Here is a simple classroom activity for supporting EAL learners with story writing.

Learning focus

To orally rehearse and write a simple story sentence.

Step 1: Choose the story images

Select three image tiles:

• a child
• a dragon
• a castle

Ask:

Who is in our story?
Where are they?
What might happen?

Accept pointing, single words, home-language discussion, short phrases or full sentences.

Step 2: Model the sentence

Build a simple sentence on the mat:

“The dragon flew over the castle.”

Say it aloud.

Ask the children to repeat it.

Add an action for “flew”.

Step 3: Improve the sentence

Add an adjective:

“The huge dragon flew over the castle.”

Then add a sentence opener:

“Suddenly, the huge dragon flew over the castle.”

Talk about how the sentence has changed.

Step 4: Rehearse before writing

Ask children to say the sentence to a partner.

Then say it again as a class.

Then ask:

What do we need at the beginning?
What do we need at the end?

Use the punctuation tiles to reinforce capital letters and full stops.

Step 5: Write the sentence

Children write the sentence using the Mighty Writer mat as a guide.

For pupils who need extra support, provide the sentence stem:

“Suddenly, the ______ dragon flew over the ______.”

For pupils ready for more challenge, ask them to create the next sentence independently.