Creating Writers in the Primary Classroom: Practical Approaches to Inspire Teachers and their Pupils

by Miles Tandy, Jo Howell

Overview

Teachers in English schools have now had ten years of prescriptive national literacy strategies and it is time for a new approach. This book encourages children from their early years to think of themselves as writers who have something to write and know how to write it.

Creating Writers in the Primary Classroom offers an exciting and refreshing approach to teaching writing in the primary school with very practical suggestions to help build a community of writers in your school where everyone writes and loves writing. Building on the research of recent years and with whole-curriculum provision, it shows teachers how to actively engage children in the writing process, excite them about what they can achieve and help all children to think of themselves as writers.

The book begins with a clear analysis of what real writers really need and has chapters on working outdoors, using the very best of children’s literature, drama and imaginative play, as well as sounds and images. It also features a chapter on practical, productive planning, including two case studies that show the approaches in use at schools. Creating Writers in the Primary Classroom is packed with practical advice, games and strategies for the classroom based on the authors’ successful experience as teachers and in-service providers. These new approaches will enable teachers to get their children up and moving, experiencing what writers experience, feeling what writers feel and, most important of all, writing how writers write.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415452670
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/08/2008
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 11.60(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Miles Tandy and Jo Howell are advisers with Warwickshire’s Educational Development Service, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Something worth writing about? 2. Getting out more 3. Good books matter 4. Using drama and imaginative play 5. Using sound and images 6. Creating a range of texts 7. Practical, productive planning 8. Building a community of writers

Editorial Reviews

'The book can be read from start to finish easily, but I suspect many teachers will want to revisit, dipping in to draw on the ideas and approaches described. This is an outstanding and accessible text, which has the potential to change practice. It will enhance the focus on text as a starting point in the renewed literacy framework for primary schools and support teachers in the development of 'talk for writing', giving them the theoretical background alongside so many practical approaches.' - NATE

'This is an extremely useful book which- in the context of Primary Curriculum Reviews and the greater flexibility offered by the Renewed Framework- has been published at just the right time. It acknowledges the ways in which the Literacy Strategy has helped in the genre-led teaching of sentence structure, and textual cohesion and then goes on to offer a more wide-ranging perspective on the writing process and on the pedagogies that will help develop confident, engaged writiers across all ages.' - NATE Classroom

Andrew Lambirth

David Fulton author

The new Primary Strategy does appear to offer teachers more freedom to integrate speaking and listening, reading and writing (although early years reading in the new strategy is dreadful) and this may mean that teachers will be looking for more support on how to do this successfully. In this way, what the authors appear to want to offer is ‘fresh’, as they suggest tried and tested approaches that will make writing more enjoyable and meaningful for children. . . . The content is good. The authors are to be praised for the inclusion of literature, drama and role play, sounds and images and multi-modal texts.

Janet Evans

David Fulton author

I like the overall content outline of the book and the mission paragraph which precedes the outline structure is good – I particularly like the idea that the included strategies will enable children: to think how writers think; to feel how writers feel; to experience what writers experience; and to write how writers write. . . . I feel its upbeat, "zesty" feel will appeal to readers, especially if the background rationale section supports the ideas section AND if the ideas are ones which educators can easily use.

Joe Winston

Senior lecturer, University of Warwick; Routledge author

The book will be written by two gifted and very experienced practitioners. Nothing that they propose in this book will by untried and untested. Both authors are highly respected by teachers and educationalists in general for their knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment to making education a fulfilling and rewarding experience for teachers and children alike. They have the ability to communicate directly to teachers and to inspire them to try out creative approaches for themselves. I have no doubt that this will come across in the book as a whole. The book promises to move beyond the ‘one size fits all’ approach to trying something new. It will offer a range of possibilities and approaches for teachers to choose from, according to those ideas which chime most with their own interests and potential.

"This book aims to build a community of writers in your school with practical suggestions, games, strategies and case studies illustrating how children can be encouraged to thinkg for themselves as writers...Games such as "Nightline" where a blindfold encourages use of the senses of smell, taste, touch and hearing will inspire even the most reluctant writer."
Literacy Times Plus, issue 59: March 2009

From the Publisher