1. Improving writing through
modelling: strategies for planning
responses
Becky Jones and Laura Webb
@beckyteachopia and @lauralolder
@TMEnglishIcons #TMEngIcons
2. @TMEnglishIcons #TMEngIcons
• Planning allows students 5 minutes to prepare
their ideas/ streamline their thinking.
• For 7+ it ensures their ideas link to a overall
thesis/argument
• Like with everything, students’ ability to plan
relies on modelling and repetition
• It also builds retrieval practice, encouraging
students to regularly access their knowledge
• Use an I do- We do – You do approach but
repeatedly going back to each.
• Planning properly builds textual security
• It’s a separate skill which needs refining
5. @TMEnglishIcons #TMEngIcons
• Include ideas that directly relate to the question
• Main overview idea that all ideas link/relate to
• Signpost key moments/elements of the text
• Develop ideas in chronological order
You may consider teaching/practising:
• Scaled down quotations
• Quick links to AO3 / writer’s purpose
6. @TMEnglishIcons #TMEngIcons
• Using mini extracts to repeatedly plan.
• Constant plot bouncing
• Linking moments together
• Teaching motifs for whole text coverage
• Searching the text and speed planning
• Quotation application tests
• Giving thesis statements to plan for
• Reverse planning – give an essay and
write the plan
• Find faults – give half complete plans
and students fix the mistakes
• Plans as retrieval activities
7. @TMEnglishIcons #TMEngIcons
• Anchor points across the text chronologically
• Allows understanding of whole narrative
• Space to expand ideas and link across text
8. @TMEnglishIcons #TMEngIcons
• Some students prefer to map ideas before they order
them.
• Can go wrong – must have an order and agreed amount
• Minimum expectation of quotation and idea needed
10. @TMEnglishIcons #TMEngIcons
• A good opportunity for
comparison (poetry)
• Clearly orders ideas
• Space for evidence
• Overview ideas come first
• Gives clear structure to the
response
