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Writing Foundations:
Setting the Stage for Excellence
Anita L. Archer, Ph.D.
[email protected] 2 Topics Teaching Skills and Strategies Writing Foundations
- Handwriting
- Letter Formation
- Handwriting Fluency
- Spelling
- Spelling - Regular Words
- Spelling - Irregular Words
- Spelling rules
- Sentences
- Sentence Expansion
- Sentence Combining
- Punctuation and Capitalization Rules
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Teaching Skills and Strategies
Emerging writers need:
- Explicit instruction on writing skills and
strategies
- Opportunities to respond in lessons
- Positive, corrective feedback on
performance
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Teaching Skills and Strategies
Model I do it.
Prompt We do it.
Check You do it.
7 Teaching Skills and Strategies.
Check. You do it. (“Your turn.)
Check for understanding.
Verify students’ understanding before
independent work is given.
Carefully monitor students’ responses.
8 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Importance
- “Children who experience difficulty mastering this skill may avoid writing and develop a mindset that they cannot write , leading to arrested writing development.” (Graham, Harris, & Fink, 2000)
- If students have to struggle to remember letter forms, their ability to express themselves suffers. Handwriting must be automatic. (Graham, 2007)
9 Handwriting - Importance
- Fluent, accurate letter formation and spelling are associated with students' production of longer and better-organized compositions. (Berninger, Vaughan, Abbott, Abbott, Brooks, Rogan, Reed, & Graham, S.,1997)
- Measures of handwriting speed among elementary students are good predictors of quality and quantity of written products in middle school. (Peverly, 2007)
- Students benefit from explicit instruction on how to form and fluently write letters of alphabet. 10
Writing Foundations -
Handwriting - Letter Formations (See
Example 1) Introduction of letter form I do it.
- Model the letter formation.
- Stress orientation to the lines. (Hair line. Belt line. Foot line.)
- Model letter formation a number of times. Use verbal prompts. Watch me make a lower case p. I start at the belt line. Touch down. Touch around. Watch again. Touch down. Touch around. Say it as I write a lower case p. Touch down. Touch around.
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Handwriting - Letter Formations
After mass practice to obtain accuracy, provide on-going practice that is distributive and cumulative.
- Dictate sounds. Have students write letters on slates (with permanent lines) or paper.
- Provide review worksheets with recently taught letters PLUS review letters. Remember: Mastery plus review = retention 14 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Fluency
Handwriting fluency can be increased
by
- Having students write frequently.
- Involving students in “repeated writings”. (Graham, Harris, & Fink, 2000)
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Handwriting - Fluency (See Example 2)
Repeated Writing
- Student writes the same paragraph or material on consecutive days. - Materials - Paragraph in reader. - Adages, proverbs, sayings
- Tries to increase the number of letters or words written in a 2 to 5 minute session.
- Student graphs number of letters or words written. 16 Writing Foundations - Handwriting (See Example 3)
Stress appearance of work
Appearance DOES make a difference in
terms of grades received and response
of teachers and others.
Teach “How should your paper look?”
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Spelling - Regular Words
Regular Words
- 400,000 words in dictionary
- Only 13% are truly irregular (memorize)
- Focus spelling instruction on patterns that
generalize
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Writing Foundations -
Spelling - Regular Words
Letter-sound associations
Single syllable patterns (e.g., cvc, ccvc,
cvcc, cvvc, cvce)
Multisyllabic words
- Inflectional endings
- Prefixes, suffixes, common roots
Rules for combining forms
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Spelling - Regular Words
Spelling - Regular Words
Selection of words
- Words that will be used in writing.
- Words taught in decoding strand of reading program.
- Words taught in spelling program. Caution - The word lists are the strength of most spelling programs. Many of the practice exercises in spelling books have debatable value. 22
Writing Foundations -
Spelling Video and Example 4
Good practices noted in video
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Spelling - Irregular Words Example 7
Irregular words
- Teach 3 to 5 per week
- Focus on the most common (Moats, 2003) 26
Writing Foundations -
Spelling - Irregular Words
Teach students a strategy for
independently studying irregular words.
Copy, Cover, Write, Check
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Spelling - Independent Writing
Teach students how to attack the
spelling of unknown words when
writing. See Example 8.
When monitoring students as they
write, give feedback on spelling words
visually (e.g., Write the word down for
the student.)
28 Writing Foundations - Sentences Example 9
Sentence Expansion Activities
Students can learn the structure of sentences and gain “sentence sense” though sentence expansion exercises. Students add words or phrases to sentences that answer questions such as when, where, why, and how.
31 Sentences Example 11
Primary Sequence
1. Join two or more subjects
2. Join two or more verbs
3. Join two or more predicate adjectives
4. Join two or more direct objects
5. Join two or more adjectives
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Writing Foundations
Punctuation and Capitalization Rules
Example 12 When teaching punctuation and capitalization rules, follow the instructional format for rules.
- Introduce rule.
- Illustrate rule with examples and non-examples. (I do it.)
- Guide students in applying the rule to examples and non-examples. (We do it.)
- Check understanding using examples and non- examples. (You do it.)
