500 Words stories are not marked on spelling, punctuation or grammar, it all comes down to the children's' creativity - so how can you boost creative words in their stories?
Mr Hunt, who is a year 3/4 primary school teacher at an inclusive school in Greater Manchester, believes that children who have more confidence in reading stories have better confidence in writing them.
The pupils here regularly read their stories through a microphone to boost their confidence in the stories they have written. The microphone also helps keep the story reading inclusive for all children in the classroom who may not be able to hear from the back.
Meet Oscar who has come on leaps and bounds, as he now rocks the mic by telling his stories to his classmates.
Mr Hunt: So I'd like you to read Oscar, personality and actions.
Oscar: My name's Oscar. When I'm writing a story, I find it hard because some of the words, I don't know. What helps me write a better story is to read out loud.
Mr Hunt: As teachers, we always talk about pitch, tone and intonation or how you should read, or how you should change your voice when you read and I always tell my children, stories re meant to be written on paper, but they're not meant to stay there. They're meant to me read out loud, otherwise it's letters on paper. As well as my drop down mic, we have a pass around one for the children. The reason why we use it is because when children in Year 3 / 4, they're ages 8 and 9. They've got small voices and when they read their stories, they're aware that some children at the other end of the classroom, might not be able to hear them and they don't put their hand up to them read their stories because they're aware of this, but by giving them a pass around mic which we use, they know that when they speak, everyone can hear.
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