The Learning Zone

The Learning Zone - Mrs Holland, Leader of Pedagogy/Assistant Principal

Big Write

Every Thursday all students from Year 1 to Year 6 participate in a ‘Big Write’.  This is an uninterrupted writing session where students are able to put into practice the skills, strategies and conventions they have been learning about in class.   One simple strategy the students have learnt is how to ‘uplevel’ a sentence.  Here, students improve their written work by using higher level Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and/or Punctuation (VCOP). 

An example of how a simple sentence can be uplevelled:

Basic sentence: The cat went along the wall.

Uplevelling the vocabulary:

The fluffy, ginger cat quietly prowled along the unstable wall.

Adding a connective to create a complex sentence:

The fluffy, ginger cat quietly prowled along the unstable wall while the unsuspecting bird pecked for worms in the garden below.

Beginning a sentence with an interesting opener:

Licking his lips, the fluffy, ginger cat quietly prowled along the unstable wall while the unsuspecting bird pecked for worms in the garden below.

Adding punctuation for effect: 

Licking his lips, the fluffy, ginger cat (who had missed his breakfast) quietly prowled along the unstable wall while the unsuspecting bird pecked for worms in the garden below.

The trick for students is to add interest and variety to their writing, while also learning to balance longer, detailed sentences with shorter, simpler ones!

Early in the year the writing focus for Kindergarten is to learn about letters, sounds, words and sentences, as well as becoming familiar with the VCOP elements.  They are experimenting with writing and putting in the ground work to participate in their first Big Write in Term 3.

Well done to Arabella in Year 4 who wrote an excellent descriptive sentence last week  (see video).

Home Talk

As part of the preparation for the weekly Big Write sessions, students are  given a Home Talk activity to complete at home each Wednesday afternoon.  This will be a slip of paper encouraging children to discuss the weekly writing topic at home with as many people as possible.  Please take time to have a conversation with your child/ren and discuss your thoughts with them. 

The idea of the Big Write is "if the children can't say it, they can't write it".  Home Talk encourages the development of language and listening skills and gives students vocabulary and content that they can use in their writing at school the next day.   Students do not need to write anything down at home - just talk about ideas related to the writing topic.

To help your child get the most out of the Home Talk activity please:

1. Encourage as many family members as possible to be involved in Talk Homework, possibly around the meal table!

2. Switch off the TV and devices!   Try to ensure this is dedicated talking and listening time.

3. Talk about any 'VCOP' that could be used to make the writing more interesting:

V = Vocabulary - ‘wow’ words

C = Connectives - words that joins ideas together

O = Openers - amazing ways to start a sentence (words that end in ‘ly’ and ‘ing’ are power openers!)

P = Punctuation - can be used to make writing more effective

4. When giving your opinion, use the word ‘because’ to give reasons and explain your thoughts.

5. Relate the writing topic to something you remember from when you were a child and use this to generate conversation with your child. 

See the video clip below showing an example of the Home Talk conversation being completed while driving to and from school. 

Have a wonderful week!