In the Primary School, each class from year one to year six have been involved in a project called ‘Talk for Writing’. This is an approach to teaching writing which is based on how children learn language – through the imitation, innovation and invention of language.
The children in each year group learned a particular story; the purpose being to internalise the language patterns and then use them as a basis for their own writing. To help learn the story the children used actions - some actions are standardised so everyone uses the same actions for words such as “next”, “eventually”, “who”, “but”, “if”, “once upon a time” and some actions, for nouns and verbs are created by the children in each class.
Here is what some of the children had to say about how Talk for Writing has helped them learn…
‘Doing the actions helps you remember the story and you can get to be creative. When you are writing a story, you can use the ideas which are already trapped in your head and Talk for Writing helps you think of ideas – which just flow out and you just change them a bit to make your own story a little bit different.’ Hannah, Year 3
‘I liked learning the story because it is fun doing the actions. It helps because learning this way gives me lots of imagination and it helps me write the whole story from beginning to end.’ Jack, Year 3
‘I liked doing the actions as you get to move. We made a story map and that helped me with planning. I had more ideas for writing from the original story. ’ Jameela, Year 4
‘It was difficult to memorise the story but it was fun being creative with the actions. It helped with writing my own version because I only changed some of the parts. It helped me with some good vocabulary. ’ Derek, Year 4
‘Talk for Writing really helped my writing and it made learning fun. It was good being able to steal phrases from the story and it helped me structure the story in a better way. ’ Emma, Year 6
During Book Week (beginning 14th March 2016) there will be videos on screens around the school of each class showing Talk for Writing in action.
Update from: Ms. Adele Corry, Deputy Head of Primary