I was fortunate to be able to share a couple of books from Bloomsbury Education with practising teachers in the school where I am a Governor and to get some feedback, which I thought I would share.
Teaching for Mastery in Writing, by Mike Cain had the greater impact of the two. The English lead used this extensively in looking at the writing process at the school, using extracts to supplement a broader PowerPoint presentation that had been supplied through an authority training opportunity.
Jacqui Hyde wrote; This book is a useful resource when reflecting on current school practice in the delivery of writing. It has clear guidance on the importance of feedback, self and peer assessment and how this helps to improve children’s writing. There are clear steps in learning, for each year group, which emphasise the importance of building on current skills and, if there are steps missing, how this will impact on a child’s progress in writing.
The steps for each year group were shared with all teachers at the staff meeting on mastery in writing and were particularly useful for NQTs who were not so familiar with the whole writing process. There is clear guidance on how to embed grammar and some interesting ways to edit and redraft writing. The staff meeting helped staff to reflect on their current practice and the broader school approach.
From the 100 Ideas stable, Rob Smith (@redgierob) and Katherine Simpson’s book on Literacy was seen as providing some useful reminders of activities that could be incorporated into discreet lesson planning. The teacher who used this book identified some of the ideas as having been shared on courses, so the book was seen as a distillation of very useful prompts, collated into one volume.
In combination, the two books would provide a very useful basis for any developing teacher to get to grips with the process and also to have a well-rehearsed set of practical ideas from which to be able to plan over longer and short terms.
The books were certainly recommended by the teachers.
For interest, personal blogs on writing.
Note making, not note taking...
Draft-check-improve/redraft
National writing project; revival time?
All writing in one exercise book?
Writing process; tweak your books
Exercise books as personal organisers?