Talk For Writing In Secondary Schools: How To Achieve Effective Reading, Writing And Communication Across The Curriculum (Revised Edition)

Talk for Writing, developed by Pie Corbett and supported by Julia Strong, is a proven approach to teaching writing that is engaging and motivating for students and teachers alike.

Building on best practice, this practical guide takes you step by step through how to establish quality written communication across the secondary curriculum. It can be used as a handbook by a literacy co-ordinator to lead the approach as well as being a source of practical ideas for each subject area. Every teacher can help students internalise the pattern of language of their subject through focused talk activities related to exemplar text. This enables students to independently generate the sentence patterns and structures that are key to effective communication in any subject.

Julia Strong puts the experience of the learner at the centre. By establishing some consistent approaches across the curriculum, the learner can see how what they learn in one area can be transferred to support learning in another. The approach progressively builds up students' linguistic competence involving them in co-constructing the next steps they need to take to make progress.

This practical resource offers:

• Wide range of examples from all subject areas with a particular focus on science
• DVD of a training session with teachers showing 'Talk for Writing' in action suitable to use on training days to help introduce and embed the approach
• Over 80 customisable handouts downloadable from the Online Learning Centre
• Customisable Power Point slides to train all staff in the approach

Thoroughly grounded in the principles of formative assessment, Talk for Writing if systematically applied across the curriculum really can turn secondary students into powerful communicators. Try it, it works!

Table of Contents

Part One: Introduction

• Introducing the Talk-for-Writing approach
• Laying the foundations

Part Two: The 5 steps to adapting units of work to the Talk-for-Writing approach

• Step A: Creating exemplar text that builds in progression
• Step B: Warming up the words of the unit
• Step C: Warming up the phrases of the unit
• Step D: Internalising the tune of exemplar text - the basic approach
• Step D continued: More sophisticated approaches to internalising the tune of exemplar text
• Step E: Consolidating learning to build in progress

Part Three: Achieving an effective whole-school approach

• The first steps to establishing a whole-school approach
• Embedding the approach through co-constructing your policy

Appendix: A case study of how the Talk-for-Writing approach relates to maths

"Silent classrooms do not lend themselves to progress, the Foreword to this important new book reminds us. What follows is an exceptionally well-informed and practical guide to how high quality talk can lead to high quality writing. I strongly recommend it for all teachers across all subjects."
- Geoff Barton, Headteacher of King Edward VI School, Suffolk, UK, author and speaker

"Few schools make the most of the relationship between talk and writing. Often isolated teachers experience success with it, but their knowledge is rarely scaled up to the whole school. In this book Julia Strong draws upon her extensive and acclaimed experience of helping teachers raise their expectations of the quality of students' writing. The examples show the importance of respecting subject difference and of making the most of the disciplinary characteristics of texts within each subject. Strong thus avoids the dangers of a generic literacy that ignores the way knowledge is structured within disciplines. Instead, she gives senior managers the thoughtful, nuanced guide that is necessary for building whole-staff debate and sustained, shared reflection."
- Christine Counsell, Senior Lecturer, University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, UK

"Talk for writing in Secondary Schools offers a practical, systematic approach which clarifies for teachers how to help students talk the subject and write the subject. The manual is a rich source of practical ideas to use immediately and directly in the classroom. Offering active learning techniques that empower students to produce better independent writing, as well as building confidence in expressing ideas and concepts in different subject areas, it can transform our approach to literacy and really raise achievement."
- Carole Sullivan, Teaching & Learning Lead and Vicky Hawking, Literacy Lead, Brighton & Hove Secondary Partnership

"Talk for Writing is a wildly successful approach to writing for pupils of all ages, well known and practised in primary schools, but now, with this publication by Julia Strong, completely accessible for all secondary teachers. Writing is integral to every subject, usually only the domain of English departments, yet, following the talk for writing approach using this book, teachers will be able to a) significantly raise their students' test results and b) give them powerful writing skills which can be applied to any subject. The book is a comprehensive manual for raising standards in writing across the secondary curriculum outlining every stage of the process and including cutting edge formative assessment, how to coordinate talk for writing across the whole school and advice about policies. Every subject is given pages and pages of high quality examples of the 5 stages, all drawn from Julia's work with teachers, and no subject is marginalized. The book is practical, reader-friendly and includes a pack of handouts and a superb DVD. The use of talk for writing across the secondary phase is a very exciting prospect: I highly recommend using this book to make it happen."
- Shirley Clarke, Education consultant, Associate of the Institute of Education, University of London, UK

"This is an excellent resource for schools. High quality writing and the inspiration to make this happen has never been more important. This book will help teachers and school leaders maximise the possibility for young people to improve their writing skills. Julia Strong has extensive and successful knowledge in school improvement and this shines through her highly original and exciting approaches."
- Graham Tyrer, Headteacher, Chenderit School, Banbury, UK