Guest Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Hello, Was sitting today with my guided writing group and suddenly thought - what am i actually trying to acheive here? Don't know if this was just monment of madness but seem to be having some kind of 'writers' block?!?!?!?!? I tend to demonstrate what i want them to acheive - whether it is cutting and sticking rhying pairs for my Low Acheivers or writing simple sentences for my high fliers and jsut wondered what everyone else was doing for Guided writing time?? Thanks Sarah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 You've not had many replies! Does that mean that no one else does guided writing or that everyone has the same questions??? I take a different small group every day for what I call a writing workshop. It tends to be topic related and I weave in the key words we are learning that week. We make books (eg. for Goldilocks they sequenced pictures sticking one on each page. The more able groups then wrote an opening sentence on page one - others stuck words in the right order. The next week they had to stick sentences on the right pages with the right pictures.) Other times we have written letters to the wolf/3bears etc. We make our own non-fiction book about "our house", but as you said it all is differentiated to give challenge to more able and support to less able. The other goups are involved in PiPs work, handwriting practice, key word work etc. at the same time as I am doing writing. I am a strong believer in getting emergent writing going early on and so my writing workshops do tend to be more of that. I encourage children to have a go - what's the first/middle/final phoneme? How do we write that? Can you find the word on the word wall? Have a go at the word on a whiteboard first... (A4 whiteboards have been brilliant to get children going with writing.) This has been successful as it establishes early independence - many children now choose to "write" during free-play time. They have a word wall available as well as posters and alphabets around the writing area. I also made word mats for the writing corner - laminated A3 sheet with some key words on and an alphabet. They put this under their page for reference. (The back of it is a maths mat with a number line, symbols and 10 fingers!) Hope this is useful. heyjude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cat33 Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 Slow to reply as we are still working out the best approach to guided writing. Whether to have a whole class working at the same time in their groups or over the day or week. We have tried lots of ways. I agree about emergent writing. We have facilities to write in many areas in a variety of ways. How and when do you fit in letter formation? That is a problem for us now. The children are really keen to write and try to spell. We dont want to use work sheets for handwriting but I am concerned about letters formed in creative ways! Chris <_< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Hello this is the first time I have added a post and was hoping for some help with guided writing in Early Years. We are having an INSET tomorrow about guided writing and how to include it into our daily routine. My only concern I have is that the people running the day don't know a lot about early years. I have seen them and they have said that it is not relevant to Early years but I still have to attend for professional development. Was wondering if anyone has any ideas to help me run my guided writing. I've change how my timetable runs and was told by my Early Years advisor that I only really need one piece of good writing a week. I would appreciate any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Congratulations on making your first post! I'm Preschool so can't really help, but do you mean I piece of writing per child, or as a whole group exercise with you as scribe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_8466 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 I'm sorry that I can't help bobina13, but I just wanted to welcome you to the Forum. I'm sure others will be along shortly with words of wisdom! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Keen Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 I went on a course last term reguided writing and we were encouraged to do it in small group time which is how I do it now. I have about 15 children and so does my TA. We split the 15 into two groups and one group do independent activities whiel I work with the other and then we swop over. We only do it fro about 15 minutes once a week but it is a really great time and the children get lots out of it. we usually theme it to whatever is happening in the calss at the time and so far so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_3307 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 I think you have to be really clear about the point of guided writing - it's guided!! Therefore it is with an adult who is modelling and supporting children in using their knowledge and discussing what writing is about - it's where you can share ideas and learn from each other in a discursive way. It doesn't do away with all the other writing children will/should be accessing through continuous provision ops and the like so 1 piece of writing with an adult a week I would see as a minimum outcome - if that's all children were doing I would be concerned! It's more differentiated than shared writing and supports individuals in applying their skills. Careful observation of letter formations can allow you to identify particular shapes they have difficulty with and this can be targeted in guided writing sessions as part of the "things we are working on to make our writing good" alongside more generic activities such as ribbon waving or finger painting etc etc. I wouldn't really try having the whole class doing this at once - it's much too stressful!! (For them as well as you) Cx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_13789 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 How do you all manage it??!!! A guided writing session with a group every day! I manage to do one guided writing session a week, i take one group and my NN another. I link it into the phonemes we are learning that week so it is a combined phonics session. I try and link it into the topic, writing instructions, directions, shopping lists etc. I never get any more than a few words from them though, then i tend to finish off with their imput. I have a big writing focus once a month where I sit with children in 2s or 3s and write 1-1 with them focussing on phonemes and letter formation, but i couldn't do a writing activity every week, i'd never get anything else done. They are just 4 and I have to set aside 2 days for writing as it is. We have writing opportunitites everywhere and usually a member of staff floating once a week to give input on the writing table where theire will be a specific focus. Am i getting it all wrong? But with 3 phonics sessions a week, shared reading, 4 Numeracy, topic activities, PE and Rtime, where do you fit all this guided reading in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Thank you for welcoming me Cait and Maz and thanks for your ideas Keen and Catma. The 1 piece of writing would be with every child in a small group. This would be a focused session or guided writing session. This is totally seperate from the writing that takes place in the continuous provision. So it wouldn't be the only writing that took place. Hey Rufus I know exactly how you feel because until I changed my timetable for the 6th time I thought what am I doing! I went to see the AST of Early years and she said I was trying to do too much so now I think I have sorted my timetable out but only been running it for a week so will let you know how it goes. Rach xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 I have read a lot of posts now on this forum but I thought I would be brave and reply to one for once! It is so nice hearing other teachers saying the same things that I am thinking. I'm a reception teacher working with another teacher and two teaching assistants with 45 children. We struggle to get through all the children for a guided writing session, guided reading, numeracy focus and fitting in PE, KUW etc etc It doesn't help that this is my first year in Reception (although I have been teaching 8 years) and the other teacher I am working with has never taught reception either. We are still changing our timetable, opting out of assemblies, playtimes etc and I am sure everything will fall into place soon...or is that wishful thinking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_8623 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Hi Lomas and congratulations on making your first post. Hope you're enjoying the forum and finding some useful ideas to help you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_8466 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Welcome to the Forum, lomas - congratulations on being brave enough to make your first post. Keep 'em coming! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Hi!! we actually plan around the children's interest and take this approach for writing. For example last week we had a topic on superheroes. Children were writing profiles about their favourite superheroes. Even my low achievers were having a go at writing, whereas my high achievers filled the page with good quiality sentences. Really helped us to see what the children could do, when they they are enjoying the topic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_1027 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 hello and welcome Lomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Hello, Was sitting today with my guided writing group and suddenly thought - what am i actually trying to acheive here? Don't know if this was just monment of madness but seem to be having some kind of 'writers' block?!?!?!?!? I tend to demonstrate what i want them to acheive - whether it is cutting and sticking rhying pairs for my Low Acheivers or writing simple sentences for my high fliers and jsut wondered what everyone else was doing for Guided writing time?? Thanks Sarah Hello, this is the first time I have replied to a forum item, so hope it makes sense. We do the say as HeyJude - differentiated writing activities, for example, writing a caption to go with a photo taken during role play, as part of a Traditional Tale story. We took photos of role play, then we looked at them as groups and decided which photos told the stories best - the following week each child had a photo to add the caption. So basically, I have a focus group doing an activity every day, based on main lI for the week. I have another independent group doing another literacy activity, which may be art, role play, puppets, construction, small world. There is usually an art activity linked to the topic. I definitely demonstrate or talk about what I want to achieve so they know what they should be doing. After half term we will have five literacy activities going on every literacy session, including role play, guided writing (following input) handwriting art and word or phonics work. Looking back at your question, I do not think I have answered it at all..... Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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