The Power of Simple Organisers: Building Independence in Young Writers, Intentionally linking Reading and Writing
Why a Basic Organiser Struck a Chord
Recently, I shared a very basic organiser for reading comprehension on my Facebook page—something I have used frequently in my classroom. I was genuinely surprised by how popular the post became. It’s clear there’s a real hunger among teachers for practical ways to foster writing independence in young learners. With that in mind, I wanted to share the reasoning behind this organiser and how it fits into the wider journey of developing independent writers.
Laying the Foundations: Sentence-Level Understanding
My class of six- and seven-year-olds are building solid foundations as writers. We’ve invested a lot of time working at the sentence level, using Colourful Semantics to help children understand how sentences are constructed. From there, we began to add greater detail using planners inspired by Colourful Semantics, linking this with the very basics of the POW strategy:
P – Pick my idea
O – Organise my writing
W – Write
This simple routine helps students focus on their ideas and structure their writing in a manageable way.
Moving Towards POW and TIDE
This term, my goal was to introduce the children to both POW and TIDE (an organiser for structuring writing), but I quickly realised that before making this leap, my students needed a better grasp of how to write factual sentences that capture important information.
Last year, many children struggled to turn the key information we’d gathered into clear, factual sentences. To support them, I decided to keep using the organisers we frequently rely on to sort information together as a class.
Customising Organisers to Meet Student Needs
The labels and structure of these organisers often change depending on the context or prompt, which keeps them relevant and accessible for the learners. For example, the organiser I shared on facebook included capital letters, as my class is currently learning when to use them. I encourage teachers to adapt organisers based on the specific needs of their class. Some examples of these are below. Basically children draw an image and record key words that will enable them to write a sentence easily from the planner.
Applying Organisers in Our Learning Context
Our current knowledge-building topic is “Past and Present Sea Creatures,” and the shared organiser related to our work on dolphins. We do shared reading, engage with simple texts, listen to podcasts, and watch short videos. As we learn, we brainstorm and compile the information together.
From this collective list of ideas, we select the details we want to write about. At the moment, this is a collaborative process, but as students grow more confident and independent, they’ll be able to do this on their own.
Bridging to Independence: The Organiser in Action
This is where the organiser really comes into play. Instead of jumping directly to using TIDE, the organiser serves as a crucial stepping stone. It helps children practise writing important details. The format allows us to record a picture and a few key words, making it much easier for students to build sentences.
In fact, this approach has enabled some of my more confident writers to combine sentences or start with a basic sentence and add further detail. The planner gives them a structure to lean on, and the writing task becomes much more accessible.
Some children wrote a single sentence.
Others managed all four sentences.
A few even added extra detail to their initial sentence.
We’ll use this organiser a few more times before moving on to the TIDE planner, gradually learning about topic sentences and conclusions through the texts we read.
Organisers as a Bridge, Not a Forever Thing
Ultimately, my goal is for students to achieve independence—planning their writing fluently, without needing organisers. Already, I’ve noticed that the key words provided by the organiser have been a powerful bridge for all learners, building both success and confidence.
I am currently thinking of how I can use their understanding of the planner we have been using to bridge to TIDE, it might look something like this.
Flexibility and the SRSD Approach
If you’re interested in learning more about Releasing Writers SRSD (Self-Regulated Strategy Development.) I highly recommend exploring the relevant Facebook pages. What I love about this approach is the flexibility—it allows me to adapt to my students’ needs without losing sight of our end goals. I firmly believe in the mantra “go slow to go fast,” and any scaffolds we put in place should support this journey towards independence.
Final Thoughts
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to supporting young writers. Simple organisers, thoughtfully adapted, can make a world of difference—especially as we guide our students towards independent, confident writing. If you’re considering giving something like this a go, I encourage you to make it your own and see how it can help your learners bridge the gap to independence.
