Closing the Writing Gap

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There is, rightly, a lot of concern about children falling behind, but a word of caution here from SENCo, Sara Alston, warns that focusing solely on academic learning when pupils return to school will be damaging.

Introducing… Closing the Writing Gap - The Confident Teacher

For a teacher, distinguishing between developing an ear for writing as Wyse describes, and letting pupils know that writing is difficult and a craft as Heller suggests, provides a real challenge, especially when the curriculum asks for ‘greater depth’ alongside ‘fronted adverbials’. This is further complicated when looking at children with ‘spiky’ profiles. Those who shine in some areas dull as soon as pen reaches paper; the sparkle is lost and the assessment process may mask their true academic potential. So how can we attempt to close the attainment gap for these children? So, what is the reading gap? It is a teacher knowledge gap, but more importantly, it is the gap that exists between reading access, reading practice and reading ability for the pupils in our schools. It marks out the ‘reading rich’ and the ‘reading poor’ populate all of our schools.Our lives can be filled and fulfilled by writing, says Alex Quigley. In this important new book: That story begins with our birth certificate and ends with our epitaph .... I can't think of a text which better articulates the importance of writing, and then goes on to articulate how to put ambition into practice. It is a book of wise principles and practical implementation. In it, Quigley establishes himself even further as my go-to source of insights into the all-important subject of whole-school literacy. Then when you explore school attainment, you can see the gap and the daily damage that is suffered by many pupils. When you consider that only 73% of pupils leaving primary school reached the expected level for reading in 2019, it is clear that many of those pupils will struggle to access the secondary school curriculum. This book provides an easy-to-read and entertaining synthesis of research on writing, beginning with a compelling overview of how writing developed. It has written text at its heart and offers readers a succinct insight into textual research and its practical application to the writing classroom. The book is a rich source of directions for further reading and examples of strategies for teaching writing which will support teachers to reflect on what happens in their writing classrooms and to make enabling changes. Novice writers, including those learning in schools, encounter teachers as gatekeepers of topics, forms, means and processes. But those teachers are often constrained by systems, including the accountability that tests and examinations required by governments engender." - Wyse, How Writing Works

Closing the Writing Gap By Alex Quigley (Huntington School Closing the Writing Gap By Alex Quigley (Huntington School

This book explains seven critical steps to improve children’s writing. Though seemingly ‘natural’, writing proves devilishly difficult for far too many school pupils and closing this gap can have a lasting impact on their academic and life success.With the goal of giving every teacher the knowledge and skill to teach writing with confidence, it makes sense of the history and ‘science’ of writing, synthesising the debates and presenting a wealth of usable evidence about how children develop most efficiently as successful writers.It trains teachers to be an expert in how pupils learn to write, from the big picture of planning, editing and revising your writing, to the vital importance of grammar and spelling with accuracy. Highly practical strategies and easy-to use classroom activities are included to help teachers seize opportunities across the curriculum every school day to teach the critical writing process. Closing the Writing Gap will guide teachers at every stage of their career and when used with Alex Quigley’s much-loved books on Vocabulary and Reading gives school leaders evidence-based approaches to literacy that can be applied across a school or a group of schools. Closing the Writing Gap by Alex Quigley – eBook Details Pre-writing activities help generate rich vocabulary. This can include drama, talking partners and video prompts.

A good education certainly involves more than ‘the three Rs’, but any less is surely a marker of a failing system. In affluent, ‘educated’ England, 7.1 million adults are functionally illiterate. But Alex Quigley’s motivation for writing this book is not rooted in statistics. His father “left school unable to write confidently, along with all the limitations, challenges and missed opportunities” that represented, and – driven by that experience – Quigley decries our propensity for platitudes and abstract rhetoric about raising standards.

Closing the gap – 7 of the best KS1/KS2 catchup resources Closing the gap – 7 of the best KS1/KS2 catchup resources

This book explains seven critical steps to improve children's writing. Though seemingly ‘natural’, writing proves devilishly difficult for far too many school pupils and closing this gap can have a lasting impact on their academic and life success. Closing the Writing Gap is a clarion call to take the three Rs seriously... I hope the revolution it has started in my classroom is repeated everywhere. I was delighted and relieved then to receive really positive commendations from a brilliant array or teachers, leaders, and research experts. You can read their quotes below: Where do we start with practical strategies for teaching writing? The secret to a practical, and pragmatic, approach to teaching writing is to seize the countless small opportunities to integrate it into our existing practice. This free chapter is taken from Closing the Writing Gap and includes a range of practical strategies for teaching writing that can be applied in the classroom at all key stages and phases. The ear of the writer is her most precious attribute. When well developed, this ear brings analytic precision, compositional fluency, and technical skills that are necessary to create and craft writing.” - Dominic Wyse, How Literacy Works

Summary

It offers advice on reviewing children’s learning needs and provide necessary support, setting up after-school clubs, trying some accelerated learning techniques and more. At the centre of every unit is a model text written by a published children’s author, mapped to key criteria and objectives, which makes sure pupils are basing their own work on examples of the highest standards. Often children with the difficulties stated above can end up on the ‘bottom’ table, or tasks set may be fixed at a very low bar. This counts for all children, really. Do you know your children’s individual skills and potential? Might they surprise you if you let them choose tasks without limits? With a variety of strategies and high expectations, children can often achieve fantastic things. Closing the Writing Gap does offer a simple conceptual model. But for me, it was not robust enough to fully grasp the full spectrum of the development of writing. Early years, key stage 1 teachers and, equally, those who work with struggling writers at all stages of education, would have been helped by a more comprehensive model. For example, I would have loved to have read Quigley’s take on Joan Sedita’s ‘writing rope’ model, which is far more detailed (and arguably more helpful). Maybe he’ll do that soon.

Writing Gap | The Confident Teacher Writing Gap | The Confident Teacher

Slow writing’ first came to my attention when The Learning Spy began writing about them. I have used them regularly and find they are great for developing ‘the ear’ for writing and allowing children to learn how to craft sentences. When children eventually return to school, there is a selection of handy worksheets here, covering wellbeing and helping them deal with the change. This book provides an easy-to-read and entertaining synthesis of research on writing, beginning with a compelling overview of how writing developed. It has written text at its heart and offers readers a succinct insight into textual research and its practical application to the writing class- room. The book is a rich source of directions for further reading and examples of strategies for teaching writing which will support teachers to reflect on what happens in their writing classrooms and to make enabling changes.” Our lives can be filled and fulfilled by writing," says Alex Quigley. In this important new book: "That story begins with our birth certificate and ends with our epitaph …". I can’t think of a text which better articulates the importance of writing, and then goes on to articulate how to put ambition into practice. It is a book of wise principles and practical implementation. In it, Quigley establishes himself even further as my go-to source of insights into the all-important subject of whole-school literacy." Real Writing is the brand new KS2 English programme from Plazoom, launching this September. Carefully mapped to the National Curriculum for Years 3-6, it’s ideal for closing the learning gap and helping pupils to accelerate their progress.This book explains seven critical steps to improve children's writing. Though seemingly 'natural', writing proves devilishly difficult for far too many school pupils and closing this gap can have a lasting impact on their academic and life success. Alex Quigley has written another brilliant book for classroom teachers and school leaders. This book gets right to the heart of closing the writing gap; it is thought provoking for the reflective teacher whilst also offering helpful guidance and advice for every teacher. Alex is an exceptional writer himself, communicating his expertise and experiences with clarity and precision.” If you find you need to give individual students guidance to help them catch up in maths, this free guide will help you plan, manage, and teach one to one (and small group) maths interventions in Key Stage 2 Want to know where to start on helping children catch up? This article has taken all the trouble out of scouring the internet for advice and done it for you. Included in this mix are learners with additional needs and spikyprofiles, making it tremendously challenging for a teacher to maximise writing potential for all in their class.