Primary library

Jo Heffer finds support on writing for KS2 pupils

There are many demands on pupils when writing – and, fortunately, numerous resources within Teachit’s Primary Library to support them. I have been looking at some resources which will help pupils with the compositional side of writing rather than the transcriptional elements such as spelling and handwriting.

There are many things that children need to be aware of in order to become effective writers. They need to understand how to adapt their writing according to different tasks. [Writing skills] Writing for different purposes and audiences encourages pupils to transform texts in order to meet the needs of the reader - often in a humorous way. For example, one suggestion is to transform a holiday brochure with the purpose to inform into a romantic fiction text in order to entertain!

[Writing skills] How to improve your first draft is a checklist of questions which helps children focus on what is really important about writing. Some make the children think about organisational features such as paragraphs while others concentrate on language and details. Pupils could use this to identify specific targets for their own writing and teachers could use it to identify class or group targets. It also encourages children to share their writing with others.

[Writing skills] How to improve your writing states that any piece of writing depends on three things: content, audience and purpose! There is some good practical advice here to help children concentrate on what is important. Although this resource was originally devised for Key Stage 3, this applies equally strongly to Key Stages 1 and 2. However, some of the specific advice may need to be tailored to meet the needs of the different age groups.

Many children find it difficult to achieve the correct level of formality. [Writing skills] Formal writing styles presents a rather chatty write-up of a science experiment. The task is to transform it into a formal piece of writing. Pupils will be able to see where the problems are and make the necessary changes. There is also potential here for similar activities focusing on a range of text types, all of which will help to consolidate children’s understanding of the different types of writing they will need to master!

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