NAAE’s ‘Spotlight on practice….’

Addressing potential unintended consequences of the writing framework: Promoting the reading-writing connection using mentor texts as part of a book-based curriculum.

Our ‘spotlight on practice’ events are intentionally designed for a wider audience, particularly school-based staff, such as teachers, English subject leaders and school leaders. This session is most suitable for colleagues working with children in Years 3-8.

We are delighted to be working with HfL Education’s and friend of NAAE, Ellen Counter again.

In this session, Ellen will discuss how to make meaningful connections between reading and writing in the primary-KS3 classroom by developing pupils’ ability to read as writers. The approach goes beyond comprehension, encouraging children to notice and apply writers’ craft techniques in their own writing. As it states within the writing framework, “to develop their understanding of the structures of different types of text, pupils need to study model texts which ‘provide opportunities to read, analyse, and emulate models of good writing’” (p. 104). This session will explore how to select mentor texts, build habits of noticing craft moves (e.g., language choices, sentence structure, punctuation) and confidently teach pupils to apply these techniques in writing.

Ellen Counter is Deputy Lead Adviser for Primary English at HfL Education (formerly Herts for Learning) and has an MA in Children’s Literature. She has taught in three different London boroughs since 2007 and now enjoys working with colleagues in Hertfordshire schools and beyond.