How will we teach writing?

We use the principles of the writing rope to teach writing.

Transcription

There are daily opportunities for children to rehearse handwriting, taught spelling rules and statutory word lists. This is all underpinned by the common thread of grammar. 

For spelling we use Spelling Shed to teach age-appropriate spelling rules.  Spelling lessons are underpinned by daily practice of taught spelling rules. 

For handwriting, children in Reception and Year 1 use Read Write Inc to learn letter formation supported by Letterjoin (as appropriate).  From Year 2 onwards, children are taught a joined style using the Letterjoinscheme of work.

Children have individual logins to rehearse spelling and handwriting interactively at home and at school. 

Composition

Our writing curriculum sequentially builds the children’s knowledge of different genres, while also providing coverage of National Curriculum expectations. High quality texts form the basis of all teaching and learning in writing.

Alan Peat sentence types are taught and used progressively across the year groups.  For each year group, there are a set of non- negotiable success criteria linked to age-appropriate grammar expectations which are used for every piece of writing.

Children begin a unit by exploring high quality texts via Talk For Writing, a WAGOLL (What a Good One Looks Like) or through focus high quality texts or engaging stimuli. The children will read, enjoy, understand and explore the focus texts.  Every lesson within a unit cumulatively builds towards the final writing outcome and the knowledge and skills needed to write it.  Opportunities for questioning, discussion and debate will be built into lessons and units.

What will you see in a writing lesson?

• Sharing the current lesson’s learning in relation to the unit of work and final writing outcome as well as relevant vocabulary.  Additional stimuli may be used where it will impact positively on learning. Children will always understand what role each lesson plays in their learning ‘journey’ within that unit.
• Retrieval of previous learning.  This may include exploration of a text to revise its key features; revision of previously taught grammatical rules; or rehearsal of previously taught sentence types or grammatical structures. 
• Children attempting the lesson’s learning supported by the teacher
• Independent work.  During this time, the teacher and any additional adults will work with groups or individuals. 
• The ‘exit ticket’ where the teacher assesses how well individuals and groups have achieved the lesson’s learning.

An example of a story map:

An example of a WAGOLL: