Skeletons for writing
Sue Palmer
 

Teacher and consultant Sue Palmer describes a cross-curricular writing strategy which is improving effective for both primary and secondary pupils.

This autumn, a bundle of ten writing 'fliers' from the National Literacy Strategy landed on primary headteachers' desks. One of these four-page leaflets deals with the teaching of writing in general, three give suggestions for fiction writing, and the remaining six cover non-fiction writing - and particularly with how to link the teaching of writing to pupils' work across the curriculum. A major feature of these non-fiction fliers is the use of note-taking frameworks, now widely known as 'skeletons', to act as a bridge between children's cross-curricular learning and the literacy hour.

The idea is that the teacher selects a non-fiction writing objective from the NLS Framework, then identifies subject matter in any curriculum area appropriate to the particular text type. As part of their work on the topic, the class create 'skeleton' notes - a mixture of diagram and key words - which are brought to the literacy hour to provide the content for their writing lesson.

The non-fiction fliers illustrate six real-life cross-curricular writing contexts:

• Recount - the life of Gandhi, studied in RE and recorded on a timeline;
• Instruction - how to make a musical instrument, planned and made in technology and recorded on a flowchart;
• Report- life in Ancient Greece, studied in history and recorded on a number of spidergrams;
• Explanation - solids, liquids and gases, studied in science and recorded on a flowchart;
• Persuasion - why we should conserve water, studied in geography and the argument recorded on 'pronged bullet points';
• Discussion - the arguments for and against a contemporary painting, studied in art and recorded on a for-and-against grid.

The skeleton often provides guidance on layout eg the categories on the legs of a spidergram can usually be converted into subheadings in report text.

Children can consider the best way to split their writing into paragraphs before beginning to write, eg on a timeline they can mark paragraph breaks with vertical lines (see diagram).

With problems of organisation and content sorted out in advance, children are free to concentrate on the compositional and stylistic elements of their writing.

Many children who find writing difficult benefit from having a 'big picture' plan of the overall piece, so they are very clear where they are going before they start to write, and at every point in the process.

Sometimes, when there isn't time to write, the skeleton itself can serve as a record of what has been learned.

For pupils reared in a multimedia age, skeletons are often more attractive than traditional notes - building as they do on visual memory skills. The creation and assessment of skeleton notes also provide many opportunities for highly focused speaking and listening activities, which are an extremely useful precursor to writing. And since skeletons alert children to the structures of thought that underlie texts, this method of working may also help in the development of generic thinking skills.
 
Secondary terminology

The secondary English Framework includes two additional non-fiction  text types - evaluation and analysis - which for these purposes can be included in a broader definition of discussion, with their own slightly varying skeletons. It also refers to information rather than non-chronological report.   
 

Copies of the NLS writing fliers are available from the DfES on 0845 60 222 60.  Sue Palmer is an independent writer and Inset provider - sue@suepalmer.co.uk - and a major contributor to the NLS non-fiction fliers. Her Skeleton poster books, providing poster-sized displays of the major elements of non-fiction texts, are available at £5.99 each from TTS on 01773 830255.

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