Creative Teaching and Learning

Composing Coherently Inspiring Independence in Writing

In our ongoing series discussing the new national curriculum, our English expert, Wendy Morton discusses some of the aspects of the writing composition requirements for the Key Stage 1 & 2 English curriculum.

Year 1: Composition 

Objectives:

  • Rehearses sentences before writing and reads back afterwards to self-correct
  • Can compose a narrative sequence of sentences
  • Can identify ways to improve one’s own writing
  • Reads aloud own work clearly for others

Personal recount is an early text for pupils to write. Recounting or retelling personal events is fundamental to young children’s lives and provides the opportunity individually, in pairs or in a group to orally rehearse what they are going to write about. A starting point for developing writing is having something you want to convey to the reader, and narrative provides a clear structure around which to arrange the formation of a sequence of sentences by indicating the type of content would be in each sentence, e.g. Where did this happen? What time of day was it?

Speaking and listening prior to writing is an important stage but it is important to require pupils at the very earliest stage to read their own writing carefully and to check whether it makes sense e.g. whether they have missed out a word or the tense of a verb is incorrect.

Instructional texts are suitable for young children because:

  • they need to be able to follow verbal instructions
  • a single instruction is an ideal length for early reading and writing
  • they relate to young children’s experiences
  • creating instructions encourages logical thinking

Instructional texts are useful for checking whether the meaning has been made clear or whether steps have been missed out. Pupils can test out each other’s instructions to see if they work.

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