Accelerating progress through guided writing

Aims

To know how guided writing can be used effectively to support & challenge pupils at various stages within the teaching sequence – learning walk and Hilary’s observations

What are the differences between the teaching strategies to improve writing ?

Activity

What is the definition of guided writing? It is a personalised intervention . . .

It provides an additional supported stop towards independent writing

It should be carefully targeted towards groups of children according to their current targets or specific needs

The aim is to provide support that is going to help children to improve their writing

It doesn’t have to be writing!

Guided writing can be focused on anything that supports children with improving their writing

What are the benefits of guided writing?

It enables the teacher to tailor the teaching to the needs of the group

It facilitates the teaching and learning of individual children – the teacher is able to observe and respond to the needs of individuals within the group

It provides the teacher with the opportunity to extend and challenge more-able groups of children

It encourages the children to be active participants in discussions about writing

It builds confidence – the group are all grappling with the same issues

It allows the teacher to give immediate feedback on success and the opportunity to discuss further areas of improvement

The development of guided writing across school is a process . . . Identification of key priorities and target

groups CPD Further CPD opportunities to strengthen

teaching and learning Collaborative development of improvements in

classroom practice (lesson study) Evaluation of impact on children’s progress

Guided writing is closely linked to assessment . . .

Gaps identified when assessing against the national curriculum

Guided writing is underpinned by effective assessment for learning

Guided writing sessions provide opportunities for ongoing assessment

Teachers identify the learning needs of children based on their assessments

They set precise writing targets that will address the needs of each group and that are regularly reviewed with the children

Feedback is provided at every stage

When guided writing is used effectively . . .

Children are clear about organisation of guided writing and how to learn as part of a group

Children are fully aware of their next steps and understand the process of reviewing them

Success criteria are clear and understood by the children

Teachers use effective day-to-day assessment strategies:

- questioning

- observing

- discussing

- analysing – marking and

assessing writing with the

children

- checking children’s understanding

Children are clear about the next steps needed to improve their writing

It’s a mini lesson within a lesson

Planning and organising for guided writing

Begins with assessment and the identification of the learning needs of the class

Teacher groups together children with similar needs

Number in group will vary – usually six to eight children

Groups should be flexible Several sessions in a row makes the most

impact

How does guided writing relate to shared writing and independent writing ?

May be general, e.g. to understand the concept of a sentence, paragraphing etc.

It might be genre specific, e.g. to use emotive language in persuasive writing or to organise a non-chronological report

The guided writing session may simplify the shared session for less confident writers or extend the shared session to challenge more-able writers

Guided writing may be focused at whole text level, sentence level or word level

At what stage of the writing process do I teach guided writing ?

Before writing – support in formulating ideas, teacher modelling planning process, sentence level work

During writing – support for rereading to check writing makes sense, using alternate vocabulary, manipulation of sentence structure

After writing – checking work against success criteria, editing, proofreading, reviewing progress and targets, discussing next steps in writing and setting new targets where appropriate

NB no need to glue yourself to the group !

Case study – film clip

Points to note – The learning environment Clear sentence level focus Teacher’s emphasis on writing for a

reader Teacher’s use of technical language The structure and clear focus of the

guided session Children applying learning to their own

work Effective work with boys in this group

An example of how to plan for a guided writing session . . .

Improving sentence structure and punctuation is one of the quickest ways of accelerating progress in writing and is a perfect way of beginning to use guided writing in your classroom.

Objective from Y3/4 Programme of Study

Pupils should be taught to use fronted adverbials.

  

Learning intention – we are learning how to make our sentences more interesting for the reader by adding fronted adverbials.

Success criteria

You will be able to improve the writing you produced last week by adding fronted adverbials that work together to produce a piece of writing that engages the reader and makes them want to read more.

What would several sessions look like? (may be 2 sessions, 3 sessions or 4 sessions)

Revise - quick recap of the relevant aspects of grammar and punctuation

Teach - children how to use these elements through modelling their use – use one of the children’s pieces of writing to demonstrate this

Practise through a game such as a game or a building sentences activity

Give children the opportunity to apply their learning using their own writing – at this stage they should reflect on their writing and share it with others

Give children the opportunity to check their writing against the success criteria

Don’t forget to tell children their next steps – this might be to apply what they’ve learnt every time they write independently or the next step might be specific – to apply what they’ve learnt in their end of unit writing outcome the following day/week

Lesson study – one way to develop the practice

The Quick Win version of lesson study

Gap task

Who are your target children ? What are the gaps in learning ? How can you address these gaps through guided

writing this term ? (think about current topics or themes and practical implementations)

You will be asked to share practice at a staff meeting later this term