Parents' Guide to LiteracyTop tips to support Literacy at home

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Often we want to help our children do better at school, but we are not sure how. This is even true of (basic) reading andwriting skills, which are key to success at school. As adults, weknow that good English is a critical life skill and as parents wewant to be able to support ourchildren at home – but how?

At Smart Learning, we have been makingresources to support busy teachers,children and parents for 16 years andhave written this leaflet for parents andcarers based on the handy, pocket-sizedready reference book and app-basedeBook The Student Guide to Literacy inEvery Subject. See inside for lots of freeideas to try at home.

frowned) then the other person has toinvent a satisfactory explanation. Inventyour own statement lists and sometimesinsist that the connective has to startthe sentence (instead of being placed inthe middle).

Extended writingHelp your child to see the different rulesthat apply to different sorts of text.

Read with your childdifferent types of text on the samesubject. For example, read a descriptionof a shark, a bit of a story featuring ashark, and a recipe for shark soup. Talkwith your child about how we know oneis a recipe, one a narrative (story), one apiece of information. Then cut the textsup and jumble them, then re-arrangethem randomly so that the text keepschanging from one type to another. Thiscan create some odd and even hilariousshifts of style and content.

Planning extended writingMany children find it very hard to gatherenough ideas to write about. When yourchild has homework which means planningor writing a lot about a topic.

If you do not have the Guide,you will need to visit www.smart-learning.co.uk/parents, a good way tohelp them is explained on pages 64-65.You could use this method to work withyour child to gather and organise ideas.All you need is a set of small stickynotes, half an hour together, and lots ofpatience. Take a picture of the finishedstructure chart so that you both have acopy for future reference.

ReadingReading is such an important skill: it allowsus to find things out for ourselves, and aworld of knowledge opens up to us.

The best way to helpchildren to improve as readers is to readwith them. If you do not have the guide,then visit www.smartlearning.co.uk/parents, the ‘reading gym’ ideas onpages 78-79 can help make your child amore able and enthusiastic reader, butthey can also bring the family closertogether, giving you all a sharedexperience and a shared set of activities.

The ideas include:

• having a brief shared reading timeeach day, when everyone reads theirown books

• watching films together, discussingthem, and then all reading the book thefilm was based on, perhaps reading thebook in short sections aloud

• joining and using the local librarytogether.

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SpellingFind some common words that both youand your children often misspell. Look upthe words, and then carefully write downthe correct spelling. Now try to worktogether to think up imaginative ways toremember the spelling. The Guide calls thisway of learning spellings, ‘memory tricks’.For example, the statement ‘rhythm helpsyour two hips move’ is a great way toremember how to spell rhythm. (The firstletter of each word in the statement makesthe word rhythm.) Similarly, some peoplecan always spell ‘because’ correctlybecause ‘big elephants can’t always usesmall exits’.

What memory tricks canyou devise to help with spelling thesewords? - straight, definite, chocolate,yacht. Make your own list of trickywords. Spelling memory games are a goodway to pass a long journey.

Word classesIf you have the Guide, read this section,which tries to explain nouns, verbs, etc assimply as possible.

Take a set of blank cardsand write a word class on each one. Tryto have a few noun cards, a few verbs,and so on. Shuffle the cards and dealthem. Each person then has to make asentence out of as many of their cardsas possible, converting each word classinto a workable example of that class.Players can add the words the, a and anas often as they like. For example, oneperson might receive these seven cards:noun, adjective, connective, adverb,noun, verb, verb. From these cards, they

make this sentence: The happy(adjective) woman (noun) whistled (verb)and (connective) hummed (verb) acheerful (adjective) song (noun).

PunctuationAwareness of punctuation in spacing andmarks is vital to developing speaking andwriting skills.

Play speak the mark. In thisgame, the whole family has to say thepunctuation as they speak. For example:

Could you pass the salt [comma] please[question mark]

I have not got any homework tonight[exclamation mark]

Are you sure about that [question markand perhaps one eyebrow raised]

Of course this cannot be played for longbefore it becomes tedious, but it can befun, and it can cheer everyone up at theend of a long day. The game has anotherbenefit: it prompts the speaker to use fulland carefully thought-out sentences.

SentencesThe focus of this part of the book is onimproving sentences in various ways sothat they are more flexible, effective andinteresting. The exercise on page 50 of theGuide is always fun. If you do not have theGuide, then visit www.smart-learning.co.uk/parents for the resources needed.

Take it in turns to chooseone statement (clause) from the left-hand column and one from the right, andto join the two with a connective (seep26). If a bizarre sentence is created (egHe was unhappy unless the teacher

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Help at home:Here are some FREE hints, tips and strategies on how to improve reading and writing across all subjects.Inspired by our new book and app-based eBook ‘The Student Guide to Literacy in Every Subject’.

Find out more, visit: www.smart-learning.co.uk/literacy

Available from someschools, via

Amazon or visitwww.smart-learning.co.uk

Telephone: 01423 206 200

www.smart-learning.co.uk

4446

Research skillsSupporting your child as they developresearching a subject is vital to theirdevelopment as independent learners.

Watch a factual programmetogether on TV, by using the KWL (What Iknow, what I want to know, what I havelearnt) on page 82 of the Guide. If you donot have the Guide, then visit,www.smart-learning.co.uk/parents. If youare about to watch a programme aboutan accident on a mountain, then all youhave to do is to use the grid to agree onwhat you think you already know, andwhat you want to know. When you allwatch the programme you then notedown what you have learnt in relation tothe things you wanted to know moreabout. It’s a good way of sharpeningyour attention as you watch. Of course,the method can also be used very

effectively before finding things out onthe internet. If you work together toapply this method to finding out from aTV programme, then your child shouldfind it fairly easy to transfer the skill tofinding out through reading - eitherbooks or computer screens.

Let us know your thoughts on these tipsand if you want some tips on how tosupport Maths, again visit www.smart-learning.co.uk/parents for some free ideasfrom our NEW Maths Guide.

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