Big Writing

1. Big Writing Mrs MacLean and Miss Bradbury

2. What is Big writing? • A framework to children’s writing • Adds structure • Enhances and improves writing • Previous schools have reported dramatic improvement in children ‘s writing after adopting Ros Wilson’s Big Writing • Grammar cluster schools all use this approach to writing • Leads to consistency • All use the Ros Wilson marking criteria grid for writing assessment greater consistency.

3. Big writing lesson plan • Complete focus on writing • No reading or other language tasks undertaken during Big Writing • 20 minutes of Big Writing games and background of writing task • This helps children to focus on the aspect of writing you are looking for • 10 minutes planning and discussing what children are going to write about • Given targets based on VCOP checklist so children are aware of what it is that the teacher is looking for • 30 minutes of writing • After 10 minutes of writing, 5 minute regroup reading some of the children’s writing to maybe help others who are struggling to begin their writing.

4. Big writing lesson plan contd • P2 are planning to introduce to soft, background music to help children know when it is time to focus on writing.

5. What is vcop? • Big writing is based on VCOP • Vocabulary • Encouraging children to use ‘WOW’ words to enhance their writing e.g. huge instead of big amazing instead of nice • Introducing adjectives to make writing more interesting e.g. The girl had a small, brown dog. The girl had a dog. • Children encouraged to use words they have seen in other books, heard people use or any other source.

6. What is vcop? • Connectives • Using a word to join two shorter sentences to make a longer, more interesting sentence e.g. • The boy went to the shops. He wanted an ice-cream. • The boy went to the shops because he wanted an ice-cream. • In P2 children are introduced to using ‘and’, ‘then’, ‘because’ and ‘so’. As they progress through the school they are encouraged to use more sophisticated connectives.

7. What is vcop? • Openers • Children are encouraged to use different ways to start a sentence. • Think about who, when, why, how • Who e.g. The boy crossed the road • When e.g. Yesterday the boy crossed the road • Why e.g. To get to the shops the boy had to cross the road. • How e.g. Quickly the boy crossed the road. • As part of VCOP checklist children maybe given a list of openers to include in their writing,

8. What is vcop? • Punctuation • In P2 much of the focus is still on capital letters, full stops, finger spaces and towards the end of the year introducing question marks. • In P3 speech marks, exclamation marks and commas (used in a list) are introduced. • When reading to children point out different punctuation as this encourages them to experiment with the punctuation in their own writing.

9. Thank you very much for attending our workshop and we hope you found it informative.