Brilliant Support Activities: Word Level Work Book

The activity pages are designed to support and consolidate work done during the Literacy Hour. They are intended to add to pupils' knowledge of how to write for different purposes and in different forms. Often pupils of this age (Key Stage 2) feel they are great writing failures because they have difficulty with the mechanics of the task. Many feel their handwriting or their spelling is so poor that their writing lacks meaning. The process of writing is actually about two completely different factors - the composing and the scripting skills. Quite often, pupils find it very difficult to get beyond the mechanics of 'getting the words down on the paper' to the act of considering the logical order of information or even taking care over the formulation of their information. The tasks in this book are designed to supplement and reinforce concepts met in the National Literacy Strategy Text Level work, in order to build up the children's confidence as writers.The sheets can be used with individual children, pairs or very small groups, as the need arises. The text on the pages has been kept as short as possible, so that reluctant or poorer readers will not feel swamped by 'words on the page'. For the same reason we have used white space, boxes and logos, to help the pupils to understand the sheets easily, and to give them a measure of independence in working through them. It is not the author's intention that a teacher should expect all the children to complete all the sheets. Rather that the sheets be used with a flexible approach, so that the book will provide a bank of resources that will meet needs as they arise. Many of the sheets can be modified and extended in very simple ways. The Brilliant Support Activities series contains four language titles designed to give reinforcement to pupils who are finding it difficult to keep up with the skills and concepts in the National Literacy Strategy.The four books are closely linked: Word Level Work - Vocabulary Word Level Work - Phonics Sentence Level Work - Text Level Work. Each book contains 42 photocopiable ideas for use with Key Stage 2 pupils who are working at levels consistent with the first four years of the National Literacy Strategy document. The activities are presented in an age-appropriate manner and provide a flexible, but structured, resource for teaching pupils to understand all the concepts that are introduced in the Literacy Hour during reception, Y1, Y2 and Y3. The tasks in the books are kept short and snappy, to facilitate concentration. The vocabulary used is especially focused on the lists of high frequency and medium frequency words that the children are to be taught as sight recognition words during the National Literacy Strategy.The pages have a clear layout and the text has been kept to a minimum so that struggling readers can cope. Any pupils begin to feel disaffected when they find abstract language concepts hard to grasp. The activities in this series are designed, with information and questioning, to foster understanding and to help those pupils to experience success and achievement. The expectation that the pupil will achieve will help to build confidence, competence and self-esteem which, in turn, will foster learning.Read More