Helping students improve their writing skills

In order to help students improve their writing skills it is necessary first to consider the different stages of development reached by individuals in the class. In the same way that interventions for reading improvement need to be developmentally appropriate, so too do the teaching strategies used to improve children’s writing. As Meier (2000:16) points out, ‘Good teaching matches or fits where children are both developmentally as a group-defined by age-and as individuals in their own right, defined by children’s needs and interests.’