PART 2: WRITING
WRITING ACTIVITY 1: PHONICS, WRITING, AND SPELLING
Phonics/Writing/Spelling Script Links
WRITING ACTIVITY 2: WRITING STORIES
WRITING ACTIVITY 3: GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION
WRITING ACTIVITY 4: GAMES AND SOFTWARE
WRITING ACTIVITY 5: INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION
INTRODUCTION
All of the teaching material is in the accompanying scripts. Don't be afraid to try changes in the scripts that might work better for your learner. You may want to print out the scripts and work from the hard copies rather than from the monitor.
Some of the explanatory material for the exercises may be difficult for a child to understand, but since the concepts are demonstrated in the exercises, explanations aren't really necessary.
We will now turn to the activities included in the writing part of the program. Go to Planning Instruction for suggestions on when to start each activity.
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English Spelling
English spelling gets a bad rap. Considering the fact that English is a linguistic stew consisting of remnants of Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norman French, Latin, and Greek, it is more regular than one might think. It is complex, but only occasionally perverse and then most commonly in the small high frequency words like "was," which are easily learned as whole words. Here are some of the complexities of English spelling:
For a good academic discussion of spelling go to How Spelling Supports Reading by Dr. Louisa C. Moats.
There are many different phonics and spelling approaches to deal with English spelling. When I started to school, the reading and spelling program began by teaching "the sounds that letters make," a letter-to-sound method (synthetic phonics) still often used. The teacher flashed letter cards, and for b, c, and d we were expected to bark out /buh/, /cuh/, and /duh/. When we learned the sounds, we were taught to sound out words letter by letter from left to right. We had to learn phonics rules to cope with the different sound spellings. Although we learned to read on schedule, this traditional phonics approach has these problems:
Writing Activity 1 teaches phonics, handwriting, spelling, and, implicitly, word recognition. Furthermore, it teaches them at the same time because they are mutually reinforcing and because it is more efficient to teach them together rather than separately.
I don't teach the names of the letters until we come to the "long vowels." At the beginning I don't want to confuse the name of a letter with the sound it represents. I don't like alphabet books and especially those that relate letters to pictures. When a child sees, for example, the letter "b," I want him to think of what sound the letter represents rather than thinking of a "bumble bee." It is acceptable to relate pictures to words but not single letters.
To cope with the duplicity of vowels, I teach spelling patterns in addition to (not instead of) sound-letter correspondences. First, I group the exercises according to the spelling patterns such as CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant), CV, CVCe, and CVVC patterns and teach the learner to hear the individual speech sounds in a word (e.g., /m---/ /a---/ /n---/ in "man"). Second, I teach them how to "write the sounds." Third, I teach the rime in the word (e.g., the -an in "man") consisting of the vowel and any consonants that come after it in the syllable. Rimes are related to "rhymes" but are not the same. Confusing? Two words that rhyme may contain the same rime, e.g., "cat" and "rat," but other rhyming words, e.g., "fight" and "kite," have different rimes (-ight and -ite).
The behavior of vowels within a given rime is quite predictable. Therefore, it is helpful to teach in the context of words the "short" vowel rimes (_at, _ell, _id, _ob, _ug, etc.), the e-controlled rimes (_ate, _ete, _ide, _ome, _ube, etc.), the r-controlled rimes (_ar, _ard, _art, etc.), the l-controlled rimes (_all, _ald, etc.), and the irregular "long" vowel rimes (_ind, _old, etc.). Although there are hundreds of rimes, the learner doesn't have to memorize all of them because he will know how to sound them out until he is finally able to recognize all of them on sight. Furthermore, there is an easily manageable number of basic patterns, and you can see them in Basic Keywords.
The consonant, consonant pair, or consonant blend preceding the rime is called the onset. Although a learner should be able to sound out a two or three letter onset, e.g. /b//r/ in "br" and /th//r/ in "thr," he should also learn to take it in one chunk, /br/ and /thr/.
Knowing onsets and rimes facilitates sounding out syllables and words in reading. For example, try sounding out the word "slight." It is easy to sound out by onset and rime, /sl//ight/.
I don't like to use the "short" and "long" vowel terminology. There are long and short words, but we don't notice differences in the vocal length of vowels. I think it is useful to relate the type of vowel sound to the type of syllable and rime. Therefore, I call the so-called "short vowels" (as in bed) "closed vowels" because they occur in closed syllables and rimes, and I call those in open syllables or rimes (as in be) "open vowels" instead of "long vowels." Likewise, I call accented or stressed syllables "strong syllables" and unaccented syllables "weak syllables." The vowel sounds in weak syllables (such as the o in "wagon") are weak and neutral, so I call them "weak vowels," which is the schwa sound.
If you look at the reading instruction literature, you will see that teaching "phonemic awareness" is now a trendy subject. It is an important but easily taught concept. It is simply the awareness that spoken words consist of individual sounds. In the early exercises in my phonics/writing/spelling program the student quickly learns the concept as he learns to hear and say the sounds in a word.
"Writing the sounds" is a multisensory approach in which learners hear the sounds in a word, vocalize the sounds, see how the sounds are written, and feel the letters in their muscles as they "write the sounds." These sensations are mutually reinforcing. Whether they learn best through hearing, seeing, or feeling in the muscles, they are covered. Multisensory approaches are especially useful in helping so-called dyslexic learners.
To sum it up, I teach "phonics through spelling" rather than through letter-to-sound drills. Initially, the student is taught to hear the sounds in a real word and then to write/spell those individual sounds and to recognize the onset and rime. He is then able not only to recognize the word in reading but also to write and spell the word. In "Part 1: Reading," the student is taught to decode words by "chunking," first by chunking monosyllabic words into their onsets and rimes and later by chunking polysyllables into larger units.
Parents should know that phonics is taught in many different ways in the schools, some more effective than others and that many teachers may have been taught only a smattering of phonics of any kind. I suspect that all primary school teachers will say they do teach phonics, but this is meaningless until we find out when, how, and how intensively and comprehensively they teach it. Parents need to check their children in any of the elementary grades to see if they need supplemental work on phonics, handwriting, and spelling. One way to do that is to dictate keywords in the exercises for the learner to write until they find where the child needs more work. To find out more about the value of using explicit systematic phonics, go to Phonics Instruction.
It has been unfashionable to drill learners in phonics, handwriting, and spelling. Many have believed that skills should be taught indirectly and with games and cool computer programs. I have found that it is more efficient to teach skills with appropriate drills and reinforce the learning with games. However, drills should be made easy and made short at first and conducted with a light touch so that they seem more like a game than work. Drills should not be started before the child is developmentally ready. Don't force drills on preschool children. Some children who are falling behind in school and need drilling will resist it, but we should make it clear in a pleasant way that they have no option. Secondly, we should show that the child is making progress by charts, etc. Drills train a child to focus on a task and work at it until it is completed.
When should phonics instruction start? That's a good question to stir up an argument. The prestigious 2000 Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to Read says: "Although conventional wisdom has suggested that kindergarten students might not be ready for phonics instruction, this assumption was not supported by the data. The effects of systematic early phonics instruction were significant and substantial in kindergarten and the 1st grade, indicating that systematic phonics instruction should be implemented at those age and grade levels."
Should we teach the letter-to-sound approach ("This letter says /b/.") or the sound-to-letter approach, which is a spelling approach, ("We write the /b/ sound in "bat" this way."). For a good discussion of this issue go to The Phoneme-to-Letter Route for Phonics Instruction by Patrick Groff, who is an outstanding authority of early reading instruction. He cites three assumptions supporting the spelling approach. He says, "A second defense of the phoneme-to-letter route to children's phonics knowledge attainment rests on the deduction that it is more time-effective. In this respect, it is said that as students learn to spell words, during the same time they will gain the phonics knowledge required for sounding-out letters in words. As proof for this contention is cited the fact that students always can read words they are able to spell." I agree with this assumption that is is more efficient and add that writing and reading are mutually reinforcing.
To see the views of Dr. Louisa C. Moats, an eminent reading instruction authority and author of Speech to Print (2000), on phonics, go to Teaching Decoding. Notice on page 3 she says, "One of the most fundamental flaws found in almost all phonics programs, including traditional ones, is that they teach the code backwards. That is, they go from letter to sound instead of from sound to letter." Dr. Moats also says on page 6, "Teach pattern recognition, not rule memorization."
Pat Wolfe and Pamela Nevills in their book entitled Building the Reading Brain, Prek-3, (2004), advocate the sound-to-letter phonics as a brain-compatible approach and cite with approval Dr. Louisa C. Moats' views on the subject.
Professor Diane McGuinness, author of Early Reading Instruction (2004), which discusses a ton of research, and Why Our Children Can't Read and What We Can Do About It (1997), also advocates teaching phonics explicitly and systematically and also advocates the "sound-to-print orientation" rather than teaching "what the letters say." She also touches on this and other issues in A Prototype for Teaching the English Alphabet Code.
Dr. Marilyn Jager Adams in Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print makes a good case for making spelling a major part of the reading and language program, but she perceives a problem in the sound-to-spelling approach to phonics. Referring to the letter-to-sound approach, she says "For example, the letter f quite reliably symbolizes the phoneme /f/." (An example is pronouncing the f in "fat.") Then referring to the sound-to-letter approach, she says, "In contrast, the phoneme /f/ can be spelled f, ff, ph, or gh." (An example is to ask a child to spell the /f/ sound in "fat.") That's true, but the problem of duplicity of sound/letter correspondences cuts both ways. With the letter-to-sound approach one must cope with the problem that the letter a, for example, represents about six different sounds. Adams does makes a strong case for using the onset and rime approach.
Professor Thomas G. Gunning also endorses teaching onsets and rimes in his "word-building approach" described in Creating Literacy Instruction for All Children, a college textbook on reading instruction.
Handwriting instruction should be coordinated with the instruction in school. Parents should get a handwriting style sheet from the teacher. Also get a sample of the way they write the ten digits.
It was once common for schools to teach beginners the "ball and stick" print-script style, which was a mistake. It is drawing rather than writing, and it requires a big jump when changing to cursive.
Many schools now teach a continuous-stroke, slanted style print-script such as the proprietary D'Nealian style, which has serifs or "hooks" ornamenting such as at he end of the stroke on "a" and "d." To see what a tracing model looks like, go to ABC's. As an example of how letters are made using a continuous stroke, notice how the small "k" is formed without raising the pencil. Unless the school uses another style I recommend using a continuous-stroke, slanted style print-script with serifs. Practice writing the letters until you learn the style. If you sit facing a student, which I recommend, then learn to write them upside down, which is easier than you might think.
The most common style of cursive is the traditional looped cursive, and if that is what your school teaches, that is what you should teach at the proper time. To see a what a tracing model of cursive writing looks like, go to ABC's. My preference for cursive is to start with the continuous-stroke, slanted style print-script with serifs and then simply link the letters. The serifs make the linking easy.
I used the looped cursive style until I graduated from college and had to hand write reports that had to be more legible than my cursive, so I reverted to continuous-stroke print-script and have never gone back to cursive. An elegant looped cursive was a sign of culture in bygone days, but I suspect it's on its way out.
Every child that I have given remedial tutoring holds the pencil by wrapping a couple of fingers around it. (I don't think you can find any surgeons that hold a scalpel that way and for a good reason.) I was taught the "pinch and lean" grip in which we pinch the pencil between the thumb and index finger and support it with the side of the middle finger and cradle it between the thumb and index finger joints. Every child should at least try that grip to see if he can control the pencil better. For more on this go to The Correct Pencil Grip.
"Part 2, Activity 1: Phonics, Writing, and Spelling" in my program can be included in the "spelling approach" genre of teaching reading/spelling. The mother of all spelling approach books is Noah Webster's (yes, THAT Noah Webster) "Blue-backed Speller," (first published in 1783 and in its final edition was called the The Elementary Spelling Book). If you think my drills are burdensome, it's spelling drills are daunting, yet more copies were sold than of any other book except the Bible (over 100 million copies). It is still being used by some home schoolers. To see the 1908 edition of the book on-line, courtesy of Donald Potter, go to The Elementary Spelling Book Being an Improvement on the American Spelling Book. (I hope you have broadband!)
Although the reading instruction method of the day was the "alphabet method," I would say that Webster used the syllable method. The order of lessons goes from syllables to one-syllable words to multi-syllable words of various patterns. Lesson 152 ends with "saponaceous' and "whortleberry."
The best known method in the spelling approach genre today is the landmark Orton-Spalding method, which is the basis for The Writing Road to Reading by Romalda Bishop Spalding and Walter T. Spalding and first published in 1957. The recently published 5th Revised Edition edited by Mary E. North has undergone organizational changes, but the essential method remains the same. This is a book and method that parents tend to either love or hate. Teaching Reading at Home & School by Wanda Kennedy Sanseri is an effort to make the writing road to reading "easier to travel" for the home schooler.
Spalding starts by having the student learn the shapes and sounds of the 26 individual letters by seeing them on flash cards and by writing them. Two or three of the sounds associated with each vowel letter are taught at the same time. For example, three sounds for the letter "a" are taught simultaneously. This is called vertical phonics as opposed to horizontal phonics that teaches one sound for a letter at a time. (She must have been from the Northeast because she doesn't include the /aw/ sound that we westerners use in "ball" /bawl/.)
Spalding orders the spelling words mainly by their frequency. Since they are not grouped by spelling pattern, the variant pronunciations and spellings are explained by 29 spelling rules and are marked by numbers to show variant pronunciations.
Another book often used by home schoolers is Phonics Pathways by Dolores G. Hiskes (2000). She starts by having learners hear, say, see, trace, and write short vowel sounds. She begins by teaching CV patterns by seeing and saying, for example, /a/, /s/-/a/, /sa/. The problem is that when we look at the "sa" pattern, we have no clue as to the pronunciation of the "a." (Look at sag, sage, and salt.) However, in the VC rime, "an," for example, we can be confident of the pronunciation. (Look at "can," "Dan," "Jan," "man," etc.)
Another popular book among home schoolers is Alpha-Phonics by Samuel L. Blumenfeld (1986). He uses an onset and rime approach and has the learner begin by seeing and saying /a/, /m/, /am/ and writing am, an, as, at, ax. I think this book would be a satisfactory supplement to my program.
Here are suggested general guidelines to follow in this phonics/writing/spelling activity:
Here are the links to the instruction scripts and exercises in my program for teaching phonics/writing/spelling:
This activity consists of two parts. One part is independent writing. Provide the learner him with a notebook and encourage him to write on his own about whatever he likes. He may add drawings or cut and paste pictures to illustrate his writing. Invite him to read them to you, but I suggest that you do not read them unless invited to do so and do not correct what he has written. You want him to write for self-satisfaction without any inhibitions penmanship, spelling, or grammar.
The second part of the activity is tutor-directed to provide both reading and writing instruction using the learner's own words. You begin by having the learner dictate something, and you transcribe it in a notebook and help him learn to read it. Using student dictated material for reading is part of what educators call the Language Experience Approach. This is a powerful holistic approach that complements the sub-skills approach in Activity 1.
Do not start this activity until after you have completed all of Spelling Script 1 in Writing Activity 1. He may dictate anything he wants to, but if he doesn't have something special to write, you may have him dictate a passage for a diary that he keeps up. You may need to ask leading questions to get him started. Another possibility is to have him dictate his reaction to a story he has just read and enjoyed. Have him dictate only as much as he will have time to learn to read.
If he dictates something that doesn't make sense, suggest a change. You may need to do some judicious editing to simplify the sentences and improve the grammar, but try to retain his style and most of his words. If, for example, a learner dictates "He don't---," you may write and say, without giving a grammar lesson, "He doesn't---." Some authorities say we must not change a word, but this is another case where we may need to strike a sensible balance.
Have the learner reread his entries in subsequent sessions until he can read them satisfactorily. Then put a check mark by the entry. The important thing early on is for him to learn to recognize common small words.
In this stage he dictates his story, you transcribe it in your notebook, and then you dictate it to him. He transcribes it in his personal notebook diary. Have him dictate only as much as time permits for the completion of the process. For a real beginner one sentence may be adequate. In this activity he has a chance to practice handwriting and to learn to spell the words he actually uses.
In the intermediate stage he learns to take responsibility for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
In the final stage the rereading is dropped, and he writes his story on his own. There is more focus on grammar and composition especially after he has started studying these subjects.
When you read a student's writing, respond first to what he has said and then deal gently with errors. We don't want to create a fear of making spelling or grammatical errors that may inhibit the desire to write.
At some point after the learner is able to hand write things fairly fluently, you might consider having him learn to keyboard and to use a word processor if a computer is available. For a program that teaches the keyboard and phonics, take a look at a review of Read, Write, and Type by The Learning company.
After he has learned the keyboard and is ready to do some writing, take a look at this review of the Amazing Writing Machine for children by Broderbund, which has a special template for journals and a read back feature. (Check e-bay for a used copy.)
Writing Activity 2 eventually requires the learner to have a grasp of the basics of grammar and composition, which are covered in this activity. At the appropriate stage you may teach this material systematically, and/or you may use the material to do "spot" teaching when a problem arises in the learner's writing. Some of this material is quite advanced, so you should only teach that which is appropriate. A school may start teaching a little grammar in the third grade.
For the introduction to grammar and composition and for the instructional scripts go to the following Web page:
It is difficult to find word games that are worth the time that it takes to play them. However, we should try to use word games to lighten up the instruction. You may find word games in children's magazines, in books, in software, and on the Web. A good source of games is Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye, which is available from online booksellers.
Try searching the Web for "spelling games," "word games," "phonics games," etc. One game that I enjoyed as a child was "Hangman."
There is plenty of interactive phonics software available that purports to teach phonics in an entertaining way, but I wonder how much of it is worth the money. The software needs not only to be appealing, but it should use an approach that is sound and consistent with your direct instruction. If you teach onsets and rimes, the software should do likewise.
The goal of public education should be to produce independent learners. The Internet has provided a great resource for independent investigation, but the learner must learn to evaluate what he reads and be able to sort the wheat from the chaff.
After the learner is able to write independently and has learned the basics of grammar and composition, a great activity is for him to investigate a topic that interests him and write a paper on it. This involves reading from several sources and making notes, thinking about the purpose and scope of the paper, organizing the material, writing a rough draft including quotes, tweaking it, writing the final paper including a bibliography. This is the basically same as writing a term paper except that the learner chooses what he wants to write about and the depth and style of his exploration.
If the learner has access to an internet service provider through his parent's account, he should think about "publishing" the paper on the Internet when he produces something worth sharing.