The following presentation, entitled 'The ups and downs of writing - an Ofsted perspective' was given by Patricia Metham, lead HMI for English, at the LATE/NWP conference at Goldsmiths, University of London, on Saturday 10th of May 2014.
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Ofsted on writing workshops, from Excellence in English case studies 2011
Excellence in English. Ofsted 2011 Castle View Primary School, Halton Creating writers: a workshop approach to writing
All bold highlights are mine. Simon Wrigley 14.1.2014 (Footnotes below)
11.1. Castle View Primary School is a smaller than average primary school with a majority of pupils from White British backgrounds. Although many children have weak literacy skills on entry, standards are above average in English at the end of Key Stage 2. Every single pupil has made at least the expected two levels of progress between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 over the past three years. Boys have made even better progress than girls.
12.2. Among its many achievements, the school is remarkably successful with writing. This can be seen first of all in the unusually positive attitudes that pupils have towards writing. All claim to enjoy writing. Indeed, a large number of the older pupils write for themselves at home. One pupil shared her home-writing books. These comprised two beautifully illustrated exercise books (clearly influenced by her earlier study of The Jolly Postman, with lots of inserts and cleverly hidden notes) containing a vast range of work; chiefly stories but also poems, lists of words, lists of favourite reading, and other texts such as the design of a passport. Also, an example of an English lesson plan, expertly imitating her teacher’s approach even down to learning objectives, warm-up games, an outline plan and marking criteria!
13.3. The school manages to persuade all pupils that they are writers and to behave like writers. One teacher said that ‘we believe that all the pupils can be good writers’ and pupils are certainly confident in their own writing ability. They talk about the way that teachers ‘give you just enough help with writing but not too much, leaving you free to think of your own ideas’. One simple but effective strategy is the school’s use of high-quality hardback writing books. These have high status in the school. They are not provided for younger pupils and, as a result, become something that these children eagerly anticipate as they get older. The books have the appearance of a professional writer’s rough book. They contain all the pupil’s writing in English, including first ideas, plans and final pieces. Pupils are encouraged to look though their book for ideas or to reflect on the progress that they have made.
14.4. All teachers also employ the notion of a writer’s ‘toolkit’, which is designed by each teacher to support a particular writing task and is shared with pupils. This lists aspects of writing that pupils might try to incorporate in that task. One teacher said: ‘We say to pupils that this is how writers work. This is one of their tricks. And then they’re really keen to have a go.’ Another interesting feature is the use in all classrooms of a ‘working wall’. This includes guidance from the teacher, word lists, examples of first sentences, drafts of openers and so on. The wall gets added to as new guidance is posted on top of old but previous work and hints can soon be recovered. Pupils say that they find this really helpful and it is constantly referred to during lessons.
15.5. Another aspect of the approach to writing is that teachers work hard to make the writing purposeful. This is especially evident in the Early Years Foundation Stage where pupils write menus for the café role-play area, design signs for the tea party, compose letters after visits and frequently write spontaneously to other teachers. Older pupils build on this by writing: programmes for the school play; letters to the Enterprise team after a visit; posters about the danger of fireworks, which are displayed in the local community in November; and letters to pen pals in another school.
16.6. However, more than anything, at the heart of the school’s success with writing is its approach to teaching through writing workshops. The subject leader has produced detailed guidance for staff on teaching writing and this includes how to conduct a writing workshop. Broadly, the strategy involves a great deal of writing and modelling by the teacher, with planning integrated at all stages. It is a step-by-step approach with pupils and teachers working together on constructing a piece of writing. In each lesson, the pupils work through a series of exercises before moving to a longer piece which is sharply focused on specific criteria. The pupils’ work, with its crossings-out and additions, shows how well these pupils operate as real writers, constantly looking to rewrite and improve.
17.7. 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 for lessons rather than searching the internet for examples that might not suit their particular purposes. Among a batch of examples provided by one teacher were the following:
‘Because it was such a pleasant warm day, Jane and her parents had decided to take their brand-new, leather-furnished, automatically controlled, convertible Lamborghini out for a spin in the countryside.’
‘I think that the people of Thornton should not rely on Jack and Jill to fetch the crucial pail of water every day. Firstly, it is important to consider the fact that they are extremely young and therefore barely developed physically to carry such heavy pails.’
‘Early in the morning, the warming sun creeps like a timid child slowly over the horizon while bringing with it a warming glow casting long shadows.’
18.8. One lesson observed showed how the writing workshop operated. The lesson was part of a unit of work on suspense writing. The learning objectives involved using a range of suspense techniques and different sentence openers to vary their writing. The teacher provided a ‘suspense writing toolkit’ which formed part of the ‘working wall’. This included questions, short sentences, prompts about noises and shadows, and instructions to ‘introduce cold/dark, bring in the unexpected’. The warm-up activities were to complete sentences such as ‘Hardly daring to breathe, Andy…’ One pupil responded, ‘…crawled under the table’. The teacher immediately asked: ‘How did he crawl?’ Other exercises on sentence starters followed: ‘Without warning…’, ‘Shaking with fear…’
19.9. The teacher then read an extract from Danny, the champion of the world. The pupils’ task was to continue it. A clear structure was provided by the teacher: the opening to be one of the warm-up sentences written earlier; followed by a paragraph using multi-sensory description; then a final paragraph introducing an unexpected element. Twenty minutes were provided for the writing. The teacher constantly intervened and questioned: ‘How did he step into the forest?’; ‘What kind of twigs brushed against his skin?’ There was a strong emphasis on sharing ideas, learning from each other, the pupils becoming real writers.
20.10. The lesson shared many of the features of a creative writing session for adults. The pupils were serious and fully engaged in the task. What was most impressive was their readiness to experiment and change; this is not common practice in schools. These pupils were confident to alter words, cross out and revise as they wrote. Later, the pupils reviewed their writing against some of the toolkit prompts: use of shadows, questions, strong verbs, suspense techniques. The high quality of writing produced by pupils in the lesson confirmed the positive impact of the workshop approach and the confidence that pupils showed in different aspects of the writing process. The extent to which they were able to plan, reflect, change and edit as they wrote was especially impressive.
21.11. One final aspect of the school’s approach to writing is worth describing. Inspectors frequently comment on the relative lack of extended writing in schools. Common practice in many primary schools is for pupils to spend two or three weeks working towards an extended piece of writing. In the meantime, they analyse short exemplar texts, perhaps producing their own brief pieces of writing. For example, when working on persuasive writing, pupils might spend considerable time talking about, identifying and then writing examples of rhetorical questions, using certain connectives and composing different types of sentence. At this school, the policy is for pupils to produce concentrated and extensive texts in all lessons. Accordingly, a unit on persuasive writing featured topics over a three-week period that included: ‘should primary children eat more healthy food?’; ‘do we need a new bridge in Runcorn?’; ‘should the school have a tuck shop at lunchtimes?; ‘should under-21s be allowed to buy alcohol?’; ‘should primary children have homework?’; ‘should pupils choose who to sit with in class?’; ‘should Everton and Liverpool share a football ground?’; and ‘should Hermia, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, be able to choose whom to marry?’ All pupils produced extended writing in response to each of these tasks. It is no wonder that they move on to secondary school feeling confident about themselves as writers.
Footnote
I would also advocate less systematic and more pupil-owned notebooks/scrap-books/writing sketch-books with children aged 3-7. These can be spaces for their own scribbles, jottings, collections, collages, designs, drawings, photos, experiments and observations. Children's talk and play with others around the content of their notebooks, strengthens their ideas and their confidence to tell their own stories in their own language. Through such approaches children become writers, primed with a sense that writing is about voices and choices. By having a special place of their own, and through sincere reflection with trusted others, they come to understand that each person can be a unique and meaningful witness, and that there are people who will listen to and value them through their stories.
Simon Wrigley, outreach director 14.1.2014
All bold highlights are mine. Simon Wrigley 14.1.2014 (Footnotes below)
11.1. Castle View Primary School is a smaller than average primary school with a majority of pupils from White British backgrounds. Although many children have weak literacy skills on entry, standards are above average in English at the end of Key Stage 2. Every single pupil has made at least the expected two levels of progress between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 over the past three years. Boys have made even better progress than girls.
12.2. Among its many achievements, the school is remarkably successful with writing. This can be seen first of all in the unusually positive attitudes that pupils have towards writing. All claim to enjoy writing. Indeed, a large number of the older pupils write for themselves at home. One pupil shared her home-writing books. These comprised two beautifully illustrated exercise books (clearly influenced by her earlier study of The Jolly Postman, with lots of inserts and cleverly hidden notes) containing a vast range of work; chiefly stories but also poems, lists of words, lists of favourite reading, and other texts such as the design of a passport. Also, an example of an English lesson plan, expertly imitating her teacher’s approach even down to learning objectives, warm-up games, an outline plan and marking criteria!
13.3. The school manages to persuade all pupils that they are writers and to behave like writers. One teacher said that ‘we believe that all the pupils can be good writers’ and pupils are certainly confident in their own writing ability. They talk about the way that teachers ‘give you just enough help with writing but not too much, leaving you free to think of your own ideas’. One simple but effective strategy is the school’s use of high-quality hardback writing books. These have high status in the school. They are not provided for younger pupils and, as a result, become something that these children eagerly anticipate as they get older. The books have the appearance of a professional writer’s rough book. They contain all the pupil’s writing in English, including first ideas, plans and final pieces. Pupils are encouraged to look though their book for ideas or to reflect on the progress that they have made.
14.4. All teachers also employ the notion of a writer’s ‘toolkit’, which is designed by each teacher to support a particular writing task and is shared with pupils. This lists aspects of writing that pupils might try to incorporate in that task. One teacher said: ‘We say to pupils that this is how writers work. This is one of their tricks. And then they’re really keen to have a go.’ Another interesting feature is the use in all classrooms of a ‘working wall’. This includes guidance from the teacher, word lists, examples of first sentences, drafts of openers and so on. The wall gets added to as new guidance is posted on top of old but previous work and hints can soon be recovered. Pupils say that they find this really helpful and it is constantly referred to during lessons.
15.5. Another aspect of the approach to writing is that teachers work hard to make the writing purposeful. This is especially evident in the Early Years Foundation Stage where pupils write menus for the café role-play area, design signs for the tea party, compose letters after visits and frequently write spontaneously to other teachers. Older pupils build on this by writing: programmes for the school play; letters to the Enterprise team after a visit; posters about the danger of fireworks, which are displayed in the local community in November; and letters to pen pals in another school.
16.6. However, more than anything, at the heart of the school’s success with writing is its approach to teaching through writing workshops. The subject leader has produced detailed guidance for staff on teaching writing and this includes how to conduct a writing workshop. Broadly, the strategy involves a great deal of writing and modelling by the teacher, with planning integrated at all stages. It is a step-by-step approach with pupils and teachers working together on constructing a piece of writing. In each lesson, the pupils work through a series of exercises before moving to a longer piece which is sharply focused on specific criteria. The pupils’ work, with its crossings-out and additions, shows how well these pupils operate as real writers, constantly looking to rewrite and improve.
17.7. 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 for lessons rather than searching the internet for examples that might not suit their particular purposes. Among a batch of examples provided by one teacher were the following:
‘Because it was such a pleasant warm day, Jane and her parents had decided to take their brand-new, leather-furnished, automatically controlled, convertible Lamborghini out for a spin in the countryside.’
‘I think that the people of Thornton should not rely on Jack and Jill to fetch the crucial pail of water every day. Firstly, it is important to consider the fact that they are extremely young and therefore barely developed physically to carry such heavy pails.’
‘Early in the morning, the warming sun creeps like a timid child slowly over the horizon while bringing with it a warming glow casting long shadows.’
18.8. One lesson observed showed how the writing workshop operated. The lesson was part of a unit of work on suspense writing. The learning objectives involved using a range of suspense techniques and different sentence openers to vary their writing. The teacher provided a ‘suspense writing toolkit’ which formed part of the ‘working wall’. This included questions, short sentences, prompts about noises and shadows, and instructions to ‘introduce cold/dark, bring in the unexpected’. The warm-up activities were to complete sentences such as ‘Hardly daring to breathe, Andy…’ One pupil responded, ‘…crawled under the table’. The teacher immediately asked: ‘How did he crawl?’ Other exercises on sentence starters followed: ‘Without warning…’, ‘Shaking with fear…’
19.9. The teacher then read an extract from Danny, the champion of the world. The pupils’ task was to continue it. A clear structure was provided by the teacher: the opening to be one of the warm-up sentences written earlier; followed by a paragraph using multi-sensory description; then a final paragraph introducing an unexpected element. Twenty minutes were provided for the writing. The teacher constantly intervened and questioned: ‘How did he step into the forest?’; ‘What kind of twigs brushed against his skin?’ There was a strong emphasis on sharing ideas, learning from each other, the pupils becoming real writers.
20.10. The lesson shared many of the features of a creative writing session for adults. The pupils were serious and fully engaged in the task. What was most impressive was their readiness to experiment and change; this is not common practice in schools. These pupils were confident to alter words, cross out and revise as they wrote. Later, the pupils reviewed their writing against some of the toolkit prompts: use of shadows, questions, strong verbs, suspense techniques. The high quality of writing produced by pupils in the lesson confirmed the positive impact of the workshop approach and the confidence that pupils showed in different aspects of the writing process. The extent to which they were able to plan, reflect, change and edit as they wrote was especially impressive.
21.11. One final aspect of the school’s approach to writing is worth describing. Inspectors frequently comment on the relative lack of extended writing in schools. Common practice in many primary schools is for pupils to spend two or three weeks working towards an extended piece of writing. In the meantime, they analyse short exemplar texts, perhaps producing their own brief pieces of writing. For example, when working on persuasive writing, pupils might spend considerable time talking about, identifying and then writing examples of rhetorical questions, using certain connectives and composing different types of sentence. At this school, the policy is for pupils to produce concentrated and extensive texts in all lessons. Accordingly, a unit on persuasive writing featured topics over a three-week period that included: ‘should primary children eat more healthy food?’; ‘do we need a new bridge in Runcorn?’; ‘should the school have a tuck shop at lunchtimes?; ‘should under-21s be allowed to buy alcohol?’; ‘should primary children have homework?’; ‘should pupils choose who to sit with in class?’; ‘should Everton and Liverpool share a football ground?’; and ‘should Hermia, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, be able to choose whom to marry?’ All pupils produced extended writing in response to each of these tasks. It is no wonder that they move on to secondary school feeling confident about themselves as writers.
Footnote
I would also advocate less systematic and more pupil-owned notebooks/scrap-books/writing sketch-books with children aged 3-7. These can be spaces for their own scribbles, jottings, collections, collages, designs, drawings, photos, experiments and observations. Children's talk and play with others around the content of their notebooks, strengthens their ideas and their confidence to tell their own stories in their own language. Through such approaches children become writers, primed with a sense that writing is about voices and choices. By having a special place of their own, and through sincere reflection with trusted others, they come to understand that each person can be a unique and meaningful witness, and that there are people who will listen to and value them through their stories.
Simon Wrigley, outreach director 14.1.2014