Top 5 Benefits of Mighty Writer - KS1 Literacy Tool
When it comes to teaching it is important to inspire all children, always.
Mighty Writer engages all types of learners in the way it is designed and used. It allows KS1 children to become confident and accomplished writers, supporting, challenging and motivating them along the way.
It does this in 5 key ways...
1. Fosters a collaborative approach
Mighty Writer focuses on talk in the first instance. It encourages:
- Selection and sharing of ideas
- Putting these ideas in order
- Organising ideas, sentences and then stories
- Saying these out loud
Mighty Writer is centred on a collaborative approach where children are free to explore, discuss ideas and change their minds. This creates a culture that celebrates everyone’s input and develops the ability to think critically and have fun with language.
2. Visualises the writing process
Being able to visualise how something looks is a powerful tool in aiding our understanding.
Mighty Writer allows children to visualise how sentences and stories are created. Its use of images, symbols and words equips young children with a strong foundation, which they can continue to use in later years to support them in their writing.
It is bright and colourful and stirs curiosity, imagination and excitement.
Mighty Writer brings the process of becoming a writer to life.
3. Explores each part of the writing process
‘Learning is more effective when it is an active rather than a passive process.’ Kurt Lewin
This is true for so many learners, especially children, who need to move around and get involved. Being able to physically move things around allows us to explore and practice.
The tactile nature of Mighty Writer ensures you can direct and control what the children have access to:
- The type and number of images within a toolbar
- Punctuation
- Sentence openers
- Vocabulary
You can then model the writing process; selecting images for the story or recount, creating different length sentences and deciding upon sentence openers and punctuation.
Children can place images, words and punctuation onto the mat keeping them highly involved at every stage. They can physically see how the component parts of a sentence join together and how they can be changed to compose a piece of writing.
If you'd like to know more about why using tactile and sensory tools are important in KS1 classrooms, check our blog!
4. Teaches fictional and non-fictional writing
Mighty Writer allows children to explore both fictional and non-fictional writing. This is important because children gain confidence in different genres and styles of writing.
The use of different images allows them to retell known stories, develop their own stories and create factual recounts. It allows them to choose and explore language and vocabulary relevant to different genres.
They can have fun talking about themselves and their experiences.
5. Is suitable for all abilities
Mighty Writer allows children of all abilities to develop as independent and confident writers.
It allows them in the very early stages of exploration to select and talk about images, share ideas and talk in simple sentences.
In time children are afforded the opportunity to craft increasingly complex sentences and stories, thinking carefully about word choice and how different effects can be created.