Opening Doors to Quality Writing

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Opening Doors to Quality Writing

Ideas for writing inspired by great writers for ages 10 to 13

By: Bob Cox

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Products specifications

Attribute name	Attribute value
Size	180 x 148mm
Pages	224
ISBN	9781785830143
Format	Paperback
Published	August 2016

In Opening Doors to Famous Poetry and Prose, Bob Cox introduced teachers to engaging strategies which use literary heritage texts as the stimulus for excellent learning. This new companion book, Opening Doors to Quality Writing, for ages 10 to 13, puts the focus on pupils producing quality writing ' developing their literacy skills and a love of reading in the process.

In the course of his educational consultancy work, Bob has seen many teachers successfully use the scope and depth which literature can offer to inspire high standards, mastery learning and, above all, a love of language in its many forms. Schools using the opening doors' strategies told Bob they led to:

• More teacher empowerment and confidence.

• More knowledge building for pupils and teachers.

• A growing confidence with literature, including poetry.

• Planning from the top becoming a norm.

• Planning for mastery learning becoming a norm.

• Improved comprehension skills.

• Improved quality writing and associated excitement.

They also asked Bob for further examples of inspiring, quality texts, and more ways in which all abilities can access them. Bob was only too happy to oblige.

These 15 units of work cover poetry and prose: each unit provides exciting stimulus material, creative ideas for writing projects, and differentiation and support strategies, meaning all pupils can achieve the quality writing objectives. All the units should help teachers facilitate understanding of the challenging texts and maximise the huge potential for quality writing. Discover a multitude of ready-to-use ideas, inspired by classic literature and great writers' works, along with plenty of new strategies and advice.

All of the extracts and illustrations you will need to begin opening doors in your classroom are downloadable – a link to the download web page is provided in the book.

Units include: (Click on the links below to view a collection of written work produced by school children aged 10–13 who are following the passages and exercises related to the texts included in this book)

Part 1: Opening doors to prose

1. Night Encounter – The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

2. Spooky Scientists! – The Phantom Coach by Amelia B. Edwards

3. The Strongest Looking Brute in Alaska – That Spot by Jack London

4. Mr Knickerbocker's Notes – Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

5. The Portrait of Doom – Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

6. The Hell Hound – The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

7. Sinister Spaces – Metamorphosis and The Castle by Franz Kafka

8. The Mirror and the Window – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Part 2: Opening doors to poetry

9. All in This House is Mossing Over 'From Mementos' by Charlotte Brontë

10. Dancing the Skies 'High Flight' by John Gillespie Magee, Jr

11. The Mystery of the Lonely Merman 'The Forsaken Merman' by Matthew Arnold

12. Making Magic Talk 'The Magnifying Glass' by Walter de la Mare

13. The Spirit in the Garden 'A Garden at Night' by James Reeves

14. A Shropshire Lad 'Blue Remembered Hills' by A. E. Housman

15. The Silver Heel 'I Started Early 'Took My Dog' by Emily Dickinson

The Opening Doors to Quality Writing series won the 2017 Education Resources Awards in the Educational Book Award category.

Judges' Comments: 'Described as two gems which provide innovative approaches to exploring quality texts as stimuli for children's writing. Judges described The Opening Doors to Quality Writing series as an invaluable resource, particularly for non-specialist teachers. Excellent literary choices contained within very attractively produced books.'

Opening Doors to Quality Writing: Ideas for writing inspired by great writers for ages 6 to 9

Bob Cox

Having taught English for 23 years, Bob Cox is now an independent education consultant, writer and teacher coach who works nationally and internationally to support outstanding learning. Bob also delivers keynotes for national associations, multi-academy trusts and local authorities, as more schools integrate Opening Doors' strategies into their curriculum design.

Listen to Bob Cox talk about his Opening Doors series of books with Toria Bono from Tiny Voice Talks here.

Reviews

Helen Dodd, Freelance Proofreader and Educational Resources Creator
The book Opening Doors to Quality Writing: Ideas for writing inspired by great writers for ages 10–13 by Bob Cox is an invaluable resource for teachers of English in primary and secondary schools. Building on the success of the companion book Opening Doors to Famous Poetry and Prose, Cox presents a wide range of prose and poetry to inspire children and activate their imaginations. There are lots of practical classroom activities geared towards the specific extracts for the teacher to choose from, and which support the children step-by-step towards quality writing. Cox has clearly drawn from his wealth of experience and knowledge of classic literature when writing this book. The addition of a glossary is also very helpful for teachers who may not be familiar with terms such as ‘zooming in’ or ‘wings to fly’.
Senior leaders, English leaders and teachers will all find this book very helpful when planning an ambitious English curriculum for their school. They may have been searching for books, extracts or poems to challenge their pupils sufficiently and achieve mastery learning. In this book, there are no less than 15 texts to choose from. Authors include Thomas Hardy, Emily Brontë, Walter de le Mare and Emily Dickinson to name a few. There are extracts and poems that primary school teachers may have never considered presenting to their pupils before. Having taught lessons taken from other Opening Doors books by Cox, I can attest that the pupils respond amazingly. They are sometimes able to see messages and themes that I had never even considered before. One extract from this book that stood out for me was The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins as I love his mystery stories. In the ‘wings to fly’ section, it suggests that the children write the start of their own mystery story by imitating Collins and causing the reader to ‘shiver with apprehension’. The strategies in the book really support the children to write confidently and in ways they haven’t felt secure with before, such as capturing an atmosphere in a narrative.
I would highly recommend this book to all teachers of English working with children aged 10-13. Once the Opening Doors strategies are embedded in your planning, you will be amazed at how much the children’s writing improves. It will increase their confidence with literature, their enthusiasm for writing and generally enhance your English lessons.

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