Every month, one of our wonderful vendors writes us an article about an aspect of primary education that they are passionate about. This month we welcome Rebecca Jane Morrissey who runs the fantastic Rebecca.The.Irish.Teacher store. Here is her article on literacy ideas.
Quick, purposeful ways to plan Literacy Lessons
Do you find that your writing lessons are taking you ages to plan? Are your children engaged and motivated by what they’re writing about? Well, if not, you’re not alone!
Here I will share my top tips to plan for exciting writing lessons.
Day One: The hook
The hook can be as simple as an object to set the scene of what they will write about. For example, above is a “dragon egg” made from thumb tacks. This can be the starting point of your writing lesson to hook the children in to the topic that they’ll be writing about. It is so important to include a hook in your planning as this will set the interest for the whole topic. During this day, children should NOT be writing. This is the time to engage in drama based on the text type to immerse them completely in the language.
Day Two: Spotting the Features
Children should be given an interesting text of whatever genre you’re studying (e.g. diary writing). In mixed ability pairs, children should be allowed to pick apart and cut up this text to allow them to spot the features that are needed. A lot of times, we ask children to write before they fully understand the text type. Make it crafty and fun by allowing them to make a poster in “what makes a good newspaper” or whatever genre you’re covering.
Check here for this resource: Persuasive Writing
Day Three: Practice using the features
Children are beginning to understand what is required to write successfully in this particular style. In today’s lesson, children should engage in a game to recall the features of the text type from yesterday, for example, Word Tennis. Set them a task, hand out a large piece of sugar paper and markers and allow them to have a go at text type. I do this in mixed ability pairs to improve the language throughout.
Day 4: Plan
At this stage, children will begin to plan for their ‘big write’ for tomorrow’s lesson. I always model on the board how to use the template so that children understand what’s expected of them.
Day 5: The ‘Big Write’
This is it! They’ve practiced it all week and now it’s time to show you what they’ve learned. I always hand children out a success-criteria to ensure they remember to include all the features along the way. From here, they can self-assess their own work to check they have included all the features and edit accordingly.
If you’re interested in planning your lessons in this style to show a step-by-step procedure to writing, and to save yourself time. Check out:
Writing Lesson Plan Template to edit on a weekly basis.
If, like me, you like to plan purposeful writing lessons that are enjoyable, there are ready made Literacy plans and resources over on my store. To get you started, use the coupon code ‘LITERACY’ to get a 20% discount on all writing products including bundles!