WHAT?
I started the new term’s writing by introducing a poem called “The Leap by Selina Powell”, this is a poem that I have shared with half the
class last year. I have come to realise that holiday recounts don’t work for my class and I really don’t enjoy teaching recounts either.
The poem captures a moment in time of a girl remembering her holiday at the beach and how she is glad that she overcame her fears
and jumped off the wharf. Because the text was familiar to some of the children, I asked them to explain what had happened and they were
about to give the others that ‘aha’ moment. What I really like about this poem is that it has a beginning, a middle and an end.
I asked the children to share what they noticed about the way the author had deliberately structured her poem and what writing tools she had
used to create a picture in our minds – activated nouns, precise choice of words. I guided the children to notice the structure of the piece
showing them that there was a beginning, middle and an end, in the way the piece was set out I also directed them how there were links
from the first stanza into the second stanza. I directed the children to use their pens to circle the beginning ‘when’ and the activated
nouns and this became the success criteria for their piece of writing.
After we had analysed the text, I gave the children time to share what had stuck in their mind from the holiday, they sat ‘knee to knee’
to do this. The children were very excited to share their adventures and even my low ability writers were engaged. I used the
pop sticks to choose a few children to share their holidays with the class. After I had drawn more ideas and activated the nouns
verbally I asked the children to take a moment to close their eyes and visualize the end part of the holiday, what they could
see, even who and what they were glad they did.
I could feel the anticipation, I told the children to now write, they all had a good idea and were very motivated to write. I worked with
a number of children roving around the class, after 30 minutes of solid writing I invited the children to come back to the
Helping Circle and share. The mini lesson (helping circle) began with the children pointing to their work, the ‘When’, the activated
nouns and had they used the correct structure in the way of stanzas. The children all in all hadn’t written much but they knew what to write.
Over the next couple of days, not that we had many due to Athletic skills practice and the usual start of the term, the children worked on
crafting their writing and adding enough information for the reader to create a picture. To publish these poems, I encouraged them to
handwrite them out, because it was a whole week of not using iPads. Unfortunately, I hadn’t left the correct sized paper for the
reliever to do with them on Friday so we continued into the following week to finish them.
SO WHAT?
The children wrote well, using a variety of topics and made the structure their own. Some did imitate the structure and the flow
of the poem using words from the text but all in all only a sprinkling of children did this. I was really pleased with the Helping
Circle during the writing sessions and how the children were happy to give and receive advice from their peers.
After talking with Verity, she said that I should get my children to record themselves reading out their poetry and share it on
the school TV station so that other teachers and children could see what is possible for holiday writing. I managed to record a
few and make an iMovie and the children who featured were visibly chuffed seeing themselves on the morning notices.
NOW WHAT?
I need to put up the rest of the children’s published writing in a place where they can be read. I am struggling to do this in my
class as they are A3 sized. I am thinking of getting them laminated so I can decorate the stairwell up to the Staffroom
to encourage others to follow Verity’s programme.
As far as my next lesson, Verity is coming in the class to trial a descriptive piece and encourage the children to stretch their
ideas by working on a vignette but do it well.
“Good writing is like a window pane.” ~ George Orwell
