Bursting To Write Talk For Writing

Summary

Bursting to Write
Talk for Writing trainer, Maria Richards, started by deciding on what we would write
explores how to teach writing well through about:
Talk for Writing’s short-burst approach

There are so many things I have learned about
teaching writing well. There is the use of a
blueprint model, matched to the learning needs
of children; there is the place of quality literature
to feed children’s knowledge of shaping writing;
there is the understanding of the writing
elements that create a toolkit for a particular
aspect of narrative – to name but a few

However, the one thing that I come back to,
time and time again, is the power of short-burst
writing as part of warming-up a unit within the
Talk for Writing sequence; a process that truly
supports children to think like a writer, teaches
them to bring their writing alive (painting We chose:
pictures in their heads of their readers) and
helps them to understand the craft of man
description. eyes
eyebrows
For me, short-burst writing is about exploring wrinkles
possibility and teaching the children how to beard
write. If we want a really powerful setting, that
perfectly matches the mood of our story and the We then gathered vocabulary, with me
plight of our character, how do we write it? If we extending where needed:
want a sinister character to appear and create
a problem in our story, how do we describe that
character effectively? What does it actually look
like on paper? This is where short- burst writing
can come in. Essentially, it is about exploring
and practising the language and skills needed
for the writing

Take describing characters as an example. If I
want the children to really describe a character
effectively, I will invest time looking at what
makes good characterisation and then we will
work on crafting the writing. For this, I will take
an image and we’ll discuss the type of character
we want to portray. Then we will slow the detail
and description down by deciding what
elements of the character we will describe, for
example, eyes, jaw, brows, mouth and so on

We will then work together, crafting the best
way to describe each of those elements. This
usually starts with a collection of vocabulary
that we could use to describe the feature and
then apply that to the prose

Looking at the image below (from an internet
search) with a Year 4/5 class recently, we
© Talk for Writing 2019. This resource may be reprinted for teaching purposes only. It should not be
forwarded to others, duplicated in any other format, placed online or used for commercial gain

1
After that, we worked together through shared When writing with the children, I had a basic
writing, to craft each line of description, using toolkit for quality description that I kept
the best possible language: referring them to and this is what we want to get
children thinking about themselves as they
focus in on the description they want to create:
 Powerful adjectives/adverbs bring the
picture alive – twisted wrinkles
 Name it (nouns) the Mercedes
 Be precise with verbs – the man lurks
 Use a touch of figurative language –
e.g. alliteration, simile, metaphor,
personification like a cave of sapphires;
Crescent moon eyebrows
 Try fresh, new combinations -
cushioned skin
I had also planned out a possible framework for
the shared writing, so I could keep my teaching
points on track and help guide the children to
the best possible outcomes. Thorough planning
at this stage pays off when getting the best
possible language development with the
children. You can see below that the class
writing doesn’t mirror this exactly, but it
supports the teaching effectively

The Mysterious Man
The mysterious man lurks in the shadows

His piercing, ocean eyes like a cave of
sapphires, peer

Crescent moon eyebrows curve

Deep, twisted wrinkles smother his cushioned Once we had shared the short burst writing,
skin. children went on to have a go on their own to
His chalky, thorn beard shields a weathered apply the skills and language modelled

The power of this comes though when applying
Tyne Class, Year 4/5 Holway Park Primary the short burst into the stories that the children
School, Taunton, Somerset. write. Once we have our character description,
we can show the children how to raid this when
they write their stories. Take the example below
of applying the character work into the story

The children were writing modern versions of
Little Red Riding Hood and dropping in a
character that was waiting at the end of an
alleyway that she has to walk through. This is
what we wrote together before they applied
their characters into their own stories

© Talk for Writing 2019. This resource may be reprinted for teaching purposes only. It should not be
forwarded to others, duplicated in any other format, placed online or used for commercial gain

2
This is where we see how we can raise the
quality of the children’s descriptions by explicitly
showing them how to craft each line and then
raid ideas to fit the story they are writing. The Owl
Essentially, we can use short burst writing for The owl perches,
any skills we want to practice and then apply in His coal eyes as dark as a new moon

longer pieces. It might be a short burst of Beak curved like a scimitar

particular sentence patterns or to apply the Feathers, white like lightening, scattered with
elements of a toolkit. We may even craft our inky darkness

short bursts through writing free verse poems Knife-like talons pounce, rip, tear

based on the same idea of forming a spine to It stares: a cavalry solider, a preying tiger, a
describe an image or a real object. The more devil in disguise

children do this, the more they have a repertoire
of possibilities to draw on when describing and Written with Mersey Class (Year 6)
the more they begin to instinctively apply that Holway Park Primary School, Taunton,
basic toolkit for description. Take the following Somerset

examples below written with children in different
classes in the same school:
© Talk for Writing 2019. This resource may be reprinted for teaching purposes only. It should not be
forwarded to others, duplicated in any other format, placed online or used for commercial gain

3
Short burst writing has transformed the way I
think about teaching writing skills and I have
now seen how it can powerfully transform
children as writers too. Plan it into your Talk for
Writing sequences and find your
transformations

Maria Richards is available for Talk for Writing
training throughout the UK. Please visit the
training page on the Talk for Writing website for
more details

The Tiger
The tiger howls

His fearsome mouth like a dark cave

Arrow-sharp teeth hang like vicious bats

Wiry, wild whiskersexplode like fireworks

Blood-red nose spies for prey

Tamar Class (Year 2)
Holway Park Primary School, Taunton,
Somerset

© Talk for Writing 2019. This resource may be reprinted for teaching purposes only. It should not be
forwarded to others, duplicated in any other format, placed online or used for commercial gain

Take describing characters as an example. If I want the children to really describe a character effectively, I will invest time looking at what makes good characterisation and then we will work …

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a writing burst and why do you need one?

Doing writing bursts is a great way to get going when time is short and motivation flagging. What is a writing burst? I came across the concept in Robert Graham’s How to Write Fiction (And Think About It).

What is the talk for writing approach?

The Talk for Writing approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘talking the text’ as well as close reading.

What are the best writing burst prompts for beginners?

There are plenty of sources for writing burst prompts. The Writers’ Book of Matches, by Writers’ Digest Books, is a collection of “1,001 prompts to ignite your fiction”. The Pocket Muse: Ideas and Inspirations for Writing has some similar exercises, as well as photo prompts to help spark your writing.

What is talktalk for writing?

Talk for Writing is a unique process that uses spoken activities to develop writing skills. Quality writing is created by first expanding and developing students’ oral language skills and then teaching the necessary steps for exceptional sentence, paragraph and text construction.