writing – Page 2 – SJB Teaching

February 10, 2014December 10, 2014

3 cool ways to write with dyslexia that you probably didn’t know! – from TOTKO

I came across this on Twitter today and really enjoyed it so I thought I would share it.

“We’re all about “out of the box” thinking. Sometimes when faced with a problem, the problem isn’t the issue itself but the way we are going about it. Take writing with dyslexia for example. So much of learning support for Dyslexia is about getting you to get the letters right, get your grammar right, and put the comma in the right place. This is of course important, but is it the right starting block for dealing with the issue? Or is it better to build someones confidence by simply getting them to enjoy the process first? For someone with dyslexia writing can be extremely stressful and can often take the pleasure out of writing. When a situation is visited multiple times and each time results in stress and upset, the brain begins to associate the task with those feelings. This creates a sort of 3D memory in our minds to the point that even just the thought of revisiting reading and writing becomes traumatic and bring us out in a cold sweat. With it go the feelings of doubt and low self-esteem, and as we all know; this itself is damaging……”

via 3 cool ways to write with #dyslexia that you probably didn’t know! | TOTKO.

Follow the link above to find out what the 3 cool ways are.

February 6, 2013

W is for…

W is for…Writing. There are already lots of tips in this A-Z of learning for making your writing better. Have another look at A is for…Adjectives, C is for…Connectives, O is for…Openers, Q is for…Quality and Quantity and V is for…Vocabulary.

However, the best thing you can do to become a good writer, besides practise, is to read. If you haven’t already read R is for…Reading, have a look at that now. When you read, have a notebook next to you and if you find any words or phrases that you like, write them in your notebook. This will help you to remember them and then you can use them in your own writing. This isn’t cheating (as long as you don’t copy a whole story into your book)! It’s called being a magpie (because magpies like to take anything they like the look of and use it themselves). If you tell your teacher that you have started a magpie book they will know exactly what you mean and they will be impressed that you have taken a big step towards improving your writing.

what’s the difference between a dolphin and an eggplant?

This post, by a friend of mine, would be a fantastic way to introduce children to the concept of using all of their senses to write descriptions, instead of just focusing on what things look like.

September 26, 2012

Q is for…

Q is for…Quality and Quantity. Why is this letter for two things? Because they are both important. In general, quality is more important – your teacher would rather see one page of good quality writing, where you have thought carefully about your word choice, used some different openers, and varied your punctuation, than several pages that are not very good. Quality rules!

However, if you only write four sentences, even if they are very good quality, your teacher won’t be happy because it’s not enough to show how fabulous you are. Quantity is important too. Try to write at least 3/4 page every time if you can. that way you can show off lots of your great vocabulary, prove that you can write in paragraphs, and show that you can write a beginning, a middle and an end.

O is for…

O is for…Openers. Read this story and then decide what is wrong with it:

The grumpy, old man looked out of his window and saw a scruffy, brown dog digging up his garden. The grumpy man shouted loudly at the scruffy dog to go away. The dog looked nervously at the man, but then he carried on scrabbling in the dirt. The man stormed out of the house because he was so angry with the dog. The dog stopped and the old man noticed that the dog had uncovered an old, wooden treasure chest.

That’s right – every sentence starts with ‘The’. There are some interesting ideas for a story, and there is some good vocabulary, but the readers will still be really bored by the end because the openers are all the same.

You can liven up your writing by remembering just two different ways of opening a sentence.

My favourite way is to start with an ‘ing’ word: Looking out of his window, the grumpy, old man saw a scruffy, brown dog digging up his garden. If you can’t start your sentence like this straight away, write out a boring sentence first and underline the verbs. This will make it easier to see which word to turn into the ‘ing’ form and move to the start of the sentence: The teacher glared at the class and told them to be quiet. This becomes: Glaring at the class, the teacher told them to be quiet.

The second easy way to make your writing more interesting is to start with a connective. Two simple ones to use are ‘when’ and ‘while’. When the grumpy, old man looked out of his window, he saw a scruffy, brown dog digging up his garden. While the grumpy old man was looking out of his window, he saw a scruffy, brown dog digging up his garden.

Try these ways of opening a sentence, and your teacher will quickly notice an improvement in your work. When you are confident with these, you can experiment with lots more different ways of starting a sentence.

with an adverb: Sleepily looking out of his window, the grumpy, old man saw a scruffy, brown dog digging up his garden.
with an adverbial phrase: Early in the morning, the grumpy, old man looked out of his window and saw a scruffy, brown dog digging up his garden.
with speech: “Get out of my garden!“ shouted the grumpy, old man.
with a question: Why was the old man so grumpy?

Have a look at some books and see how many different ways you can find.