MAD stands for MODELLED AWESOME DAILY writing
We use many visualisations to increase the fluency and speed of children’s writing. This has been a very successful strategy and I have been trying to develop a different but as successful strategy that takes less time when we want to target specific topics, genres or spelling/grammar conventions.
MAD writing is the result and we have now used it with hundreds of children with great results!
The children enjoy it as it is fairly short, targeted and gives them great results.
They love to share their results!
This will not going to replace other forms of writing we do.
It is simply being implemented to increase writing fluency, understanding of sentences, paragraphs, grammar and to improve spelling. New topics are provided each week.
Approximately 20 mins is needed but I have often completed a lesson in 15 mins when short of time!
STEPS:
- Write up topic on board.
- Briefly discuss and model write YOUR response to this topic. (NOT children’s ideas) 5 mins
- Children read your writing aloud. 5 mins
- They write their own response  5 mins
- Edit and share 5 mins (only 2/3 can share)
Only write 2-4 sentences when you are modelling. Children might write more and they might “borrow” yours. Some children might want to copy yours completely. That is valid as you are a model.
Eventually they will have the confidence to do their own.
 A FEW SAMPLE TOPICS FOR A WEEK
MON- My ideal weekend.
TUES – A terrible experience.
WED – What a surprise!
THURS- My favourite unhealthy food!
FRI- If I ruled the world!
SAT- The world stopped spinning and ………
Here is an example of a lesson where I used the topic MINECRAFT to stimulate children’s writing voices!
Please ask any questions regarding this procedure – victoriacarlton@iinet.net.au and remember we have crafted a very practical one day course for teachers (ALL KIDS CAN WRITE) to demonstrate and explain all our writing strategies and teach you exactly how to apply each one! (Contact us for course details!)