Big Write Sharing

Stephanie Kneebone
 Things Room 12 are already trialling:

Weekly Big Write Home Talk

Kung-Fu
Punctuation
as writing
warm-up
What did I want to trial over the 2 weeks?
• Highlighting for self assessment – vocab
and punctuation.

• VCOP games in guided reading rotations

• Increased peer talk prior to Big Write each

week.
 What impact did I hope for?
More awareness and use of vocabulary and punctuation
in their writing.

Higher quality of writing.

How did I expect to know if I was successful?
What I trialled

Highlighting
use of
punctuation in
their Big Write
What I trialled
Making a
writing goal
based on their
findings from
highlighting
punctuation.
What I trialled

VCOP game –
Connective
Blockbusters
How it was received Challenges
by students
• Students were engaged • Have not yet begun exposition Big
in the highlighting Writes – students had to think back to
process Narratives from last term

• Students were identifying what was

missing in terms of punctuation • Lower groups had difficulty
engaging in VCOP game
• Majority of students were able to come independently
up with and write their own goal

• Due to previous experiences of

students making goals, I decided to
focus only on punctuation this time
and not highlight all VCOP elements.
Impact
• Majority of students using more connectives in
their writing (and, meanwhile, then, because)
due to practice from Connective Blockbusters.

• Have not had the opportunity yet to analyse the

impact of highlighting and goal setting – this will
occur at our next Big Write.

• Students are writing more due to Home Talk and

peer discussion prior to Big Write as they already
have formulated some ideas.

• Due to Kung-Fu punctuation, students are

identifying and naming a wider range of
punctuation in isolation and in the context of
their reading.
 Reflection
What did you learn from this process?
- My students are capable of self-assessment and goal setting with the right focus and
direction
- Needed more time to effectively implement and evaluate concepts I trialled

What would you change or do differently to make it even better?

- More explicit lessons around VCOP games – pair lower students with a reading coach?

What will you be changing in your practice as a result?

- Weekly analysis of Big Write and explicit goal setting – have altered timetable to allow time
for this

What (if anything) did you make/ or use that may be beneficial to other staff?
- Home talk poster – have made one for expositions and narratives
- Big Write prompts – narrative
- Writing goal template linked to learning pit

Questions/ comments from the group