Reading into Writing using Padlet!

On our recent conference 'Developing Writing in the Modern Classroom,' Alan and I stressed the importance of a reading into writing approach. Making sure that when you teach fairytales, children would be reading a range of fairytales in lessons, guided reading etc. I am planning on writing some Sci-fi adventure stories soon with a Year 4 class, so to try and gather examples of different features seen in similar stories, we used padlet to collect examples.

Padlet is a web based tool, that allows a teacher to create an online notice board that anyone can contribute to. It is absolutely free and can be used in SO many different ways.

I decided to make four different padlet walls, one for a different feature - Openings, characters/settings, key words/phrases/sentences and problems/ending. I then shared these with the children through QR codes -

We then discussed what to look for to see whether a book is in the Sci-fi adventure genre. We listed -looking at the title, blurb and images. We visited the school library and encouraged the children to look for sci-fi themed books. They examined the books with their partners and discussed the content. Using the iPad they scanned the QR code, which took them directly to the Padlet wall and added some ideas. 



I encouraged the children to try and analyse and explain what they found. What type of sentence was used? What effect did it have? Some children struggled with this, however when we look at all the padlet walls as a whole class next lesson, others will be able to give their opinion. It was a great way to get children to read and identify features but also think about the authors intention. Padlet was a great way to collate all the children's ideas for them to use for inspiration in their own writing. 

As this was the first time the class had done this activity, some of their ideas weren't as developed as I would have hoped and some of their choices for 'Sci-fi' books weren't quite on point, however with regular use of this activity, it would be a great tool to improve children's understanding of specific genres and help develop more of a flow in their own writing. 






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Posted by ICT with Mr P on Saturday, June 20, 2015

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