Personal Responses
This is a great technique for teaching children to write. In its most simple form, it is just a piece of work where children write everything they know about a text and whether they like it or not. Kind of like a grown-up book review. There are no strict rules for how a personal response should be laid out, but we quite like encouraging them to organise it into two paragraphs:
Paragraph 1- The first section can deal with some of the factual aspects of the text (what it is, who wrote it, what genre it is, a summary, some of the technical bits if it’s a poem). Here is a place for children to practise using the language of literature.
Paragraph 2- A place for the softer, more subjective stuff. Do they like the text? If so, why? If not, why not? Does it remind them of anything else they’ve read? What are the themes or issues it deals with? Would they recommend it to others?
We love getting children to write these. We think they’re great for lots of reasons:
Opinions and ideas- They give children an opportunity to consider, clarify and write about their own thoughts on something they’ve studied in class. In the second paragraph especially, they just can’t be wrong. You also get to find out whether they actually enjoyed learning about a story.
Assessment- Personal responses are a good way of ascertaining just what children have taken from the lessons. How well have they understood? Can they use all the terminology and phrases?
Practise writing in a familiar format- If children get into the habit of writing these for each text they study, right through the school, they become very familiar with it. This means they can get straight into writing, without a lot of time spent learning about the genre of writing. It means you can focus on some of the language aspects of English separate from the composition.
Secondary school and national tests- Great practice for secondary school and once you’ve got the hang of writing these, those 3-mark ‘did you like the story?’ SATs questions become pretty easy!
Paragraph 1- The first section can deal with some of the factual aspects of the text (what it is, who wrote it, what genre it is, a summary, some of the technical bits if it’s a poem). Here is a place for children to practise using the language of literature.
Paragraph 2- A place for the softer, more subjective stuff. Do they like the text? If so, why? If not, why not? Does it remind them of anything else they’ve read? What are the themes or issues it deals with? Would they recommend it to others?
We love getting children to write these. We think they’re great for lots of reasons:
Opinions and ideas- They give children an opportunity to consider, clarify and write about their own thoughts on something they’ve studied in class. In the second paragraph especially, they just can’t be wrong. You also get to find out whether they actually enjoyed learning about a story.
Assessment- Personal responses are a good way of ascertaining just what children have taken from the lessons. How well have they understood? Can they use all the terminology and phrases?
Practise writing in a familiar format- If children get into the habit of writing these for each text they study, right through the school, they become very familiar with it. This means they can get straight into writing, without a lot of time spent learning about the genre of writing. It means you can focus on some of the language aspects of English separate from the composition.
Secondary school and national tests- Great practice for secondary school and once you’ve got the hang of writing these, those 3-mark ‘did you like the story?’ SATs questions become pretty easy!
