What it is. Heading, margin and three-level notes are habit; this confirms it and finds the few for whom it is not.
Why our test works. Every child in Grade 7 can produce a correct page under supervision, so checking correctness finds nobody. Checking ATTENTION finds the children who are still spending it here — and they are spending it in every subject, which is why ten minutes in Writing is worth it to the whole timetable.
Leans on. Grades 3-6 built and confirmed this page.
Watch for. Do not re-teach a class that has it. Find the two or three who do not.
Set up the notebook to this year's standard. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher shows the standard page and names what is assumed. The class reads Writing Book 7, p.40 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher shows the standard page and names what is assumed. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class sets up and self-checks. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 7 to page 40 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Set up a page and take notes on a short passage.
You close on the exit direction — Confirm every feature is present. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Same page you have kept since Grade 3. Ten minutes to prove it.
Do not re-teach a class that has it. Find the two or three who do not.