I Write

What is iWrite?

This year as part of our writing programme, Motuihe are using ideas from the Big Writing programme (UK) to help enhance your child’s own writing.

We will focus on four key aspects of quality writing:

Vocabulary—every child is encouraged to widen their use of language, in order to make their writing richer, e.g. ‘The sirens filled the sky.’ - not that interesting! However, by developing vocabulary: ‘The screaming sirens were suffocating the quiet night.’ is a far more interesting sentence to read!

Connectives—or joining words, are really important for ensuring writing is cohesive and interesting. Good examples are: although, however, besides, even though, nevertheless, in addition to, contrary to, despite.

Openers—by varying the way you open sentences, writing becomes more engaging to read. Many Connectives also make good openers, other good examples are: Before very long, An important thing, Having decided to, Meanwhile. Using adjectives at the start of sentences is also powerful e.g., ’The golden sun’ or ’The grumpy old man’. Varying the sentence length and word order can also help, as well as using complex sentences structures.

Punctuation—the ‘icing on the cake’, so to speak! Children are encouraged to use appropriate punctuation to lift their writing off the page e.g. ‘We were sailing hard at 23 knots (very fast!) through perilous and ice cold waters.’

This writing process will begin with an iWrite chat at home. This is a chance for your child to;

• think through and discuss the initial ideas for the class iWrite session
• to get their writing ideas clear in their head by thinking and discussing the ORDER of what they will write – will it make sense?
• have a chance for you to be involved in their development as expert writers

The most important reason for the iWrite chat at home is to develop their thought process... If they can’t discuss and verbalise their ideas, how can we expect them to write them down?

Here are some ideas for how to do it:

• Set aside some time for their ‘iWrite chat’
• Encourage as many family members as possible to be involved in the brainstorm, maybe by discussing the question while having a meal together…
• Don't just give your opinion, use the 'because' word to explain why you think that.
• Give the possible opinions of two contrasting family members who are not present for the talk, and use the 'because' word to explain why they may be different.
• Ask others around the table to give their opinions and to use the 'because' word.
• Ask your child his/her opinion and ask them to use the 'because' word.
• You could link the topic back to something you remember from when you were a child and say why things may be different now.

After this, students will need to write a plan for their iWrite time. This plan needs to include;

• A brainstorm of ideas and new vocabulary that will be used
• Keep in mind what text type (genre) they are going to use (e.g. story, recount, play, report, poem...)

This plan will be beside them during this writing time so the more ideas and vocabulary they have, the more successful their writing will be. I hope you will enjoy joining in with this learning.