Talk for Writing
Optimist International School uses Talk for Writing. Talk for Writing is a powerful way to underpin children's English, and is widely used within UK primary schools.
It is based on the principles of how children learn. First children are enabled to imitate orally the language they need, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version. This establishes a core reading spine of quality fiction, poetry and non-fiction that all children experience and draw upon. This approach is also very powerful for children who have English as another language.
As part of our ‘Once upon a time’ topic in Group 1 we have learned different versions of the story ‘The Little Red Hen’. The children made different actions for each scene and drew story maps until they felt confident to retell the whole story. From this, they will draw up their own independent story maps, label each scene and make props to go with the story. We are really enjoying this process as it helps the children to develop their story writing skills in a fun and engaging way. You can find out more about Talk for Writing at talk4writing.co.uk.
We look forward to having a team training at the start of next academic school year by Pie Corbett, the creator of the Talk for Writing approach.