Talk For Writing In Secondary Schools:: How To Achieve Effective Reading, Writing And Communication Across The Curriculum

258 Pages·2013·12.77 MB·English

by  Julia Strong

Talk for Writing in Secondary Schools
With a Foreword by Pie Corbett
“‘Talk for Writing’ is a wildly successful approach to writing for pupils of all
ages...The book is a comprehensive manual for raising standards in writing
across the secondary curriculum outlining every stage of the process and
including cutting edge formative assessment, how to coordinate ‘Talk for
Writing’ across the whole school and advice about policies...It is practical,
reader-friendly and includes a pack of handouts and a superb DVD. The use of
‘Talk for Writing’ across the secondary phase is a very exciting prospect: I
highly recommend using this book to make it happen.”
Shirley Clarke, Education consultant, Associaate of the Institute of Education,
University of London, UK
‘Talk for Writing’, developed by Pie Corbett supported by Julia Strong, is a proven
approach to teaching writing that is engaging and motivating for students and
teachers alike.
Building on best practice, this practical guide takes you step by step through how to
establish quality written communication across the secondary curriculum. It can be used
as a handbook by a literacy coordinator to lead the approach as well as being a source of
practical ideas for each subject area. Every teacher can help students internalise the
pattern of language of their subject through focused talk activities related to exemplar
text. This enables students to independently generate the sentence patterns and
structures that are key to effective communication in any subject.
How to achieve effective
Julia Strong puts the experience of the learner at the centre. By establishing some
consistent approaches across the curriculum, the learner can see how what they learn in
one area can be transferred to support learning in another. The approach progressively reading, writing and
builds up students’ linguistic competence involving them in co-constructing the next
steps they need to take to make progress.
communication across
ThiS PraCTiCal reSourCe offerS:
• the curriculum
Wide range of examples from all subject areas with a particular focus on science
•
DVD of a training session with teachers showing ‘Talk for Writing’ in action
suitable to use on training days to help introduce and embed the approach
•
over 80 customisable handouts downloadable from the DVD
•
Customisable Power Point slides to train all staff in the approach
Thoroughly grounded in the principles of formative assessment, ‘Talk for Writing’ if
systematically applied across the curriculum really can turn secondary students
into powerful communicators. Try it, it works!
Julia Strong now works with Pie Corbett in developing ‘Talk for Writing’. A former
secondary school deputy head, she then became Deputy Director at the National
Literacy Trust and Director of the National Reading Campaign. She is an expert on
literacy across the curriculum and the author of a number of bestselling books, including
Talk for Writing Across the Curriculum (Open University Press, 2011) with Pie Corbett.
www.talk4writing.com Cover D
esign: H
andsD
esign.ca
Talk for Writing in Secondary Schools
2255445511..iinnddbb ii 2299//0077//22001133 1166::0033
2255445511..iinnddbb iiii 2299//0077//22001133 1166::0033
Talk for Writing in Secondary
Schools
How to achieve effective reading, writing
and communication across the curriculum
Julia Strong
2255445511..iinnddbb iiiiii 2299//0077//22001133 1166::0033
Open University Press
McGraw- Hill Education
McGraw- Hill House
Shoppenhangers Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire
England
SL6 2QL
email: [email protected]
world wide web: www.openup.co.uk
and Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121–2289, USA
First published 2013
Copyright © Julia Strong, 2013
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of
criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such
licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright
Licensing Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 6- 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
The Open University Press MediaCentre allows eBook purchasers to access digital
resources that accompany the printed book. Visit: www.openup.co.uk/mediacentre
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 33- 526260- 1 (pb)
ISBN- 10: 0- 33- 526260- 0 (pb)
eISBN: 978- 0- 33- 526261- 8
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
CIP data applied for
Typesetting and e- book compilations by
Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data that may be
used herein (in case studies or in examples) are not intended to represent any real
individual, company, product or event.
2255445511__0000__FFMM..iinndddd iivv 1122//0099//22001133 1122::1166
This handbook is dedicated to all the teachers across the curriculum whose
enthusiasm for the Talk- for- Writing approach, and generosity in letting me use
their material, have made this handbook possible. In particular, I would like to
thank the following people from Brighton and Hove – Carole Sullivan, Teaching
and Learning adviser; Vicky Hawking, English adviser and English teacher at
Cardinal Newman; Zeb Friedman, Maths adviser and AST maths teacher,
Varndean School; and Sue Pickerill, Science adviser and science teacher,
Varndean School – for not only piloting the approach but for doing so in such
a model way, building up the approach and making it their own. But most of
all, thanks to Pie Corbett for creating the Talk- for- Writing approach and
asking me to help him develop it; and for his endless inspiration, humour and
passion to help teachers help children learn to express themselves effectively.
Julia Strong, www.Talk4Writing.com
Note: AQA examination- related materials are reproduced by permission of AQA Education
(AQA).
Christine Counsell fi rst published the Fire of London materials (see page
172) in the following pamphlet: Counsell, C. (1997) Analytical and Discursive
Writing in History at Key Stage 3, London: Historical Association. Counsell’s
work has focused on how to integrate oral and written work to secure a
strong relationship between thinking and knowledge-building within a
disciplinary framework. The following publication sets out the most recent
version of the resources, and models ways of using them in practice to secure
historical argument: Counsell, C. (2011) ‘Generating historical argument
about causation in the history classroom: exploring practical teaching
approaches’, in Ghusayni, R., Karami, R., & Akar, B. (Eds.). (2012) Learning
and teaching history: Lessons from and for Lebanon: Proceedings of the
Third Conference on Education , Lebanese Association for Education Studies,
25-26 March 2011. Beirut: Arab Cultural Centre.)
2255445511..iinnddbb vv 2299//0077//22001133 1166::0033
Praise for this book
“Few schools make the most of the relationship between talk and writing. Often
isolated teachers experience success with it, but their knowledge is rarely scaled up to
the whole school. In this book Julia Strong draws upon her extensive and acclaimed
experience of helping teachers raise their expectations of the quality of students’
writing. The examples show the importance of respecting subject difference and of
making the most of the disciplinary characteristics of texts within each subject. Strong
thus avoids the dangers of a generic literacy that ignores the way knowledge is
structured within disciplines. Instead, she gives senior managers the thoughtful,
nuanced guide that is necessary for building whole-staff debate and sustained, shared
refl ection.”
Christine Counsell, Senior Lecturer, University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, UK
“Talk for writing in Secondary Schools offers a practical, systematic approach which
clarifi es for teachers how to help students talk the subject and write the subject.
The manual is a rich source of practical ideas to use immediately and directly in
the classroom. Offering active learning techniques that empower students to produce
better independent writing, as well as building confi dence in expressing ideas and
concepts in different subject areas, it can transform our approach to literacy and
really raise achievement.”
Carole Sullivan, Teaching & Learning Lead and Vicky Hawking, Literacy Lead,
Brighton & Hove Secondary Partnership
“Talk for Writing is a wildly successful approach to writing for pupils of all ages, well
known and practised in primary schools, but now, with this publication by Julia Strong,
completely accessible for all secondary teachers. Writing is integral to every subject,
usually only the domain of English departments, yet, following the talk for writing
approach using this book, teachers will be able to a) signifi cantly raise their students’
test results and b) give them powerful writing skills which can be applied to any
subject. The book is a comprehensive manual for raising standards in writing across
the secondary curriculum outlining every stage of the process and including cutting
edge formative assessment, how to coordinate talk for writing across the whole school
and advice about policies. Every subject is given pages and pages of high quality
examples of the 5 stages, all drawn from Julia’s work with teachers, and no subject is
marginalized. The book is practical, reader-friendly and includes a pack of handouts
and a superb DVD. The use of talk for writing across the secondary phase is a very
exciting prospect: I highly recommend using this book to make it happen.”
Shirley Clarke, Education consultant, Associate of the Institute of Education,
University of London, UK
2255445511..iinnddbb vvii 2299//0077//22001133 1166::0033
“This is an excellent resource for schools. High quality writing and the inspiration to make
this happen has never been more important. This book will help teachers and school leaders
maximise the possibility for young people to improve their writing skills. Julia Strong has
extensive and successful knowledge in school improvement and this shines through her
highly original and exciting approaches.”
Graham Tyrer, Headteacher, Chenderit School, Banbury, UK
“ ‘Silent classrooms do not lend themselves to progress,’ the Foreword to this important new
book reminds us. What follows is an exceptionally well-informed and practical guide to how
high quality talk can lead to high quality writing. I strongly recommend it for all teachers
across all subjects.”
Geoff Barton, Headteacher of King Edward VI School, Suffolk, UK, author and speaker
2255445511..iinnddbb vviiii 2299//0077//22001133 1166::0033
2255445511..iinnddbb vviiiiii 2299//0077//22001133 1166::0033
Contents
Foreword x
Guided tour xii
Subject index of handouts xiv
Part 1: Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Introducing the Talk- for- Writing approach 3
Chapter 2 Laying the foundations 21
Part 2: The fi ve steps to adapting units of work to the
Talk- for- Writing approach 31
Chapter 3 Step A: Creating exemplar text that builds in
progression 33
Chapter 4 Step B: Warming up the words of a unit 38
Chapter 5 Step C: Warming up the phrases of a unit 70
Chapter 6 Step D: Internalising the tune of exemplar
text – the basic approach 104
Chapter 7 Step D continued: More sophisticated approaches
to internalising the tune of exemplar text 126
Chapter 8 Step E: Consolidating learning to build in progress 198
Part 3: Achieving an effective whole-s chool approach 205
Chapter 9 The fi rst steps to establishing a whole- school
approach 207
Chapter 10 Embedding the approach through
co- constructing your policy 219
Appendix A case study of how the Talk-for-Writing approach
relates to maths 225
2255445511..iinnddbb iixx 2299//0077//22001133 1166::0033