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Big Writing


Guest Really

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Hi Moose, havent tried this---cant imagine doing so with my present class either although they are mostly new to school this term. Perhaps you will feel happier if you give it another go although i appreaite that you wnat someone else to say, yes it can be like that and I am waiting to see what they say too!!

Meanwhile youre writing descriptors sound pretty good to me although your spaces may be quite ambitious as yet? In our Ofsted this week we were told not to make capital letters and full stops targets as they werent always attainable and I wonder whether spaces would be the same?

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Don't blame yourself at all - it's not your teaching, as you say the children are just not ready for it and if you are finding writing in small groups sucessful you should stick to that. All of my children are not writing fluently in our big write, i would say that the majority of the children in my class are just hearing and writing initial, final and some medial sounds in words, some find leaving spaces in between words difficult and there are still children who are not writing any letters. For these children they have a go and translate to us their ideas (some of which are fantastic) and then quietly read a book until the other children have finished. I wouldn't give it all up though the VCOP part of the big write is still relevant when you are doing CLL e.g. sharing a big book, who can spot 'wow words', what connectives are in the book? Kung fu punctuation etc. Hope you don't give it all up? You sound like a wonderful teacher, willing to try out new ideas to extend your children's learning don't beat yourself up they are very lucky to have you! :D

Kat xx

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Well done Moose for trying and wanting to move onwards despite a not so good experience. I think that's one of the great things about the forum is that we can share ideas and come back and say...well that didnt work or how can I make that better?

 

We don't use big writing in reception but do in the rest of the school and yes its impact is amazing. But if you listen to Ros Wilson she doesn't really push its use early on anyway. We are 100% eal and the notion of WOW words is hard when they just don't have the experience. My basic philosophy (for which I get into constant trouble) is that they cant write what they cant say, and so we always start our writing sessions with talking partners. Then we move onto writing. It means that sometimes they don't write more than a word or two (or some are still at symbols stage) but they have to say it first otherwise its meaningless.

 

Now that Ive read what others do in big writing, I might consider in the summer term when I feel the children would benefit more from it.

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Good point Mundia we introduced the WOW words into speaking and listening activities for the younger children last year as they just didn't have the language skills. So in stories we say did you hear that WOW word? and in circle time we try to use 'ambitious vocabulary' it has widened the children's vocabulary so has got to help in the long term.

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  • 6 months later...
We use the VCOP initially as a speaking and listening activity and gradually introduce the idea into the children's writing. There is a training video but the school is an English school in Hong Kong (I think ) and wasnt terribly inspiring.

Our children love the idea of wow words in their writing and being able to level their work.

We have a writer of the week award.

Have you seen the Ros Wilson pyramids?

Samuel started to make some wow words as a free resource on Sparklebox if you are interested.

We use the Ros Wilson criterion for tracking too Ive attached my sheets

Marion - these level descriptors are great. Do you have nay higher levels for the rest of school? Drummy

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Everyone

Having just attended Ros Wilsons Raising Standards in Writing Day 1 - she is a real inspiration.

We are going to incorporate it in with our new primary framework!

And looking forward to seeing her again on Day 2.

She is fantastic and the results achieved were phenomenal.

There are some Cd's Big Writing Games, Story Starters

and books 'Write on', etc well worth the money!

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Becky this will be our third year of Big Writing and we have seen a great improvement in standards across the school. We are planning on using the genre from the Framework but sticking to the Ros Wilson format for literacy. We also had an inset on Write Away which has many aspects of Big Writing which provided additional ideas.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you all for this topic- i am fascinated- I have not heard of this - but I have learned so much just from reading this post and the links.

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