Newsletter – 04 November 2022

It is very common for parents to have concerns about the ability of their child to correctly spell and punctuate their writing.

‘Cognitive Load Theory’ (Sweller, 2011), argues that the human brain can only process a small amount of new information at once. When learning to write, children find it very challenging developing, organising and recording their ideas. They are having to remember how to write alphabetic letters, match these to sounds, write the sounds in order, organise their ideas into a sentence, remember and use English spelling patterns correctly, develop their ideas, use adjectives and interesting words, apply correct boundary punctuation and neat handwriting, and record all this with correct spacing and capitalisation. That is an awful lot to do at once and it is not a wonder that many children struggle managing all these skills at the same time.

Sweller’s theory explains that that with time and extensive practice, these skills can be automatically recalled from long-term memory with minimal conscious effort and become automatic. By the time most people are adults, they can manage these skills at the same time because they have been practised. However, this is after many years of practice. It does take several years for most children to grasp and coordinate all these related writing skills at the same time.

To support young writers at Golf Links, we teach the writing process with an instructional focus on different skills at each phase of the process. This scaffolds the learning for students and helps children focus on what skills it is important to use at each step:

•   – Pre-writing – Talking about your writing ideas; gathering and organising ideas.
•   – Planning – Planning writing eg. sequencing ideas, developing plot, characters, setting; sorting information for an                       information report; planning for a specific writing genre.
•   – Drafting – Translating ideas into a written genre. Rereading the writing as you go to build on ideas and ensure writing                flows and makes sense.
•   – Revising – Revising the writing by rereading it, adding, and removing ideas, modifying the text, substituting in different               vocabulary and ensuring writing makes sense.
•   – Editing – Checking the writing for correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation to prepare it for an audience.
•   – Publishing – Creating a final audience ready piece; attending to presentation, layout, handwriting neatness and ensuring            accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation.
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Here are some ways you can support your child at home with writing:

•   – Help your child focus on the skills needed at whatever writing stage they are up to. Focus on recording their ideas and                thinking first. Only after the draft has been completed, spend time checking for spelling, punctuation, and grammar                  errors.
•   – Provide specific feedback about what your child has done well using a Feedback Sandwich – positive feedback,                          improvement tip, positive feedback. This provides useful and specific feedback and maintains their motivation and                  engagement in writing.
•   – Work on small sections of writing at a time when editing – a long piece can be quite daunting.
•   – Ask your child to make their editing corrections themselves. There is little gained from an adult ‘correcting’ a child’s                     writing with a red pen and it also tends to demoralise the writer.
•   – If wanting to focus on punctuation or spelling, ask your child to read over a completed piece or section of their writing                  and try and find the errors. You can turn this into a game to make it fun. For example, tell them there are three                            punctuation errors that need to be fixed up in this sentence. Can they find them?
•   – Above all, be positive and excited about your child’s writing. This is a complex lifelong skill they are learning to master                  and we want to keep them as motivated as we can!
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If you would like to read more about Cognitive Load Theory, I have found an easy to understand summary at: 2017-cognitive-load-theory-summary.pdf

Have a great week everyone!