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Cognition and Learning|Extended Writing

Tools and tips

Plan writing first

Students can be daunted by a blank page in front of them. By planning a piece of writing first the task can broken up into more manageable steps. Use common writing frames to help you get started. I have included a couple of generic ones in the toolbox section but there are thousands more online.

Use sentence starters

Often getting started is the hardest part, a simple sentence starter can help to activate the brain. It could be a whole sentence or half a sentence. You could also have a list of topics or words that needs to be included.

Writing is personal

Writing is a very personal affair- especially when hand written it can take an incredible amount of effort, appreciate that and praise students as much as you can to build self esteem and help build a positive mindset around writing. Some students do benefit from using an electronic word processor like MS Word or Google Docs, it can help de-personalise the writing and allow students to focus on content. Using programs like Google Docs can allow writing to be shared and easily edited and commented on. It would be therefore useful to help students develop keyboard skills.

Use word grids to help include key vocab

Using grids and organising your words by word families (similar spelling patterns) can help a students brain organise and remember the words. It will also help scaffold students if they have a bank of words you need them to complete in a piece of work. It might be a challenge for students to copy words from one place to another, grids and word pictures help students to notice parts of a word.

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