Approaches to writing

Topic outline

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  Approaches to writing

  The importance of developing excellence in written communication for success in English cannot be overstated. The majority of pupils have developed a high level of competence in writing at Key Stage 2 and many of them speak of the pleasure they take in writing, particularly writing stories. 

  We must remember that critical and analytical writing - that is, essays - is a new written form for students as they begin their secondary school career, and that therefore students will need explicit teaching of critical writing in its own right. However, it is equally important to continue to develop students' writing in other forms, capitalising on the skills and knowledge they have developed at KS2 and offering plenty of opportunties to practise. 

  The Key Stage 3 curriculum offers space for students to be given opportunities to draft, edit, redraft and polish their writing so that they are confident that they know what their best work really looks like.

  Materials in this section suggest approaches driven by choices of rich texts to both inspire and exemplify excellence, offering suggestions for explicit teaching and modelling of smaller stylistic, grammatical and structural elements that can form a repertoire for crafting writing.

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  Critical writing - Moodle+ taster

  Within Moodle+ you will find a collection of documents that explore ways to map out the acquisition of critical writing features at structural and sentence level, treating critical writing as a teachable written form in its own right, rather than simply as a vehicle for demonstrating understanding of literary texts. 

  The materials are unashamedly ambitious in terms of writing expectations and provide a suggested progression in critical writing. However, while they are set out by year group, they can be used for any age group of students: if a Year 11 student would benefit from practising at sentence level the elements suggested for Year 7, there is no issue with this. The principle behind the approach is that when teaching the new elements of the written form, the content of the literary criticism has already been taught and established - students have notes and examples at hand so that they know the content will be strong and they can focus on their written expression.

  This taster document focuses on the early teaching of critical writing in Year 7. The Moodle+ collection includes materials that cover Year 6 - Year 11.

  • Starting to write critically in Year 7 File
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  Modelling writing

  Modelling writing is possible one of the most useful tools in the English teacher's kit. Thinking it through and honing practice in modelling will always be time well spent. 

  • Modelling writing File
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  Sentence strategies - Moodle+ taster

  Within Moodle+ you will find exemplification and explanation of sentence composing strategies, including those developed and shared by Don and Jenny Killgallon. Two examples of the Moodle+ resources are here for you to explore. 

  • Sentence Unscrambling File
  • Critical writing sentences - sentence expanding File
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  Explicit teaching of writing - using learning journeys at KS3 and KS4

  The writing learning journey is the key HIAS planning approach used at KS2 and has demonstrated impact on the quality of children's writing over many years. Secondary colleagues have been less likely to spend the same amount of focused class time on the explicit teaching of writing, but the work of the KS4 writing working group collaboratively produced a range of writing learning journeys for KS4 and, after some adaptation, appropriate for KS3; these are now regularly in use in schools across Hampshire and have led to positive pupil outcomes in writing. Find the planning and resources created through this project in the Curriculum section of Open Resources.

  • Writing learning journeys explanatory article File
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  Pastiche and Slow Writing

  Inspired by the strategy of 'slow writing' shared by David Didau way back in 2012, coupled with the HIAS three-phase learning journey approach that champions the use of WAGOLLs as a source for both inspiration and imitation, this resource was created for a workshop for the Secondary English Network. 'The Clarksonator' takes the idea that any distinctive voice can be imitated and that it is possible to use a text for inspiration and reduce it to a set of instructions - it is also just for fun! The text used to provide the source material is Jeremy Clarkson's article, On Diesel, which is one of his more age-appropriate pieces. Following the slow-writing instructions in The Clarksonator, any piece of ranting can be turned into a pastiche of Clarkson's signature style. Other writers with distinctive voices who work well for pastiche are Charlie Brooker and Caitlin Moran; in each case, choose texts carefully to ensure that the whole of the extract is age-appropriate. In our workshop, we suggested creating a resource similar to the Clarksonator... perhaps a Moranosaurus or a Book of Booker.

  • Pastiche and Slow Writing File
  • The Clarksonator File
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  Non-Fiction Writing

  • Strategies for Improving Non-Fiction Writing File
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  Narrative and Descriptive Writing

  • Narrative and Descriptive Writing - Cohesive Features File
  • Narrative and Descriptive Writing - Figurative Language and Viewpoint File