Spelling, Reading and Writing

Spelling

Spelling is a key skill in students’ written work. Their vocabulary improves as they read and they should attempt new words in their own writing. There are a number of different strategies that we use to encourage our students in order to help them become more confident with their spelling:

Use a dictionary

Come up with silly sayings to help e.g. never believe a ‘lie’ to remember the ie in believe

Look Say Cover Write Check

  • Look at the word and see how it is spelt
  • Say the word
  • Cover the word
  • Write the word
  • Check the spelling is correct

Split words up into parts to make learning the whole word easier e.g. in to syllables – re-mem-ber

Look for words within words e.g. since and rely together make sincerely

Use computer spell checkers

Congratulate our students on their efforts and success! Even if they still make mistakes, we encourage them to try harder.

Writing

There are a number of ways that parents can help us to support their child’s writing. This includes the following:

  • Talk about written work with your child. Getting them to explain it to you will help them understand it better
  • Attempt to get your child to think about the audience, purpose and form of every writing task. This will help them to improve their understanding of writing in different forms and help them to make links between the skills they need for different subjects
  • Encourage your child to take pride in the quality and presentation of their work by asking to see it and then praising success
  • Help your child to check their work carefully. You could help them recognise ways to improve their work and point out any errors you may spot
  • Check through any homework with your child. Encourage them to use the most advanced vocabulary, connectives, sentence openers and punctuation

Reading

The more your child reads, the more confident and skilful s/he will become. Reading is the key to success in English and is therefore important to achieve across the curriculum. Good reading helps to improve a child’s ability in speaking and listening and writing. It is therefore vital to a child’s achievement. We recommend that you encourage your child to read for at least 20 minutes a night.

To help your child achieve this, try some of the following:

  • set a good example and let your child see you reading
  • talk to your child about what you have read. This includes newspapers, magazines and books
  • read to your child
  • listen to your child read aloud as often as possible, preferably everyday
  • encourage your child to try out new books by borrowing from friends, visiting the LRC, local library or buying texts recommended by friends, family or school
  • recommended reading can be found on the school website, in the LRC and on the reading group’s webpage
  • discuss stories they have read; ask questions about the plot and the characters and whether they enjoyed the story
  • help your child to build their vocabulary by encouraging them to look up words in the dictionary
  • develop your child’s fluency by reading with them, helping them to tackle words with which they have difficulty
  • if your child finds reading a chore, encourage them to try magazines, comics, short stories, poetry or information about an interest or hobby. Favourite films and TV programmes may also provide a way in