Take a look at this fantastic Talk4Writing text from the Flamingo Class! As part of their World Exploration topic, students studied stories that take place in other worlds. They set about learning Where the Wild Things Are as a talking text. They were given simple visual prompts in the form of a story map and were challenged to create all the actions for their story independently.
Read on to read some Year 4 imaginary world stories that were inspired through this work.
As you can clearly see from the video, the combination of visual cues and physical actions makes for an engaging and impressive storytelling session. These techniques model the crucial skill of using intonation emphasis to bring reading to life. I’m sure you’ll agree that our Year 4s do a great job of demonstrating this throughout their engaging story.
Learning a Talk4Writing text in this way allows a child to develop a secure understanding of an entire text type and apply this in their own writing. For example, a common format for stories that take place in other worlds is perfectly demonstrated by Where the Wild Things Are (character is unhappy in real world – escapes to imaginary world – faces struggles in imaginary world – overcomes these struggles to become hero – returns to real world stronger or more resolute). This understanding of story genres can significantly improve a child’s writing by making it more purposeful and concise. Students can also apply language features found in each section to their own writing.
Read some examples of the Year 4’s stories that were inspired by ‘Where the Wild Things Are’…
Elunali the Home of the Dragons
Dragon? Ermana? The Place for all the Dragons
The exploration of Talk4Writing has been a whole-school programme of professional development among our teachers this term.