So if you have been following my journey, you will know that I have been developing my understandings of structured literacy over the last five years. You will also know I am a massive advocate for play and developmentally appropriate teaching, not only that you will know that my journey into structured literacy has also taken me into developing a scope and sequence for maths.
If you have been reading for awhile, you will also know I am a big believer in storytelling and that this is my favourite quote.
Depending on how long you have been following me you may also know that this all started with play and a need to address oral language, from there everything has spiralled.
You will know that
these goals are massive for me and that being developmentally aware is something I am very very passionate about. I believe we need to be ready for children, that we meet them where they are at and that we must as educators understand the brain.
Last year I was in a new entrants - year 2 class (mostly NE/Y1). I experimented with writing, finding what my programme needed to look like in order to build strong foundations. For this level, along with the mechanics of writing, which I will mention soon, storytelling takes the fore. The building of oral language, of vocabulary, of the ability to tell a story, to wonder in using our imagination is absolutely crucial for our earliest learners, the writing of a story isn't what it is about in that first year.
I did become really aware last year however about all the different skills that need to come together in order for children to have enough automaticity in the mechanics of writing that they are then allowed the freedom from cognitive load to really be 'story writers'
What I do know, and have known for a very long time, is that many children are put off writing forever and become 'struggling' or 'reluctant' writers because too much has been expected too soon and not enough explicit, scaffolded teaching has gone on. For many this also happens when they are expected to write, when they lack the hand strength, realise this process hurts, and then in turn end up hating writing.
Something I have also become very aware of over the last few years is cognitive load and how this plays a role in the success or lack of for our learners.
This year I have stepped into a year 1-3 class. I have a real opportunity to break my 'writing' programme down into its parts and truly begin to analyse what is absolutely necessary and how it all fits together.
If you have not already, have a read of this article, great to have the research backing it up.
As a staff we have also been working on the development of writing...I very much believe the first three to four years are about building strong foundations. This is a big body of work, one that we will continue to reflect and build on. It allows us all to understand what a child's pathway may (or may not) look like through school, but also honours that all children progress at different rates and that is ok.
So to the core parts for my writing programme this year, this very basic jigsaw gives a bit of a starting point idea.
Firstly, what I have discovered over the last several years is that the business of learning to read, spell and write is much more complex than I ever gave it credit for. For a few children literacy comes naturally, or appears to. But for most explicit teaching is required. Funnily enough, both my children took to literacy naturally and loved reading and writing...however they would have benefited from explicit teaching because now as adults, spelling is a weakness for both of them. I also think of myself, if I had been taught the spelling rules, it would have made a massive difference to me at university, spelling was always easy for me, but when up against a word I have not seen before or do not have context for, I lack the understanding of the very rules that would have helped me.
It is not just about the children and their needs though. As teachers we have to deeply understand what it is we are teaching, when we need to teach it and why. I think we feel that we know how all this works, but the deeper I dig, the more I realise I just didn't know. The learning I have been doing in other areas lately around the brain is very literally blowing my mind!
So what does my writing approach look like at the moment, based on what I have learned so far?
Well, firstly, it no longer happens in a block called writing, but does happen over the day and week in small bite sized amounts. Basically pulling apart what it takes to be a writer and teaching explicitly those parts, avoiding cognitive load and making sessions short. (Remembering for me this happens in a room where play is our main way of working, this to me, is still the most important thing.)
Children in the year before they come to me have experienced a rich environment based on play, storytelling, drawing and talk. They have also had great opportunities to develop fine and gross motor skills, and this really shows!
In my class I can then break writing down further....over the week, we have short, bite sized sessions, these are not timetabled, but are planned for and happen where they naturally fit into our day.
As you may be aware, the goals that we work with children on are individualised, this means that for some they may be slightly ahead of where we are working as a class...that is ok, because a lot of learning comes from teaching.
1) Formation - we use Casey the Caterpillar. The story is playful and making the shapes is accessible for all children. I watch pencil grip during this time, taking into account that for some children, their hand strength (and all the many components that go into pencil grip) may not be there yet. What I did discover this year is that children need to use shorter pencils...so that adjustment can be made easily. Children are also developing fine motor during play as well, so it is just up to me to watch and notice if there is something that needs to be adjusted for that child as and when they are ready for it. Casey also assists them with directionality and the concept of never being able to go back to her egg is one they really cotton onto to. Once we have worked our way through this, we will move to more formally writing the letters themselves...or spelling the sounds as I like to call it.
Casey is also a really good one to share with parents, it is an easy way that they can help.
2)Phonetic awareness - through our structured literacy sessions we work through the scope and sequence, we use LLLL and the code. We also have a seperate phonological focus at the beginning of this session. Throughout the day, when we have moments, I will put a challenge word up on the board and children will have a go at decoding it. We can then talk about the sounds within the word etc and link it back to what we have been learning.
3)Word chain, children love this activity, we do it as a whole class and will also share with home so they can use this if they want. We do word chain once a week at least. Children really love this, I keep it well within all of their abilities, so everyone is happy to have a go.
4)Dictated sentences...based on the stages we are working on we will use a dictated text. This is a good opportunity to focus on spacing, directionality and full stops. We do this as a whole class once a week and we do this as part of our activities in reading groups.
5)Heart word learning. Children will be working on these individually, but we teach them in class using the approach of taking sound to print and exploring the irregular parts. To assist our collaborative writing, we will occasionally work on heart words that are a bit out of sequence, so that children can access them when they write. For me this heart word learning is so important, when children 'guess' at words like heart words, that are used so frequently, they often form spelling patterns that they then believe to be correct, it is so hard to undo this. We learn heart words once or twice a week as a class, or as relevant to our collaborative writing.
6) Collaborative writing - once a week we will come up with a short story together. This is quite heavily guided by me, because I know what heart words they do or don't know. The collaborative writing is usually based around our storytelling, but not always. We will say the story out loud together. count the words (it is usually just the first sentence we write together.). Children will have a go on whiteboards, scaffolded and supported by me. We will discuss the features we have learned, like spacing, capital letters, full stops and may learn something new if it fits. I like to use a Nessy video from youtube if relevant because children love these. Once we have written the sentence together, children grab their books and go and write independently. Many will write the same sentence, others will do this, but add extra, while others will write their own story.
7)Storytelling - we have Edward our storytelling puppet, he is loved by the children and visits to tell weird and wonderful stories, full of imagination and great vocabulary. Children will often draw their own pictures in response to this and tell their own stories, I have blogged about this storytelling before and it really is just a time where children are free to be the masters of their own stories. A great balance against the explicit strategies being used. We use storytelling throughout the week as often as we can!
8)Digging deeper into storytelling. This year I am learning about talk for writing. We did one last term based on the Itchy Witch and it was fantastic. When we are in the midst of this, we will be having short sessions each day. If you want to find out more, here is the website.
https://www.talk4writing.com/
I have not yet had professional development on this, but there are loads of resources out there to support you.
Play
Loads of writing happens in play. Children frequently make cards, signs, their own stories, label pictures etc etc. Writing happens in authentic contexts and it is fabulous!
Assessment:
I hate that word, but for want of a better title, have used it. We do still do a writing sample each term and I use this to work out collective and individual need. We also have our individual sheets based on each stage that are a great dynamic tool to use with children. I do like to use Heidi Songs writing progression sheet to as it informs us a lot developmentally.
So in essence the heart of what I do in terms of storytelling has not changed. But alongside this I am now laying the foundations explicitly for children to have automaticity over the skills they need to be able to free up their mind to write.
I am really enthusiastic to see how this all pans out this year as we are already seeing superb progress. I am also noticing children are really loving writing much more than they did and it is appearing more in their play.
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