1. Lancashire Leading Literacy Teachers
Writer Talk
Download powerpoint, film clips and other resources from the LLT moodle in advance – do not assume you can just access these from the internet at the venue.
You will need speakers for the film clips
Ideally, furniture is better arranged in small groups around tables rather than in rows
Please send register round to participants (return to Daniel Hayes in Literacy
office)
Welcome participants and introduce yourself
Presented by
Lancashire Leading Literacy Teachers

2. Talk for Writing DCSF Publications Tel: 0845 60 222 60
Explain the context of the session – show the Talk for Writing booklet and DVD
Explain that this session is the second of the Talk for Writing trio
Last term: Book Talk
Next term: Storytelling and Story Making
Ask for a show of hands regarding who attended the book talk twilight last term. This will inform you of how long to spend on the short ‘book talk’ input which forms part of this twilight.
DCSF Publications Tel:
Booklet: BKT-EN
DVD: DVD-EN

3. Aims:
To understand the value of writer talk in improving the teaching and learning of writing skills
To exemplify writer talk
To consider the use of writer talk within the teaching sequence with particular emphasis on shared writing
Talk through the aims.
Most schools continue to have writing on their school improvement plans – particularly boys’ writing.
Talk for writing is a simple strategy which supports the development of subject knowledge to improve the teaching and learning of writing. It supports the link between reading and writing.
Good quality texts are vital (as you will see as the session progresses)
This session is particularly aimed at Years 2 to 6

4. ‘Writer Talk’ is… reading as a writer;
wondering aloud, ‘How did the author do that?’;
reading with a view to imitating, but not simply copying;
unpicking the overall pattern of the writing;
understanding how the writing has been crafted to create different effects.
Create a hyperlink from boy on the right of the slide to clip of Pie Corbett explaining what writer talk is.
Pie Corbett talks about:
The need to begin by reading for pleasure, to feed the imagination, to read more deeply, dig away at the meaning and deepen understanding.
It’s only when this has been done that words should be considered from a writers’ angle. Put simply, we need to read it, act it, paint it, draw it, discuss it etc before we even consider looking for a powerful verb!
Writer talk is not being a grammarian
Spotting good words/phrases (working wall/word banks) is not an end in itself – good writers are thieves… Pie Corbett calls this ‘magpie – ing’
Direct participants to Writer Talk document in their pack for further reading.

5. Purpose and Audience
Talk to the children about audience and purpose of every text you read and write.
A good way to remember is:
PALS purpose, audience, language, structure OR
FLAP form/format, language, audience, purpose
When KS2 SATs were reviewed in 08-09, findings indicated that many children had not adhered to the task in terms of purpose and audience.
Purpose and audience are paramount
Provide an example of how seemingly powerful language can be used incorrectly, e.g.
Several years ago, KS2 pupils were required to write an accident report as the shorter task on the SATs. A usually higher achieving pupil wrote about The slippery, silver fox slid across the rocky road . Although the child had used powerful verbs, alliteration and carefully chosen adjectives to describe the fox and its actions, the use of language is not appropriate to the text type and therefore did not score well.
Last summer – on the longer task (basically a non chronological report) a pupil had written ‘the colour of these trainers is ecstatic’. Another had written ‘bouncing high I bounced as high as the clouds’ (determined to demonstrate they could open a sentence with an ‘ing’ opener?). In both examples, the choice of language did not suit the text type, purpose or audience.
The what and how it is created is most important

6. Activity Compare the three writing samples.
What does each child know about writing stories?
What can the teacher do to help each child to improve?
Sample A was actually written by a child in 1979 – spot the Enid Blyton type language! They have picked up a lot of the phrases and story book language from their reading. They are drawing on experience of written text.
Sample B This begins with a string of speech and it is difficult to tell what is happening. It is followed by a series of events but the writing does not excite the reader. The child may well be picturing the scene in his or her mind but requires support to make this more exciting in a written form for a reader.
Sample C You can tell this child was picturing this vividly in his/her head. Probably they are drawing on experience of film and visual media but they will require support to convert this into a written text form.
We all know children who pick up ‘writerly ways’ naturally from reading and being read to (and this further strengthens the argument for the daily read aloud programme!) However, for most this needs to be explicitly taught.
Writer talk will support this.

7. Teaching ‘action’ writing
Most children want to write exciting stories with plenty of action (particularly boys) but it is easy to fall into the trap of ‘cartoon style’ writing where the action does not excite the reader.
This is also likely to happen when film clips are used and children write what they ‘see’
Direct teaching of ‘skills’ is also needed
Action writing is an area with which many children struggle and yet it features in much of their story writing.
We want to encourage the use of film as a stimulus for writing (a proven technique to engage children – particularly boys). However, we need to show the children how to recreate the scene from the screen (or their head) on the page.
Teacher modelling is a key teaching strategy in this.

8. An example of action writing from a Y3 pupil
He heard them coming. He ran. He got away.
This describes the events but does not bring them
alive.
To achieve this, the writer needs to use techniques to let the
reader see and hear what is happening.
Read and discuss the slide. Can delegates think of children they have taught who produce writing like this?

9. Which techniques have been used?
Activity
Sid could just hear their footsteps, heavy on
the road, thudding along behind him. He
spurted forward, dodged into an alley and
sprinted into the main road. He had lost them.
The traffic roared past but no one had followed.
Look at this more successful piece of action writing together. Ask delegates to call out techniques used by the writer to create the action scene.
Techniques used are:
Senses – what can be heard – hear their footsteps
Use of powerful verbs – thudding, spurted, sprinted, roared
Short sentence for impact – He had lost them.
Sentence of three – He spurted forward, dodged into an alley and sprinted into the main road.
To extend this – explain the contrast of sentence of three (which moves action forward quickly) with the short sentence for impact (which slows down the pace of the writing)
Begin to make a checklist for action writing – do this physically on a flipchart in front of the participants. Emphasise that this needs to be done with children to give them ownership of the learning process.
Which techniques have been used?

10. ‘Jumanji’ – book talk It was too late. Peter let the dice fall and
rolled two 1s.
Brummm-tum-tum! Brummm-tum-tum! The
drumming started again.
Peter hadn’t even noticed that it had
stopped. New words began to appear in
the crystal:
Demonstrate book talk through close reading technique.
Reveal the first two sentences and articulate thoughts e.g. What was too late? This makes it sound like the situation is hopeless. Why has Peter got a dice? He must be playing a game. I wonder why it says ‘he let the dice fall’. This suggests he has dropped them or has given up…. Who else is there?
Reveal the next section and articulate thoughts e.g. What is the brummm- tum-tum noise. Is this actually someone playing drums. This reminds me of drumming fingers on a table or rain drumming on a window…’
Reveal the third section and articulate thoughts e.g. The noise has obviously been going on for some time. Peter hasn’t noticed it has stopped because he might be feeling anxious or upset. The crystal makes me think of an adventure (link to crystal maze or crystal ball). Words appearing in the crystal make me wonder if this is a magical adventure or fantasy.

11. ‘Jumanji’ – book talk It was too late. Peter let the dice fall and
rolled two 1s.
Brummm-tum-tum! Brummm-tum-tum! The
drumming started again.
Peter hadn’t even noticed that it had
stopped. New words began to appear in
the crystal: ‘This will not be an easy mission.
Monkeys slow the expedition.’
Demonstrate book talk through close reading technique.
Reveal the first two sentences and articulate thoughts e.g. What was too late? This makes it sound like the situation is hopeless. Why has Peter got a dice? He must be playing a game. I wonder why it says ‘he let the dice fall’. This suggests he has dropped them or has given up…. Who else is there?
Reveal the next section and articulate thoughts e.g. What is the brummm- tum-tum noise. Is this actually someone playing drums. This reminds me of drumming fingers on a table or rain drumming on a window…’
Reveal the third section and articulate thoughts e.g. The noise has obviously been going on for some time. Peter hasn’t noticed it has stopped because he might be feeling anxious or upset. The crystal makes me think of an adventure (link to crystal maze or crystal ball). Words appearing in the crystal make me wonder if this is a magical adventure or fantasy.

12. Activity Read the rest of the text and book talk with a partner
Use of tentative language, e.g. Maybe… Perhaps…I wonder if…
Make connections with your own experiences and other texts, films etc.
Raise your own questions then look for evidence to confirm or alter.
Allow time for participants to complete reading and book talk activity. Encourage them to use techniques in the speech bubbles which you demonstrated.

13. Reading as a Writer
Reading as a writer is most helpful when focused on the purpose and audience of a piece of writing; understanding what response the writer wishes to elicit in the reader and how he/she achieves this. It will often correctly consider choices made at word and sentence level, although these always need to be seen in their text-level context.
As already mentioned , purpose and audience need to be considered by every writer.
When reading as a writer, we need to consider what effects the author is aiming to create and who they are writing for.
This leads into:
What effect has been created?
How has it been created?

14. Writer Talk Read Note how text is structured? Note the effects
What can
we use?
Writer Talk
How was the
effect created?
Label the
effect
Collect
examples
Learn
This is the basic teaching sequence involved in writer talk.
We will exemplify this through the remainder of the session.
It is worth pointing out that:
It starts with reading good examples in context
It involves collecting several examples (writers’ journals, working walls)
Application starts with teacher modelling and scaffolds pupils towards independent writing
Teacher
models
Children try
out on
whiteboards
Children use
in own writing
Apply

15. Writer talk What effect has the writer created?
How has the effect been created?
Note the
effects
What can
we use?
We will now exemplify this (see next slide)

16. As they ran down the stairs towards the kitchen,
Crash! Clang! Thwack! A cacophony of things breaking loudly started to come from downstairs.
Judy jumped up and raced towards the attic stairs. Peter picked up the dice and followed her.
As they ran down the stairs towards the kitchen,
they could hear the sounds of the plates being smashed, accompanied by weird, screeching cries. Judy came to a halt behind the kitchen door, then she slowly pushed it open.
Refer back to the checklist for action writing on the flipchart.
Model writer talk by identifying effects from the text on this slide and the next.
Talk about:
What effects are created ,i.e.. action – panic, chaos, violence, threat
How they are created – onomatopoeia, sounds (senses), powerful verbs, sentences of two, contrast of pace in final two sentences.
Continue to add techniques to the checklist for action writing.
Delegates continue to writer talk the text in pairs to end of extract (in course pack)
Take feedback and continue checklist on a flipchart to use later in pairs continue to add checklist ideas and feedback – e.g. adverbs, simile
Create a hyperlink from the Jumanji image on the slide to ‘Monkey Expedition’ clip.

17. Gathering Content Watch the Jumanji stampede clip Watch and enjoy
Create a hyperlink from the Jumanji image to the ‘Jumanji stampede’ clip

18. Plan and clarify/think about…
List powerful words and phrases to describe the action.
Think about the events – story map/note key events.
Note down the snippets of dialogue
Having watched the clip once for enjoyment and initial response, divide participants into three groups.
Each group watches for their specified focus.
Watch the clip for a third time to allow participants to add to their notes.
If these activities are conducted with children, it is important to model them if unfamiliar. The activities might take place over several lessons and be developed further, e.g. through use of freeze frame, hot seating etc.

19. Word Bank
Raced
Pounded
Sprinted
Bounded

20. Writing as a Reader
Writing as a reader involves applying the same understanding when making choices about planning, creating and improving one's own writing; understanding what response you, as a writer, wish to elicit in the reader and how you can achieve this.
Using our own content, we are trying to imitate the techniques used by writers to elicit a specific response from our reader.

21. Bring it all together Shared writing: Working Wall
Demonstration writing
Teacher scribing
Supported composition
Remember to use:
Our checklist for action writing
Our word bank
Is your reader clear about:
What the characters are doing.
What the events are – story map
Key message: Remind teachers to demonstrate! In many shared writing sessions, teachers are going in at the scribing stage and consequently, are only teaching children at their current level. In order to ‘raise the bar’ and set expectations, teachers must show the children what they want them to do.
Refer the teachers to Teaching Strategies to Improve Writing document in their pack. This comes from Improving writing with a focus on guided writing booklet (details on resources slide at the end of the powerpoint) It might be useful to download this and flash it at this point.
You now need to demonstrate a shared writing session which includes:
Demonstration writing
Teacher scribing
Supported composition
Please do not shy away from this or take short cuts – effective shared writing is one of the most powerful ways of improving children’s writing and if you can improve the practice of every teacher at your twilight, that will have a huge impact on the learning of many children.
Demonstrate and support the application of techniques from the checklist; use these as success criteria for the writing. Feel free to do your own thing here or see the example script for shared writing provided.
Shared writing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

22. Writer-talk: Top tips from Pie Corbett
At all stages, verbalise and make explicit the reader’s/writer’s thinking.
Model writer-talk before the class tries.
Key question – what effect has the writer created?
Remember, it’s not just about ‘spotting’ grammar
Key follow up – how has the writer created that effect?
This summary slide revisits the key messages from the session. Talk through briefly, expanding on any you feel you need to.
Identify the features that the children in your class could use.

23. Resources How to teach story writing at KS1 Pie Corbett
ISBN
How to teach fiction writing at KS2
ISBN
DCSF Publications Tel:
Talk for Writing
Booklet: BKT-EN
DVD: DVD-EN
Improving writing with a focus on guided writing
Booklet: BKT-EN
DVD: DVD-EN
The DCSF publications are available to schools free of charge. The Talk for Writing materials (DVD and booklet) were delivered to all Lancashire schools in the schools bag in February of last year. Extra copies are available.

24. That’s all folks!