Download Pupil writing targets: Year 4 – Teaching suggestions

Published on www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/NationalStrategies
03-Mar-2011
Pupil writing targets: Year 4 – Teaching suggestions
Year 4, strand 9
Target: (3b) Use descriptive language to establish a specific setting in
writing.
Teaching suggestions:
• Select a text, or extract, that provides a good model of using language to establish setting at an appropriate
challenge level.
• Use 'book-talk' to explore response to the setting in the text.
• Use 'writer-talk' ('reading as a writer') to explore how the writer creates the setting: compile a 'toolkit'
appropriate for the children to use for this purpose.
• Provide engaging stimulus for a setting; use visualisation and the 'Word associations' game to generate
vocabulary for a particular setting; 'magpie'.
• Model 'Painting the picture' game to create a setting orally, then make notes from this.
• Model writing to create the setting drawing on the oral work, referring to the toolkit and using 'writer-talk' to
make the writer's thinking explicit.
• Children use 'Painting the picture' game to create a setting orally, then make notes from this.
• Children orally rehearse sentences to paint the picture in words, write and then discuss and improve,
referring to the toolkit (more 'writer-talk').
Target: (3b) Use adjectives and adverbs selectively to add detail,
choosing the most appropriate.
Teaching suggestions:
• Shared reading of appropriate text marking adjectives and/or adverbs. 'Book-talk' to discuss effect of writer's
choice. Children use paired talk to generate alternatives.
• Read the text carefully to see when the author uses a precise adjective/verb, or when this may be
deliberately left to the reader's imagination. 'Writer-talk' - what effect does this have? Children discuss how
the chosen vocabulary affects the reader's view of, particularly, character or setting.
• Adjective/noun or verb/adverb game. Start with a noun or verb. Challenge the group to generate the most
boring/exciting/thought provoking/sinister/wonderful effect by adding adjective or verb, using paired talk and
whiteboards. Children include their favourites in writing journals for later use in independent writing.
• Model ways of using questions in order to develop greater precision using the 'Tell me about…' game.
• Using their own writing children read adjectives/noun verb/adverbs to each other and discusses their overall
effect in guided writing session.
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Target: (3a) Develop a character in more detail in narrative writing.
Teaching suggestions:
• 'Writer-talk'. Model how writers develop details of character through description, their behaviour, precise use
of verbs/adverbs to describe their feelings, actions and dialogue.
• Model ways of using questions in order to develop greater precision using 'Tell me about…' game.
• Role-play in pairs/small groups. Children develop imaginary dialogue for known characters. If this is
effectively modelled they can use this technique to help build their own characters in guided writing session
(intervention at the point of writing).
• 'Book-talk'/'writer-talk'. Map how a character changes and/or how the author develops more detail about their
complexity over the course of a book, possibly chapter by chapter.
◦ How is he/she feeling?
◦ How does the author show us?
◦ What key events in the book affect him/her?
• 'How would they..' Take a character from a book or a piece of the children's own writing, and ask them to
discuss how they might perform an everyday task.
• Role-play. Children take the part of another character in the book and explain what they think of him/her and
why.
Year 4, strand 10
Target: (3b) Create paragraphs to link and group information.
Teaching suggestions:
• Children read the first few words of each paragraph of a recount aloud in a pair, or a small group, to check
whether they are likely to be in the right order.
• Group write. Children are given a sequence of pictures or a collection of objects and asked to rehearse an
oral recount/story. The teacher scribes, modelling how and when it might be appropriate to start a new
paragraph.
• Information from a text is compressed into one long section. Children discuss where and why it might be
appropriate to start a new paragraph.
• Use of a short film or comic strip to generate discussion about where and how information/events might be
grouped into paragraphs.
Target: (3b) Consider the beginnings of paragraphs and begin to use
connectives to help structure text.
Teaching suggestions:
• Children read the first few words of each paragraph of a recount aloud in a pair, or a small group, to check
whether they are likely to be in the right order. (Explicit focus on the use of connectives.)
• Children discuss the use of connectives and their effect on the reader from a selection of explanation texts.
'Book-talk' - what effect does the writer's use of connectives have on the precision of the explanation?
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Target: (3a) Use adverbs and conjunctions to build links between
sentences within paragraphs.
Teaching suggestions:
• Discuss the ways in which the use of adverbs and conjunctions link sentences in a discussion text to present
different viewpoints.
• Children are given a range of adverbs and conjunctions and are asked to use these to present a point of view
as an oral group presentation. The teacher can then scribe and improve this to develop a piece of modelled
persuasive writing.
Year 4, strand 11
Target: (3b) Use adjectives and adverbs to create variety and add interest
for the reader.
Teaching suggestions:
• Shared reading of appropriate text marking adjectives and/or adverbs. 'Book-talk' to discuss effect of writer's
choice. Children use paired talk to generate alternatives.
• Read text carefully to see when the author uses a precise adjective/verb or when this may be deliberately left
to the reader's imagination. 'Writer-talk' - what effect does this have? Children discuss how this affects the
reader's view, particularly of character of setting.
• Adjective/noun or verb/adverb game. Start with a noun or verb. Challenge the group to generate the most
boring/exciting/thought provoking/sinister/wonderful effect by adding an adjective or verb, using paired talk
and whiteboards. Children include their favourites in writing journals for later use in independent writing.
• Model ways of using questions in order to develop greater precision using 'Tell me about…' game.
• Using their own writing children read adjectives/noun verb/adverbs to each other and discuss their overall
effect in guided writing session.
Target: (3b) Compose a complex sentence, using a subordinate clause.
Teaching suggestions:
• Use sentence-level activities (for example from Grammar for Writing), making sure these are contextualised
and involve oral rehearsal.
• 'Writer-talk'. Discuss how writers use complex sentences for effect within a text. Discuss alternative complex
sentence structures and how these can alter meaning or implication. Use examples of children's writing to
discuss effect and suggest improvement.
Target: (3a) Begin to use commas to separate phrases and clauses in
sentences.
Teaching suggestions:
• Use sentence-level activities (e.g. from Grammar for writing), making sure these are contextualised and
involve oral rehearsal.
• 'Writer-talk'. Discuss how writers punctuate complex sentences within a text. Discuss alternative complex
sentence structures and how these can alter meaning or implication. Use examples of children's writing to
discuss effect and suggest improvement.
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