and judgement is in-line and consistent with other colleagues.  

Writing is monitored both formally and informally through a mix of Leadership Team whole school monitoring and also by the English Lead. Our Governors also play an active role in assessing the quality of our English Curriculum at Fox Hill.  The English Lead also gathers both staff and pupil voice, using this to inform priorities, actions and staff CPD.