My Journal. Lesson 7: Writing in English

This unit looks at:
-          activities that help children to learn and practise handwriting
-          link writing with reading, listening, and speaking
-          Help children to write more freely.
 
Writing

Like the other three language skills, writing is about meaning. Early writing activities such as copying, tracing, and making letter shapes are handwriting practice. Finding the letters for computer work is a matter of recognition and developing keyboard skills. But children always have to think about the meaning of what they are writing and whatever the lesson focus is - handwriting practice or keyboard skills or expressing meaning, or a combination - children should enjoy the activity and feel successful. In any case teachers have to know how to work healthy and in the correct way with computers to teach properly to the children and because they have to know the right use of this electronic tools.

The act of writing and learning suggest that involving children and adults with meaningful writing occasions such as journal writing is one of the most important methods to communicate the importance of writing, not only as a fundamental communicative skill, but also as a mean for personal learning and development. We have to know that most of the activities used in reading can be used in writing too.
The most important knowledge that teachers have to know about when start to teach writing is that children have to put into words the things that they want to present before start to write.

We have to remember two things that make a great difference when children are learning to write in English; their age and their degree of familiarity with roman script.
When children write, they have to pay attention to several things at the same time like develop finger control and be tidy, the form letters, become familiar with the relationship between sound and spelling in English, keep the picture of the letters in their minds or learn when to use capital letters and how to punctuate.

How do we teach handwriting?

Children can be taught English style letter formation and print in the English lesson or equally, they can use Spanish style cursive right from the start. They easily adapt from one style to another. Teachers sometimes worry excessively about these details and a whole-school handwriting policy is a good plan to remove unnecessary conflict. The upper case/ lower case debate is perhaps more significant as the children would appear to make quicker progress in reading if they can learn lower case letters from Infants, and not just capital letters.

Whatever the school policy in handwriting, teachers must always check that the children use a comfortable pencil grip and have good posture in writing sessions.

Practising the alphabet

For writing and learning how to spell, children may need to know the formal names of the letters and the order of the alphabet. This also helps them look up words in a dictionary.

As teachers we might to know that very young learners enjoy singing the alphabet song, making the letters writing in different colours and chatting in their mother tongue while doing their writing.
Teachers also have to know that they are always an example of behaviour and because of that children mimic all the actions rather good and bad providing a particular learning behaviour.

Teaching TIPS

Practise letter shapes by tracing over dot letters, using letters cut out of rough paper and stuck on cards; tracing the shape in the air- air writing, asking children to put their names or initials on their drawings and other artwork.

Some ideas that can improve the motivation of children to writing and practise their writing skills are:

Palm-writing: feel the shape and say the letter.

For this activity is advisable:
- Let children work in pairs.
- The first child has the letter.
- The second child closes his/her eyes.
- The first child draws the letter out line on the palm of the second child's hand.
- The second child says the letter.

Back writing -feel the shape and write the letter

For this activity is advisable:
- Let children work in pairs.
- The first child has the letter/short word.
- He/ She draws the outline on the second child's back.
- The second child writes down the letter or short word.
- They check together.

From speaking to writing and from reading to writing

From speaking to writing: making memory games and quizzes.

When children can physically make the letters of the alphabet or use a keyboard, they can do activities to practise their writing, e.g. tracing by hand, finishing words, or copying by hand or on the computer. But as meaning is the most important aim of writing, it is always important to link these activities with what children already know and what they are learning.

From reading to writing: making lists.
     
Spelling
Spelling is a link between reading and writing. Today, with more telephone communication, people often have to spell names and addresses out loud.
We also can do many games related with writing which also improve speaking louder skills, for example:

WHO AM I?

Get each child to write down (in secret) a word they can see in the classroom. (If they label things in the classroom you will have a lot of words on the walls.)

The whole class can then play a question game (spoken or written) to guess the word. They can either say the questions, or write them and give them to the teacher or another child to read out loud.

 

Writing with other children and children writing freely

When children write individually about what they know or feel themselves:
-  They are writing to communicate with others
-  They are developing self-confidence.

As a teacher you know that:

- All creative effort should be praised and encouraged
- Spelling and handwriting can be looked at separately
- The child's message is most important.

Children know a lot about stories. They understand the structure, that stories have a beginning and a middle where you tell what happens, and that there are different ways to end. Children can be quite sophisticated in the way they tell stories. This is part of the knowledge they bring to class.

Teaching TIPS

ü  When they start doing this activity on their own, children may want to keep the same questions you used on the board but you can encourage them to ask other questions and answer them.   ü  lf they don't put in the name of the person they are writing about, the activity can become a guessing game. Let the other pupils read the descriptions and guess who this is.

ü  Children learn from reading one another's work. You can display what children have written on the wall. They can pick the funniest /the best or guess who the person is if it is not said. ü  lf your pupils can use a computer, they can describe characters that they and the other children know e.g. favour rite cartoon characters, and use them for a computer quiz. And they can use the spell-checker.

 

 

BANDS OF ATTAINMENT FOR READING AND WRITING - FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD CYCLES

The follow statements of the outcomes that children should be able to do at the end of each stage of primary have been selected with the criteria that those which appear in the next paragraphs are the outcomes which the most of the children will learn finishing the second year of each cycle. So 70% of children should be able to:

First cycle:

Pupils recognise a wider range of familiar words in simple texts. They use phonetic, graphic, syntactic and contextual cue to attack unfamiliar words and t establish meaning when reading aloud. They express opinions relates to major events and ideas in stories, poems and non-fiction texts.
Pupils’ writing communicates meaning, and appropriate and interesting vocabulary is used. Their writing is organised in a series of sentences with fairly accurate use of capital letters and full stops, and simple familiar grammatical structures are used. Familiar monosyllabic words are generally spelled accurately. Pupils use word banks, phonics walls, picture dictionaries and other resources to attempt to write less common words. In their reading and writing pupils show an awareness of typical features of different types of text.

Second cycle:

Pupils read a range of texts with increasing fluency and accuracy. They read independently, using strategies appropriately to establish meaning. In responding to fiction and non-fiction they show understanding of the main point and express preferences. Pupils use their knowledge of the alphabet to locate books and find information. Pupils writing communicate meaning in both narrative and non-narrative forms, using appropriate and interesting vocabulary, and showing some awareness of the reader. Pupils demonstrate an accurate use of: capital letters, full stops, question marks, exclamations marks, commas and inverted commas. The basics grammatical structure of simple sentences is usually correct. Spelling of familiar words is usually accurate.

Third cycle:

Pupils show understanding of a range of texts, selecting key points and using inference and deduction where appropriate. In their responses, they identify hey features, themes and characters and select sentences, phrases and relevant information to support their views. Pupils retrieve and collate information from a range of sources. Pupils’ writing in a range of forms is thoughtful and interesting. Ideas are developed and organised appropriately for the purpose of the reader. Vocabulary choices are becoming more adventurous. Spelling, including that of polysyllabic words that conform to regular patterns, is generally accurate. Punctuation within a sentence is usually accurate. Texts are organised into paragraphs.