Writing progress

This year I have majority of my students at national standard for after 1 year at school, this is  a contrast from last year only getting my children to standard by term 4. This year I have really pushed my kids and stopped the very scaffolded way we used to write. I used to pick a set sentence for the children, write the words on little bits of paper and together we would order them on the whiteboard. We would read it and read it and read it until they had it memorised. I would then send them off to find the words on the whiteboard and write it in the right order in their books. Children who were less independent had the sentence cut out and they would match the words underneath. 

Here is picture of a boys writing at the beginning of the year when he started with me. 

He was able to glue the words in order and copy the sentence underneath. 

Here is a picture of his writing now. He is writing at level 1B and can now write a sentence by himself, with a capital letter, full stop, use finger spaces and check that it makes sense.

 As a class we talk about the topic of writing today. We orally talk about different sentences/sentence structures that we might write. The children find words on the word card and tell their sentence to a buddy. I will write any words that they cannot find on their word card or word wall. The children will then write their sentence independently. I currently have a small group of 2 or 3 children who require my support with writing a sentence. 

I have found this year to expect more from my students, they need to really be extended in order for me to see great results.