Do you have enough independent writing to assess your year 6 pupils against the writing Teacher Assessment Framework for the end of Key Stage 2?
Plazoom has created a selection of writing activities, linked to the foundation subjects where possible, to provide opportunities for independent writing. These could be used to assess pupils against the TAF statements for writing, providing vital evidence of the standard that pupils are working which could be used for internal or external moderation.
‘Pupils’ writing, on which teachers base their judgements, must be produced independently by the pupil.’ (Key stage 2 teacher assessment guidance, October 2019). This writing activity provides success criteria to help pupils understand what they have learnt and a stimulus for writing but teachers should ‘avoid modelling or over scaffolding the expected outcome.’ (Key Stage 2 teacher assessment guidance, October 2019)
In this writing task, pupils will write a non-chronological report about bridges. This could be used within a DT topic focusing on bridge designs, learning how complex structures can be strengthened, stiffened and reinforced. Pupils will explore different bridge types and their design and match examples of these types of bridges using the cards provided. Pupils will need some knowledge of bridge types or have access to resources to complete research.
The activity can be used to provide an opportunity for cross-curricular writing, allowing pupils to complete independent research, demonstrating their subject knowledge of bridge design.
What is included in this Year SATs writing resource?
- Personal writing skills checklist
For pupils to write their own writing checklists to encourage independent editing.
- Bridges writing skills checklist
A list of features, without modelled examples, for pupils to use as a checklist for editing writing.
A poster for display with examples of how parenthesis should be punctuated
A poster with examples of tenses to revisit this grammar with the class
- Non-chronological report writing poster
A poster to display listing features found in persuasive writing
- Famous bridges image cards
A set of PDF cards showing famous bridges from around the world.
A set of PDF cards with images of different bridge structures
To support pupils when planning and organising their ideas. Two versions are available, one to create a fact file on a famous bridge and the second for a report about a particular bridge type (e.g. beam, arch etc)
A PDF writing sheet for pupils to use when writing the final draft of their writing.
- Teacher assessment sheets
For teachers to use to assess pupils against the year 6 writing TAF statements which could be placed in pupil’s books as a record of evidence seen.
TAF Statements the writing could provide evidence for
WTS
Use paragraphs to organise ideas.
In non-narrative writing, use simple devices to structure the writing and support the reader (e.g. headings, subheadings, bullet points)
EXS
To write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences, selecting language that shows good awareness of the reader
To select vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect what the writing requires, doing this mostly appropriately – parenthesis
To use the range of punctuation taught at key stage 2 mostly correctly
GDS
To select the appropriate form for writing and drawing independently on what they have read as models for their own writing.
To use the range of punctuation taught at key stage 2 correctly and, where necessary, use such punctuation precisely to enhance meaning and avoid ambiguity