Raising Boys’ Achievement in Literacy

Louise Murphy

Year 3

Colmore Junior School

Writing Perception Survey Findings

Half of the boys said that they didn’t enjoy writing.Two of the boys thought that they were not

good writers.

The reasons the boys said they did not enjoy writing were mainly technical difficulties (spelling and handwriting) and physical

difficulties (“it make my arm ache”).

The recent piece of writing most of the boys enjoyed was report writing.

Advice the boys would give to someone in the year below them to help him or her to get better at

writing.

Listen to your teacher

Practise to spell

Lots of practice at home

Always think before you write

Keep writing

Unit 1

Shrek – An alternative traditional story

All of the boys in the focus group struggled to describe characters and setting in their stories.

The boys really enjoyed the board of relevance activity to choose suitable adjectives to describe

characters and settings.

Here is some of the super work they produced when describing the setting of the castle in Shrek and Lord

Farquaad.

Lewis, Aged 8

Sam, Aged 8

We also worked on the structure of a story which the focus group also struggled with.

We used the story graph to understand the five main parts of a story. The boys really loved this

visual way of remembering the five stages of the story and even thought of some new ways. We

used the story graph to plan an alternative traditional story.

The children then made a picture board for their alternative traditional story including the film techniques we had been learning

about.

The children then wrote their own alternative traditional stories.

Here is an extract of an opening.

Kai, Aged 8

We acted out our alternative traditional stories

before writing them down.

Unit 2

Hercules – Myths and Legends

Experimenting with recounting the same event in a variety of ways.

Again we used the story graph to help us understand the main parts in a story. We also used the stills from the film to order and sequence the

main events in the story.

Each group then made a living tableau of a different part of the story and answered question

in the role of their character.

We also acted out the scene from the film when Hercules destroyed the whole village and used the freeze frame technique to speak

about how each of the characters felt in role.

We then wrote a diary entry by Hercules explaining how he felt. Here is an extract from a diary entry below.

Lastly we experimented with recounting the same event in many different ways.

We chose the scene where Hercules has killed a dragon in a gorge outside the town of

Thebes.

We then wrote a letter about the event and a newspaper report.

Before we wrote our newspaper reports we watched television reports and acted one

out about the event.

Here is an extract from one newspaper report.

Sam, aged 8

Writing Perception Survey Findings at the end of the Project

The boys now all said that they enjoyed writing.

When asked why they enjoyed writing here are some of the responses the boys gave.

-“because I love writing in film literacy.”

-“Yes, I like writing because I have ideas to put down.”

-“Yes, I like writing because it is interesting.”

-“Yes, because we did film literacy.”

-“because I like when we do film literacy.”

-“I enjoy writing with the films because I have lots of ideas.”

Advice the boys would now give to someone in the year below them to help him or her get better at

writing.

Draw ideas

Watch a film in literacy if you want

Think about spelling

Talk about things with your partner

Think about George Washington!

What my colleagues thought about the project.

“The use of drama and visual resources really caught the interest and imagination of boys who really struggle with writing in my class. They were engaged and participated fully in

the lessons.”

“The standard of work produced by my target literacy group was of a higher quality then is

normally produced.”