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English
Talk 4 Writing Approach
INTENT
At St Michael’s, our English curriculum has been developed to recognise the importance of English in every aspect of daily life and to develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children love to read, take pride in their writing and can clearly and accurately adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and to be able to use devices to help them communicate and further their learning.
Our intent is to enable children to:
- Read easily, fluently and with good understanding,
- Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information,
- Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage,
- Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences,
- Develop a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the written word,
- Re-read, edit and improve their own writing,
- Confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling,
- Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language,
- Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and clearly explain their understanding and ideas,
- Become competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
IMPLEMENTATION
At St Michael’s, we ensure that our English teaching and learning provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. We use a wide variety of experiences, quality texts and resources to motivate and inspire our children. We teach using the Pie Corbett model of Talk for Writing and adapt it to the needs of each class. After skills based teaching and learning, the final hot task will be based on cross-curricular links to enhance and develop children’s knowledge further. The steps for Talk for Writing are outlined below.
Using the Talk For Writing approach:
1. Baseline assessment and planning - 'cold' task;
2. The imitation phase;
3. The innovation phase;
4. Independent application and invention - 'hot' task;
5. Final assessment - building on progression.
Alongside our creative writing at St Michael’s, we will:
Create a positive reading and writing culture in school, where both are promoted, enjoyed and considered ‘a pleasure’ for all pupils,
Ensure the promotion of reading through teachers reading out loud regularly to their class,
Foster an expectation of children to read at least three times a week at home and follow our Reading Scheme,
Engage pupils in EYFS and KS1 to have daily phonics sessions, following Little Wandle,
Deliver daily spelling lessons to Year 1 - Year 6 pupils using Little Wandle Spellings,
Use the Nelson scheme to provide the children with a daily session of handwriting to promote correct joins, fostering pride in their presentation,
Send home age-appropriate spellings weekly for pupils to practise their words that they have applied in school. Children will have weekly spelling tests,
Encourage pupils to be adventurous with vocabulary choices,
Enable pupils to acquire strategies to empower them to become independent learners in English (e.g., spelling rules and patterns and how to tackle unfamiliar words when reading),
Promote vocabulary through displays in class, all curriculum areas, enhancing and encouraging a wider use of vocabulary,
Provide vocabulary mats to be used where needed, together with thesauruses and dictionaries which are easily accessible for pupils to use,
Use TFW, ensuring that the children will experience writing a range of genres across the school (progressing in difficulty) both in English and other curriculum areas, resulting in pupils being exposed to, and knowledgeable about, literary styles, authors and genres,
Displaying writing in class, shared areas and on the school website, giving a purpose and audience, to encourage pride in work and to show that work is valued,
Promoting reading and writing events (throughout the year) to encourage and nurture enjoyment and opportunities to develop lifelong learning,
Teach poems to pupils (cross-curricular based) to enhance English skills of reading, spelling, performance, pattern and rhyme but also memory power.
IMPACT
The impact on our children will be that they have the knowledge and skills to be able to write successfully for a purpose and audience. With the implementation of the Talk For Writing sequence being established and taught in both key stages, children will become more confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work. By the end of key stage 2, children will have developed a writer’s craft, they will enjoy sustained writing and manipulate language, grammar and punctuation to create effect. As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing standards will progress and skills taught in the English lesson are transferred into other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific language, grammar and punctuation.
Long term, pupils will:
Be confident in the art of speaking and listening and be able to use discussion to communicate and further their learning,
Be able to read fluently both for pleasure and to further their learning,
Enjoy writing across a range of genres,
Be able to succeed in all English lessons, whatever their ability, because work will be appropriately scaffolded,
Have a wide vocabulary and be adventurous with vocabulary choices within their writing,
Have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience,
Leave primary school being able to effectively apply the spelling rules and patterns they have been taught,
Make good and better progress from their starting points to achieve their full potential.