Writing for Real

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Writing for Real

• Gill Matthews
• The Professional Literacy Company
• www.theplc.org.uk

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Agenda

• Introduction What is Writing for Real?
• A Writing for Real Experience
• Coffee
• Examples of Writing for Real Experiences
• Making the most of the Learning Environment
• Lunch
• Impact on Teaching and Learning
• Dinosaur Discovery
• Plenary

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What is Writing for Real?

• Giving children
• something to write about
• a context for their writing
• a purpose for their writing
• an authentic audience for their writing
• an engaging and motivating experience

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Creating Writing for Real experiences
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Real, Realistic or Pure Fantasy?

• Real
• Realistic could be real but it isnt! (or
  maybe there are elements of truth?)
• Fantasy developing the imagination having fun!

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Creating Writing for Real experiences

• Classroom based e.g. artefacts, letters,
  visitors, teacher/TA in role
• School based e.g. playground or field event
• Out of school e.g. visit or trip

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Making the most of the Learning Environment

• Writing area
• Research zone
• Role play area
• Whole classroom transformation
• Outside space

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Impact on teaching and learning
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Data collection

• survey data on pupils perceptions of themselves
  as writers
• samples of pupils writing and teacher
  assessments and commentaries.
• contextual information about the schools,
  classes, pupils and teaching unit
• teacher observations and evaluations

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Sub levels of progress
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Do you like writing?
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Dislikes about writing

• Doing it for too long
• Writing it up again
• Hand aches
• It makes my head ake
• I get sweaty and we cant have the door open
• Comprahenchun
• Punctuation
• Handwriting
• Everythink!

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Advice for younger writers (before)

• Write slanted
• Use a long, sharp pencil
• Do a writing test
• Write a hole side
• Use lots of hard words
• Have steady hands
• Meet your targets
• Up level your sentences

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Advice for younger writers (after)

• Put in lots of description
• Read examples and take like a line of a book and
  put in your own words
• Its the little things that make a difference
• Think first and plan what to write before you
  start writing
• Read the success criteria
• Be adventurous and creative and remember good
  words what you know
• Keep your readers interested
• Dont give up it will pay off one day

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Impact on children and learning

• Motivated
• Excited
• Confident
• Involved
• Awareness of audience
• Wanting to write
• Writing at home
• Independent
• Attendance improved

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Impact on teachers and teaching

• Raised awareness of how to teach
• How to engage the children
• Getting children to think about impact of writing
• Audience and purpose
• Will continue this approach
• Impact of TfW
• More flexible planning
• Cross curricular links
• Aware of previous missed opportunities

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• Judgements are made on the basis of
• how well pupils learn
• the extent to which well judged teaching
  strategies successfully engage all pupils in
  their learning
• the extent to which teachers enthuse, engage and
  motivate pupils to learn and foster their
  curiosity and enthusiasm for learning

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• Recent Reaction from OFSTED
• Teaching is consistently good with some
  outstanding use of imaginative role play and
  other creative activities to enliven lessons. For
  instance, a mock battle in the playground between
  invading Roman soldiers and defending Celts
  brought history vividly to life for Year 4
  pupils. The impact of the stimulating curriculum
  is particularly positive on boys writing, where
  progress had previously been slow. Year 6 boys,
  for instance, became engrossed in thinking about
  how to enliven a story because of the imaginative
  way the teacher had presented it.

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Planning and developing a Writing for Real unit
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The unfolding narrative
Task Purpose Audience Text type/format
1 Research the giganotosaurus To find out and present information Professor T Rex NC report information sheet
2 Research other dinosaurs To find out and present information Professor T Rex NC report information leaflet
3 Research what could be at a dinosaur park To find out and present information Owner of castle NC report - chart
4 Create a map showing how park could be laid out To present information visually Owner of castle NC report - map
5 Create a poster advertising the park To persuade Potential visitors, particularly children Persuasion - poster/tv/radio ad
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Think about

• Whole school coverage
• Balance of text types fiction/ non-fiction/
  poetry
• Objective led
• Differentiated to meet needs of pupils
• Clear outcomes (spoken and written)
• Providing a context for writing
• Flexibility

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Where to start...

• With the units intended outcomes
• With a text
• With the experience
• With the topic
• With the interests of the pupil
• With a topical subject or immediate need

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Research process

• Activate prior knowledge
• Identify research questions
• Set a purpose for reading
• Navigate non-fiction texts
• Interrogate the text
• Record and evaluate information

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Record and evaluate information

• Key words
• Notemaking
• Change the form
• Childrens quiz
• Next steps

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Phase 1 Reading Immersion Analysis Reading as a
writer
Phase 2 Speaking Listening Capturing
ideas Drama Oral rehearsal
Phase 3 Writing Writing as a reader Presenting
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10 steps to planning a unit

• Identify the key types of writing that you want
  to teach.
• Identify learning objectives for the unit.
• Establish the context and create the hook or
  opening experience.
• Develop the unfolding narrative that will hold
  the unit together.
• Identify the major written outcomes, along with
  authentic audiences and purposes for the writing.
• Identify any incidental writing opportunities,
  along with authentic audiences and purposes.
• Establish what needs to be explicitly taught and
  what the children already know.
• Create a medium term plan that gives you an
  overview of the unit and an idea of its length
• Explore venues for visits, source artefacts, book
  theatre groups whatever you need to bring the
  unit to life.
• Create weekly plans for the first two or three
  weeks of the unit but be prepared to be flexible.

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Remember Key elements of the experience

• an engaging opening event or experience that
  hooks the children into the unit
• a lively and interesting context that can be
  sustained over a number of weeks
• an unfolding narrative
• authentic audiences and purposes for writing
• opportunities for children to work in role
• literacy at the heart of the unit

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Think Ahead

• Note down three action points that you can do as
  soon as you are back in the classroom