Tips to Support Independent Writing

Do your students struggle to write independently and require lots of teacher support? This is a challenge that many teachers face and it can be very difficult to provide adequate support, especially if you have a large group of children who rely on teacher input. Who do you support? When should you support them? How often should you be giving support? It is especially difficult if you don’t have any other adult support in the classroom such as teaching assistants or helpers! These handy resources and ideas are useful to scaffold learning and students can use them to support themselves when writing.

Colourful semantics is a wonderful method to teach sentence structure. It is very useful for children with English as an Additional Language and is often used by Speech and Language therapists as well. However, it is extremely useful for any child who struggles to form logical, grammatically correct sentences. This Colourful Semantics Sentence Strips sheet is a fantastic resource to have laminated for children to refer to when writing and they can use it to remind themselves of sentence structure. After a bit of practice with the teacher first, children should hopefully become quite confident to use it independently when writing!

By using the coloured boxes, children can practise mapping out their sentences in sections, beginning with shorter sentences consisting of “Who” and “What doing?” For example, “The man is eating.” Then other elements can slowly be added to the sentence as children’s skills progress. Here are the steps to develop and extend the sentences:

1.  The man is eating.

2.  The man is eating a banana.

3.  The man is eating a banana at the park.

Gradually adding detail gives children the chance to properly grasp the structure and understand the meaning of the sentences. It is a good idea to orally practise saying sentences first, as if a child cannot say a sentence, then they will not be able to write it! 

This Colourful Semantics Silly Sentences Activity has pictures that can be used to form sentences. The children can use the “Colourful Semantics Sentence Strip” from above and place the pictures into the correct space to form their sentence! A great visual learning resource! You could also make your own picture cards for whatever topic or story you are learning about in class. For example, if you were doing the story of Little Red Riding Hood, you could make cards for all the characters, places and actions in the story! The Twinkl Create Tool is very useful to make your own personalised resources as it has hundreds of pictures to choose from, or you can even upload your own pictures!

Another challenge many students face in literacy is trying to make their writing interesting! How often have you read a story or recount where every sentence started with “then”? When writing, there are so many aspects that children have to think about including handwriting, punctuation, tenses and adjectives, so it’s no wonder they can get a bit repetitive! It is a nice idea for children to have access to word walls or word mats that they can independently refer to when writing. This Sentence Opener Word Mat gives children a range of ideas so they can edit and improve their own writing!

In order to motivate children to use interesting and inspiring language in their writing, make sure they have access to materials they can use to help themselves if needed. This Word Mat Pack is great as it has verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives word mats! It is easy for children to use independently as the words are arranged into columns. With the adjectives, it is split into words to describe people, objects, good and bad feelings, size and time! Perfect for improving story writing!

For younger, visual learners, this colourful Adjective Word Mat makes it even easier to distinguish between the types of adjectives in each column.

Does your class always use the same adjectives to describe? Or the same old verbs? Encourage exciting language with this Alternative Adjectives Vocabulary Grid and Alternative Verbs Vocabulary Grid! It is especially helpful for younger children or those with EAL/D children who may find it difficult to choose a suitable word from an adjective or verb mat and use it appropriately.

How do you support independent writing in your classroom? We’d love to see your ideas! Remember to tag us @TwinklAustralia to show us the creative ways you’ve used our resources with your children! You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Happy writing!

Katrina Gilmore works remotely for Twinkl from Brisbane in Queensland as well as being a teacher. She has over 12 years experience as both a music teacher and Primary classroom teacher in a variety of school settings in London and Australia. She finds helping students of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to reach their goals immensely rewarding!