I find this article from the Star Online very interesting to be used by parents or teachers.....

Sunday June 12, 2011

Writing it right

By Keith W. Wright (The Star Online)

As it is difficult to unlearn bad writing habits later on, parents and teachers should work together to develop and improve children’s writing skills at home.
In this week’s Exploring English, the focus continues on suggestions for teaching English in the home. Last week, we looked at a number of ideas in relation to reading.
This week we will look at ideas to cultivate your child’s interest in writing and how to improve skills, as well as the value of the partnership between the classroom and the home.
Whether you are a parent or a teacher, when assisting children to develop or improve their writing skills, it is important to make any activity FUN!
As it is usually unwise to have to undo or unlearn something that has been wrongly learnt to begin with, correct punctuation should be used from the outset without making it a laborious and unpleasant exercise.
When writing words for your children – except for people’s names – it is recommended that lower case letters be used for ordinary words.
Capitals are only used for the start of words that are “important”, for example, the names of family members, people’s names, known places, such as addresses, streets, suburbs, towns, etc. When spelling the child’s own name, for example, spell it as “Bella”, not “BELLA” or “bella”.
Get your children to write about something they can see, feel, or like or that is known and common by using sentence starters. For example, get them to complete simple sentences:
I can see a .................
My friend is ....................
This is ......................       
Our house .................
I live ........................      
That is my ...................
By undertaking and completing these sentence starters, young children also feel that they can now write – just like “big people” – and they gain even greater enjoyment when they are encouraged to draw what they have written.
Graphics, pictures and drawings are excellent tools for teaching the meaning of words.
A child might not know what the word “eagle” says but when they see a picture of one in the air, they comprehend immediately that it is something that “flies”, i.e. it is a ”bird”. As it has been said for centuries, a picture can be worth a thousand words.
Here are some other positive ideas to encourage children to improve their writing skills:
·Encourage your children to write, copy and draw “special messages” such as, “I love Mummy and Daddy” as well as cards (which do not always have to say “Happy Birthday!”) to members of the family;
·Verbally and visually build on known base words, for example from “cat” to “cats”, “farm” to “farmer”, etc;
·Have rhyming-writing games where your child can learn more words and their meanings by relating words that rhyme, for example “band” > “hand” > “land” — “hat” > “mat” > “pat” > “rat” > “cat”, etc;
·Encourage the building of personal word lists, getting children to record them in a “My Special Words” booklet – e.g. the names of all their toys, the members of their family, things around the house, favourite foods, shopping lists, things they like to do, etc; and
·Start building descriptive group lists using common nouns, completing them from a list of relevant adjectives, for example, do simple “fill in the blank” exercises with your child such as the one shown below.
……………flower
…………… dog
……………knife
..…………. sky
(pretty – hungry – sharp – starry).
It is a proven fact that young learners achieve faster when their school is able to enter into an active, effective, partnership with the home and the local community, that is, with parents, carers, immediate and extended family members as well as community identities.
This is a two-way street and is recommended for both teachers and parents to get to know each other.
Helpful hints for teachers
·Involve parents in their child’s educational development;
·Get to know the parents by name, their occupation, their interests, their strengths and skills;
·Parents need to know what a child is being taught, and they usually want to know;
·Extend the “home” into the “classroom” by inviting parents into the classroom;
·Extend the “classroom” into the “home” by promoting the speaking of English at home with posters, magazines, comics, etc;
·Invite parents and relatives to talk to the class on subjects of interest, e.g. a particular sport; a place they have been to; a skill they have or just “join in” when they have the time;
·Involve parents who have English language skills as voluntary reading aides to assist in reading-related activities especially with learners who are finding reading activities challenging;
·Encourage parents to monitor, recognise, acknowledge and praise their child’s progress;
·Involve community identities in the teaching and learning process by contributing their skills, knowledge and experiences;
·Turn the community into a learning environment with
excursions and planned experiences such as visits to places of educational relevance, such as a medical centre, the weather bureau, the police station, the local council office, art galleries, museums, etc;
·Keep parents informed and involved by sending them weekly newsletters, e-mails about “What we did today”, photos, etc.
Next week, in the third and final part of this series, consideration will be given to skill of speaking.
> Keith Wright is the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S) — a modern, innovative and proven method of accelerating the learning of English.
The 4S methodology and the associated Accelerated English Programme (AEP) mentioned in this fortnightly column are now being used internationally to enhance the English language proficiency of people from a diverse range of cultures and with different competency levels.
E-mail
contact@4Sliteracy.com.au for the second free set of five English Language Graphic Charts.