Nonfiction writing in the Primary classroom
In a world in which written communication plays an ever-increasing role, nonfiction texts are part and parcel of most of our pupils’ everyday experience. Donna Shaw suggests ways to help our third cycle pupils to produce their own in the English language classroom.
By the age of ten, most children are familiar with a wide range of nonfiction texts in their own language. They have read signs and adverts, received and sent emails, and followed instructions to learn how to play new games. Children’s magazines also give them the opportunity to read texts such as letters, articles and film reviews. Teachers can take advantage of these literacy experiences to help their pupils write similar texts in English.
When choosing a nonfiction writing task, it is important to give your pupils a clear reason for writing and an audience for their work. Your school environment can offer both these things. Younger pupils can write signs and labels for the classroom, use post-its to leave notes on a class memo-board, or design and write greeting cards for their friends. Older pupils can prepare a poster to advertise a school event or send an email describing their weekend to a classmate. Other ideas include writing book reviews to display in the library, displaying favourite recipes in the school dining room, or publishing a description of a class trip in a school magazine.
The content of the nonfiction text you choose will probably be familiar to the pupils. However, it is important to review this information before they begin writing. Pupils also need to notice and use the different patterns of organisation. One way of making these things explicit is to provide a model text. We then break this text into chunks and demonstrate how the different parts are put together. The following example shows how this can be done with an email:
- Examples taken from Footprints 5 by Donna Shaw
Once the children know why they are writing, who they are writing for, what information is needed and how it should be organised, they can begin to write their draft. You may ask pupils to work in pairs or small groups to do this because collaborative writing is motivating for pupils. It also encourages them to think more carefully about their work and weaker pupils can be supported if they are grouped with more confident language learners. One way to do this, using the above example, is to organise the class into pairs and ask each pair to brainstorm information for chunks 2 and 3 of the email. When the pupils have agreed on three past activities and decided what the two photos in the attachments show, they can then write their email together.
After completing their draft, pupils need to check and correct their work. Your feedback is very important at this stage, and it should focus on the content and layout of the text as well as linguistic accuracy.
In the final stage of the writing process, the pupils copy out their corrected draft. You can help the children produce an attractive and polished final text by providing materials such as card and coloured pens or arranging access to a computer. Pupils can also help you display the final pieces of work in the different areas of the school.
In my experience, using non-fiction texts in the classroom makes writing more meaningful for my pupils. Children also feel great satisfaction when they see other pupils reading their work and this develop their confidence and creativity. Nonfiction texts are an important part of my pupils’ journey to becoming independent writers in English, so why not have a go at using them too?
Donna Shaw is a teacher, teacher trainer and the author of Footprints 5 & 6, as well as co-author of Find Out! 1 to 6.
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