Uplevelling point system - making children reflective writers

Lee Parkinson

Lee has been a Primary School teacher for eight years at Davyhulme Primary in Trafford, Manchester. He provides INSET and CPD internationally, looking at ways to raise standards across the curriculum. He works alongside Alan Peat Ltd and the Literacy Shed. His blog provides teachers with a variety of ideas for using technology in the classroom. Lee has also released a range of eBooks demonstrating how technology, in particular iPads, can enrich teaching and learning in the classroom. His latest eBook, The 12 iPad lessons of Christmas, was the 3rd best selling eBook in the iBook store.

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Website: mrparkinsonict.blogspot.co.uk Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For the past 5/6 years, my school has been using Big Writing in literacy to provide a focused time for children to write. As time has passed we have moulded our approach to include other useful aspects of literacy. We now tend to use our Big Writing session as a final piece to a particular text type focus, unless it is an assessed piece and has to be a standalone lesson. Often we use a Big Writing lesson at the start of a text type to assess what the children already know or can remember from previous years. This is a great way of informing future planning. For example, if you were covering 'Instructions' and few children used imperative verbs, this would inform you to focus on this in your planning.

After a year or so of using Big Writing, I started to think about the whole writing process. It was advised that during the next Big Writing session children should be given time to read back on their work, look at the comments and, as a class, decide on some “goal scorers.” This is a good way of revising, but I felt it wasn't enough; also, if it was a whole week or two later, the activity is long forgotten by the children. I am sure if you ask any author they will always say that the revising and editing part of writing is possibly the most important. But how can we teach this and instil a reflective approach in children? Timed writing sessions don’t provide this quality time to reflect on your writing. It led me to make a resource which I have found invaluable ever since.

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