Writing Support

Be a good model!

Let your children see you reading and writing.

Talk with them about what you are doing.

Ideas to encourage Children to write

• Encourage your child to retell stories

• Tell your child stories

• Have fun writing messages to each other

• Keep a fun family diary that any family member can write in

• Discuss the every day print around us

• Encourage your child to write emails, letters, invitations, phone messages, and make cards

• Provide paper, pencils, dictionary and thesaurus

• Involve your child in planning for an outing. Provide road maps, travel brochures, calendar, paper

• Let children have a go.

Encourage

• Encourage and use a wide vocabulary e.g. how many different
  meanings has the word “run” have ?

• Play games together that involve reading and strategising

• Discuss everyday events to build child’s background knowledge. This is
  crucial for listening and reading comprehension

• Write emails, cards, notes, recipes

• View  a TV documentary together. Summarise, evaluate and critique  the
  programme.

• Design advertisements, labels, brochures

Key Strategies for Word Recognition

• Look at the sounds and letters at the beginning of the word.

• Look at the sounds and letters in the middle and end of the word.

• Break the word into syllables and sound out each syllable.

• Look for common letter combinations within  the word.

• Look for a word family in the word, then check to see if you know a word that rhymes and that would make sense.

• Look for a word family in the word, then think of a word you know with a similar spelling pattern.

• Look at the structure of the word . Do you see a root word or a base word ? A prefix? A suffix? An ending?

• Break the word into syllables. Sound out each syllable parts to work out the word.

Supporting Literacy (Years 3-6)

• Know and understand your child’s learning goal

• Support  your child through conversations related to writing and writing

• Set a side time each day for the child to read

• Take them regularly to the city library

• Continue to read aloud to your child. Share a chapter book regularly

• Share your favourite book as a child

• Discuss a newspaper, magazine article together

• Comics, magazines, graphic novels are different types of books to enjoy

• Ask questions about what they are currently reading

Encourage the writer

• Encourage the writer to hold their pencil correctly

• Start the formation of the letter from the top

• Get the writer to articulate their story before writing

• Encourage the writer to stretch out the word so they can hear the sounds to record.

• Let the writer read back their story

• Praise the writer

Ideas to Encourage Writing

• Encourage your child to retell stories

• Tell your child stories

• Have fun writing messages to each other

• Keep a fun family diary that any family member can write in

• Discuss the every day print around us

• Encourage your child to write emails, letters, invitations, phone messages, and make cards

• Provide paper, pencils, dictionary and thesaurus

• Involve your child in planning for an outing. Provide road maps, travel brochures, calendar, paper

• Let children have a go.

Junior Writing

• Encourage the writer to hold their pencil correctly

• Start the formation of the letter from the top

• Get the writer to articulate their story before writing

• Encourage the writer to stretch out the word so they can hear the sounds to record.

• Let the writer read back their story

• Praise the writer.

Summary of Key Strategies for Word Recognition

1. Look at the sounds and letters at the beginning of the word.
2. Look at the sounds and letters in the middle and end of the word.
3. Break the word into syllables and sound out each syllable.
4. Look for common letter combinations within  the word.
5. Look for a word family in the word, then check to see if you know a word that rhymes and that would make sense.
6. Look for a word family in the word, then think of a word you know with a similar spelling pattern.
7. Look at the structure of the word . Do you see a root word or a base word ? A prefix? A suffix? An ending?
8. Break the word into syllables. Sound out each syllable parts to work out the word.