Reading - The Writing Book

I have just started working through my copy of The Writing Book, by Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey.

I am in one of the first sections of the book where they are breaking down a modelled approach to writing. They are balancing the level of teacher support and structure to the level of independent student writing.

It is split into what the teacher does, what the teacher does with the whole class and smaller groups then what the students do by themselves.

Modelled writing

They are keen that you plan what you are going to say here, which I don't think will match with how I do things. I am more of a "wing it at the time", kind of presenter on the day ( but I am organised with what I present about !! ). What I liked though, was the planning to make sure you are covering the criteria of the specific task.

Also, they are wanting you to let the students know what the criteria are that the piece of writing is aimed towards.

My questions on my pink sticky note - when we I do the product analysis activities all together with my Year 11 class, should I have one completed (about a different product) to show them before we start so they know what we are aiming for. I do this when I an doing drawing activities - I always do the activity first and have these examples that I have done to show them before we start. Why did I think it would be any different for writing?



Shared Writing

I was pleased when I read through this section as it seems to fit quite nicely in what we do when we sit round the front desk and do product analysis all together.
I started doing this last year as an experiment and am continuing with it this year 

What I need to include more of when we are doing this is the actual structure of how to write the sentences. Do one example and instead of just allowing them to shout out the words and disjointed parts, get them to say exactly what we are going to write in a more structured way. It will take longer but it will be worth it.

I need to look more into "think, pair, share" to see if I can use it to any advantage.






Guided Writing

My thoughts here, when I am focussing on my Year 11 group, is "chunking" up the analysis and helping small groups / tables of students with each chunk. I can do this while they are working on their drawings. We can look at more analysis examples in smaller groups, talking about them together.
These chunks are based on the SOLO levels that we follow when working all together on the analysis.

• Identify and label
• Describe and list
• Explain and analyse
• Evaluate

Independent Writing

This is what i want them to do when they apply what we have been doing all together on their own design work. Now i am thinking that the exercise time might be extended into them having more products to analyse like this but on their own as practice.

I liked what I read about "peer check" as this is what I saw happening in Robyn anderson's classroom when I went to visit last term. Blog post here.


Just reading this small section at the start of this book has given me loads to think about and do so I will definitely be spending time working my way through this book.