Shared Writing: Retelling
To develop compositional and transcriptional writing skills through whole-class shared writing of story retellings.
- Framework: EYFS
- Unit: EYFS Literacy
- Learning area: Literacy
- Level: EYFS Reception
Objectives
- Contributes to shared composition
- Applies phonics during shared encoding
- Rereads shared text
- Shows understanding of writing process
Materials
- Large whiteboard or flip chart
- Marker pens
- Story just read
- Story sequence pictures
Instructions
Choose a simple, well-known story. 'We've read 'The Enormous Turnip' three times this week. Now let's WRITE it together! I'll be the writer — you help me decide what to write.'
Compose orally first: 'What happens at the beginning? A man planted a turnip. Let's write that. An old man...' Say the sentence, count the words on fingers, then write.
Think aloud while writing: 'An — that's a tricky word, A-N. Old — o-l-d. Man — m-a-n. What comes next? Planted. Let me sound that out: p-l-a-n-t-e-d.' Model EVERY decision.
Involve children in encoding: 'What letter does 'planted' start with? P! And what comes after 'pl'? Listen... pl-AN-ted. A! P-L-A...' Shared encoding teaches spelling strategies.
After writing two or three sentences, read back together: 'Let's read what we've written so far. [pointing] An old man planted a turnip. It grew very big. Does that make sense? What comes next?'
Display the finished shared writing and reread over several days. Children see their collective composition becoming a permanent text — this is authorship in action.