St Anne's Catholic Primary School

How do we teach writing at St Anne's?

Writing is taught by means of the Talk for Writing approach (developed by Pie Corbett).  This is a proven and powerful method that allows children to read a model text and analyse features of a genre and to imitate the language before writing their own version. The Talk for Writing approach has three stages:

Stage 1 – The imitation stage

Stage 2 - The skills stage 

In all key stages, SPAG skills are delivered through starters to core literacy, through whole lessons in Stage 2 and through the modelling of specific objectives in Stages 1 and 3. 

Stage 2 involves the identification, teaching and modelling of sentence structure, language/literary features and punctuation exemplified in the model text through short burst writing.

Stage 3 - The Innovation stage 

Planning

Once the children have internalised and understood the text, they are ready to start innovating it; this is done initially at a whole-class level. It begins with innovating the knowledge organiser exemplar planning grid.  Small changes to the story mountain/boxing up are discussed and a new plan agreed.

Oral rehearsal of the model text continues.

Modelling and guided writing

The key activity in Stage 3 is shared writing; this helps the children to write on their own by “doing one together” first. The SPAG skills developed through short burst writing are incorporated in this stage.

This second version is modelled paragraph by paragraph at two levels:

1. Firstly, modelling is undertaken at whole class by the teacher (20 minutes max).   During this time, the teacher should, in discussion with the class, model ideas for the opening sentences for the paragraph and build a brain box of ideas for the remainder of the paragraph being worked on.
2. Modelling is then undertaken in small groups by the teacher and TA as a guided write (KS1 30 minutes, KS2 30 -40 minutes) whilst the rest of the class write independently using the innovated plan and brain box for support. Group guided writing is an opportunity to expand on the brain box of ideas and to discuss SPAG, literary features and language in more detail.  Children should not copy the adults’ modelled writing word for word.  For example, having built a brain box to describe the sky, children should work independently on their three descriptive sentences.

This phase allows the children to see how the exemplar text can be innovated and to select words and phrases that really work.

Sharing, evaluating and editing

Pupils are explicitly given time for editing and evaluating their work.  This includes responding to marking on a daily level and before moving onto the next paragraph.  This involves up-levelling vocabulary and description as well as correcting grammar and punctuation mistakes.

Evaluating and editing skills must also be taught explicitly as a part of Stage 3.

Teacher conferencing (sharing) happens during Stage 3 as well as daily adult marking and group and/or peer support.

Stage 4 – The inventation/ independent application stage 

The final stage gives children the opportunity both to continue developing their skills and to apply what they have learnt in a different context.

In order to ensure success, this phase begins with a lot of talking and acting that, in turn, is used by the children to plan independently using a blank planning format (as per the knowledge organiser). Typically, throughout Stage 4, teachers emphasise word and sentence structure targets to which pupils need to attend as well as close use of features included on the knowledge organiser.

Children independently this time (without modelling) – one paragraph at a time. Critical review and editing is key. ‘The seven stages of the writing process’ are used throughout this stage.

1. Planning: pupils plan their writing with consideration of the audience and purpose of their writing based on what they have learnt from the innovation stage and knowledge organiser.
2. Drafting: pupils write the first draft of the writing based on their plan.
3. Sharing: pupils discuss their work with an adult/peers. 
4. Evaluating: pupils use the goals set by the innovation stage and knowledge organiser.
5. Revising: pupils make changes to the content of their writing in light of feedback and self- evaluation.
6. Editing: pupils improve the technical accuracy of their writing, including spelling, grammar and punctuation. Does it say what was intended?
7. Publishing: adults work with pupils to create an authentic context for writing by publishing what has been written in the public domain (3 times a year).     

At the end of the unit, the children’s work is published or displayed.

The independent task is levelled by the teacher against age expectations (using Learning Ladders) and a gap analysis generated. The latter informs the targets (literary features, sentence structure and punctuation) that should be taught in the next unit.