33 Ways to Help with Writing

Supporting Children who Struggle with Basic Skills

Raewyn Hickey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781135163747
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

33 Ways to Help with Writing equips teachers and teaching assistants with a wide range of practical resources to help children who are having difficulties learning the basic skills of writing.

Offering a range of activities and games to engage children and encourage motivation in the classroom, this essential classroom companion provides ready-to-use material that doesn't need lengthy forward preparation.

These practical and fun ideas incorporate a variety of learning styles, using kinaesthetic and auditory techniques, which put the emphasis on 'games' rather than 'work'. The activities are especially suitable for teaching assistants working with individuals or small groups. 33 Ways to Help with Writing works step-by-step through practical activities which:

• keep children motivated and enjoying learning
• do not require extensive knowledge or experience from the adult
• are adult-led so children don't have the opportunity to repeat mistakes
• are grouped into different basic skills, so teachers can choose the activity best suited for the child's needs
• have clear, concise and pedagogically sound reasons for the activity
• include extension activity where appropriate to challenge pupils.

B.
Writing longer, more interesting sentences

Fiction writing

These activities are most suitable for those children working towards, or who have just attained, National Curriculum level 3. One way of improving writing is by adding or changing words in a sentence.

Teaching grammar

The teaching of grammar has become part of the writing programme, not in order for children to be able to parse sentences, but for children and teachers to have a common language in which to be able to talk about texts.

Children need to have a basic knowledge of word classes because:

When teaching style, the nouns change according to the formality of the text, e.g. Edward Harper is more formal than dad or Ted.

When taking notes, nouns are important to retain the essential meaning of the text.

Adjectives are used extensively in some types of writing such as advertisements and persuasive writing.

Although adjectives can give more information, children need to learn how to use them selectively. Overuse makes the writing laborious to read and the adjectives themselves lose their impact.

Children need to learn how to avoid weak or overused verbs.

Consistent use of verb tenses helps cohesion in writing.

Verbs often effectively describe the mood or feelings of a character.

Verbs are important in writing figurative language. The wind sighed and moaned through the trees.

Adverbs are used to intensify the verb in advertisements and persuasive texts.

Adverbs can be moved around in a sentence to greater or lesser effect.

Connectives help to give cohesion to writing by extending sentences and linking paragraphs.

Activities

The following activities are included to help children understand how the language they choose has an impact on the reader.

Writing longer sentences by:

a. using connectives

b. adding description using adjectives and adverbs.

Choosing speci...

Table of contents

• Thirty-Three Ways to Help with… Supporting children who struggle with basic skills
• Contents
• Thirty-three ways to help … the series
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• A. Beginnings
• B. Writing longer, more interesting sentences
• C. Improving content
• D. Exploring different forms of writing
• Glossary