Writing with the Starwars Concept Group

The Starwars Concept group has lots of early writers. All have great ideas, most struggle to get the ideas on to paper. I have had various discussions over the last two weeks surrounding this, and it is only now that they are about to move on that I think I have a good understanding of their needs. Some can write by themselves but need help to stay on track, others won't write unless you are with them, some try, try and try and make mistakes and it doesn't worry them and others can't make a mistake. For some the challenge is holding the pencil and writing "on the line" - this was solved by highlighting the lines to write between, using the initial sounds in the words to try the words... all are emerging writers and whilst I believe in setting high expectations I think mine were too high.

What I realise now is that they still needs lots of learning around the technicalities of writing, such as forming the letters, using letter sounds, using high frequency words, planning what to write, lots of repetition, and lots of support (using tools such as word cards etc). More modelling and exemplars so they know what they need to do. I don't think I was explicit enough - lesson learned, and I'll have to track how I go with Sharkspikes for the next 2 weeks.