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Creative writing

Subject area: Literacy – short creative writing intervention

Lesson number: 1 of 5

Suitable age range: 7–11 years

Resources needed: iPads/tablets, VGA iPad adapter, interactive whiteboard

Expected timings: 35 minutes

Expected outcomes of the activity: Pupils: a) use targets to begin drafting a short piece of creative writing on an iPad; and b) use an iPad to model reflections on their progress towards their targets.

Details of the activity:

Introduction: (approximately 10 minutes) Explain to the children they have to create a short piece of creative writing – around 100 words long. This work will be put on the school blog (to develop a sense of audience) and pupils will be able to give each peer feedback electronically towards the end of the sequence of lessons.

Task 1: Pupils start with a writing prompt – a picture or words (this could be from the 100-word challenge – https://100wc.net/) and discuss as a class the genre of writing involved. Pupils look at the success criteria for the genre and then use highlighted personalised target cards to discuss with a partner two personal targets the pupils need to meet.

Task 2: Having thought about the text type and targets the pupils now need to have thinking time about the actual content of their writing. With a teaching assistant or a pupil, the teacher then discusses how a piece of writing using the prompt and targets might look modelling the meta-cognitive processes and discussion techniques involved. The class are then given time to discuss their own writing with a talk partner and then feed this back to the teacher verbally. Pupils are selected randomly to discuss the targets they aim to achieve.

Task 3 – Independent activity: (approximately 15 minutes) The pupils use iPads (or books) to begin drafting their writing. In addition, the teacher uses some of the targets identified by the pupils to also create a piece of creative writing as a model.

Reflection Point/Plenary: (10 minutes) The teacher uses a VGA adapter to connect an iPad to an interactive whiteboard to view the teacher’s model. The teacher reflects on how they have used targets to begin drafting their work whilst also highlighting any improvements or next steps which can be made. If there is time, a pupil (selected randomly) also reflects on their progress towards their targets. Finally, pupils are told that by using photographs and voice recordings they will capture their reflections on their progress on e-portfolios as they move through each lesson.