Compass InternationalMadinat Khalifa School

Doha

Writing WorkshopOctober 2014

MADINAT KHALIFA

What you will learn about today:

• Pre-writing activities

• Progression of children’s writing

• How writing is taught

• The importance of basic skills

• Big Writing

• The Punctuation Pyramid

• How you can help!

MADINAT KHALIFA

Pre-writing activities

In Early Years, many activities done by the children are ones which will help to develop the fine motor skills needed to be able to write.These include playing with play dough, painting, paper folding and cutting, playing with puzzles, tracing patterns in sand , colouring, scribbling and many other activities.Even activities on play equipment, such as the monkey bars help to develop the necessary skills. Until a child has mastered these, then they are not really considered to be ready for writing.

MADINAT KHALIFA

Pre-writing activities continued

Emergent writing happens when children naturally begin to include letters in their drawings. Teachers will then be able to encourage these children to move on using ‘next step’ techniques. Children who are unable to write at this stage will tell their teacher what their picture ‘says’ and the teacher can scribe for the child.

MADINAT KHALIFA

Progression of children’s writingIt is recognised that children progress through six different stages of writing –

• Drawing

• Scribbling

• Invented letters

• Random letters

• Invented spelling

• Common spelling

MADINAT KHALIFA

How writing is taughtShared writing – This will follow on from oral work in the English lesson. The teacher will model writing on the Smart board, whiteboard or a flipchart, using shared ideas suggested by the children. This is essential if the teacher wants children to write in a certain type of ‘genre’ such as instructions or a recount.

Guided writing –This is a key step between whole class and independent writing. The teacher can work with a particular group of children, focusing on their specific needs.

Independent writing – This is when children are able to write by themselves, but will still follow on from careful planning and discussions.

MADINAT KHALIFA

Basic skills are a must!• 1. Grammar

• 2. Handwriting

• 3. Spelling

• 4. Punctuation

Writing requires four basic skills which need to be embedded. These skills are:1. Grammar: best taught through talk and practice2. Handwriting: neat and accurate (correct pencil grip and formation of letters is important), plus joined or cursive if possible3. Spelling: both sight words and use of phonic strategies4. Accurate use of punctuation and capital letters to show sentence structure, which should also be accurate and become more complex as the writing develops.

MADINAT KHALIFA

What is Big Writing?

Big Writing is a programme which teaches strategies for improving children’s writing. It was developed by UK Education consultant Ros WilsonMany schools all over the world use Ros’s strategies to raise standards in children’s writingChildren are set targets based on their writing.

MADINAT KHALIFA

Four generic skills to improve writing V.C.O.P

•Vocabulary (Very)

•Connectives (Clever)

•Openers (Old)

•Punctuation (People)

MADINAT KHALIFA

Write as many words as you can to describe this setting- use your senses

VOCABULARY

MADINAT KHALIFA

Connectives•Choose a connective and write a sentence using it in the middle

•and, but, so, then, because, when, if, after a while, as well as

•Now use a connective to start a sentence, this scores more points!

MADINAT KHALIFA

openers•There are different ways to open a sentence. Often it is good to use an adverb:

•For example: Suddenly…

•Can you write your own sentence beginning with suddenly?

MADINAT KHALIFA

Punctuation•Write a sentence using 3 different pieces of punctuation from the list below.

•“ ” ; , ( ) ? !

MADINAT KHALIFA

Levelling UP• Asking the children to up-level their work by using VCOP can instantly show

them how to improve their quality of writing.

• Try up-levelling this sentence!

• My dog is black.

• Remember to use VCOP!

MADINAT KHALIFA

Helpful websites

• http://www.parentsintouch.co.uk/Writing-worksheets

• http://www.cabrillo.k12.ca.us/faralloneview/files/Parents_Support_Reading_Writing.pdf

• http://www.greatsource.com/iwrite/parents.html

• http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Writing/index.html

• http://www.theschoolrun.com/helping-your-child-learn-write

• http://www.education.com/reference/article/tips-parents-help-child-writing/