Opening Doors to Quality Writing

Ideas for writing inspired by great writers for ages 6 to 9 (Opening Doors series)

Bob Cox

• Publisher: Crown House Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781785830136
• eBook ISBN: 9781785831232
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In Opening Doors to Famous Poetry and Prose, Bob Cox introduced teachers to engaging strategies which use literary heritage texts as the stimulus for excellent learning. This new companion book, Opening Doors to Quality Writing, for ages 6 to 9, puts the focus on pupils producing quality writing - developing their literacy skills and a love of reading in the process.

In the course of his educational consultancy work, Bob has seen many teachers successfully use the scope and depth which literature can offer to inspire high standards, mastery learning and, above all, a love of language in its many forms. Schools using the 'opening doors' strategies told Bob they led to:

More teacher empowerment and confidence.

More knowledge building for pupils and teachers.

A growing confidence with literature, including poetry.

Planning from the top becoming a norm.

Planning for mastery learning becoming a norm.

Improved comprehension skills.

Improved quality writing and associated excitement.

They also asked Bob for further examples of inspiring, quality texts, and more ways in which pupils of all abilities can access them. Bob was only too happy to oblige.

These 15 units of work cover poetry and prose: each unit provides exciting stimulus material, creative ideas for writing projects, and differentiation and support strategies, meaning all pupils can achieve the quality writing objectives. All the units should help teachers facilitate understanding of the challenging texts and maximise the huge potential for quality writing. Discover a multitude of ready-to-use ideas, inspired by classic literature and great writers' works, along with plenty of new strategies and advice.

The Opening Doors to Quality Writing series won the 2017 Education Resources Awards in the Educational Book Award category.

Judges' Comments: "Described as two gems which provide innovative approaches to exploring quality texts as stimuli for children's writing. Judges described The Opening Doors to Quality Writing series as an invaluable resource, particularly for non-specialist teachers. Excellent literary choices contained within very attractively produced books."

Opening Doors To Quality Writing: Ideas for writing inspired by great writers for ages 10 to 13

Part 1

Opening doors to poetry

Unit 1

His Waistcoat and Trousers Were Made of Pork Chops

‘The New Vestments’ by Edward Lear

How well can you understand and write ‘clever nonsense’?

Access strategies

What better access strategy could there be than to study an illustration first and start creating words and ideas immediately!

Try a question maze. The pupils have to ask as many questions as possible which have been raised by the picture. Just ask them what puzzles them about the picture. If they need starter prompts try these:

What is on his head?

Which colours would you use for different parts of the clothing?

What is unexpected?

You may find it useful to magnify the picture if you can or crop sections of it for discussion.

Write harder conceptual questions (you could call them killer questions) on sticky notes and place these in the middle of each table. Your pupils should write their attempted answers on different coloured sticky notes and place these around the question. Now turn the ‘answers’ over so no one can see them and ask the groups to change tables and try answering another group’s questions. Compare the answers from the different groups later.

When you feed back on this in a mini-plenary, you can begin the process of guiding pupils towards the idea of ‘clever nonsense’. Content which is, at first reading, absurd, can be very clever indeed or it can seem just ridiculous.

The following points might emerge:

The images are surprising and unlikely but there is a kind of pattern too.

The images could be unpleasant or just fun.

The rhyming couplets and regular rhythm support the jolly, whimsical feel.

At any appropriate point, offer the beginning of Edward Lear’s poem, ‘The New Vestments’, which might support your teaching strategies and your pupils’ engagement:

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There lived an old man in the Kingdom of Tess,

Who invented a purely original dress;

And when it was perfectly made and complete,

He opened the door, and walked into the street.

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I love reaching this point where children wait in anticipation for more! That’s because they have been engaged with learning about images, so they are ready to move on.

Here are the first two stanzas:

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The New Vestments

There lived an old man in the Kingdom of Tess,

Who invented a purely original dress;

And when it was perfectly made and complete,

He opened the door, and walked into the street.

By way of a hat, he’d a loaf of Brown Bread,

In the middle of which he inserted his hea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Epigraph
• Introduction
• Part 1: Opening doors to poetry
• Part 2: Opening doors to prose
• Appendix: ‘The Stone Dog’ by Bob Cox
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Available Resources
• Copyright