Sharing Good Practice
IMPLEMENTING TALK FOR WRITING
(T4W) EFFECTIVELY
BY: STACY MURTAGH
“
I
f a child can't learn the way we
teach, maybe we should teach the
way they learn." (Ignacio Estrada).
This is a quote I came across
during my PGCE training, seven years
ago, and one that has been integral
in every aspect of my teaching since.
When a child is not succeeding, I take
a moment and just think... What can I
do, right now, to ensure that this child
flourishes? How can I trigger a sense
of enthusiasm and love for learning?
This is exactly the scenario that faced
me, this year, with a group of capable
boys who were reluctant to write,
due to a range of factors, including: a
lack of determination, motivation and
confidence. A challenge faced me
and I knew I was going to love every
second of it.
16
Term 1 Sep - Dec 2019
Without question, the first idea that
entered my head was, obviously, Pie
Corbett's Talk For Writing (T4W); an
approach to writing that I learnt back
in my NQT year. I was adamant that
these boys were going to be writing
at length in no time and above all,
love doing so. T4W captured these
students and the result was incredible!
Let's take a closer look at their journey
and the key aspects that showed
these children writing wasn't at all as
scary as they envisaged...
Firstly, I had to decide on a text to use
as the hook in order to inspire these
writers. Using the knowledge, I already
had, alongside some very meaningful
conversations, I grew to learn what
my students were interested in (that
Class Time
week) and used that to my advantage.
Creating a text about volcanoes,
ensuring it was full of action and
excitement, was the easy part; drawing
the T4W picture board to go alongside
it, was another story, but I got there in
the end; with my basic drawing skills.
The Imitation Stage:
After completing a Cold Task (to
assess prior knowledge and set
clear, personalised targets for the
unit), Week 1 was full of excitement
and entertainment as we verbally
learnt our model text together with
actions. Instantly, I could see that the
boys loved the 'no writing' aspect of
their lessons- little did they know...