Murray Gad Writing Workshop February 2016 (Observation of Murray)

February 2016

Murray's Planning for N.E. - Year 2
1. Devise / decide a topic with the children - have a STIMULUS OR MOTIVATION prepared e.g. picture book then ask students 'what else could we write about this' ;  open ended sentence e.g. 'My dog did something terrible!...';  language experience; 'the funniest thing that ever happened to me...'

2. TELL the story (with passion!) - EXCITE KIDS!

3. 

Show student planner. Prompt for language 
With NE students, do lots of oral language, e.g. 'ni-ni-nibbled' 
Discuss and write up some of the CONTENT words - e.g. nibbled, shoe etc modelling 'have a go' writing/spelling



4. Develop a success criteria with the students, using picture codes
e.g.
  = say my story before I start

5. Writing time!
Send independent writers off to start.
Keep focus group with you, and construct shared writing with explicit focus, based on students' needs (i.e. for my focus students at present - see below - this would be: pencil grip, saying their story, using a picture plan, 'having a go' at writing on their own, and perhaps initial sounds)
** During this shared time, encourage children to write on modelling book e.g. 'aaa-pple, who knows the start sound? Can anyone write that?' child comes and writes a; etc
** Have each child say their story, and count it out (using fingers) 
e.g. My dog chewed the shoes = 5 words


6. Focus group students go and write independently.
Use this time to rove and prompt, encourage, praise, share students writing aloud, give feedback (related to picture success criteria).
** You can also take a second focus group of the more independent writers, focusing on specific skills / strategies e.g. adding more vocabulary, re-reading and adding content etc
** Don't scribe for NE students until they have had a go themselves. Notice and celebrate what they do e.g. starting on left of page; perhaps trying to form a letter etc. Ask each child to re-read to you and then scribe underneath as needed.

7. Share and celebrate writing (whole class).
Encourage all students to share to whole class, in buddies or small groups.

MY NEXT STEP - TEACHING INQUIRY: TARGET WRITERS

Students: TP, LC, VF, AVV, AA

Teacher Goal – Writing Strategy
Name: Charlotte Verity	Year: NE
Goal: To provide more differentiation for students, by sending independent writers off and running shared writing with a smaller group.	Rationale: Murray did an engaging introduction on the writing topic (saying a personal story about a pet that did something naughty) with whole class, then sent independent writers off.  He then conducted small group shared writing and focused on the skills that the target writers needed i.e. saying words, developing vocab and initial letter sounds. These children (above) have very few letter sounds at present, and less than three high frequency words.
What would this look like?      1. Establish a motivating writing topic  and excite the students with it      2. Set success criteria ·         Initially: say the story, picture plan ·         Use initial letter or ‘the sounds you can hear,’      3. Ask all children to think of their own story – and SAY it aloud (e.g. to a buddy; share some with class etc)      4. Send independent writers off (AA, KR, AS, Ash)      5. Conduct shared writing with small group AND give clear process (picture plan, pencil grip, say your sentence)      6. Send small group off to write independently      7. ROAM and check independent writing (focusing first on the more able writers, who left first)      8. Lots of stop and praise, read-aloud students’ writing to whole class etc      9. Encourage target students to HAVE A GO AT WRITING ON THEIR OWN – scribe only after they have written and re-told their story to you!      10. Give feedback (individually; whole class too if time)
Impact What would I expect the students to be able to do? I would expect students to be more engaged. I would expect more able writers to be using their letter cards and writing known sounds in words. I would expect target children to be more confident and happy to have a go, and to know and say what they are writing. By mid term 1, I would expect them to be using some ‘looking’ words (high frequency words, personal vocab), and/or some letter sounds (perhaps using the letter sound card).
What resources might I need? · Lots of stimulus – language experience, discovery etc · Parent help when class gets bigger? · Lots of passion and enthusiasm for what the kids can do · Ask Rowena or another colleague to come and observe  and give feedback to me

1 March 2016: How is it progressing so far?
Positives: 
* Short intro with success criteria is engaging for more able writers. 
* More able writers able to self manage and working on individual prompts e.g. adding spaces
* A brief shared writing session with target children (above) is working well. We have had clear focuses (picture plan, crocodile pencil grip, saying our story first) and added 'finding first sound on the letter cards' today. Two children found and wrote in the initial sounds for our shared story: