The 4 secrets of a high-quality text in primary (2024)

I am fortunate enough to spend my working days with 28 little sponges, eager to soak up information.

But it’s not a one-way street. Amid the algebra, ancient Egyptians and art, they are also expected to create, producing writing for “a range of purposes and audiences”.

But when asked to write a story from scratch, a lot of children will falter.

Quick read:English: Promoting reading for pleasure

Quick listen:World Book Day: how to make your celebrations more inclusive

Want to know more?How ‘quality talk’ can boost infants’ later academic success

I learned that the hard way when I naively asked my first class of Year 5s to write an entry for the BBC 500 Words competition, without having given them anywhere near enough of an input.

Writing in primary school

The result was 20 stories from the perspective of a dog (thanks to one child loudly announcing that this was a brilliant idea) and six stories that read remarkably like The Hunger Games.

I’ve been an English specialist for five years now and I have found that there is no better way to inspire writing in the primary classroom than by using high-quality texts.

But what makes a quality text?

1. Appeal

It’s imperative to know your children: a class of boisterous, mildly unenthused writers may not be the target audience for a lengthy epic like The Railway Children, but they may well get their teeth into a gritty, dark Shaun Tan picture book.

Likewise, your rural, affluent class of animal lovers would probably love War Horse, but they may struggle to relate to something more urban or harrowing.

2. Magpie moments

There is a reason why authors are authors: they are wordsmiths. And we all want children in our classes to take risks with their word choices.

I’ll never forget the time whenone of my most reluctant writers described the atmosphere in his story as having an “eerie sense of foreboding”.

Nearly spitting out my coffee (contained in a child-safe, sealed travel mug), I asked him how he’d come up with it.

“It was in that book you read us last term,” he shrugged. “I don’t know what it means but it sounded cool and a bit spooky.” Awesome.

3. Another world

It is incredibly difficult to place yourself in the trenches of the First World War as a nine-year old child in 2019. It is equally challenging to write about the Ming Dynasty or the Amazon Rainforest or pretend to be an evacuee, and yet we expect this of our pupils.

Quality texts provide readers with an approachable context, making it easier to write from different perspectives and about abstract situations.

Texts that have been incredibly useful for this include (but aren’t limited to) War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian (with the added benefit of a film adaptation - texts don’t always have to be books!) and The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry.

4. A picture tells a thousand words

It’s a cliché but in the context of quality texts, one that couldn’t be more pertinent. Picture books with a few choice words are incredibly effective tools; not only do they create discussion, but they are also significantly more accessible for your less-able readers.

On World Book Day 2018, I selected a picture book with the (slightly ambitious) aim of using it all the way from EYFS to Year 6: Oliver Jeffers’ The Great Paper Caper.

We shared the text as a whole school - it’s a truly wonderful book and the pictures are brilliant - and teachers planned the writing they’d aim to get out of it in their cross-phase partnerships.

The 4 secrets of a high-quality text in primary (1)

As a result, we had Reception children making their own paper, and writing sets of instructions on how to do so; children in Years 1 and 2 writing fact-files about the different animals in the woods and posters advertising the paper aeroplane competition; lower KS2 children writing sequels to the story and apology letters from the Bear and, in Years 5 and 6, pupils writing newspaper articles, police reports and confession statements.

Picture books are accessible to all (although do be careful of darker themes with younger audiences).

A quality text can inspire even the most reluctant of writers and they are essential if we are to coax out the level of writing that the national curriculum expects of children.

Let’s consider reading to be the inhalation of ideas; when we write, we’re simply breathing out.

Philippa Seymouris a KS2 teacher and English specialist in South Gloucestershire

The 4 secrets of a high-quality text in primary (2024)

FAQs

What makes a text high quality? ›

Simply put: a quality text engages the child and adult alike on different levels and it merits multiple readings; every time you read the text you get something new out of it. These texts will often trigger a lot of 'why' and 'I wonder' questions from students, which can lead to deep discussion and dissection of text.

What important points should a teacher consider in the selection of books and other reading materials? ›

5 Book Selection Strategies for Your Classroom
  • Ask Questions. One of the most important steps to take when picking a book for your students is to ask questions. ...
  • Consider Social-Emotional Learning. ...
  • View Book Selection as a Gift, Not a Problem. ...
  • Use the Five Finger Rule. ...
  • Build a Classroom Library.
Oct 22, 2019

What are the factors which a teacher can consider before selecting a suitable reading text for pre and junior grades? ›

There are three aspects of a text that you should consider when picking things for your students to read: complexity, content, and the interest level your students are likely to have.

What factors should be taken into account when choosing texts for students? ›

In order to select and use appropriate texts for your students, you will need to draw on your detailed understanding of your students' individual learning needs, skills, interests, and knowledge both of texts and of the world. You will also take account of each student's identity, language, and culture.

What are the 4 properties of a well written text? ›

For a text to be well-written, one must keep in mind these four properties: (1) Organization; (2) Coherence; (3) Mechanics; and (4) Language Use.

What are the 5 properties of a well written text? ›

The following is a brief description of five qualities of good writing: focus, development, unity, coherence, and correctness. The qualities described here are especially important for academic and expository writing.

What are the 4 reading strategies? ›

These pillars include phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension strategies. These elements are called pillars because the research identified them as the foundations for building strong reading skills.

What are the four factors that involve in reading process? ›

There are five aspects to the process of reading: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, reading comprehension and fluency.

What are the four pre reading strategies you should consider when approaching a text? ›

"Pre-reading includes four steps: preview, predict, prior knowledge, and purpose. You can remember these steps by thinking of them as the '4 Ps. ' "Previewing is taking a quick look at a reading before trying to understand the whole thing...

What are 5 details to consider when reading closely? ›

Looking at appropriateness, vocabulary, illustrations, interest, and familiarity are really only a few ways to check if a book is appropriate for close reading. If you feel the book has more than one thing to say and pushes your students to think outside the box, use that book to build a love of reading!

What are the basic steps in selecting text? ›

Line of text: For selecting a line of text, place your cursor at the start of the line and then press “Shift + down arrow”. Paragraph: For selecting a whole paragraph, place your cursor at the start of the paragraph and then press “Ctrl + Shift + down arrow”.

What is the primary aim of selecting text? ›

Selecting is highlighting text or picking an object. For example, you can select text to copy, cut, or move that text to an alternate location.

What criteria should be considered for quality in children's books? ›

Criteria to consider
  • Is it right for my child? You are the best judge of what will especially appeal to your child. ...
  • Are the illustrations well done? ...
  • Is the story well written? ...
  • Is the text informative and lively? ...
  • Is the theme of the book timeless and enduring?

What are the five 5 essential components of reading briefly explain below? ›

English Language Learners and the Five Essential Components of Reading Instruction
  • Phonemic awareness. Phonemes are the smallest units making up spoken language. ...
  • Phonics. ...
  • Vocabulary development. ...
  • Reading fluency, including oral reading skills. ...
  • Reading comprehension strategies.

What are the four primary categories of criteria that teachers use when selecting appropriate instructional materials? ›

The following sections describe the four primary categories of criteria that teachers said they use when selecting instructional materials: accuracy and visual appeal, alignment to standards and depth of knowledge, ease of use and support, and engage- ment and ability to meet student needs (Figure 1).

What are the 4 most basic elements of writing? ›

The writing process consists of elements that help a writer to develop text that is reflective, clear, and coherent.
...
The following section will discuss four elements of the writing process:
  • Planning.
  • Organizing.
  • Writing.
  • Editing and revising.

What are the 4 main types of paragraphs? ›

The four types of paragraphs that homeschool students should study are expository, persuasive, descriptive, and narrative. These four paragraph types are the building blocks of successful compositions.

What is the most important quality of a written text? ›

A good piece of writing will always incorporate the most suitable and accurate words. Good word choice greatly contributes to the clarity and readability of your text.

What are the three main parts of a well written text? ›

The three-part essay structure is a basic structure that consists of introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction and the conclusion should be shorter than the body of the text. For shorter essays, one or two paragraphs for each of these sections can be appropriate.

What are the 6 characteristics of good writing? ›

Educational research states that all good writing includes six key ingredients: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions—the Six Traits of Writing.

What are the 4 writing strategies? ›

There are four different types of writing techniques in business:
  • Descriptive writing style. Descriptive writing immerses the reader into a story by creating a vivid picture of characters, settings and events in their mind. ...
  • Narrative writing style. ...
  • Persuasive writing style. ...
  • Expository writing style.
Jan 3, 2020

What are the 4 Critical reading skills? ›

Top 5 critical reading techniques
  • Survey – Know what you're looking for! Before you crack open your book, take a few minutes to read the preface and introduction, and browse through the table of contents and the index. ...
  • Ask questions. ...
  • Read actively. ...
  • Respond to your own questions. ...
  • Record key concepts.
Apr 2, 2013

What are the 4 types of reading explain any one? ›

Those are scanning, skimming eyes, extensive reading and intensive reading. Also, reading modes are classified by the degree of involvement — active and passive.

What are the four factors in writing? ›

Factors to consider
  • Audience: If you had a favour to ask, would you do it in the same way whether it was aimed at a close friend, your parents or a professor? ...
  • Purpose: Why do you write? ...
  • Context: Any topic exists within a larger context. ...
  • Media: All children should be immunised.

What 4 steps should you go through in order to notice and analyze the text structure an author uses? ›

  • description.
  • sequence.
  • problem and solution.
  • cause and effect.
  • compare and contrast.

What are 3 of the 4 main skills necessary for successful reading informational text? ›

Prior knowledge/skills needed (can be taught concurrently)
  • Determine the main ideas within a text.
  • Summarize text.
  • Comprehend text.
Dec 3, 2014

Which are the 4 steps to apply the scanning reading strategy to answer questions? ›

Scanning to answer questions

Choose your keywords from the question itself. Look for answers to only one question at a time. Scan separately for each question. When you locate a keyword, read the surrounding text carefully to see if it is relevant.

What are the 3 basic elements of effective reading? ›

The three major components of reading are decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Each of these components has layered meanings that need to be explicitly understood by teachers that are responsible for teaching these critical skills throughout a students' educational journey.

What are the 3 basic reading techniques? ›

There are three different styles of reading academic texts: skimming, scanning, and in-depth reading. Each is used for a specific purpose.

What is the first step to do in understanding a text *? ›

M8. Understanding the precise meaning of a text with the 5-step technique
  • Skim over the text to get an overview. The goal is to obtain a rough overview of the text. ...
  • Ask questions of the text. ...
  • Now read the text thoroughly. ...
  • Mark anything important, answer the questions, summarize the text. ...
  • Repeat the content.

How do you select text with keys? ›

Hold down the "Ctrl" key and the "Shift" key. Press the right arrow key to select the word to the right, or press the left arrow key to select the word to the left. Select one character at a time by holding down the "Shift" key and and using either arrow key (right or left).

How do you select different parts of text? ›

To select items that are not next to each other, follow these steps:
  1. Select the first item that you want. For example, select some text.
  2. Press and hold CTRL.
  3. Select the next item that you want. Important Be sure to press and hold CTRL while you select the next item that you want to include in the selection.

What is the four purpose of the text? ›

An author's purpose may be to amuse the reader, to persuade the reader, to inform the reader, or to satirize a condition. An author writes with one of four general purposes in mind: 1. To relate a story or to recount events, an author uses narrative writing.

What are the 4 types of alignment in MS word? ›

Alignment determines the appearance and orientation of the edges of the paragraph: left-aligned text, right-aligned text, centered text, or justified text, which is aligned evenly along the left and right margins.

What makes a text appropriate? ›

There are three aspects of a text that you should consider when picking things for your students to read: complexity, content, and the interest level your students are likely to have.

What is the quality of a text? ›

Text quality does not involve a single aspect but is a combination of numerous and diverse criteria including spelling, grammar, organization, informative nature, creative and beautiful language use, and page layout.

What are the 6 properties of a well written text? ›

Match
  • organization. refers to the arrangement of ideas in a text.
  • coherence and cohesion. refers to the connection of ideas and connection between sentence and paragraphs.
  • Coherence. logical arrangement of ideas or details in a paragraph.
  • Cohesion. ...
  • Appropriate language. ...
  • Proper Mechanics. ...
  • - lexical chains. ...
  • lexical chains.

How do you increase text clarity? ›

5 tips that will improve the clarity of your writing
  1. Think like the reader.
  2. Choose basic words.
  3. Use simple sentences.
  4. Get to the point.
  5. Be concise.
Feb 19, 2020

What is quality of academic text? ›

The characteristics of academic texts are simple, concise, objective, and logical. The four characteristics of the text, linguistically, are able to reveal to the reader the level of scholarly an academic text.

What are the four 4 types of text? ›

There are many aspects to literary writing, and many ways to analyse it, but four basic categories are descriptive, narrative, expository, and argumentative.

What are the 4 types of text? ›

The main types of text types are narrative, descriptive, directing, and argumentative.

What are the 7 qualities of a text? ›

Beaugrande and Dressler define a text as a “communicative occurrence which meets seven standards of textuality” – cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and intertextuality, without any of which the text will not be communicative.

What are the three main parts of a well-written text? ›

The three-part essay structure is a basic structure that consists of introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction and the conclusion should be shorter than the body of the text. For shorter essays, one or two paragraphs for each of these sections can be appropriate.

What are examples of text structure? ›

Examples of text structures include: sequence/process, description, time order/chronology, proposition/support, compare/contrast, problem/solution, cause/effect, inductive/deductive, and investigation.

How do you make a blurry text clear? ›

You can easily fix blurry text in an image with Fotor's online image deblurrer. Using artificial intelligence (AI), it automatically detects and fixes blurry text pictures and jagged edges in your photos. You can also use its image sharpening tool to sharpen text in your image to make them more readable.

How do you make blurry text visible? ›

How to Unblur Text on A Website?
  1. Unblur Text with The Inspect Tool. One of the most common methods to read blurred text on a website is by using the. inspect tool. ...
  2. Use the Google Translate Tool to Read Blurred Text. You can use Google Translate to see the full translated version of the website's hazy content.
Jan 10, 2023

What resolution is best for reading text? ›

For the most part, a 4K monitor is an excellent choice for reading text. The higher resolution creates sharp text and detailed images.

Why are high quality texts important? ›

The use of high quality books within the reading curriculum is at the heart of a school's successful approach to engage and support children to become motivated and independent readers. If children enjoy reading, they read more frequently and become better readers.

How do you evaluate the quality of a text? ›

Some General Criteria for Evaluating Texts
  1. What is the author's aim?
  2. To what extent has this aim been achieved?
  3. What does this text add to the body of knowledge? ...
  4. What relationship does it bear to other works in the field?
  5. What is missing/not stated?
  6. Is this a problem?
Mar 18, 2022

How do you measure the quality of a text? ›

Representational quality can be measured by lexical and document metrics. On the lexical level, single words used in the text are in focus, and lexical relations between the words (linguistically: wordforms). In the simple case, spelling quality can be quantified quite easily by frequency patterns.

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