Speaking to Writing (S2W): Using oral performance as a foundation to the writing of texts in Key Stage (KS)2

The Speaking to Writing (S2W) Seed project seeks to use ‘speaking the text’ and oral performance as a foundation to the learning and teaching of writing in Key Stage (KS) 2. The project harnesses the notion of “talking the text” (Corbett & Strong, 2018) through memorable, meaningful repetition as a basis for language acquisition.

S2W offers an integrated approach to literacy where expressive oral retelling of both fiction and non-fiction is used as a bridge to reading and writing texts. First students listen to a text that is orally performed by the teacher using a visual map as reference. Then students learn to participate and orally re-tell the text using the same map, before changing and ultimately creating their own text.

The objectives of the S2W Seed project are to:

• enhance teachers’ capacity to use the 3 Is (imitation, innovation and independent application) to build student confidence in moving away from a model text to plan and write their own;
• collaborate with teachers to collect and analyse data from cold and hot tasks to support the planning of literacy units;
• develop a framework to help students move from regular oral retelling, to innovate and create their own texts; and
• explore how effective internalising text patterns is in supporting students to write their own texts.

Reference:
Corbett, P., & Strong, J. (2018) Talk for Writing in the Early Years. Open University Press, Berkshire. 

Please click here for the briefing PPT.