Writing Teachers

Writing TeachersReading into Writing 2:Week 9

Objectives

Develop confidence in your own ability to write

Reading Log Peer Review

Bring out your reading log Complete the peer review form with a partner Share 1 book from your reading log that you have found

particularly good and share it in a small group. Say why it has had a positive impact on you.

How does it work? Why does it work?

What was writing like for you at school?

How do you feel about your own creative writing?

How do you feel about writing as a teacher at school?

On a post it write down in 1-6 words how you feel about yourself as a writer – stick the post its on a white poster the lecturer will provide at the front of the seminar room

Limber up the imagination

Write for one minute on one of the following Beach Stars Family Dreams Traffic jams

Sharing

Read out some of your writing to each other. Do you enjoy listening to what other people have

written?

A style of writing Read the passage from

Whistling Caves – 11 year old Emily has found the Saxon Treasure and has escaped from villains down a secret passage from the castle above into the mouth of a Cornish cave, but the tide is coming in fast – can she get out in time to be rescued by her friends in the small row boat?

Does it remind you of any adventure stories for children you have read?

What makes this exciting and popular writing?

Postcards1 Show and read the postcard which predicts a disaster discuss what might happen

next in pairs share with whole group

2 Write the story of the day share stories with each

other read out a selection of

stories and discuss

Swap Addresses

Stick your first class stamp on your postcard (the one you brought from home)

Write your address on a post it

Swap your post it with someone (on another table perhaps)

At home – sending it Write the address of your

new post it onto the blank part of your postcard

Pretend you are a character and write the left hand part of the postcard so it leads into a great story e.g. Today saw a meteorite land nearby. Tomorrow we are going to investigate or something funny or from a typical adventure or something original)

Send your postcard ( do it tonight or tomorrow morning)

At home - receiving it.. Read your mystery postcard Write what happens to your

character the next day (about 250 -500words- ish should do the job – about a page - ish).

Write it as a story rather than a quick postcard – so you can experiment and play with story writing – put in some dialogue (two contrasting characters will help here e.g. one timid, one bold or impetuous), some setting, perhaps some humour if it works…you know the sort of thing – the sort of thing you have been reading in children’s books. Write for a key stage 2 age group.

Bring your story to Seminar Week 10 to share with the sender of your postcard

Reflection

After you have finished your postcard short story….

At the bottom of your story or on a separate sheet of paper, write your feelings about yourself as a writer.

Why do we bother to write? It’s fun We can invent funny as well

as satisfying stuff It is creative and teachers

are creative people It’s hard and we gain

satisfaction from growing as we learn to do hard things (think of Zumba or football skills)

We give pleasure to other people when we read them our writing

Writing is something we can do together in the classroom

ALSOPTO…………

English at the Crossroads 2009One of the most positive developments over recent years has been theincreasing tendency for teachers to demonstrate writing for their pupils. At itsbest, this involves teachers in writing with pupils, explaining their choices ofwords and phrases, and amending their work as they produce it. Evidence from the USA, where there is a long-established National Writing Project forteachers, suggests that pupils’ work improves when their teachers regardthemselves as writers. However, many of the teachers in the survey, inprimary and secondary schools, lacked the confidence to do this. As a result,their pupils were not able to see how ideas and language are created, shaped,reviewed and revised.P.48

English at the crossroads: an evaluation of English in primary and secondary schools 2005/08 (080247), Ofsted, 2009; www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/080247.

Excellence in English: what we can learn from 12 outstanding schools May 2011, No. 100229 Ofsted

16. However, more than anything, at the heart of the school’s success with writingis its approach to teaching through writing workshops. The subject leader hasproduced detailed guidance for staff on teaching writing and this includes howto conduct a writing workshop. Broadly, the strategy involves a great deal ofwriting and modelling by the teacher, with planning integrated at all stages. Itis a step-by-step approach with pupils and teachers working together onconstructing a piece of writing. In each lesson, the pupils work through a seriesof exercises before moving to a longer piece which is sharply focused onspecific criteria. The pupils’ work, with its crossings-out and additions, showshow well these pupils operate as real writers, constantly looking to rewrite andimprove.17. The workshop approach to writing in the school has also developed teachers’own confidence as writers. As a result, they tend to write their own texts forlessons rather than searching the internet for examples that might not suit theirparticular purposes.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY MICHAEL MORPURGO SAYS….

Fearless Writers…

Dimbleby Lecture 15/2/2011 http://www.michael

morpurgo.com/news/read-michaels-dimbleby-lectur/

“At the heart of every child, new born, is a unique genius and personality. What we should be doing is to allow the spark of that genius to catch fire, burn brightly and shine. What we seem to be doing with so many of our children is to corral them, to construct a world where success and failure is all that counts. Fear of failure is what does the most damage.