What does writing involve?

1. WELCOME!Tuesday 5th March 2013Information evening for parentsHow you can support your children to develop their writing skills.

2. What does writing involve? • Ideas to communicate…… imaginative, interesting and thoughtful • Awareness of purpose, audience and form • Rich, varied and precise vocabulary • Organising the text – order, paragraphs • Sentence structure & grammar for clarity • Punctuation • Spelling • Handwriting

3. What makes writing difficult? • Low self-esteem • Fear of getting it wrong • Developing initial ideas- writers’ block • Slow handwriting speed – difficulty forming letters • Limited vocabulary and immature language • Spelling problems including dyslexia

4. Ways you can help, either with written homework tasks or with developing writing in general: Create a positive writing atmosphere -don’t dwell on mistakes Provide a helpful writing environment/ space; work surface, lighting, distractions... Offer a real purpose for writing Pick out an exciting selection of resources : papers, pens/ pencils Talk to each other to develop ideas – discussions, storytelling, explanations Read to your children, even after they have learnt to read for themselves. Link writing back to reading - use known authors or books you have enjoyed together as models for plotlines, characters, language, ways to lay out information Model writing – let the children see you write for different purposes Offer lots of encouragement and have fun too

5. Things to think about ... Elements: composition and languageThinking about what to write and how to compose it. • Talk comes before writing - without ideas it is difficult to write • Composition can be the most difficult element for some children • Children need to write for real purposes as well as imagined ones e.g. a thank you letter to a family member, a diary entry about a family day out, instructions for a game or recipe, stories and poems to entertain, emails… • Reading and talking to your child is the best way to develop their vocabulary.

6. How you can help your child... • Discuss initial ideas and opinions • Remind them about the task at hand – purpose, audience & form • Have some thinking time before writing • Think about the content – what will be included? • How could it be organised on the page? What kind of format could be used? • Record some jottings/ notes /vocabulary suggestions to refer to • Draw up a brief plan or flow diagram to sketch out the structure of the writing • Use arrows, dashes pictures – anything to help make links between ideas.

7. Elements: spelling • Things to think about... • There is a progression in learning to spell: • Children begin by listening to the sounds in words and learning how sounds are represented by single letters e.g. ‘m’. • Children move on to combinations of letters e.g. ‘ch’ , ‘bl’, ‘ea’. • They then learn more complex spelling patterns and rules . • At the same time they need to steadily learn to spell the most common phonically irregular words e.g. I come have love my house.’ • Children will feel more confident when tackling words if they are encouraged to ‘have a go’ at spelling. • Younger children are encouraged to make a phonetically plausible attempt when spelling words in their everyday writing – to sound the word out and select letters that represent those sounds. • Some children say that they don’t use more adventurous words because they can’t spell them. If we correct every spelling mistake for young children it limits the vocabulary they use. We need to correct only the words that are within their grasp at that stage of their development.

8. How to help at home... • Teach your children nursery rhymes and poems so they recognise rhyme • Ask your child about the spelling patterns and rules they are learning in class • Look for real life examples; cards, comics, books, street signs, television • Generate a word bank together before your child starts writing • Help them learn tricky common words e.g. by making up a mnemonic • Encourage them to write down some possible ways to spell a word they’re unsure of to see which looks right • Use the look, read, cover, write and check strategy to learn common words /words set for homework • Play word games: scrabble; boggle; make lists of words… ending in ‘ed’ …with ‘ar’….. with silent k…. • Play memory games; I spy a word beginning with... ; Simon Says to spell...; • Play with letters; on post- it notes, with magnetic letters, spell a word backwards • Create a spelling log (personalised dictionary) • Revisit words to check they have remembered how to spell them.

9. Things to think about... Elements: grammar and punctuation Grammar • Grammar is what gives sense to language • Children learn grammar as an integral part of learning to speak from the earliest stages • Grammar includes sentence and clause structure, choosing and modifying words (e.g. tense and verb forms), connecting and organising ideas • As children’s writing develops they can use a wider variety of sentence structures, vocabulary and organisational devices to provide clarity, precision, variety and emphasis. Punctuation • Punctuation helps make the meaning of writing clearer • Children learn to use punctuation marks gradually….

10. Punctuation Pyramid

11. How to help at home... • Encourage children to proof read their writing either aloud or in their head • Does the writing flow and make sense? • Identify what could be changed or altered to make it even better • Let the child lead in making improvements and corrections • Refer to the ‘punctuation pyramid’ • Play sentence building games- experiment by changing word order and adding more and more words each time • When reading with your child, sometimes point out punctuation marks.

12. Things to think about... Elements: handwriting • It is importantthat children develop good handwriting habits from an early age • Children are taught letter names, the sound letters make and correct letter formation from 4 years old • We teach lower case first, except capitals for first letter of names • Children should get into good habits straight away and use a well lit room and a steady and flat writing surface, clear of other items. • Younger children should write in pencil; older children in ink pen, gel pen or handwriting pen – not biro

13. How to help at home… • Check pencil grip and model good habits • Use larger ‘grip’ crayons for younger children • Give young children opportunities to ‘pretend’ to write • Play games to help children develop fine and gross motor skills e.g. Lego, threading • Have fun tracing letters in sand, water or in the air • Drawing, colouring and cutting all help • Use the school’s letter formation guidance document • Practise joins – what looks right? • Try out a range of different pens and pencils and experiment with them • Model writing by hand yourself.

14. To summarise: • Reading high quality books and other materials to your child is vitally important for their writing development • Talking with them is vitally important for their writing too • Create real life opportunities for writing as well as homework tasks • Make sure that they have the right environment, materials & time • Recognise that children master writing skills gradually • Read their writing, respond and praise • Make writing fun! Thank you.