Teach Secondary Issue 13.6

focused, produce a short brief that incorporates all essential safeguarding measures. Task3: Silent debate If the students in your class struggle to share their opinions, then a great way of starting any non-fiction writing unit can be to hold a silent debate. First, generate a range of topics that would be of interest to them. Then write a series of statements or debate prompts on different pieces of A3 paper, place these sheets around the room and get students engaging with each statement with their pens. These statements and prompts could include, for example: 1. Students should be graded for their handwriting 2. Should the death penalty be allowed? 3. Autonomous drivers will make our roads safer 4. Are mobile phones truly safe? 5. Social media should have a stricter age limit 6. Vaping should be banned This activity can be scaffolded for lower ability classes by adding sentence starters below each opening statement, such as ‘ I agree with … ’, ‘ I disagree with… ’, ‘ It’s clear from… ’ and ‘ Evidence suggests… ’ These sentence starters will encourage students to agree, disagree and draw on their own knowledge as evidence. To challenge the students further, try playing Devil’s Advocate by walking around the classroom and adding some extra questions and comments of your own for the students to engage with. This way, they will be encouraged to develop their arguments further. I would, however, recommend talking through each statement at the start of the lesson, so as to ensure that the students clearly understand the topics being debated. This will also allow you to open up ‘agree’ and ‘disagree’ arguments, such as ‘ Some may say that… ’ and ‘ Whilst others may think that… ’ Having completed your silent debate, sheets of paper can be given to writing pairs or individual students, depending on howmany statements you have printed out. Students could then write a complete piece, using the ideas written on their pieces of paper. Task4: Snapshot! Thanks to TikTok and Instagram, young people are now used to seeing how short videos and images can quickly spark controversy. You can harness this awareness by downloading a photo related to a story currently in the news, and having your students write a short newspaper article based on what the image shows. Alternatively, you can inspire your students by creating opportunities for purposeful writing . Try contacting some local businesses and influential individuals who would be happy to engage with young writers –maybe the headteacher of your school, a local magazine or someone at your local newspaper. You can also open up space for young people to share their work with a wider audience by setting up a class blog (though it may be wise to check with your school’s DSL first, to see if and how you can set up a restricted blog for viewing by approved readers only). Have the class choose a topic, then task themwith writing a series of blog posts (individually, in pairs or in groups) over time. Featured objects One further task can be to issue students with different physical objects (or printed out pictograms) and instruct them to feature said object(s) in their writing. Model what you would expect them to achieve with 20 to 30 minutes of writing time and let themwork in pairs, before later sharing the writing produced as a group. If you’re looking to support students’ writing in preparation for their GCSEs, I’ve prepared a planning sheet (see ‘Free Resources’ panel) that includes a range of five writing tasks for them to choose from. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Meera Chudasama is an English, media and film studies teacher with a passion for design and research, and has developed course content for the Chartered College of Teaching “Thanks to TikTokand Instagram, youngpeople arenowused to seeing howvideos and images can spark controversy” FREE RESOURCES Sequencing storyboard template bit.ly/ts136-DW2 ‘Writing for purpose’ planning template bit.ly/ts136-DW3 69 teachwire.net/secondary E N G L I S H