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' I have learned so much and it's helped me to put real excitement back into my teaching. ' - Pilot teacher
'Can Write, Won't Write!'
Click the image above to access the project outline from the UKLA Research website. |
East Riding of Yorkshire Council Raising Boys' Achievement Writing Project
The pilot was based on the recent joint research project undertaken by the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) and the Primary National Strategy (PNS).
Designed to tackle underachievement in boys’ writing, the findings from this national project are impressive.
Full details can be found in the 'Research' section of the UKLA website:
www.ukla.org
The Website of the United Kingdom Literacy Association.
Based on three-week teaching units for literacy, very much along the lines of our current guidance to schools, teachers in the pilot made maximum use
of either:
- visual stimuli, including integrated technologies**, or;
- drama and other speaking and listening activities.
**For the purpose of the pilot, the term ‘integrated technologies’ was used to denote the use of visual stimuli generated by different digital
technologies eg video, DVD, cameras, computer texts etc, alongside the more traditional ‘technology’ of writing such as model making and artwork.
Using longer units of work allows time for the all important capturing ideas before children are asked to write so that when the writing
starts, children are bursting with content.
Four Leading Primary Practitioners and one Advanced Skills Teacher were involved in the pilot and each was invited to bring along one colleague who had
a good grounding in literacy teaching and who understood the teaching sequence for writing.
Between them, the teachers represented Foundation Stage to Y6.
The schools involved were:
All Saints Junior, Hessle
Anlaby Junior
Burlington Infants
Kingsway Primary
New Pasture Lane Primary
Before the start of the pilot, participating teachers were asked to:
- identify, for assessment purposes, a group of boys from their class who were not realising their potential in writing;
- find out what ‘integrated technologies’ were available in school and have some idea how to use them;
- be familiar with the PNS Speaking, Listening, Learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2 materials;
- have access to a laptop.
Time was not spent showing teachers how to use the ‘integrated technologies’ because the focus was on teachers exploring and developing their own
use of them to motivate pupils and raise achievement.
Having said that, there was no expectation that those involved in the pilot would have full working knowledge of, or access to, all the items
mentioned - we simply wanted them to be able to make the best use of what was available in school eg video and digital cameras, DVD player, computers etc.
No ‘kit’ was provided.
The pilot ran as follows:
- Initial launch day: overview of project, sharing examples of the work we had in mind, support with planning a unit to include different visual stimuli, drama etc;
- Back at school, teachers:
- Carried out a perceptions survey - with the target group of boys or with the whole class if preferred - to see just what the children thought of writing and of themselves as writers;
- Completed an unaided writing assessment for the target group;
- Taught the first three-week unit.
- Review session with pilot teachers
- Back at school, teachers:
- Taught the second unit;
- Completed a second writing assessment;
- Repeated the perceptions survey.
- Final review meeting with the full pilot group
Selection of outcomes from units taught by the pilot teachers, Foundation Stage to Y6, listed in no particular order:
- Talking story book
- Caption writing for digital images of a class visit
- PowerPoint presentation of class outing, using video clips and photos taken during the day with added speech bubbles and recorded voices
- Recounts of a class visit (after the above)
- PowerPoint story: photographs of the children acting out the story, with their text added
- Interactive stories in which the reader can make choices on where to read next ie non-linear ICT texts
- Note taking and letter writing (real contexts)
- Persuasive writing, including debate (real contexts): poem rap, PowerPoint presentation to headteacher
- Scary stories to share with another class
- Presentation of a shadow puppet show written by the children
- PowerPoint presentation based on internet research (linked to art)
- Jingles (recorded), poster and magazine adverts
- Filmed TV adverts (some linked to geography)
Some of the techniques used were:
- Role play eg using masks made by the children, in class Newsroom
- Hotseating, freeze frames
- Role on the Wall
- Use of puppets for story telling
- Digital photography eg of children acting or on a visit, to support persuasive writing
- Video taken eg of children acting or on a visit, of rehearsal of presentations or performance ie to allow children to evaluate
- Adding voices to photographs or video footage
- Making shadow puppets to use in a performance
- Listening to an extract of video, eg from Story Shorts, without seeing it. Discuss feelings and ideas before then watching the extract to lead into further work
- Watching a video extract with a focus on one specific character
- Watching carefully-selected TV adverts (www.visit4info.com)
- PowerPoint
- Debate
- Focused telephone conversations (in pairs)
- Split screen on IWB
- Drama - improvisation and working in role. Considering eg facial expression, gesture, pace, clarity (often recorded on video for evaluation)
- Conscience Alley (linked to above)
- Paired talk, snowballing, envoying
- Discussing a range of scary settings - books, plus still images and video on IWB - then brainstorming language around edge of A3 sheet before drawing/painting a scary setting of their own, discussing with partner while doing it (eventually to feed into writing)
- Improving the appearance of an on-screen advert (in ICT suite) for a chocolate bar - included tasting the chocolate!
Selection of comments from the pilot teachers:
"I have learned so much and it’s helped me to put real excitement back into my teaching."
"Most of my class improved over the two units. They certainly had a better attitude to the work."
"Mine haven’t actually improved all that much but they are more willing to have a go - they don’t actually groan when I ask them to write now! If I can carry on teaching like this I’m sure they will improve over time."
"I’d never really thought of not using a big book, or text of some sort, to start a unit."
"I couldn’t believe it when XX and XX asked to stay in at playtime to finish their writing! They’re usually first out of the door!"
"They loved it and came in asking ‘When is it literacy?’"
"Apart from being more motivated and interested, the target group responded so well because they didn’t realise they were doing literacy - they were writing in boxes on the computer and not having to face a full side of A4. Having the photos of themselves as the different characters also really motivated them."
"‘Writing is boring’ became ‘Writing is fun’!"
"I really didn’t think I would be able to make a unit last so long with young children and in fact we could have gone on beyond the three weeks."
"Having a colleague on the project was really helpful as we could help each other. We’ve already shared some of this with the rest of the staff and are helping them to plan in this way."
"It wasn’t just that they were more willing to write - what they actually wrote was so much better quality. It’s beginning to show in other subjects as well now."
"Creating an interactive story on the computer seemed to make them more prepared to edit and redraft."
It must be noted that at no time during the units was ‘the baby thrown out with the bathwater’!
The basic sequence for teaching writing was threaded through ie all the word and sentence level work took place in the usual interactive and
lively ways and all three forms of shared writing were used.
The ‘x-factor’ was provided by the time spent capturing ideas and the carefully planned introduction of some of the techniques and strategies
above to provide added interest and motivation.
Y1 Jack and the Beanstalk
Y1 Recount
Y3 Narrative
Y3/4 Issues and Dilemmas
Y3/4 Narrative Plot
PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING PREFERRED METHOD TO ACCESS SMART NOTEBOOK FILES 
To download the SMART Notebook resources:
Right click on the document link and choose 'Save Target As...'
Save the file to a location on the hard disk of your computer, then launch the SMART Board software and open the saved resource using the correct procedure.
 To download SMART Notebook 9.5 please click here.
New file format for Notebook software 9.5
SMART have launched a new version of their whiteboard software. It is important to note that the new Notebook software 9.5 has a new
file format that may present some compatibility issues in mixed version environments, and we recommend that you upgrade all your computers at
the same time to avoid these concerns.
Notebook files now feature a *.notebook extension (they are no longer *.xbk files)
- Gallery files now feature a *.gallery extension (they are no longer *.xbc files)
Notebook software 9.5 users can open older .xbk and .xbc files. Simply open the file as you normally would. It will be converted to the
new format when you save the file as a .notebook version.
Notebook software 9.1 users cannot open version 9.5 files that have .notebook and .gallery file extensions. A Notebook software 9.1 user can open a file created in version 9.5 if the file has been saved in an older format.
To save a Notebook file to an older format, select Save As > Save as type > SMART Notebook 9.0/9.1 (*.xbk) or SMART Notebook 8.0 (*.xbk).
When you save a file created in Notebook software 9.5, the file contents are preserved, but function as a static image. Notebook software 9.1 users can open and view all of the content created in the version 9.5 file, but cannot edit the file.
Y3/4 Note-Taking and Letters
Y3/4 Persuasion
Y4 Persuasion
PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING PREFERRED METHOD TO ACCESS SMART NOTEBOOK FILES
To download the SMART Notebook resources:
Right click on the document link and choose 'Save Target As...'
Save the file to a location on the hard disk of your computer, then launch the SMART Board software and open the saved resource using the correct procedure.
To download SMART Notebook 9.5 please click here.
New file format for Notebook software 9.5
SMART have launched a new version of their whiteboard software. It is important to note that the new Notebook software 9.5 has a new
file format that may present some compatibility issues in mixed version environments, and we recommend that you upgrade all your computers at
the same time to avoid these concerns.
Notebook files now feature a *.notebook extension (they are no longer *.xbk files)
- Gallery files now feature a *.gallery extension (they are no longer *.xbc files)
Notebook software 9.5 users can open older .xbk and .xbc files. Simply open the file as you normally would. It will be converted to the
new format when you save the file as a .notebook version.
Notebook software 9.1 users cannot open version 9.5 files that have .notebook and .gallery file extensions. A Notebook software 9.1 user can open a file created in version 9.5 if the file has been saved in an older format.
To save a Notebook file to an older format, select Save As > Save as type > SMART Notebook 9.0/9.1 (*.xbk) or SMART Notebook 8.0 (*.xbk).
When you save a file created in Notebook software 9.5, the file contents are preserved, but function as a static image. Notebook software 9.1 users can open and view all of the content created in the version 9.5 file, but cannot edit the file.
Y4 Stories That Raise Issues
Y5 Empathy Point of View
Y5 Narrative Empathy Point of View 1
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icon next to it, it can be clicked to expand and contract.
Y1 Jack and the Beanstalk
Y3 Narrative
Y3/4 Isuues and Dilemmas
Y5 Empathy Point of View
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