How to create happy and successful writers

You will need:

A good literacy framework (we used Talk for Writing)

A writing project – a set of instructions

A story path

Patience and time

Lots of praise

Method:

First decide about your writing focus and ask children to complete a

Cold Task.

We chose to write about Percy’s favourite jam sandwiches. We decided we would learn how to make it and write instructions. After the children completed the Cold Task, we planned a sequence of lessons around a non-fiction text – a set of instructions. We looked at each feature of instructions – a title, a list of ingredients. We had separate lessons planned for the time openers and “bossy” words.

Next write a model text, draw a story path and find time to practise a text and the actions.

We had a short practise session, a few times a day, to help children learn the text.

Then start putting the instructions together by writing a small part of it during guided writing sessions.

 

We wrote with a group of 6-7 children at the same time. By doing this, we could offer our children high-quality teaching time, address any misconceptions and focus on their handwriting.

After that innovate your instructions.

We had lots of fun and engagement when children started to innovate their own instructions. We changed our story path accordingly to learn how to make a banana sandwich, a pate sandwich, a peanut butter sandwich and a chocolate sandwich. 

Finally let the children write their own instructions as a Hot task. Let them be independent and tell them how proud you are of the progress they have already made.