A Parent Workshop on Talk for Writing

The Year 3 children have been engaging in the exciting ‘Talk for Writing’ genre of non-chronological report writing. The text titled ‘How do people survive in the desert?’ was the starting point to sharpen and develop the children’s writing skills of the non-chronological report.

The ‘Talk for Writing’ program began with an engaging ‘hook’ experience, where the children built Bedouin tents to set the context for the topic and engage their interest in the subject matter. In the ‘imitation’ phase, the children learned about text structure and sentence composition through boxing-up and reading the text as journalists to their partners. This provided them with a solid foundation for their report writing.

During the ‘innovation’ phase, the children used spider diagrams to gather research on their favourite desert animal, discovering many fun facts about various desert critters and camels. They then compiled their non-chronological reports, based on a modelled report by their teacher, using features like introduction, sub-headings, a glossary, paragraphs, and bullet-points. This phase allowed them to develop their research skills while improving their ability to organise information into an effective report structure.

In the next stage of ‘independent application’, the children thought of a fantastical desert creature or monster. They engaged in peer discussions to improve their planning ideas, before writing their final non-chronological report. This phase allowed them to develop their creativity and imagination while applying the skills they had learned in the previous phases.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the topic, which linked across curriculums with our STEAM topic of Egypt. Remarkable progress was made by the children, in particular their complex sentence writing. Their ability to use features such as introduction, sub-headings, glossary, paragraphs, and bullet-points has also significantly improved.

We are delighted with the progress the children have made in their non-chronological report writing skills. This experience has sparked their curiosity and love for learning, and we look forward to seeing their continued growth in their writing skills.