Raising standards in writing

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Raising standards in writing

• Appleton Wiske Primary School
• Parent/Carer Information Evening
• Oct 09

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Improving writing

• Offering the children strategies that really
  work.
• How can we encourage children to write when they
  have yet to talk about it?
• In our school, writing is weaker than reading.
  This is the same both locally and nationally.

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Year group structures

• 3 phases
• Foundation Stage (FS)
• Key stage 1 (KS1 aged 5-7 Yr 1 and 2)
• Key Stage 2 (KS2 aged 7-11 Yr 3,4,5 and 6)
• 3 classes
• Class 1 FS and Yr 1
• Class 2 Yr 2,3 and 4 (KS1 and KS2 mixed)
• Class 3 Yr 5 and 6)

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3 strands to Big Writing
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Daily basic skills

• High frequency words
• Words from current year group
• Phonics
• Handwriting
• Basic number skills/times table/clock

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High frequency words in FS
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Phoneme Wall
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Consonant Clusters
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Handwriting

• Class 1 (pre cursive)
• A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
  Z
• a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y
  z
• Class 2/3 (cursive)
• A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
  Z
• ªa b ªc ªd â ó ªü h i ý l m n ª p ªq
  r t u Ú Þ ˆ þ z

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Basic number skills

• Bonds to 10 - 20 - 100
• Mental addition and subtraction of increasingly
  larger numbers
• Doubling and halving
• Times tables 2s, 5s and 10s
• 3s and 4s
• 8s, 9s, 6s and 7s

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Warm up activities

• Word association games (mother)
• Word families (words beginning with..)
• Quickies ( family/group names or opposites)
• Crosswords and word searches
• Whacky whispers ( what would X say to Y)

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4 Generic Targets

• Vocabulary
• Connectives
• Openers
• Punctuation

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Upleveling work

• How could you improve this work?
• The light was dark. I looked at the monster.
• VCOP
• Can you improve this?

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Up leveling

• Look at your sentence.
• 1. Is it a simple sentence - for effect? If its
  not
• 2. Improve it! Try some detail
• an adjective/an adverb
• a connective e.g. when, while
• a phrase/a clause
• 3. What about a different beginning? Not the
  usual I, He
• Try starting with
• a connective
• a time word e.g. Later, Soon
• a clause e.g. Opening the door, I peered into
• 4. Check the tense.
• A tricky one is using was/were with the ing
  endings. We were sitting. NOT We were sat.
• 5. Have you used the BEST words?

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Scoring goals in writing

• Which parts of these pieces of work have been
  uplevelled? Think about VCOP.
• It was a gigantic, green monster. It was a ...
  a....... Cyclops!
• The big sharp teeth, the horrid roar, the green
  and black scales, they made me feel terrible.
• My heart was pounding, pounding so fast I
  couldnt breathe.

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Prompts during writing

• After 10 minutes, check punctuation
• After 20 minutes, encourage children to check for
  ambitious vocabulary
• After 30 minutes, encourage the children to check
  their openers and connectives used

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Short term targets

• YR We think about what we want to say.
• We think the sentence out in our heads.
• We can write a simple sentence.
•  
• Y1 We think the sentence out in our heads
• We can write a simple sentence.
• We make sure our words are in the right
  order.
• Y2 We can write a simple sentence.
• We make sure our words are in the right
  order.
• We can join sentences using and, so, but
  and because.
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• Y3 We make sure our words are in the right
  order.
• We can join sentences using and, so, but
  and because.
• We can use if, when, though and while to
  join sentences.
•  

Y4 We can join sentences using and, so, but and
because. We can use if, when, though and
while to join sentences. We can vary the
beginnings of sentences and sometimes start with
a connective.     Y5 We can use if, when, though
and while to join sentences. We can vary the
beginnings of sentences and sometimes start with
a connective. We can add clauses to make our
sentences interesting.   Y6 We can vary the
beginnings of sentences and sometimes start with
a connective. We can add clauses to make our
sentences interesting. We can choose when to
use simple and complex sentences for the best
effect.
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Activities to develop vocabulary
WOW

• Collect words.
• Can you think of how they can be used in a
  sentence?

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Activities to develop vocabulary

• The ministers cat.
• The ministers cat is an adventurous, ambitious
  and awful cat.
• Can you add anymore?
• The ministers cat is a brave, brutal,............
  . cat.

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Activities to develop vocabulary

• Parachuting WOW words
• The boy looked across the street.
• Can you uplevel this sentence by parachuting
  ambitious words into it? Do they all make sense?

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Using power openers

• Write down a sentence starting with an ing
  word.
• Glancing over her shoulder,..
• Singing loudly in the car, ..
• Hobbling off the pitch, ...

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Using power openers

• Write down a sentence starting with an ly
  word.
• Cautiously, ...
• Thoughtlessly, ..
• Effortlessly, ...

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Using power openers

• Adverbial phrases (manner)
• With a nod of his head, ...
• Skipping merrily, ....
• Giving a huge sigh of relief,...
• Adverbial phrases (time)
• After a few minutes, ..
• As quick as a flash, ...
• As the sun rose in the sky, ...
• Can you think of 3 more?

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Using power openers

• Adverbial phrases (place)
• Above the clouds, ..
• At the edge of the playground, ..
• In the shadowy clearing, ..
• Sequence words
• Meanwhile, ..
• Next, ..
• Soon, ..
• Can you think of 3 more?

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Encouraging connective use

• Connective cricket
• He was sick He dashed out
• Can you bat these sentences out by using a
  connective?

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Encouraging connective use

• Get out of that!
• A pencil is stuck in your ear.....
• Can you get out of that using a connective?

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Encouraging connective use

• The ly game.
• lazily hurriedly haphazardly
• Can you link these connectives into one sentence?

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The wrong answer !

• Lazily, the woman stretched out on the sofa,
  while her husband hurriedly tidied the childrens
  toys away haphazardly.

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The right answer!

• Lazily, the man stretched out his hand for the
  remote control as he lounged on the sofa eating
  wine gums, while his wife hurriedly tidied away
  his clothes, cooked the dinner, cleaned the
  house, cut the grass, walked the dog and then
  collapsed haphazardly into bed.

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Finish my sentence

• Can you complete this sentence?
• Martin reached out to get his hand on the ball
  despite...
• This is a 3 minute challenge!

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Punctuation ideas

• Kung fu punctuation game
• What sounds could you use for each punctuation
  mark?
• Can you Kung Fu a piece of text?

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Punctuation ideas

• Fruit salad circle game
• I need volunteers. I am going to say a sentence
  and our volunteers have to stand in the right
  place with the correct punctuation symbol.

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Punctuation ideas

• Whats missing?
• Using the pyramid, ask the children to look at a
  line, get them to close their eyes and remove one
  punctuation mark. Ask the children to open their
  eyes and work out what is missing.

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Punctuation ideas

• Snap
• Please look under your chairs. Some of you will
  have cards taped underneath them. If you do,
  without saying a word, can you find your partner?

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Thank you

• We hope you have enjoyed your evening.
• Please now join the Friends of Appleton Wiske
  Primary School Annual General Meeting.
• Goodnight.