Confidence is key

What is the most effective way of giving children more confidence in reading and writing?

In terms of most children’s work at primary school, confidence is always a key factor.  And indeed, nowhere is this more so than with literacy. 

For as can be observed almost every day, those children who feel that they can’t read or write as well as their peers, very quickly begin to shy away from trying – not least because they don’t want to be shown up as not being very good at a basic skill, in front of others.

This is why making children more confident in their reading and writing is vital.  For it is this confidence in their ability in relation to literacy, which is the base on which all improvement can be built.

Indeed, this is vital, for it is the ability in literacy which determines to a fair degree, progress in many other subjects from history to learning a foreign language.

At the heart of literacy improvement is the observation that the practising of writing sentences, makes spelling become more automatic.  As a result, less time is taken up by the children worrying about the way words are spelt, allowing more time to be spent ensuring that the meaning that the child wishes to convey is clear in the sentences that are written.  

But for those who slip behind in this regard, it can be hard to catch up. Which is why we have produced Boost Spelling Skills 1 – a book for those who need reinforcement of the KS1 literacy curriculum as they move further up the primary school.

Then, through providing strategies to improve pupils’ spelling skills, the pupils become more confident in their reading and writing.  Indeed, a key aim of the approach is to help pupils develop strategies for spelling words that appear unfamiliar, using multi-sensory methods. 

This, therefore, is the approach of Boost Spelling Skills 1, within which activities and information sheets teach the children strategies which give extra support for slow learners. A clear learning outcome for each activity means the children, and you, can see how they are doing. 

Boost Spelling Skills 1 is part of a series which provides strategies to improve primary school pupils’ spelling skills, making them more confident readers and writers.  Each volume is available as a printed book or as an e-book.   

Find out more about the books in this series, as well as trying extracts from the books with your pupils, on our website.  

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