Engaging teaching that raises progress and boosts standards
At Warren Road, our aim is that all children love English and are excited to read, write and express themselves. In order to achieve this, we follow Talk for Writing (TFW) as a whole school, a cumulative and systematic process for the teaching of English. Since implementing TFW in 2015, children have made faster progress, gaining confidence as well as pleasure in becoming readers and writers. The success we have seen through this approach has led to us becoming an accredited Talk for Writing training centre, showcasing some of the best teaching of English across the country.
Talk for Writing fundamentally teaches children how to be writers – not just how to write. It supports children to be able to generate ideas, draw upon their reading and write confidently for a variety of audiences and purposes. The methodology follows a three-tier pattern: Imitation, Innovation and Independent Application. During the imitation stage, children get to know a text really well by orally learning it, exploring it through drama and then reading it for vocabulary, comprehension and writer tools. The Innovation stage is grounded in the processes of shared writing, with a strong and systematic focus on securing the basics of handwriting, phonics/spelling and grammar in relation to what is needed for the text type being taught. The final stage, Independent Application, promotes children to draft, edit and publish their own independent versions.
At the heart of Talk for Writing is the principle that schools should increase the amount children read and are read to. Warren Road has adopted Talk for Reading as a whole-school approach, establishing a very strong ‘literature spine’ which identifies key stories, picture books, poems and non-fiction which will be read and drawn upon and referred to when teaching writing.
Through their time at Warren Road, children gradually build their bank of well-known texts, supplemented by picture books, novels, poems and non-fiction books. Gradually, this living library of language begins to equip the children with the words they need to express themselves.
I love Talk for Writing 100%. Drawing the pictures in our story map helps me to remember the words. I love writing about things that I love, like unicorns. I can even type up my stories after I come back from school on my Mummy and Daddy’s laptop.”
KS1 Pupil
Talk for Writing has helped me to develop skills in analysing and delving deeper into a text so that I can now independently see how I can write my own stories and improve them. Every day, my little sister in Year 1 comes home enthusiastic as a writer- she didn’t used to be proud of her stories but, when she had started at Warren Road, she became passionate about literacy. She now loves reading with me! Talk for Writing helps you to REACH higher by giving you the confidence and tools to be successful. From your cold task to your hot task, you can see how much you have improved in a unit. In the end, I love how it all builds up to a hot task- I see this as a huge opportunity to show off what I’ve got. In fact, my favourite part of a literacy topic is when I get that positive feedback from my Independent Application- it makes me so proud! In summary, I would say that Talk for Writing not only teaches you the skills to be a writer- it teaches you how to enjoy and be proud of your writing too!
KS2 Pupil
TfW allows all children to aim high and produce powerful pieces of writing. Children can verbally boast a plethora of texts and use the tools discovered to create writing to be proud of.
Teacher
