On the Write Track: A Practical Guide to Teaching Writing in Primary Schools

On the Write Track puts teachers’ autonomy and their knowledge of what is right for their pupils at the heart of teaching writing. It explores a set of research-based principles, before illustrating these with case studies and examples of classroom practice.

Writing is about communication. Learning to write gives children a voice that others will listen to – a voice they can use to share their ideas, articulate their feelings, amuse and delight their readers and argue for what they believe in.

While every child, every teacher and every classroom are different, approaches to teaching writing can sometimes feel prescriptive, whether they are based on a particular curriculum model, commercial scheme, assessment system or underlying philosophy.

This book provides freedom and choice by introducing a series of ‘tracks’ for writing teaching, including practical approaches to:

• Building a community of writers in the classroom
• Employing a process-led sequence for teaching writing
• Encouraging children to write for pleasure and share their own interests
• Exploring the use of rich and diverse texts as fuel for writing
• Drawing on spoken language and oracy to develop written communication
• Teaching grammar and punctuation to support writing
• Utilising feedback to help children develop their writing voice
• Using drama and play as starting points for writing

Through considering these different tracks and thinking about how to weave them together into a coherent whole, teachers can help every child to make the journey to being a confident, skilled, keen writer.

James Clements is an experienced teacher, researcher and education writer. He has worked with groups of schools, education organisations and governments in the UK and across the world to support the teaching of English. Prior to this, James was a primary teacher and school leader in central London. He is the author of Teaching English by the Book and co-author of' Understanding and Teaching Primary English.