Writing at Stoke and Allhallows Primary Academies
This year, we have started a new approach to writing with the help of Jane Considine’s Writing Rainbow.
With this approach children will focus on the three zones of writing:
- Ideas
- Techniques
- Tools
In the ideas of writing, there are 9 areas that the children will consider:
F – Feeling
A – Asking
N – Noticing
T – Testing
A – Action
S – Smell
T – Touching
I – Imagining
C – Checking
In the techniques of writing, there are 9 techniques that the children will consider. These are known as the Boomtastics.
In the tools of writing, there are 9 grammatical tools that the children will consider:
A – Adverbs
B – Basics
C – Complex sentences
D – Dialogue
P – Purpose
P – Paragraphs
P – Active or passive voice
P – Past or present tense
P – Punctuation
Sentence stacking
In lessons teachers’ will model writing through a process known as ‘Sentence stacking’. This is where the teacher will break a piece of writing into manageable chunks. They will model each chunk first and then the children will then have a go at writing their chunk of the text using the modelled writing as a support. Children will then be brought back together and the next chunk will be modelled. This strategy slows down the writing process to ensure that children have a clear picture of the tools and techniques they need to include, which in turn supports them in achieving higher standards of writing.