Writing

Writing at Oakfield 

At Oakfield we introduced the Talk for Writing (T4W) approach in November 2022. This approach enables children to imitate the key language they need for a particular topic orally before they try reading and analysing it. We teach all of our English through fun activities that help them rehearse the tune of the language they need, followed by shared writing to show them how to craft their writing. This enables them to choose the writer tools they want to use in their independent writing, which in turn helps them to develop their own literacy voice. 


The Method


Talk for Writing is powerful because it enables children to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally before they begin reading and analysing it and then writing their own version. Pie Corbett gives a brief explanation below of the basic principles. It builds on three key stages:


Stage 1 – Imitation

Stage 2 – Innovation

Stage 3 - Independent Application

The Imitation Stage


Once the teacher has established a creative context and an engaging start (the hook), a typical T4W unit would begin with some engaging activities warming up the tune of the text to help children internalise the pattern of the language required.  

This is followed by talking an exemplar text, supported visually by a text map and physical movements to help the children recall the story or non-fiction piece. In this way the children hear the text, say it for themselves and enjoy it before seeing it written down.  


Once they have internalised the language of the text, they are in a position to read the text and start to think about the ingredients that help make it work.

The Innovation Stage


Once the children have internalised the text, they are then ready to start innovating on the pattern of the text. This could begin with more advanced activities to warm up the key words and phrases of the type of text focused on so the children can magpie ideas. Younger children and less confident writers create their own text maps and orally rehearse what they want to say. The key activity in this stage is shared writing, helping the children to write their own by ‘doing one together’ first. This could begin with using a boxed up grid to show how to plan the text and turn the plan into writing. This allows the children to see how they can innovate on the exemplar text and select words and phrases that really work. Demonstrating how to regularly read their work aloud to see if it works is important here. This process enables the children to write their own versions through developing their inner judge when they start to decide why one word or phrase is best. 

Independent Application

During this phase the children plan and write their own story based on the text type they have been learning. They experiment with the ideas and begin to explore their own style of writing using sentence types from the model text before finally writing their version of the text.

Everyday symbols 



These are added across the year groups and are the basics expected from children when they are writing in any genre.

Tips for getting your child to write