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60 Things For Your Characters To Do When They Talk Or ThinkOne of the easiest ways to show and not tell is by making your characters do things while they are talking or thinking about something. It could be anything including a chore, a daily grooming...

Writing Skills: What to Expect at Different AgesKids develop at different rates, but there are milestones that they generally meet. Here are typical ages for the development of writing skills.

The Beauty of SimplicityPenny Slater follows up her earlier blog on the value of simple sentences in Year 6 writing. Following on from my last blog, where I unpicked the clause structures used by Morgan in his Working at …

Ditch the grammar and teach children storytelling insteadWriting stories is a craft that is crucial for life. And if the government insists, you can test it, measure it and use it in commerce, too

My Journey with Mastery Writing and the 4 PurposesI genuinely feel that this model has revolutionised both my teaching of writing and the learning of the pupils in my class. Quite a claim, especially from a cynical sort such as me, but after a yea…

Cursive Writing in Reception – A Good Idea?I am regularly get emails from Reception practitioners saying that they have been told they have to teach cursive writing to their children, even though it is against their better judgement. They u…

Nine steps to leading effective shared writing sessions

A writing resource: The ‘Before and After’ writing frame. The premise of this approach to narrative writing, was born from a quick game I play with my Year 6 class. After several attempts at trying to demonstrate how to build a narrative from a single eve…

Revisiting Slow Writing - how slowing writing might speed up thinking - David Didau: The Learning SpyWisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast. Shakespeare It’s been a while since I first wrote about Slow Writing and in that time it’s rather taken on a life of its own. Today I had the interesting experience of someone excitedly telling me about this ‘great idea’ they’d been using to transforming students’ writing, and

7 Writing Tips From Roald DahlRoald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot, and screenwriter. He became one of the world’s best-selling authors and is well-known for his children's novels, which...

Cheat Sheets For Writing Body LanguageWe are always told to use body language in our writing. Sometimes, it's easier said than written. I decided to create these cheat sheets to help you show a character's state of mind. Obviously, a...

Could we forget how to WRITE? The typical adult has not scribbled anything by hand for six weeksThe full extent to which technology has taken over was revealed in a study of 2,000 Brits which showed one in three people haven't had cause to hand write anything properly for over six months.

Using Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions to improve the evaluation of sourcesOverview When assessing the values and limitations of sources, get students to use Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions to explain the tone of the author and thereby evaluate its reliability with a m…

The Writing Process Isn't Linear. So Why Do Schools Keep Pretending That It Is? - WeAreTeachersHelp your students embrace every stage of the writing process with these clever teacher ideas.

www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/education/documents/bristol-working-papers-in-education/Understanding%20the%20Gender%20Gap%20working%20paper.pdf

5 Brain-Based Reasons to Teach Handwriting in SchoolCognitive psychology and neuroscience support teaching handwriting in school.

Analysis | We are teaching kids how to write all wrong — and no, Mr. Miyagi’s rote lessons won’t help a bit'We can either train students to pass assessments that make teachers and bureaucrats happy, or we can help them learn how to think and write in ways that will allow them to operate effectively in the world. We can't do both.'

50 Writing Prompts for All Grade LevelsSometimes students need a little push to activate their imaginations.

The Subject of Sentences The new AQA English Language GCSE has a bullet point on Question 2, Paper 1, suggesting students might want to comment on sentences. Wel...

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