Talk For Writing 

At Loughborough C of E Primary School we use the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach to writing developed by educational writer, Pie Corbett. It is fun, creative yet also rigorous and has a proven record of accelerating children’s learning.

It starts with enjoying and sharing stories. Throughout the school, we place a strong emphasis on children reading stories and enjoying a range of literature. Through regular reading, we want children to build up an extensive and rich vocabulary for use in their own writing.

Talk for Writing is powerful because it enables children to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally before reading and analysing it and then writing their own version.  It is built on three stages of teaching:

1) Imitation – the children learn a text and the language they need

2) Innovation – the children adapt the model text with ideas of their own

3) Independent Application – the children create their own text using the language and skills that the model taught them.

During the initial ‘imitation‘ stage of Talk for Writing, a text (fiction and non-fiction) is introduced and orally told to the children. Together they learn to tell the story off by heart. To help them remember the text a multi-sensory approach is used. They retell a text with expression and actions and use a visual story map to support their retelling. As children learn the text word for word, they  build up a bank of interesting vocabulary, phrases and types of plot which they can then use in their own writing. The principle is that if a child can tell a story, they will be able to write a story.

Once the story is learnt, children are encouraged to adapt it. At this ‘innovation‘ stage, children make the story their own. They could start with a simple change of character or for older children it may involve telling the story from a different view point or even the next part. They will make changes to their story map and rehearse retelling their innovated story orally. They will then write out the innovated story in manageable sections and will receive feedback from the teacher. There is an opportunity to respond to this marking before they go on to write the next section. This very supportive and structured approach allows children to gain confidence and know what they need to do in order to get better.

The final stage is the ‘independent application‘ stage where the children use all the skills they have learnt to write an independent piece. There is the freedom to draw upon their own ideas and experiences, or they can ‘hug closely’ to the shared text should they need to.

Grammar

Grammar is taught in context throughout all T4W units using the T4W grammar progression document. From EYFS onwards, teachers use the correct technical vocabulary in their teaching to encourage the correct use of these terms by children. In Key Stage 1 & 2 every child develops their own “Writer’s Toolbox” in order to support themselves as independent writers.

Handwriting 

We aim for all children to achieve a neat, legible style with correctly formed letters in a cursive font, eventually producing a fluent joined handwriting style. It is vital that children can write quickly, comfortably and legibly, as it is a skill needed in many curriculum areas. Children’s self-esteem is also heightened when they are able to take pride in their handwriting. All staff use cursive script as appropriate when modelling, marking or writing comments on children’s work. Shared and guided writing activities enable staff to model letter formation and handwriting and provide children with opportunities to practice skills. Handwriting is also taught in separate sessions on a regular basis to ensure it is given sufficient emphasis. We teach a continuous cursive style. This involves all letters beginning on the line and finishing with a flick. Children are then taught to join the letters.