Guidance on the teaching of writing skills INSET opportunities for teachers of a subjects across the curriculum at Key Stages 2 and 3

Guidance on the teaching of writing skills INSET opportunities for teachers of all subjects across the curriculum at Key Stages 2 and 3 www.cymru.gov.uk Guidance on the teaching of writing skills INSET opportunities for teachers of all subjects across the curriculum at Key Stages 2 and 3 Audience Overview Action required Further information Additional copies Related documents Teachers, literacy coordinators, headteachers and governing bodies of all maintained primary and secondary schools in Wales; institutes for teacher education and training, local authorities, teacher unions and school representative bodies; church diocesan authorities, national bodies in Wales and others with an interest in education. This publication provides INSET activities for teachers focusing on the teaching of writing in all subjects across the curriculum at Key Stages 2 and 3. To review policies and procedures to promote specific and effective teaching of writing across the curriculum at Key Stages 2 and 3. Enquiries about this document should be directed to: Curriculum and Assessment Division Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills Welsh Assembly Government Government Buildings Cathays Park Cardiff CF10 3NQ Tel: 029 2082 5822 e-mail: C&A3-14.C&A3-14@wales.gsi.gov.uk Can be obtained from: Tel: 0845 603 1108 (English medium) 0870 242 3206 (Welsh medium) Fax: 01767 375920 e-mail: dcells1@prolog.uk.com Or by visiting the Welsh Assembly Government’s website www.wales.gov.uk/educationandskills Guidance on the teaching of higher-order reading skills: INSET opportunities for teachers of all subjects across the curriculum at Key Stages 2 and 3 (Welsh Assembly Government, 2010) This guidance is also available in Welsh. Ref: CAD/GM/0117 ISBN: 978 0 7504 5524 4 A-EAC-02-01-qA835076/1/AB © Crown copyright March 2010 Contents Introduction 2 Unit overview 7 Using the units for INSET 10 Unit 1: Teaching writing 13 Task sheets 19 Unit 2: Stimuli for writing: activities, contexts and models 25 Task sheets 32 Unit 3: Shared writing and guided writing 39 Task sheets 45 Unit 4: Composing text 51 Task sheets 59 Unit 5: Writing in different forms for different audiences and purposes 71 Task sheets 75 Unit 6: Looking at grammar 89 Task sheets 94 Unit 7: More grammar: sentence-level work 103 Task sheets 108 Unit 8: Word-level work: spelling and vocabulary 115 Task sheets 120 Unit 9: Writing techniques: writing for effect 133 Task sheets 138 Unit 10: The assessment of writing 145 Task sheets 150 Appendix 1: Glossary of terms 158 Appendix 2: Useful references 167 Acknowledgements 172 Introduction Why is this document needed? Evidence from recent reports from Estyn and others indicates that, although much effective teaching of writing skills goes on in schools, the following facts remain: • Over a number of years, learners have attained higher standards in reading than in writing in Key Stages 2 and 3. There is less good and outstanding work in writing than in reading at both key stages. The gap between standards in reading and writing, evident in Key Stage 1, increases exponentially in Key Stages 2 and 3. • Over the past 10 years, the gap between boys’ and girls’ performance has increased, with the widest gap in writing. • The content of the writing of many learners of all abilities is often marred by inaccuracies in spelling, punctuation and grammar. • Less-able learners often make slow progress in their learning because of their poor literacy skills. • Only a small minority of schools provide more-able learners with writing tasks that test and challenge them. • There are missed opportunities for developing learners’ communication skills during their study across the whole curriculum. • Important shortcomings in teaching include a lack of close attention to improving the quality and accuracy of learners’ writing. • Very few schools use assessment information to plan improvements in writing to the same extent as they use assessment information to improve reading. These findings from Best practice in the reading and writing of pupils aged 7 to 14 years (Estyn, 2008) are consistent with those from moderation work in Welsh and English at Key Stage 3. It appears that there is often an assumption in schools that learners know how to write so that teachers do not explicitly teach writing skills or provide sufficient guidance on how to improve writing. 2 Guidance on the teaching of writing skills 2 What are the characteristics of effective writing? As learners develop as writers, they demonstrate that they can: • engage their reader(s) • adapt their writing to suit the audience and purpose of the piece • use grammatical and stylistic features to ensure clarity, achieve the right tone and create particular effects • use a range of sentence structures • organise their writing, linking ideas coherently and using paragraphs effectively • choose and use appropriate vocabulary • use punctuation to clarify meaning • use a range of strategies to enable them to spell correctly • present their writing appropriately, either by hand or by using information and communication technology (ICT). In order to make progress, learners need good teaching that includes the modelling of writing, regular opportunities to develop their skills, and effective assessment practice that leads them to understand how best to improve their work. The really effective writer will reach a stage when the mechanical aspects of writing, such as spelling and punctuation, become second nature to them and they are able to give all their attention to experimenting with language and form to engage and inform their readers. Guidance on the teaching of writing skills 3 ... - tailieumienphi.vn