Transforming writing

Creative formative assessment is an invaluable tool for teachers seeking to improve their children’s written work, says Pie Corbett...

Formative assessment is both teaching and learning. Teaching without assessing is guesswork. Recently, I have been thinking about how assessing children’s writing drives the teaching sequence so that what happens on Monday determines Tuesday and what happens on Tuesday sharpens the focus on Wednesday. Teaching is a dynamic and intuitive activity in which the teacher is constantly picking up signals about what needs to be done next. Our assessment of the children’s writing and our observations of the children as writers help the teacher to:

• select a topic that will interest the children;
• create the main ‘model’ text, including the sentence patterns and structures for progress;
• plan daily spelling/sentence games.

Success criteria

Across the country, ‘success criteria’ are being used to focus children’s writing. These are often presented as a reductive list of key features. For instance, children might be told to ‘use three metaphors and a non-finite clause to start a sentence’. The problem with this approach is that whilst the features of level 4 writing might appear, it may well lead to stilted writing. Success criteria used in this way can ruin children’s pleasure in writing. It becomes a form filling activity in which the teacher determines what will be written, robbing the children of the chance to use their imagination.
However, the principles behind ‘success criteria’ are correct – children need to ‘read as writers’ and talk about what effect a writer has created and ‘how’. This may involve two activities:

• 1. Boxing up – working out what is happening in each paragraph, to determine how a text is organised. This then provides a simple writing frame.
• 2. Writing Toolkits – involve children thinking like writers (rather than grammar spotters) and trying to work out how the writer created the effect. This often means thinking at the level of ‘composition and effect’. Once a toolkit has been developed from the main model, it may be added to by drawing on other examples to broaden the frame of reference. The toolkit becomes a list of ‘possibilities’ (e.g. see ‘Suspense Toolkit’.)

Shared writing

Use shared writing virtually daily. If teachers are not using shared writing, then they are not teaching writing. When I began teaching, I discovered that if the children were going to do something, it always went better if we ‘did one together first’. I could then ensure that the shared writing modelled the sort of features that the children needed to make progress. Shared writing should involve:

• 1. interaction, to involve the children as writers;
• 2. constant re-reading as the text grows, to check that the writing ‘sounds right’, for accuracy, as well as maintaining ‘flow’;
• 3. creating the whole text, over a number of days;
• 4. some ‘demonstration’ where the teacher models a new or difficult aspect of writing;
• 5. constant generation of ideas, as ‘our first thought is not always our best’;
• 6. constant ‘judging’ which ideas work ‘best’, considering the impact on the reader;
• 7. both the teacher and the children ‘talking like writers’.

Guided writing is also driven by assessment. For instance, if children’s punctuation is weak, guided sessions can be used to ensure that they write sentence by sentence, re-reading and checking for meaning as well as accuracy.

Setting targets

Some children suffer from assessment overload – targets, learning objectives, success criteria, APP grids and ‘next steps’ marking, the list goes on! It is worth focusing on one approach and making sure that it works. If you have set targets, then these need to be:

‘tickable’ – by that I mean something precise, (so, ‘use a range of punctuation’ is vague and unhelpful. However, ‘use a comma after an adverb at the start of a sentence’ is helpful);
‘illustrated’ – so that children have on the class wall or in their writing journals examples (Slowly, he crept by);
‘taught’ and ‘used’.

Bring groups of children together in order to teach targets. Look at how authors use the features that the children need and model this in shared and guided writing. Remind children before they write about what they need to focus upon. Pause children for a ‘pit-stop plenary’ mid-session and ask them to check that they are addressing their target. Just before collecting books in, ask children to highlight where they have used their target. During feedback the next day, look at places where targets have been achieved but also where features have been used but ‘don’t quite sound right’.
Always set at least one target that is easily achievable as this encourages the children.

Giving feedback

Marking can take ages and doesn’t always seem to have an impact. Try the following:

• respond as a reader to the children’s writing;
• use the child’s name;
• respond to ‘what’ has been written (composition) before ‘how’ (transcription);
• think about the child as a writer as well as the writing;
• start with a few things that have gone well;
• focus on one or two places to improve;
• many teachers mark with two colours, highlighting ‘effective pieces’ in one colour and ‘weaknesses or errors’ in another colour;
• use stars in the margin to identify places where punctuation needs attention;
• if something is highlighted as being ‘weak’ then as soon as the writing is returned the child should change it so that your marking leads to direct and immediate improvement. This is vital otherwise children will learn to ignore your marking.

Of course, the routine of using two colours can also be used by the children so that on some days, they work in pairs, discussing and highlighting what has worked and identifying places to improve. Another useful tack is for the child to write a short piece about their or their partner’s writing, e.g.:

Chapter 1 – you described the characters well. A very long chapter that deteriorates towards the end. We advise the author of this to cut down on words. Also we don’t think that a boy of Tommy’s age would be outside alone at night.

Try using ‘writing circles’, where each child takes it in turn to read their work aloud. Everyone else has to say one thing that they liked. Keep this positive! Use the visualizer to show your own or a child’s writing to the whole class. The author can read their writing aloud, discuss what they think works well and identify areas for growth. Others can make helpful suggestions.

Mini-lessons

We have been experimenting with ‘mini-lessons’. This is a simple idea and can be highly effective. There are two key approaches:

• a. Once you have read and ‘marked’ the children’s writing, you may well be left with a number of common areas that need to be focused upon. Offer these as mini-lessons and ask the children to decide which they need to attend. They should discuss this with their ‘response partner’. This involves the children in deciding for themselves what they need to focus on as a writer.
• b. An alternative is to throw the planning over to the children and ask them what sort of mini-lessons would be helpful. One Y3 boy said, “You keep writing in my book that I need to re-read my work to make sure that it makes sense but I don’t know what you mean!”

Mini-lessons vary, depending on the focus for improvement. One important aspect that has arisen involves the notion of ‘comparing’ different sentences, paragraphs or texts. The children are then asked to discuss and decide which one is most effective, and why. This involves moving children beyond saying, “it’s good because it has three amazing words” or “it has three level 5 words”! Use shared writing to write ‘in the style of’ the effective passage before children try the same. A word on its own has little power until it becomes part of a sentence. We have all seen children being taught to ‘overwrite’, often using too many adjectives that clash against each other or use ‘posh’ words incorrectly.

Being a writer is as much about generating words and ideas as it is about judging ‘what works’. Inside every effective writer is a busy little reader, helping the author select, constantly weighing the impact. Writers need to listen for the tune of good prose and to feel whether their writing is having an impact. Good writing moves the reader.

Six steps to hone your class’s written work…

• 1. Teach by illustration – show children examples in quality texts and use shared writing.
• 2. Marking should lead to direct improvement – use ‘polishing pens’ and focus children on where they need to improve.
• 3. Look for patterns in errors/weaknesses – teach these to the whole class or in focused groups.
• 4. Develop a reading community for children’s writing with the teacher as ‘reader’ and ‘editor’ – when children write for an authentic audience and purpose, they are more likely to strive for accuracy and effect. Publish children’s writing in mini books, scrapbooks, anthologies and through class blogs.
• 5. Creativity is about generating and judging – constantly discuss with children ‘what works’, why and how.
• 6. Use closed objectives to teach techniques (e.g. use alliteration) as well as open objectives, drawing on the full repertoire of the imagination (e.g. write an adventure story).

More

• put your main character in a dark, dangerous setting;
• describe the setting using your senses to build the picture for the reader;
• use a dramatic connective, e.g. ‘at that moment’, to introduce something the character sees or hears;
• bring the threat closer and closer;
• use an empty word, e.g. ‘something’;
• show how your character feels, by what they do, e.g. ‘she shivered’;
• use a rhetorical question to suggest what the character thinks, e.g. ‘What was it?”