Big books for special schools

Five big books suitable for special schools on relevant subjects and in a range of text types have now been developed.

Each book is divided into sections designed to teach explicitly the following conventions of text

• Our School - Information
• Planning a Party - Instruction
• A Day at the Zoo - Recount
• Holidays - Discursive and persuasive
• Tom's Painting - Description

Those that are available as electronic versions, are available to download below. Blank equivalents (frame books) for Shared Writing have also been developed to accompany the big books with teachers' notes and guidance on using the sequence for teaching writing to accompany them. Schools by using the frame books will produce and trial their own versions of big books linking with the use of Shared Reading and Shared Writing in the classroom.

Each book addresses text, word and sentence level conventions. It is envisaged that after reading the book, the class will use the blank or 'frame' book to write a parallel book. The aim is to alert pupils to the conventions of writing and help them to use their reading to support writing. The new book created will have special significance for the pupils and can be used on future occasions for shared reading. Other texts, using the frame books, could be written collaboratively using the big book as a model.