Kinds of writing - Literacy
This section contains resources for stimulating and guiding various kinds of writing. The materials available to members of English Online currently cover:
Writing from the inside of your own head - Pat D'Arcy
Pat D'Arcy, formerly English Adviser for Wiltshire and a past Chair of the National Association for the Teaching of English, outlines some simple ideas to draw out potential material from the inside of the young writer's own head. Whatever the age and ability of your students, you'll find her suggestions exciting!
Drawing in part on ideas elaborated in her latest booklet, Two
Contrasting Paradigms for the Teaching and Assessment of Writing, Pat D'Arcy's suggestions
provide short starter activities for writing of all kinds, whether
children are going on to write a story, to record what they have
learnt in a topic or to explore how words work. As such they can
readily be used a starter activities in literacy lessons - though
she explains how the approaches here go beyond what she sees as
the limitations of the Literacy Strategy. English teachers will
find her ideas stimulating (just look at the examples of children's writing in response to Activity 8!) and will also find much food for thought
in her booklet, which is obtainable from NATE.
Her approach is set out in full in the article Writing from the Inside; we also provide a summary of the prompts for the teacher who wishes to use the strategies in class.
Writing frames in the classroom - David McLaughlin
David McLaughlin gives a succinct and persuasive outline of the value of writing frames in helping students cope with the demands of non-fiction writing. He makes the point that frames should never be part of an isolated study skills lesson. So don't just read his outline - try out the writing frames David has written for English Online for the NEAB Anthology - Poems from Other Cultures - and for The Glass Menagerie.
The materials here give a sample of the training on writing frames which David leads for Cornwall College.
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