TOP 10 STAGES OF WRITING DEVELOPMENT(Pam Allyn)

Writing happens in stages, just as walking & talking do.

1. The Talk/Listen/Talk Loop

This is the first back-and-forth between parent and child, which is already building the child's capacity for language.

2. Play

Acting out stories(personal or imaginative). Set up a corner in your house for your child to dress up & act. Giving your child plentiful time for play is going to make him a better writer.

3. Making Pictures

Encourage your child make visual representations of people, places, special things & events in the child's life.

4. Stringing Letters

Let your child write letters of alphabet randomly. This is an important stage of writing development even if it looks incidental.

5. Labelling Drawings with Parts of Words

Your child will start to label a picture of a house with 'h' or any other letters, RH. This is a natural next step.

6. Labelling Drawings with Whole Words.

This activity will teach your child 'words & ideas connect'.

7. Drawing Connected Pictures Over Multiple Pages

Your child will return to pictures to tell a longer, more complex story. Don't stop your child because he is learning how to narrate.

8. Stringing Words

Now your child is beginning to understand adding words will create dimensions & complexity in his idea(I go park.). He will want to write stories down in exactly the same way he talks.

9. Building Sentences

You child will begin to write in complete sentences - I went to the park. This is a big step toward lifetime literacy. All the steps that come before it were the building blocks that led up to this one. Teach him to use a fullstop, a comma, a question mark to make his sentence more and more complex.

10. Making Paragraphs

Your child will learn to build paragraphs like an architect builds a house, putting all the new knowledge of sentence-making together into bigger collections of ideas.

Don't forget to applaud every small step your child takes. Foster the growth of his ability and desire to express himself in his own personal way.

Inspiring Amir During Breakfast

This morning Amir ((9+) wanted peanut butter toast and milk for breakfast. As I suggested in my previous post, keep writing tools and a note book in your kitchen. To get him started, I said, "Let's play a game. Maybe you can write about things you see in the kitchen(what a boring suggestion!)..."

But I was lucky, something caught his eyes. He immediately said, " You mean like that freaking banana?"

So the 'freaking banana(s)' was the first

word he wrote under 'funny words'. His other words were:

2. weird black bread

3. sticky gooey peanut butter

4. milk- milky way

5. egghead eggspierd(from the word expired)

6. I am berry sorry (from 'strawberry')

As you can see Amir has handwriting issues but for now I let him enjoy creating funny words in the kitchen. When he finished his toast I encouraged him to write words to describe his peanut butter toast. Alhamdulillah mission accomplished. All in 15minutes!!

Give Your Child A Writing Life

It's year-end holidays again and like all stayhome mums, i'm thinking of what to do to keep my 9 year old son, Amir, not glued to the computer & tv all day long. It means bonding time with me. This holiday i'm focusing on giving him a WRITING LIFE. Pam Allyn, the Executive Director and founder, LitWorld and author of What to Read When, has inspired me with her book Your Child's Writing Life.

1. Keep writing tools & a small notebook in a basket/box everywhere in the house.
 - in the kitchen: encourage him to write about food that he eats, write recipes(while you cook) & grocery lists before going shopping with you. Who knows this is the beginning of Masterchef in the making!

-in the living/family room: encourage him to write about you(the most important being in his life!), his dad, his siblings, family activities(past & future). Before long you'll be getting 'I love u mum' ( & also 'I hate Kak Long') notes. 

- in his bedroom: encourage him to write about his friends, his school, his dreams & his imaginary world. 

A reminder to parents: support & encourage your children to write with enthusiasm. Focus less on their spelling errors and sentence structures. We want them to enjoy expressing themselves. We want them to become confident with their writing abilities. By giving them this opportunity you are helping your children grow emotionally & develop critical thinking. 

And according to Pam Allyn, the secret of how to raise a writer is for us to be dedicated listeners. So if your child is not comfortable to start writing, let him talk, tell you stories. Then slowly get him to pen his thoughts.

Sayonara Year1Textbook, Hello Readeasy Phonics.

Greetings to all after such a long break. I hope it's not to late to wish all Msian teachers Happy Holidays. And how did the Year 1 English teachers find teaching phonics for the first time this year? Do email me at cikgubaca@yahoo.com for comments & questions. I'm also on facebook.

Starting today I've decided not to focus so much on Year 1 Phonics(no offence). I believe I've shared enough teaching ideas that will help the teachers move forward. I guess I'm more comfortable talking about my reading series Readeasy Phonics.

So Sayonara Year 1 Textbook & Hello Readeasy Phonics!

KSSR ENG YEAR 1 TEACHING PHONICS 5

UNIT 6 Dilly Duck's Doughnut
Lesson 1
Phonemes: /d/, /ɪ/
Graphemes: d, i
Content Standard: 2.1
Learning Standards:2.1.2b, 2.1.3
Teaching Aids: a box, a witch's/wizard's hat, a wand, a pocket chart, sound cards 'd' and 'i', picture cards(dog, duck, doll, ink, iguana, igloo)
Time: 30 min

Activity:
1. Teacher takes up the role of a wizard/witch(a nice witch ok).
2. Put the magic box on a table. Say "Nyak nyi song mati kaji sumak nyi seng!" to revise phonemes /s æ t p m n/.
3. Teacher introduces new phoneme /ɪ/ through the'Magic Box' activity.
Say"I have more magic sounds in the box. Magic Box, Magic Box what do you have for me? Nyak nyi song mati kaji sumak nyi seng"
Pick sound card 'i'.
Say " I have an /ɪ/."
Use basic teaching steps to introduce a phoneme.
Suggested association song: Illie Iguana i i i (pretend to scratch all over body).
Put grapheme 'i' on the leftside of the pocket chart.

4. Repeat Step 3 for phoneme /d/. Suggested association song: Daisy Duck d d d( put both hands over your heart and move your hands to the beat of your heart).
Put grapheme 'd' on the rightside of the pocket chart.

5. Repeat " Magic Box, Magic Box what do you have for me? Nyak nyi song mati kaji....".
Pick a picture card from the magic box. Ask pupils to name the picture(eg dog). Then say "What's the first sound you hear when I say 'dog'? Train pupils to say /d/.

6. Get a pupil to put the picture card below the correct grapheme.

7. Get the class to say "/d/ as in 'dog'".

8. Repeat Steps 5-7 for other picture cards.

9. Do writing activity. Refer basic steps to teach graphemes (shapes & formations). Do AB pg 26.

10. Conclude the lesson by flashing the sound cards 'i' and 'd' & singing the related action songs.

NOTE: Arrangment of cards in the magic box(from top to bottom)
1. s a t p m n(Revision of phonemes already taught)
2. i d (new graphemes)
3. picture cards: dog, igloo, iguana, doll, ink, duck(pictures of words beginning with phonemes /d/ and /ɪ/).

KSSR ENG YEAR 1 TEACHING PHONICS 3

UNIT 4 LISTEN TO ME
New Phonemes: /m, n/
Graphemes: m n
Words: man, map, nap, an, ant, pan, Nat, am, Pam, , tan, ap, apt
(Bold- words taught in the textbook. The rest are other words including 'nonsense words'.)

Lesson 1
Phonemes: /m, n/
Graphemes: m, n
Content
Standard: 2.1
Learning
Standard: 2.1.1, 2.1.2(b), 3.1.2(a), (b)
Teaching Aids: Sound card 'm'(3), 'n'(3); pocket chart; Picture cards of words beginning with 'm' and 'n' - man, map, mop, net,nest, nap.

Time: 30 minutes

Activity:
1. Revise phonemes /s æ t p/. Flash sound cards and sing Association Action Song.

2. Teacher introduces /m/. Follow Basic Teaching Steps to introduce a sound(Refer Teaching Phonics 1)

3. Sing Association Action Song(from Cory cat Phonics Song), Mickey Mouse m m m(Rub your tummy ).

4. Repeat Steps 1-3 for phoneme /n/; Action Song - Nelly Nightingale n n n(driving a sports car).

5. Play 'Throw Me In'. Introduce picture names for words beginning with /m/ and /n/ as pupils play the game.

6. Do writing activities(model the correct way of writing the grapheme):

• touch sandpaper letter
• form 'm' with modelling clay
  
• copy, write 'm' (AB pg 16; intergrate ICT, use Microsoftword. Let pupils choose font, colour it and print.)

(Ask 'What are you doing?' as pupils do the writing activity. Train them to say the sound not the letter name. Use the term 'sound' when teaching phonics NOT 'letter'.)

REFLECTION:

LESSON 2
Phonemes: /m, n/
Graphemes: m, n
Content
Standard: 2.1
Learning
Standard: 2.1.1, 2.1.2(b)
Teaching Aids: Sound card 'm'(3), 'n'(3); Picture cards of words beginning with 'm' and 'n' - man, map, mop, net,nest, nap.
Time: 30 minutes

Activity:
1. Teacher revises the phonemes /m n/.

2. Play 'Put It Right', Textbook pg 15.

3. Do writing activity AB pg 17.

REFLECTION:

LESSON 3
Phonemes: /m/, /n/
Graphemes: m, n
Content
Standard: 2.1
Learning
Standard: 1.1.1(g), 2.1.1, 2.1.2(b),2.1.3, 2.1.4
Teaching Aids: Sound cards 'm', 'n', 'p', 't' and 'a'; pocket chart;
Time: 30 minutes

Activity:
1. Teacher revises the phonemes /s æ t p m n/.

2. Do Oral Blending for words in the word list 'Sound It Right', Textbook pg
16.

3. Play 'Sound It Right', Textbook pg 16. Divide pupils into 2 groups. Teacher says /m-æ-n/(sound-by-sound) and pupils compete to put the corresponding sound cards together. Then they read and segment the word, for eg 'man', /m-æ-n/.
Don't forget to ask the whole class to read and segment the word too.

4. Do writing activity AB pg 18. Encourage the pupils to say the sounds as they write each word. For instance for the word 'sat', encourage them to say /s- æ -t/ as they write.

REFLECTION:

LESSON 4
Phonemes: /m/, /n/
Graphemes: m, n
Content
Standard: 2.1
Learning
Standard: 2.1.1, 2.1.2(b),2.1.3
Teaching Aids: Sound cards 'm', 'n', 'p', 't' and 'a'; pocket chart; Reading Text, textbook pg 16; Sight word cards - 'on', 'the' (written in blue)
Time: 30 minutes

Activity:
1. Revise blending words quickly.

2. Read the text on page 16 together. Teach pupils to read the blue words(sight words) using look & say method(use flash cards).

3. Next let the pupils take turns to read in groups. Then pair them up and let them read the text to each other.

4. Do dictation ( For abled students - sentence level. Show sight word cards if they have problem writing the sight words; for the less abled - word level )

5. Do manipulaton. The suggested manipulation sequence for sounds represented by /s æ t p m n/ is:

a - an - am - pam - map - man - pan - tan - tap - nap - map - ap - apt - ant

This manipultaion exercise is very powerful because you are training your pupils to read any possible sound combinations.

REFLECTION:

ORAL BLENDING

Oral blending is a basic phonemic awareness task. Phonemic awareness is the understanding about spoken language. It is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds(phonemes). If children cannot distinguish individual sounds within words, they will have difficulty to read and write.

Oral blending exercises help children hear how sounds are put together to make words so that they can begin sounding out words independently as they read.
You can begin oral blending with children as early as three years of age.

GUESS THE WORD:
1. Simply tell your child "I'm going to say some sounds and I want you to guess the word. /s- a-t/"
Train your child to say "sat".
2. You can also say "I'm thinking of an animal. It's a /c-a-t/.
3. You can play 'I Spy.' Say 'I spy something square, /b-oo-k/.'
Note: Say the sounds not letter names.