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Writing for a purposeFor a number of years, Mr P has been advocating creative technology to help raise standards in writing by giving children a real purpose and not just leaving writing lifeless on a page. This has been showcased in the Read Write Perform teaching packs which have been used in over 1000 schools.
He has created an overview based on this initial Writing for a Purpose document, giving suggested outcomes and apps to achieve them. By subscribing to MrPICT.com, you can access step-by-step tutorials for all the apps mentioned in the document. |
The Golden Circle
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Based on one of the most watched TED Talks of all time by Simon Sinek, this approach to using technology to add a purpose to writing follows the golden circle of starting with the Why, How and What. I feel that with the accountability driven system we work in, for a lot of schools, writing has been driven in the wrong way.
What - Get as many children to be expected standard, How - Use techniques to tick boxes Why - To keep Ofsted happy because our data looks good. We talk about purpose but the reality is that the purpose is that the writing will be assessed and the only person who sees it is the teacher marking it. |
Utilising technology can completely change the focus and therefore add a real purpose to writing:
WHY? If assessment is your why, we are never going to get the best writing out of our pupils. Assessment has to happen but should always be the by-product of effective and engaging teaching not the driving force. With technology, students can bring their writing to life to make a more relevant and empowering end of unit outcome. By sharing these outcomes with the world, students no longer have just an audience of one (you) but the world, further adding purpose to the writing.
HOW? We will still be doing what we have always done, this approach does not neglect writing and can easily be built in to any other approach. We will start by reading and deconstructing really good examples of a text type. From here, we can learn the language features, sentence types and vocabulary we want to use in our writing. We can then write our text. But the difference here is that writing isn't the full stop. We can utilise technology to bring that writing to life creating end of unit outcomes that are more engaging and relevant to the children in the vast digital world they are growing up into.
WHAT? By bringing their writing to life through technology, this will have an impact of the quality of writing produced as they know it is not going to just stay lifeless in an exercise book on the shelf for no-one to see. In the use of the creative technology we are able to embed the whole the English curriculum by giving the Spoken Language part a real focus and purpose. By sharing the outcomes online, we can also model positive use of the internet.
WHY? If assessment is your why, we are never going to get the best writing out of our pupils. Assessment has to happen but should always be the by-product of effective and engaging teaching not the driving force. With technology, students can bring their writing to life to make a more relevant and empowering end of unit outcome. By sharing these outcomes with the world, students no longer have just an audience of one (you) but the world, further adding purpose to the writing.
HOW? We will still be doing what we have always done, this approach does not neglect writing and can easily be built in to any other approach. We will start by reading and deconstructing really good examples of a text type. From here, we can learn the language features, sentence types and vocabulary we want to use in our writing. We can then write our text. But the difference here is that writing isn't the full stop. We can utilise technology to bring that writing to life creating end of unit outcomes that are more engaging and relevant to the children in the vast digital world they are growing up into.
WHAT? By bringing their writing to life through technology, this will have an impact of the quality of writing produced as they know it is not going to just stay lifeless in an exercise book on the shelf for no-one to see. In the use of the creative technology we are able to embed the whole the English curriculum by giving the Spoken Language part a real focus and purpose. By sharing the outcomes online, we can also model positive use of the internet.
IF you subscribe to MrPICT.com you can download the writing for a purpose overview document here
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If you have a whole school subscription to MRPICT.com you can access all of the read write perform teaching packs here.Each pack provides all the comprehension lessons, support for writing and step-by-step guides for how to bring the writing to life through technology.
Click here to buy individual packsIf you have an individual subscription you can get an exclusive discount by clicking here. |
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