Reconstructed Writing

Writing is linked to reading by Transformations and Easy Spelling.

Transformations teach about language choices.

In Easy Spelling, by telling the functions of the words, the teacher prompts the children to give her the words the author uses. From their replies the teacher knows that the children understand which of the author's words have been chosen for which reason.

From here the class moves to reconstructed writing.

In reconstructed writing the children try to make the same language choices as the author when writing about the same thing.

Together, the class makes a writing plan, choosing keywords.

 

First the teacher, then class members, talks through the plan, saying what they will write for each prompt. They pretend to be the author.

Each child then has their own copy of the writing plan.

Working independently, the children use the writing plan to try to reconstruct the language choice of the author. (Note that some children may still need to do this as jointly constructed writing with the teacher.)

A problem we encountered here was that by now many of the children knew the text by heart and could simply write it from memory without any obvious engagement with language choices. We found we could avoid this by strict insistence on how they use the writing plan. They read the first prompt on the plan, write their chosen words for that prompt, then return to the plan and tick the first prompt. And so on through the plan.

The children then read their own writing.

After reconstructed writing, the teacher can check which children are able to use the same language choices as the author.

Feedback from the teacher is in terms of language choices.

For example:

Child 1 has written as part of her text, 'a sleek, low, shiny, bright red sports car with flashing silver wheels'. Teacher: 'You have chosen to give lots of describing words before wrote the words sports car, just the way Morris Lurie did, and you have chosen to write 'with' after 'sports car' so that you could add more information, just like Morris Lurie did.

Child 2 has written as part of her text, ' a sleek, low shiny, bright red sports car. It had flashing silver wheels.' Teacher: 'You have chosen to give lots of describing words before wrote the words sports car, just the way Morris Lurie did. Then you have chosen to put a fullstop and then you have added information about the wheels. You have exactly the same information as Morris Lurie and you have chosen to write it in a different way. Remember we said that Morris Lurie chose 'with' to let us know straight away that there will be more information about the sports car.

Such feedback provides opportunity for more talk about language choices and for children to gain deeper understanding.

For some children the teacher may have to return to transformations before proceeding to patterned writing.

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