Transcript We teach children to listen to, speak, read and write

Key Stage 2 Literacy Workshop
Years 3 to 6
This workshop should last about an hour and a half
• Text types (genres)
• Let’s Write and VCOP
• Children’s involvement in marking (self and
peer assessment)
• Spelling and handwriting
• They need to know the different features of
the various text types (genres).
• They need to be able to adapt their writing
within these text types to the audience and
purpose. It is important to get this right!
• Recount: a written account of events in time order
a diary entry, an autobiography, a newspaper article
• Report: an organised presentation of factual information about any topic
an information leaflet, a web page about a hobby
• Instruction: a step-by-step list of actions to follow
a recipe, a How-to guide, a rule book for a game
• Explanation: answering a how or why question in a structured manner
’How the Titanic sank’ poster, flowchart about seed dispersal
• Persuasion: convincing the audience of a point of view
an advert for a product, a reasoned argument (one point of view)
• Discussion: presenting several points of view
a discussion paper on a proposal (e.g. a new cell phone mast)
• Narrative (stories: traditional tales, fables, myths, legends, fantasy,
mystery, flashback, retelling, summaries (synopsis), etc.)
• Poetry (to convey feelings, moods or reflections; poetry using metaphors,
similes and personification; narrative poems, performance poems, riddles,
haikus )
• Play scripts (dialogue, stage directions...)
The more familiar children are with a text type,
the more likely it is that they will be able to write
in a similar vein.
Most children who read avidly will internalise the
patterns of written language. When they come to
write they should then easily slip into the right
‘voice’ so what they write ‘sounds right’.
This is one reason why Huntington has developed
an extensive and ever-expanding stock of library
books in recent years.
But, not all children will develop the writing
‘voice’ in this way.
Let’s Write
(developed as Big Write by Ros Wilson)
• The ‘Let’s Write’ or Big Write process is the development
of the ‘writing voice’ through fast, fun, lively and
predominantly oral activities. Pupils talk using ‘the
writing voice’ at various points in a week (e.g. 10 min.
starter in Literacy session, spare minutes at the end of a
session, and sometimes as the main focus within a
lesson)
• Based on the premise:
IF A CHILD CAN SAY IT,
A CHILD CAN WRITE IT
Opportunities for Talk for Writing
• We provide lots of opportunities to ‘talk the text type’, using the
same sort of language and features that they would be expected
to use in their writing.
Written text types
Oral text types
Narrative
Story-telling
Poetry
Performance poetry
Recount
Anecdotes
Explanation
Explaining
Report
Informing
Discussion
Debates
Persuasion
Arguing a viewpoint
Example: before writing newspaper reports about the Battle of Marathon in Ancient Greece,
Y5+6 children interviewed each other in role as both Greek and Persian soldiers, so that
their writing was more meaningful and had been practised orally beforehand.
Year 6 debated the advantages and disadvantages of having an outside classroom. They
were required to swap roles and be able to argue from both sides, use persuasive
techniques e.g. facts and stats, emotive language etc.
The importance of stimulus
• Teachers find or set up interesting and motivating starting
points for writing:
First-hand experiences, drama, YouTube clips, DVDs, art,
photographs, music, visits ...
Children are more committed to writing if there is a purpose
and some sort of genuine audience. Examples from this year
include:
Y3 are presently investigating aspects of their local
environment in order to write letters to the Parish Council and
local MP.
Y4 made pop-up books for Y1, which they will be sharing this
term.
Y5 created Ancient Greek non-chronological reports for their
Class wiki page.
Y6 learned the skills of story telling, and retold stories to their
peers and Year 5.
VCOP
Ros Wilson’s nationally recognised and adopted work
identifies four key elements, which contribute to the
development of the ‘writing voice’ and thereby
improve standards in writing.
These key elements, known collectively as VCOP, are:
• Vocabulary
• Connectives
• Openers
• Punctuation
The Four Generic VCOP Targets
VCOP
Vocabulary
Connectives
Openers
Summary
The range of ambitious vocabulary a
pupil knows: WOW words.
The range of ways pupils have of joining
ideas, phrases & sentences.
The strategies pupils have for opening
sentences, especially the 3 key openers:
connectives, ‘ly’ words & ‘ing’ words =
power openers.
Punctuation
The range of punctuation a pupil can use
(& the accuracy with which they use it).
Vocabulary - ‘WOW’ Words
What can you do at home?
• ‘Magpie’ them (books, magazines, TV, internet
etc)
• Introduce children to them (as above!)
• Reward them for using them (even if not
always correct!)
• Use them - but don’t over use them!
Openers
• We particularly focus on 3 sorts of openers:
Opening with connectives
At that moment, …
After a while,…
At last…
Finally…
Opening with ‘ly’ words
Greedily stuffing gold into his sack, Jack…
Wearily, the old man …
Opening with ‘ing’ words
Scanning the horizon, ...
Stopping dead in her tracks, ...
Treading carefully, ...
• These are called POWER OPENERS!
Openers
• We also encourage the use of other openers:
Prepositions
Similes/metaphors
–ed or -en
Using a noun + verb
Beneath the silvery moon, he …
Beyond the towering mountains, lay …
Like a fish, she dived into the icy water.
A streamlined fish, she dived into the icy water.
Frightened by the noise, …
Frozen to the spot, ...
Cobwebs spanned the corridor.
Using an adjective
+ noun
Delicate snowflakes gently caressed her skin.
Use a feeling
Lonely, he skulked off home.
Why are good openers important?
Variety! There’s nothing worse than repeating:
The…The…Then…Then…
To lead almost automatically into the writing of
more complex sentences:
Greedily stuffing gold into his sack, Jack failed to
see the enormous hand descending towards him.
To Step up the punctuation:
The ferocious dog attacked my briefcase as I
arrived home.
As I arrived home, the ferocious dog attacked my
briefcase.
Punctuation actions
Why?
Kinaesthetic approach
Use punctuation actions for the following
sentence:
“What was that noise?” whispered
Amy.
Y6 partners creating speech sentences
with physical resources
Activity
Stepping up a simple sentence
The mouse ate the cheese.
1. ADD an adverb, adjective or simile - or all three!
• The greedy mouse carefully ate the stale cheese.
• The mouse, like a hungry vampire, ate the mouth
watering cheese.
Activity
Stepping up a simple sentence
The car drove down the road.
1. ADD an adverb, adjective or simile - or all three!
Activity
Stepping up a simple sentence
The mouse ate the cheese.
2. CHANGE the noun, verb, or opener.
• The rodent gnawed the cheddar.
• Gnawing hungrily, the rodent devoured the cheddar
cheese.
Activity
Stepping up a simple sentence
The car drove down the road.
2. CHANGE the noun, verb, or opener.
Activity
Stepping up a simple sentence
The mouse ate the cheese.
3. CONNECT - use a connective to give extra information.
• The mouse ate the cheese because it was hungry.
• While it was waiting, the mouse ate the cheese.
Activity
Stepping up a simple sentence
The mouse ate the cheese.
Or do all three: add change and connect!
Like a hungry vampire, the greedy mouse
devoured the mouth watering cheese,
because he hadn’t eaten for a week!
Extended writing
Towards the end of a unit of work (e.g. on persuasive
writing) the children will be producing extended
pieces of work in order to apply their ‘writing voice’.
In addition, there is also a dedicated ‘Let’s Write’
session when children apply their ‘writing voice’ in
genres they have studied in the past. This enables
children to regularly revisit previous genres covered.
(Fortnightly in Y3-6)
Let’s Write session
• A short VCOP activity linked to that day’s Let’s
Write.
• Followed by planning time.
This is used to refocus the pupils’ thoughts on the
stimulus & text type for writing.
• Brain break.
• An extended time for writing.
• Children enter the classroom with the
environment set up for the Let’s Write session –
no talk!
10 mins
Check your
punctuation!
40 mins
Check
your targets!
30 mins
Check your Openers
and Connectives.
45
MINS
20 mins
Check your WOW
words!
• We focus our marking on the objective for the lesson.
• We also mark progress towards individual targets
(copies of these are in children’s Literacy books: now with one
target only, children should move on quickly to the next target once
they have demonstrated achievement on three occasions).
• We look for areas to praise and ways to develop (2 Stars
and a Wish).
• We would not correct all spelling and punctuation.
• We mark together with the children where possible, to
enable discussion about the writing.
• Children also mark and assess their own writing (self
assessment) in pairs and individually. This is increasingly
developed through KS2.
Year 6
Newspaper
Pupil
/Peer
Objective
Headline
Introduction (summing up key event) – main body –
current events
Past tense used
Chronological order of events
Quotations
What could I do to improve my newspaper next time?
Teacher
Spelling
Letters & Sounds
and
Support for Spelling
in Y3
Spelling
•
•
•
•
We teach spelling rules and patterns throughout KS2
Spelling practised via Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check .
Mnemonics (b.e.c.a.u.s.e.)
Use the ‘spelling voice’ to remember tricky words e.g.
Wed-nes-day Feb-ru-ary veg-e-table
• At Upper KS2 - personal spellings are identified.
Children incorporate spellings into VCOP based
sentences to show understanding.
• Precision spelling technique
Handwriting
• Handwriting: the importance of letter formation and
joining for fluency – reinforced in all writing activities.
• Please help by praising correct letter formation and
joined-up writing at home!
Thank you for your time!
Examples of types of sentences
• Simple
• Compound
• Complex
The cat sat on the mat. (simple)
The beautiful, elegant princess waltzed gracefully in
the ballroom with her handsome prince. (simple)
In the middle of the night, the dog barked loudly for
its master. (simple)
Examples of types of sentences
Simple, Compound and Complex cont.
I love bananas but I don’t like apples. (Compound)
I want to be good at football so I practise my skills
every day.
(Compound)
Cautiously tiptoeing through the gate, the postman
pushed the letter through the letterbox. (Complex)
Matthew went outside in a T-shirt although it was
cold. (Complex)