Supporting Literacy: A Guide for Primary Classroom Assistants

Supporting Literacy

Supporting Literacy is a user-friendly, practical guide for all Classroom Assistants, Learning Support Assistants, volunteers and others who support children’s learning in primary schools. It explains step-by-step how children learn to read, write and spell, and how best to help them on their way. It is compatible with the National Literacy Strategy and the revised National Curriculum. It includes a guide to the Literacy Hour and is full of practical ideas, useful hints and suggestions with a supplement of ready-to-use photocopiable resources. Other topics covered include: •

• • • •

Reading – beginning to read; how to make reading easier; using non-fiction with children; different approaches to reading; developing comprehension skills; how to hear children read effectively. Writing and spelling – how children learn to write; supporting children with spelling; problems with handwriting. Special Needs – practical ways to support children with a variety of learning difficulties. Bilingual children – how to help children who are learning to read and write English as an additional language. Using computers – understanding the software.

As well as providing an invaluable manual for Classroom Assistants, Supporting Literacy will be useful for SENCOs and English Coordinators who are training support staff and volunteers in primary schools. Learning Support Assistants and others following recognised courses (e.g. training for Teaching Assistants) will find the book helpful in their study of children’s literacy. Kate Grant is an Education Writer, Trainer and Consultant. She has trained many Classroom Assistants to support children’s reading and writing. Originally a primary school teacher, she has specialised in teaching children with literacy difficulties for twenty years. In 1994 she created the successful ‘15 Minutes a Day’ Reading Programme, used by Classroom Assistants in many schools.

Supporting Literacy A guide for primary Classroom Assistants

Kate Grant

London and New York

First published 2001 by RoutledgeFalmer 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeFalmer 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2001 Kate Grant The right of Kate Grant to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. The purchase of this copyright material confers the right on the purchasing institution to photocopy pages 74–84 only. No other part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Grant, Kate, 1968– Supporting literacy : a guide for primary classroom assistants / Kate Grant. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Reading (Elementary)–Great Britain. 2. English language–Composition and exercises–Study and teaching (Elementary)–Great Britain. 3. Literacy–Great Britain. 4. Teachers’ assistants–Great Britain. I. Title. LB1573.G647 2000 00–036633 372.6–dc21 ISBN 0–415–22818–2 (Print Edition) ISBN 0-203-20844-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-20847-1 (Glassbook Format)

Contents

List of figures Acknowledgements Note on the text

vii ix x

Introduction

1

1

Understanding the Literacy Hour

2

2

Helping children with reading

11

3

Helping children with writing and spelling

30

4

Children with Special Educational Needs

50

5

Supporting bilingual children

61

6

Using computers to support literacy

65

Glossary Photocopiable sheets Index

69 73 85

Figures

1.1 The four parts of the Literacy Hour 1.2 A group of children reading with the Classroom Assistant in the third part of the Literacy Hour 2.1 When children are reading effectively they use all three elements – word recognition, phonics and context – to work on the text 2.2 A child reading with a Classroom Assistant 2.3 Cues children can use when reading (1) 2.4 Cues children can use when reading (2) 2.5 Cues children can use when reading (3) 2.6 Brainstorming ideas before reading an information book about hedgehogs 2.7 The KWL grid. K: What do we already know? W: What do we want to find out? L: What have we learned? 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15

Stage 1 – experimental writing Stage 2 – using letters Stage 3 – phonetic spelling Stage 4 – remembering words and spelling patterns The creative aspects of writing – thinking up ideas The creative aspects of writing – putting thoughts into words The technical aspects – handwriting The technical aspects – spelling The technical aspects – punctuation Syllable jigsaws can help with spelling Word wheels help children recognise spelling patterns Flick books are a fun way to practise onset and rime Magnetic letters are useful for teaching spelling patterns Using boxes to help children hear and write the letters in a word A Learning Support Assistant helps Year 1 children to spell ‘rocket’

3 5

14 16 18 19 19 24 25 30 31 31 32 33 33 34 34 35 38 40 40 41 43 43

viii Figures

3.16 The words in the sentence are jumbled for the children to reassemble 3.17 The correct position for writing with the left hand 4.1 Example from an Individual Education Plan 4.2 This word picture helps children to remember the spelling for ‘look’ 4.3 The letters b and d are more likely to be remembered if children can link them to a mental picture of a bed 4.4 Using fingers to form the letters is another way of remembering how to write the b and d 4.5 If the letter w is reversed, it becomes a letter m and its water will fall out 4.6 A letter u is like an upside-down umbrella

44 47 51 56 56 57 57 58

5.1 A Learning Support Assistant shares a dual-language text with a Turkish boy

63

6.1 Two children enjoy a talking book on the computer

66

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the many Classroom Assistants, Learning Support Assistants, teachers and parents with whom I have worked, and from whom I have learned so much about children and literacy. I would especially like to thank Alison Palmer and Jen Townson for their encouragement and patience in reading my manuscript. I am indebted to many colleagues in the Hackney Learning Support Service, particularly Sue Davies, Jill Wright and Lizzie Yauner for their continuous support, and Mary Burke, Katherine Dent, Colette Fuller and Penny Wiles for their useful comments on Chapter 4. Many thanks also to Grasmere Primary School in North London, for the photographs of assistants and children.

Note on the text

Assistants in primary schools are known by various names, depending on where and with whom they are working. These include: Teaching Assistants, Learning Support Assistants, Classroom Assistants and Special Needs Assistants, among others. Children do not have a problem with this, and tend to refer to them all as ‘helpers’. Throughout this book I have used the term ‘Classroom Assistant’ to refer to anyone who helps and supports children in a non-teaching capacity in the classroom.

Introduction

When I run training sessions for Classroom Assistants and others who are supporting children’s literacy in primary schools, I am often asked if there is a practical, up-to-date book written especially for non-teachers. Having failed to find one, I have written one myself. Learning to read and write underpins all other learning in school and life. The more I discover about how literacy skills are developed, the more amazed I am that any child manages to learn to read and write painlessly. It is a fascinating activity. There is so much to remember, and the skills involved are sometimes very complicated. Learning to read and write can and should be an enjoyable process for children. It is also extremely satisfying for an adult to know, when seeing a child enjoying books, that she or he has helped to make that happen, and has made such a positive impact on that child’s life. The aim of this book is to demystify the procedure, rather as we do when teaching children to read, by presenting the information step by step in easily digestible pieces. The process has not been over-simplified, however. Where necessary, specialist terms have been used, if they are (or should be) in general usage in primary schools. I have included a glossary of such words, for convenience. These words are shown in bold the first time they appear. I hope you will find many practical ideas, useful hints and suggestions throughout the book, that you will be able to implement, without hours of tedious preparation. The section of photocopiable sheets at the back of the book contains ready-to-use resources. This guide is intended to be a book to be dipped into, as the need arises, as well as to read for background information and to deepen your understanding and interest. It may also prove useful for support staff on training courses such as those for Teaching Assistants, volunteer reading supporters, school governors and student teachers.

1 Understanding the Literacy Hour

The National Literacy Strategy began in September 1998, and is a government initiative aimed at raising standards of reading and writing for all primary school children in England and Wales. In a document issued at the time, the government made clear its view of the importance of Classroom Assistants: The Literacy Hour has given support staff a new enhanced role in the classroom. They have: • • •

a greater sense of purpose; better access to planning; an increased sense of responsibility for the groups they work with. (DfEE 1998a)

Even earlier, in 1996, the government had backed a training scheme geared to Classroom Assistants who were supporting children in primary schools – the Specialist Teacher Assistant courses (STA). The evaluation of this scheme noted that the increasing use of Classroom Assistants in primary classes was having a positive effect on children’s learning and achievements. In 1999, the government promised an additional 20,000 assistants for primary schools by the year 2002 and, as a first step, introduced Additional Literacy Support, a programme to be carried out by Classroom Assistants working in partnership with class teachers. Additional Literacy Support is aimed at children in Years 3 and 4 who need help to catch up with their classmates. The training for this Additional Literacy Support was attended by Classroom Assistants and Year 3 teachers. It included a useful pack of materials and resources for helping children to develop reading and writing, which was sent to every primary school.

Understanding the Literacy Hour 3

The Literacy Hour You will probably have seen the Literacy Strategy in operation in your school, in the Literacy Hour lessons which each class has to follow every day. Literacy Hour lessons include a mixture of reading and writing, as well as speaking and listening. A large proportion of each lesson involves the whole class, but the children also work in groups for part of each hour. It is usually during the group work session that other adults, such as Classroom Assistants are involved in supporting children. Class Teachers plan their teaching for the Literacy Hour by referring to the ‘Framework’ – a large folder which provides information about what children should be taught in each school year and term, from Reception to Year 6. The planning is then broken down into smaller steps, and lesson plans for each week are worked out. The class teacher’s plans will incorporate details about reading books and activities for groups of children, including groups supported by Classroom Assistants. In some larger schools children are ‘setted’ in groups according to their ability for Literacy Hour teaching.

How the Literacy Hour works The Literacy Hour Clock Plenary session

class 10 mins

groups 20 mins

Independent work and guided reading or writing

class 15 mins

Shared reading or writing

class 15 mins Word and sentence level work (spelling, grammar, etc.)

Figure 1.1 The four parts of the Literacy Hour

The Literacy Hour is divided into four parts. For the first two parts of the hour (30 minutes in total) the whole class is taught together. After this the children are split into groups, usually according to their reading ability, for the next 20 minutes. Finally the class comes back together for the last 10 minutes. Some schools allow flexibility in the timing, but

4 Understanding the Literacy Hour

usually follow the same order. Each week the Literacy Hours will include reading, writing, speaking and listening as well as spelling, punctuation and sentence structure.

The Literacy Hour: Part 1 Text level work: shared reading or writing, 15 minutes, whole class Shared reading For the first fifteen minutes of the Literacy Hour, all the children are usually sitting in a carpeted area of the classroom, gathered around the teacher and looking either at a Big Book or an overhead projector screen containing a text. This is called shared reading. The teacher, first of all, introduces a text to the children, drawing their attention to illustrations, key words and characters, if the text is from a story, or the layout, if a poem is being introduced. The teacher then reads the text to the class, and the children join in as he or she reads it again. With younger children the text will probably be a story or poem from a Big Book. Older children may be looking at a screen with a page from a book projected onto it. The text is deliberately chosen to be just above the level at which most of the children can read alone. Even though some of the children would not be able to read the text by themselves, each child has the opportunity to share in as much of the reading as they can manage. The emphasis is on understanding and the teacher asks questions, encouraging the children to think about what they are reading, to analyse and explore ideas and to be involved in the discussion. Shared writing On one or two days each week, this whole class work will be shared writing, rather than reading, and again the children are gathered around the teacher, who usually writes on a whiteboard. The teacher works with the children, composing a story or poem together, encouraging the children to suggest ideas, usually based on something the class has already shared in a Literacy Hour earlier in the week. The teacher will be modelling what the children should do, demonstrating how they are required to answer, helping them by reading in an expressive voice, for example. The teacher will write down the children’s ideas, on the board, although some children may also be asked to write their own contributions on the board, too.

The Literacy Hour: Part 2 Word and sentence level work, 15 minutes, whole class The next 15 minutes is concentrated on developing children’s skills in areas such as spelling, punctuation and grammar. This is called sentence level work.

Understanding the Literacy Hour 5

With younger children in Key Stage 1, there is a strong emphasis on learning phonics (understanding that letters have sounds and how they fit together to help you read and spell words) and spelling patterns (e.g. day, say, play). The children are also taught how to write sentences using capital letters and full stops. Older children in Key Stage 2 are taught grammar and sentence structure. They learn about parts of speech such as nouns (words for names of people, objects and qualities, e.g. table, girl, truth) verbs (action words, e.g. jump, read, laugh) and adjectives (describing words, e.g. happy, large, horrible). They are taught to spell more difficult words including those that are exceptions to the usual spelling patterns (e.g. part, dart and heart) and words which sound the same but are spelt differently (e.g. fair, fare). Punctuation is also taught, such as the use of apostrophes and speech marks, e.g. ‘Let’s go to Devil’s Island right now,’ said George. The use of complex sentences and paragraphs is also taught, e.g. Although I wanted to go, unfortunately I was not allowed to, because of my age.

The Literacy Hour: Part 3 Group and independent work, 20 minutes

Figure 1.2 A group of children reading with the Classroom Assistant in the third part of the Literacy Hour

The class is now divided into groups, sometimes according to reading ability, for the third part of the Literacy Hour. In a class of thirty there would usually be five groups, with six children in each. During this 20-minute period, most children will be working on their own, at tasks set by the teacher.

6 Understanding the Literacy Hour

The teacher works directly with one of the groups, either to develop their reading skills and strategies (guided reading) or their writing ability (guided writing). The rest of the class will be working at activities to practise skills they have been taught during the whole class teaching, e.g. a group of Year 4 children could be putting the missing punctuation marks into a page of text. Year 1 children might be finding words beginning with ch and illustrating them. This is the part of the Literacy Hour when Classroom Assistants are often asked to take a group of children, and support them with their activity. In some schools the Classroom Assistant will be helping a group by supporting their reading, using a book that the children have already read with the teacher, in an earlier guided reading session. It is very important that the children are trained to work independently so that the teacher can concentrate on the group he or she is working with, during this time. This requires both good organisation and behaviour management skills.

The Literacy Hour: Part 4 The plenary, 10 minutes, whole class The last 10-minute section of the Literacy Hour is the plenary, a time for getting the whole class together again and rounding off the hour. It is an opportunity to share what has been learned and to revise teaching points. When the group work comes to an end (after 20 minutes) the teacher makes sure he or she has the attention of the whole class again. Younger children may come back to the carpet, but Key Stage 2 children often remain at their tables for the plenary. Usually, one group of children will report back on what they have been learning. The teacher asks questions and involves the rest of the class in the discussion, so that it becomes more than just a ‘show and tell’ activity. Each day a different group has an opportunity to talk about what they have been doing, and the children can contribute as much as they are able.

The Literacy Hour: the three strands of work At different times during the Literacy Hour, children are working on one of three strands of work: text, sentence or word. You may hear teachers refer to them as text level or word level work. Throughout the three strands, reading and writing are always closely linked. For example, if the children are reading and discussing a famous traditional tale, such as ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, they may follow this by writing their own story plans for a similar story, or writing the sequel: ‘Jack’s next adventure’.

Text level work The first 15 minutes of each hour is devoted to sharing texts with the children. Also some children will work on texts each day with their teacher during the third section of the hour in guided reading or guided writing groups. Over each term, children will read and write different kinds of texts, including stories, poems and non-fiction, such as instructions and information books.

Understanding the Literacy Hour 7

Example In the Spring Term of Year 2, the text level work that 6 and 7 year olds are doing would include: •

• • •

learning to recognise characters in stories they have read and describe them in their own words in writing. Using ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ they might make a list of characters in the story, choose one and write a description; reading their favourite poems aloud and discussing the patterns of rhyme and rhythm; collecting new words from the book they are reading and learning to use dictionaries to find the meaning of the words; explaining a simple process (e.g. how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly) with labelled diagrams.

Sentence level work During the second part of the Literacy Hour, the teacher will be encouraging the children to study how the language in texts is constructed. This involves becoming aware of grammar (the rules for how words fit together in sentences) and punctuation (full stops, speech marks, exclamation marks, etc.). For example, when sharing the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ with the class, the teacher would draw the children’s attention to the speech marks around the giant’s words: ‘Fee, Fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!’ Young children in Key Stage 1 have a basic understanding of when sentences make sense and are taught to use this knowledge when they read, to check themselves and correct their own errors. The common immature words used at this stage, e.g. I catched the ball are gradually encouraged to become the standard forms of language (I caught the ball). The teacher also explains to them why there are punctuation marks in books and teaches them to use full stops and capital letters correctly in their own writing and to recognise question marks and read them with appropriate expression. The children could be asked to read the same words, with and without a question mark, so that they can hear the difference, e.g. ‘You saw a giant?’ and ‘You saw a giant.’ From the age of 7, in Key Stage 2 classes, the children learn about more complex grammar and punctuation. This work includes the different tenses of verbs (past – she laughed, present – she is laughing, and future – she will laugh), how to form adverbs (e.g. slow . . . slowly, the use of speech marks to write direct speech and connectives (connecting words or phrases, such as meanwhile, therefore, nevertheless). The children also have the opportunity to practise and revise what they have been taught, about grammar and punctuation, when they are working in groups during the Literacy Hour.

Word level work In one sense there is word level work going on throughout the Literacy Hour, whenever children are using their knowledge about letter sounds to read or write, or thinking about spelling and vocabulary. However, the second part (15 minutes) of the hour is a time when the teacher can concentrate very specifically on these building blocks of literacy.

8 Understanding the Literacy Hour

In the early Key Stage 1 years, the word level work concentrates on two aspects: learning letter names and sounds in order to read and spell simple words (phonics) and recognising and spelling common words and simple spellings. There are lists of high frequency words to be learned in Reception (e.g. for, you, the, are) and in Years 1 to 2, in the class teacher’s Literacy Strategy Framework. You will find the list of 45 high frequency words for Reception Year on photocopiable p. 74. Children are taught to blend the phonemes (sound out the letters) when they are reading. This will include clusters of letters, such as fl and cr. They will learn to recognise the letter clusters where the sound changes completely, e.g. sh, th and ch. They are also shown how to separate out the individual sounds heard in a spoken word so that they can try to spell it. This strategy is called segmenting. They are taught simple common spelling patterns, e.g. look, book, took. In Key Stage 2, the word level work concentrates on encouraging the children’s independence by teaching them strategies for remembering spellings. They also learn rules (e.g. words ending in y, like baby have -ies in the plural – babies) as well as developing their vocabulary. There is another word list for common words which the children should be able to spell by the end of Year 5 (e.g. together, between, suddenly).

Genres: the range of reading and writing in the Literacy Hour Genres is a term used to describe different types of text, e.g. fairy tales, adventure stories, classic poetry and instructions. Children work on a wide range of texts, from nursery rhymes in Reception class, to the plays of Shakespeare in Year 6. Each term, four or five different genres are studied in the Literacy Hour. Examples from the Autumn Term are shown in Table 1. Table 1 Year

Fiction

Non-fiction

Reception

traditional rhymes

simple texts

Year 1

poems with predictable repetitive patterns

captions, lists

Year 2

stories with familiar settings

instructions

Year 3

plays

dictionaries, thesauruses

Year 4

historical stories

newspaper articles

Year 5

novels by famous authors

recipes, instructions

Year 6

classics (e.g. Shakespeare)

letters, biographies

A complete list of the range of reading and writing to be covered in each term will be found in the class teacher’s National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching (DfEE 1998a).

Understanding the Literacy Hour 9

The Classroom Assistant’s role in the Literacy Hour What will I be expected to do to help the class teacher? Although there should be clear guidelines in every school for how Classroom Assistants are intended to support children and teachers in the Literacy Hour, each classroom will inevitably operate differently. Also, your support will vary during the four different parts of the Hour. Possible options include: •

sitting near children who have been identified as having Special Needs (e.g. difficulty concentrating) in order to help them to pay attention to the teacher, by modelling the responses and good behaviour expected; observing a particular child and his or her responses throughout each part of the Literacy Hour, so that you can feed information back to the teacher; acting as a scribe for the teacher in the first part of the hour, by writing the children’s contributions on the whiteboard, when the class is participating in shared writing; sharing the writing with the teacher, e.g. when children are suggesting rhymes; taking responsibility for working directly with a group of children in the third part (20 minutes group work); helping pairs of children at the computer during group work; preparing materials and resources for group work; encouraging shy children to participate during the plenary; ensuring that the class teacher can work undisturbed with his or her guided reading group by nipping in the bud potential distractions from other children.

• • • • • • • •

Summary The National Literacy Strategy has given Classroom Assistants an enhanced role in primary schools. The structure of the Literacy Hour: • • • •

15 minutes – Shared reading and writing with the whole class 15 minutes – word and sentence level work (phonics, spelling, punctuation and grammar) with the whole class 20 minutes – group work 10 minutes – plenary (feedback)

Three strands of work in the Literacy Hour: • • •

text level: reading, comprehension, writing sentence level: grammar (writing in sentences, verbs, nouns, etc.) punctuation (full stops, speech marks, etc.) word level: phonics – blending phonemes (letter sounds) to read, – segmenting phonemes to spell spelling – high frequency words – strategies and rules

continued

10 Understanding the Literacy Hour

The range of reading and writing: genres – different types of text, e.g. traditional stories, fables, poems, plays, historical novels, instructions, newspaper articles, letters, biographies. The role of the Classroom Assistant in the Literacy Hour: • • • • •

supporting children with Special Needs working directly with groups assisting the teacher with management helping children at the computer preparing resources

Further reading The National Literacy Strategy (1998a) Framework for Teaching, London: DfEE. The National Literacy Strategy (1998b) Training Pack, DfEE. The National Literacy Strategy (1999) Additional Literacy Support, DfEE.

2 Helping children with reading

Learning to read There is a great deal involved in the process of reading that we adults take for granted. Very young children are picking up information about how to read long before they can manage the process for themselves. Every time toddlers sit on their parents’ laps to share books, they are getting the message that: • • • • • •

a book is interesting and entertaining; there is a ‘right way up’; pages have to be turned in a particular order; the marks on the page (the print) mean something, as well as the pictures; the reader looks at the marks on the page, not the pictures, to read the story; the story is always the same, no matter how many times it is read, and no matter who is doing the reading. (If you have ever had to read the same favourite story for the umpteenth time at bedtime to your own child, and attempted to cheat by skipping a bit, you will know that even very young children notice when it is not exactly the same. My own son admonished me sternly to ‘Read the words’ whenever I tried this!)

When an adult or older brother or sister points to the words while they are reading to a younger child, they are learning that: • • • •

you read the print, not the pictures, to tell the story; the words are read from left to right; when you have finished reading one line you have to go down to the next one and move over to the other side of the page to read that one from left to right as well; every word that you can hear is in the book, and is separated from the other words by spaces.

Before they can read, children notice words and letters in their everyday lives. They are surrounded by symbols and print wherever they are, and learn very quickly which ones

12 Helping children with reading

are meaningful to them. There can be very few pre-school children in the western world who do not recognise the big yellow ‘M’ that represents the sign for hamburgers and chips! Young children can learn a great deal incidentally and will become aware of the sounds of words and of letters through play, particularly nursery rhyme games and songs. If anyone takes the trouble to show them, they can also be aware of the separate components of words – letters – and learn that their own name always has its own special letter at the beginning.

Concepts about print This stage of a child’s development as a reader is often referred to as an awareness of the ‘concepts about print’ and is a crucial first step in the process of learning to read. Sadly, not all children arrive at school understanding what books are for, knowing any nursery rhymes, or even recognising how their own name looks, written down.

The three elements of reading Once children begin to read, they have to bring different skills to bear on the print. Each of these skills is crucial and all have to be operating during the reading process if a child is to read successfully. See Figure 2.1, p. 14.

1st aspect: reading to understand In the early stages of learning to read, a child will rely heavily on illustrations to have an idea of what will happen in the text. Books where the pictures clearly reflect the words in the text help children most. Children have to know what ‘story language’ (as opposed to speech) sounds like, so that they know what to expect, e.g. Up went the elephant, up went the giraffe is a sentence structure found often in story books and rarely in conversation. Clearly, children who have had few books read to them and have not already had a rich diet of story language are at a disadvantage when trying to reproduce the particular sentence structures they will find in their reading. Getting the meaning of the print is the purpose of reading, so children have to be trying constantly to say words that make sense. A child who is stuck and chooses a word that looks something like the difficult one, but that makes no sense at all, certainly has no picture in his mind of what the words mean, and is not ‘reading for meaning’, e.g. Jack climbed up the tree, so he cold get the cat. Understanding the meaning and the language of a text is sometimes called ‘using the context cues’.

2nd aspect: high frequency words One quarter of all printed material, whether infant books or newspapers, uses only twelve common words: a, and, he, I, in, is, it, of, that, the, to, was

Helping children with reading 13

Half of all printed material is made up of just 100 common words, including words such as but, there, about, only, more. These words are often referred to as ‘high frequency’, or ‘sight vocabulary’, the idea being that children recognise the words ‘on sight’ without having to process them or think very much about them. Being able to recognise such whole words instantly when reading helps children develop fluency and pace, and enables them to pay attention to the other words with more weight of meaning in the book. Many of these high frequency words look deceptively easy because they are so short. However, they can be difficult to remember, for two reasons: •

•

there is usually no strong visual image associated with the meaning of the word (unlike an apparently more difficult word like crocodile or enormous, where the context of the story and the pictures will often give the children a clue as to what the word might be.) Try drawing a picture for a word like has or then and you will see what I mean. they often look very similar. How many high frequency words can you think of that have the letters th at the beginning? (the, then, them, their, they, there, these, those, they, thing, this, etc.).

The National Literacy Strategy has grouped high frequency words into sets to be learned in Reception, and Years 1 and 2. The first 45 high frequency words are on photocopiable p. 74.

3rd aspect: phonics Obviously, children who rely entirely on recognising whole words on sight will reach a point where the memory will become overloaded. They must also understand how to decode the system of sounds represented by letters. This is called phonics. • Hearing separate words: before children can begin to use letter sounds, they need to be aware that speech, which is often heard in a continuous stream, is made up of individual words. • Hearing separate sounds in words: children can often hear the first and the last sound of a word easily (especially if they are consonants) but the middle sounds (particularly the vowels) are much more difficult, e.g. in cup a child may be able to hear a c and a p, but not the u. • Knowing which letters represent each sound: having learnt to hear the separate sounds, children then learn to associate each sound with the letter that represents it. The correct term for these sounds is phonemes (a confusing word when written down, as the school secretary trying to decipher a class teacher’s note discovered, when she asked him what he meant by ‘phone me’!). Sometimes a phoneme, or sound, is represented by more than one letter e.g. in fish, the sh is one phoneme, as is the ch in chips and ow in cow. Children at this early stage need to learn that the first phoneme in a word is particularly useful in helping you to work out what the word might be. • Recognising regular patterns: rather than having to always decode each word they don’t immediately recognise, by saying a phoneme for each letter, children can speed up their reading when they start to notice patterns. If children have learned to read all, they

14 Helping children with reading

The Three Elements of Reading

recognising high frequency words

using the context (making sense)

phonics (letter sounds and spelling patterns)

Figure 2.1 When children are reading effectively they use all three elements – word recognition, phonics and context – to work on the text

can work out words like ball, fall, hall, etc. by recognising the visual pattern and knowing that it will very probably sound like the word they already know. This system of spelling patterns is referred to as onset and rime a term which teachers are encouraged to use with children from Key Stage 1. The rime is the end of the word – the part which remains the same in ball, fall, wall and tall, i.e. – all. The onset changes each time. The onset of ball is b, the onset of tall is t, etc. Since English is a language that has developed from a rich variety of other languages, however, words that are spelt the same do not always rhyme, as the foreign traveller in the north of England discovered when she tried to ask the way to Low Brow Clough. • Blending: deciphering complete words by sounding out or blending the letters in turn is a sophisticated skill for young children. You may have witnessed a child attempting to do so, and forgetting the sounds from the beginning of the word by the time he reached the end. Of course, a child learning to read does not know which words lend themselves to this sounding out process, so it is not entirely reliable as a technique.

Helping children with reading 15

Try sounding out this word, letter by letter: f–a–t–h–e–r This results in: fat

her

which produces a very different picture from the one the writer intended. In this case, there would have been more success from looking for a pattern – the – in the middle of the word.

Tackling early reading books Many early reading books have very little text and what there is will be very repetitive, which helps the child to get to grips with the words more easily. The first thing children do when reading these simple books is memorise them. At this stage children often think that reading is, in fact, remembering the words, and that older children can remember thousands of words in chapter books, all in the right order! You may have come across the child who will ‘read’ a familiar book to you, without actually looking at the words.

One-to-one matching Memory is important, but, unless the child is looking at the actual words, while reading, it is not going to develop reading skills. One sure way to ensure that children are focusing is to insist that they point to each word, with their index finger, as they say it, in the early stages of learning to read. This is sometimes called one-to-one matching. Some children find it difficult to co-ordinate their pointing, so you may need to gently hold their hand to help them. Children sometimes think there is magic involved in pointing – they know it must be important, and that it helps you to read, because teachers are always telling them not to forget to point, but they don’t realise why or how. Such children will often place their finger over each word, when pointing, neatly covering it and making it impossible to read. A good way for a child to practise pointing to the words is for you to read a simple book to the child while he or she points for you. The child will quickly realise when they are covering up the words (your voice will stop) or if they are not moving their finger along quickly enough, as your voice slows down. This is also a way of giving confidence to children before they read a book on their own (see Figure 2.2).

Fashions in the teaching of reading Can you remember learning to read? At my traditional primary school, in the 1950s, phonics was the basis for teaching reading. The belief in the value of phonics was so strong, that I was not allowed to actually open a ‘reading book’, until I had proved that I knew the sound of every single letter of the alphabet. Reading books contained mostly words which could be read if you remembered the ‘phonic rules’ (e.g. c + h = ch).

16 Helping children with reading

Figure 2.2 A child reading with a Classroom Assistant

Another approach was ‘Look and say’, where children learned to recognise single words, outside the context of stories, by concentrating on the shape of the whole word, rather than the individual letters. Children used to take home the words they were learning in little tins, which (this being the 1950s) were often recycled tobacco tins! In most schools, traditional reading schemes were used. Many reading experts in recent years have amused their readers and audiences simply by quoting from a typical text: Look, Jane, look. Look at Spot. Look at Spot run. Run, Spot, run. Jane, look at Spot run. Look, Jane, look. As you will see, the idea was that few words and a very repetitive text would enable children to remember the words. This often left little room for interesting or creative story lines, however. In the 1960s, there was a short-lived vogue for the Initial Teaching Alphabet (or ITA), in which words were spelt exactly as they sounded (e.g. night became niet). This should

Helping children with reading 17

have meant that very young children learned to read quickly and could write easily, without worrying about spelling. However, at some point before the move to Junior classes, the switch to ‘traditional orthography’ had to be made, which caused problems for some children. Also, books written in ITA were few and far between. In a revolt against the restrictions of reading schemes, old-style phonics and the Look and Say method, the language experience approach appeared in schools in the 1970s. In this system, children were encouraged to make sentences about something that interested them, and then use their own meaningful writing to practise their reading skills. Breakthrough to Literacy was the most well-known commercially produced resource for language experience teaching. You may still have, in your school, the useful materials such as word banks and sentence-making stands. The rebellion against traditional teaching styles went even further in the 1980s when Jill Bennett, a teacher of infants, developed her apprenticeship approach using real books. She believed in the crucial importance of sharing high-quality books with children. This would not have been possible without the surge of attractive picture story books for young children which publishers were beginning to produce at this time. The system has been accused of ‘throwing out the baby with the bath-water’ because its opponents believed that some teachers interpreted it as an excuse not to teach reading skills directly. The opponents of real books felt that children were expected to ‘pick up’ reading by simply being exposed to good books.

Where does that leave us? After decades of the pendulum constantly swinging and bitter arguments between the followers of different methods, it seems that today there is a healthier balance between the different elements of teaching reading. Although phonics is in vogue once more, thanks partly to the National Literacy Strategy, after a long period in the educational wilderness, now it is seen as playing a role in the whole picture of reading development, rather than being the only significant element. The importance of meaningful, attractive books has been taken on board by the publishers of modern reading schemes, which often use humour and appealing illustrations to encourage children to want to read.

How to make reading easier Introducing a fiction book to children Children who are still learning to read fluently should not be asked to read a book they have never seen before, without some kind of support. A good way to ensure that children feel more confident when they come to tackle a book by themselves is to introduce the book to them first. • •

Make sure the book is at a suitable reading level (the children should be able to read with no more than one mistake in every 10 words). Read the title on the front cover to the group. The children can follow while you point to the words, or you could ask one child to point for you.

18 Helping children with reading

•

• • •

Ask the children if they can find the author’s name (if it is on the cover). Do the same for the illustrator. (Children in Key Stage 1 are encouraged to use and understand terms like ‘author’ and ‘illustrator’ in the Literacy Hour.) Look through the book with the children and find out who the main characters are. Ask the children to look at the first few illustrations and to tell you what they think the story might be about. Before they start reading, help the children to • • •

•

find any important words practise reading any difficult words with you tell you what some of the tricky words mean.

As you discuss the story with them, make sure you are using some of the actual words from the text as you talk, e.g. if the book uses ‘mother ‘ and ‘father’ do the same rather than ‘mum’ and ‘dad’, so that when the children tackle the book, they will have the right sort of vocabulary already in their minds as they are reading.

Helping children to use cues As we have seen (p. 12) when children are reading effectively, they use all three elements: word recognition, phonological awareness (letter sounds and patterns) and context (reading to understand) to work on the text . When children are struggling to work out an unfamiliar word, we talk about them using cues, which are rather like hints, to help themselves in the process. If we want children to remember to use the context (understand the meaning of the words) they should be asking themselves: •

what word would make sense here?

What word would What word would make sense?

make sense?

Figure 2.3 Cues children can use when reading (1)

Helping children with reading 19

Did thatsentence sentence Did that sound right? sound right?

Figure 2.4 Cues children can use when reading (2)

•

does that sound right?

•

can I see something in the pictures to help me guess the word?

Since we also want them to be noticing the letters and thinking about the sounds they represent, we need to encourage children to be asking themselves: • •

do the letters look right and match what I said? did I say the right sound at the beginning of the word?

DoDo thethe letters look letters lookright? right? How does this word How does this word end? end?

Figure 2.5 Cues children can use when reading (3)

20 Helping children with reading

• • •

how does the word end? does this word look like another word I know? e.g. look, book is part of this word like a word I already know? e.g. brother

There is a lot for children to think about and many different things to check. And it all has to happen simultaneously, because they need to cross-check information from different cues against each other. For example, Jack was attempting to read: Goldilocks came to a little house in the forest. His first attempt was: Goldilocks came to a little house in the woods. He looked at forest briefly and then proceeded to check the context cues. At this point, his thought processes would have gone something like this: • • • •

Did that make sense? Yes (I know this story already and she did go to the woods). Did the word sound right in the sentence? Yes, it was OK. How about the pictures – does it look like a wood? Yes – no problem there. That word (forest) must say woods then.

At which point he would have carried on reading quite happily. Jack was actually only using some of the cues he needed to read effectively, because he was ignoring what the word looked like, and paying no attention to letter sounds. If he had thought for a moment, even about the very first letter (f ) he would have realised that the word could not possibly say woods. Marie Clay who developed the well-known Reading Recovery Programme for teaching children to read, called this process of constant cross-checking ‘orchestrating the cues’ (Clay 1991). This conjures up an image of the child conducting an orchestra, where the brass section is providing hints about what the words mean, and the violins are the letter sounds. For many young children, I suspect the process is every bit as complicated as conducting a symphony orchestra! Jack was perhaps only working with a brass band, and not the Liverpool Philharmonic.

Developing children’s self-help strategies In order to manage this orchestra of cues, children need to have a range of techniques or strategies at their fingertips. Another reading specialist, Margaret Phinney, has a delightful metaphor for reading strategies. She called them ‘the oil that keeps the reading process running smoothly’ (Phinney 1994). Even very new readers can quickly learn useful strategies to ‘oil’ their reading. • • •

A simple one is to read again the phrase or sentence where the error or difficult word occurred. This has the effect of making children more fluent as readers, too. Listening to hear if what they have read sounds right, and stopping if it doesn’t, is another useful technique. This is sometimes referred to as self-monitoring. At the very earliest stage, matching each spoken word to each word of print, by pointing, is an important tactic.

Helping children with reading 21

• • • •

•

Using the pictures to provide a mental framework for what the text might say is crucial for early readers. Looking for whole words, that the child recognises on sight, will help to fill in the framework. Using the phonemes (letter sounds) can help children work out what a tricky word could be (just the first letter for early readers). A strategy which better readers can use is to miss out a tricky word and read ahead to the next comma or full stop, to get hints about what the word might be, e.g. Karen _______ The missing word could be almost anything! But if we read ahead: Karen _________ the train at six o’clock. This makes the word much more easy to work out. If this reading ahead strategy is combined with phonics, the chances of success are even greater, e.g. Karen mi________ the train at six o’clock. Working out a tricky word by breaking it up into smaller parts sometimes works with longer words, e.g. mis /under / st / and /ing. Sounding out, letter by letter, can be a very slow process and, since there are so many irregularities in English spelling, it does not always work. Remember fat/her!

There is a photocopiable list of useful questions to use when listening to children read, to encourage their use of strategies, on p. 75.

Three important things to remember about reading We must remember the three Ps: PRAISE, PATIENCE and PROMPTING. Praise Everyone knows that we should praise children when they work well. However, we tend to say ‘Good ‘ or ‘Well done’, leaving the child with a satisfied glow, but without much idea what they did to earn our approval. Being specific about exactly what reading behaviour we are pleased about is more useful than issuing general praise. We should praise children when they are doing the following: • • • • • • • • •

thinking about what they are reading; noticing letter sounds; stopping if a mistake is made; trying to work words out without asking you every time they are stuck; re-reading a phrase to try to get it right; looking for patterns they know in a word; using the illustrations to help them; for fidgety children, praise is due if they sit still for any length of time; praise beginning readers for matching one-to-one accurately in their pointing.

Remember to praise good attempts, even if they are unsuccessful, then the child will know that he or she was on the right track. Build up a stock of useful phrases for giving specific praise, e.g. ‘Well done for stopping when it didn’t make sense’ or ‘Good! You’re remembering what we said about looking at the first letter when you’re stuck.’ (See photocopiable p. 75 for more suggestions.)

22 Helping children with reading

Patience It is very easy when hearing children read (and teachers are as guilty as Classroom Assistants and parents in this) to help them too much and too quickly. We should be aiming to make children as independent as possible, so that they would read just as well even if we were not sitting with them. Try to avoid the ‘baby bird’ syndrome, where every time the child is stuck, he or she looks hopefully up at the helpful adult, who kindly pops the necessary word into their open beak, like a mother bird providing a juicy worm. After this has happened a few times, the child has learned what he or she believes is a really useful reading strategy. Such children, when asked what they can do, if stuck in their reading, will often reply: ‘Ask someone!’ The trouble with this, of course, is that it only works as long as there is someone reading with the child, and it certainly does not develop independence. We can, of course, never be sure what children are actually thinking when they are struggling to read a difficult word. What can happen is this: Surinder is stuck on a word. She quickly scans the picture to see if there is a clue there, then starts to re-read the last sentence again (both very useful strategies, as we know), but does so silently. The adult meanwhile is talking about the first letter of the tricky word ‘Look, Surinder, what letter does it start with? What’s the sound?’ Surinder, a polite little girl, instead of saying ‘Be quiet, I’m trying to think for myself ’, obediently starts to focus on the letter, even though she was half-way to solving the problem for herself by other means. Or worse, she is now completely confused, and gives up. If, on the other hand, the adult had let her try for herself first and waited to see if she still needed help, Surinder would become more confident in her ability to tackle difficulties independently. The golden rules are: let children know you will help if they are really stuck, providing they have tried at least two strategies first for themselves; and count to 10 slowly, under your breath, before you help! Prompting If the child does not manage to work out a tricky word on their own, then help must be offered in the form of a prompt. An effective prompt should be just enough to get the reading moving again, and no more. Prompts could remind children about the cues they can use in their reading: the context (making sense and sounding right) and phonics (letter sounds). Prompts can also be related to the techniques, or strategies, which children can use to help them read effectively, e.g. going back to the beginning of a sentence when they make an error. We should try not to use the same kind of prompt every time we help. Encourage the child to do the following: • • • • • • • •

think about the meaning of the sentence; look carefully at the first few letters in the word; think of a word that makes sense and sounds right; use the picture to help; read the sentence again; leave out the word and read on, then go back and try again; break a long word up into smaller bits; look for known patterns in the word.

Helping children with reading 23

Reading problems Here are four problems commonly encountered by adults who are helping children with reading. See if you can match them to their possible solutions. 1 2 3 4

Won’t try to read a new word for herself. Keeps looking at me for help when reading. Doesn’t stop when he makes a mistake. Doesn’t use the first letter sound to try to work out a new word.

Possible solutions are: A B C D

Make sure you are looking at the book, not the child. Give two alternative words, one of which starts with the same letter as the difficult word, and ask the child to choose. Give two alternative words and ask the child to choose. Wait until the end of the sentence and then say ‘Did that make sense? Try again.’

Each solution is only one possible way of helping the child. Can you think of any other ways of helping children with these problems? Answers: 1 – C

2–A

3–D

4–B

Reading non-fiction with children Non-fiction texts need a different approach from story-reading. This kind of reading is often called ‘reading for information’. Although both fiction and non-fiction can be read for pure enjoyment, information texts are also for finding things out. Non-fiction texts fall into many different categories. Think about all the different kinds of non-fiction reading you have done in the last week. It probably included some of these: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

a recipe for dinner; the TV programme guide; labels on food; a letter from your child’s school; a bill; a ‘House for sale’ sign; your child’s homework; a newspaper report; a ‘lost cat’ poster; a magazine article; advertisements; a labelled diagram; a formal letter from the council; lists, e.g. computer files, Yellow pages; web pages on the Internet; a map; a dictionary.

24 Helping children with reading

Children need to learn how to adapt their reading skills for the purpose. If you wanted to look up Wendy Smith’s phone number you would clearly not begin at the first page of the telephone directory and read every word until you reached the ‘S’ pages. In order to ensure that children develop the necessary skills, we need to get them thinking about how they will read, before they actually start, or as the National Literacy Strategy puts it, to ‘activate their prior knowledge’. Discussing the text before reading can help to trigger contributions from the children. Useful questions include • • •

What kind of text do you think this is? Is it a story? How can you tell that it isn’t? When would someone read this sort of text? What kind of things do you think you might know when you have read it?

With information books, brainstorming is a useful technique for getting children to think. Quickly go round the group and ask each child to say whatever word or phrase comes into their minds, in relation to the title of the book. Figure 2.6 is a brainstorm from a Year 2 group before they read a book about hedgehogs with a Classroom Assistant.

Figure 2.6 Brainstorming ideas before reading an information book about hedgehogs

Looking at pictures or real-life artefacts can be very helpful, too, especially with younger children or those with special needs. Before reading about Victorian life with children, a Classroom Assistant brought an old heavy flat-iron and a modern electric one into school for them to see and hold, bringing the topic to life for them. Another way to help children to focus and think more clearly about what they already know and what they want to find out from their reading is the KWL grid (see Figure 2.7 and also the photocopiable KWL grid on p. 80). In this grid, K = What do we already know? W = What do we want to find out? L = What have we learned?

Helping children with reading 25

What do we already k now?

What do we w ant to find out?

What have we l earned?

Figure 2.7 The KWL grid. K: What do we already k now? W: What do we w ant to find out? L: What have we l earned?

How to use a KWL grid: • • • • •

• •

Before you read the text, ask the children what they already know about the subject of the text. Encourage them to write at least three pieces of information on their KWL grids, in the first column (What do we already know?). Help the children to think of three questions that the text might help them to answer. The children then write their questions in the middle W column (What do we want to find out?) in their grids. Give the children time to enjoy the illustrations and look at the text for a few minutes. If you don’t, they will be distracted by the illustrations instead of focusing on the text when you want them to read. Read the text with the children, looking for the answers to their questions, and noticing any other interesting facts they can find out as they read. After reading, they can fill in the last column in their grids L – What have we learned?

26 Helping children with reading

Different ways to support children’s reading In the Literacy Hour • Shared reading

The teacher leads the whole class in reading a text and models the processes involved in understanding the text.

• Guided reading

Children read independently, in a group of similar ability, with the support of the teacher, who encourages them to solve problems as they read the text.

• Supported reading

Children work with a Classroom Assistant discussing and responding to texts they have previously read with their teacher. This includes summarizing plots, discussing characters, finding key words and talking about using reading cues and strategies.

At other times • Paired reading

The adult and child read together at the same time, with the child joining in as much as she or he is able.

• Turn-taking

The adult and child read a page, paragraph or sentence each in turn. This can be a very useful method to use with older reluctant readers.

• Language experience

The child writes a story, letter, etc. and then reads his or her own writing.

• Talking books

The child follows the text while listening to an audio tape. This can be useful for children where there is no-one in the family who can read English.

• Adult reads, child points

The adult reads the text, while the child points to and follows the words. This is helpful in the early stages of learning to read.

• Interactive books

The child follows highlighted text on the computer screen while listening to the story. Many talking books also have ‘point and click’ activities in the pictures.

Helping children with reading 27

Helping children to develop comprehension skills If children read without fully understanding the text, even if they are ‘getting the words right’, they are going to be limited, both in how much they enjoy reading and in what they are able to learn from it. At a basic level, comprehension is about understanding facts, e.g. the plot of a story or the information in a non-fiction book.

How to make sure that children have understood what they are reading During the reading session Make sure they read with expression, noticing the punctuation marks, e.g. the text: ‘Can we go out now, mum?’ said Aisha. If the child ignores the position of the speech marks and the question mark, this could be read as: ‘Can we go out now?’ mum said. Aisha . . .’ which means something completely different. At the end of each page ask the children one or two questions about what they have read. After the reading session • • • • • •

Make up a different, but relevant, title for the story. Make a list of the characters and divide them into main characters and other characters. Say the main idea of the story in one or two sentences. Retell the story, with each child summarising one or two pages of text, in turn. Each child chooses their favourite part of the story (or favourite character) and explains why they chose it. Discuss alternative endings for the story.

You can also ask the children to help you think of ‘question starter words’. who?

what?

when?

why?

where?

how?

Give each child a starter word for them to make up and write down a question (the answer should also be written, secretly). Each child in turn asks the group their question, and the others write their answers. Remember, comprehension skills extend further than simply understanding the ‘what’ or ‘who’. Reading between the lines is a sophisticated skill which children need help to develop. You can support them by doing the following: • • • • • •

getting them to think about why a character acts in a particular way; asking ‘How do you think Junior is feeling? How can you tell? What words in the story tell us?’; helping children to think about the implications of events in a story. Before you turn to the next page, ask ‘What do you think will happen now?’; asking ‘What if’ questions, e.g. ‘What do you think would have happened if she had stolen the money?’; getting the children to imagine themselves in the story. ‘If you were Jack, what would you have said to the giant?’; asking ‘How do you know?’ questions and encouraging the children to look at the text to prove their statements. ‘How do you know he’s frightened? Find the words that tell us.’

28 Helping children with reading

Summary Concepts about print: young children’s early ideas about books, reading and print The 3 elements of reading: • • •

reading to understand high frequency words phonics/blending letter sounds

Early reading: one to one matching and pointing Fashions in teaching reading: • • • • •

phonics look and say Initial Teaching Alphabet language experience real books

How to make reading easier: • • • •

introducing a new book using and cross-checking cues: meaning, letters, phonemes, sentence structure developing self-help strategies: self-monitoring, re-reading, using pictures and phonemes missing out a word

Three things to remember: • • •

praise patience prompting

Reading non-fiction: • • •

brainstorming first pictures and real objects KWL grids

Ways to support children’s reading: • • •

shared, guided and supported reading in the Literacy Hour paired, turn-taking, language experience talking (taped) books, interactive (computer) books

Developing comprehension: reading punctuation marks and asking questions.

Helping children with reading 29

Further reading Bennett, J. (1979) Learning to Read with Picture Books, Gloucester: Stroud. Brownjohn, S. and Whitaker, J. (1985) Word Games, London: Hodder and Stoughton. Clay, M. (1991) Becoming Literate, Auckland: Heinemann Education. Guppy, P. and Hughes, M. (1999) The Development of Independent Reading, Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Jolly Learning Ltd (1992) Phonics Handbook: A Handbook for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling, Chigwell: Jolly Learning. Phinney, M. (1994) Reading with the Troubled Reader, Leamington Spa: Scholastic.

3 Helping children with writing and spelling

How do children learn to write? Children learn to talk gradually, and there are similar stages in learning to write. We would not expect a 2-year-old to say ‘Mother, I have a strong urge for you to assuage my hunger with a chocolate digestive.’ We would accept ‘Mummy! Biccy!’ as quite appropriate from a toddler learning to talk. In fact, there are clear links between learning to speak, and learning to read and write. Children who are late talkers often go on to have difficulties in learning to read, write and spell (see Chapter 4).

Stage 1: experimental writing At first children copy adults’ writing, often before they start school. There may be some recognisable letters, but it may equally be a string of loops, like the joined writing of grown-ups (see Figure 3.1). At this stage children may demand that an adult reads what they have written, and then may well read it themselves as something completely different, later on. But two important lessons have been learned: • •

I

writing is for communicating thoughts to another person; speech is made up of words that can be written down;

like

Figure 3.1 Stage 1 – experimental writing

my

dad

Helping children with writing and spelling 31

Stage 2: using letters Often the first real word children learn to write is their own name – probably the most meaningful word they will ever learn. It is common to see young children using letters from their name in any of their writing at this stage, as they may not yet be aware of the sound each letter makes. Patrick’s writing cannot yet be understood by a reader, because he knows too few letters and he is not using spaces to separate his words (see Figure 3.2).

Patrick

went

to

the

park

Figure 3.2 Stage 2 – using letters

Stage 3: phonetic spelling Once children realise that letters represent sounds, the world is their oyster, as far as writing is concerned. If they were learning to write a completely regular, phonetic language like Italian, or Turkish, they would have a much easier path ahead than children struggling with the complexities of English spelling. Children at this stage rely heavily on the most obvious sound they can hear in a word, usually the consonants. Some children may have noticed that the words in books have spaces between them and be able to apply this to their writing. In this example, Patrick now knows many letter names and sounds, and although he still has a long way to go, his writing can be understood (see Figure 3.3).

Once

upon

a

time

Figure 3.3 Stage 3 – phonetic spelling

Stage 4: remembering words and spelling patterns Children at this stage have realised that there are some words that they will use frequently in their writing. (e.g. the, was, went, can, not). They start to build a vocabulary of these common or high frequency words which they write regularly and which become automatic. At the same time they may begin to understand that if they can spell one word,

32 Helping children with writing and spelling

such as right, they can generalise their knowledge to words that sound the same, like fight, light and tight. They will often continue to use a phonic approach with words they do not know, by listening to the phonemes (letter sounds) in the spoken word and attempting to segment the word. In the following example (see Figure 3.4), the child knew several high frequency words: went, up, and, the and saw. He also spelt Jack correctly, perhaps because he knew the -ack pattern from other words like back or sack. He used his understanding of patterns to write beanstalk, although he unfortunately applied (very reasonable) alternative spellings, producing beenstork. He could not remember how to spell giant and could not think of another word that sounded like it, so he resorted to his knowledge of phonics and segmented the letter sounds he could hear, producing jiyent.

Jack

saw

went

a

up

the

beanstalk

and

giant.

Figure 3.4 Stage 4 – remembering words and spelling patterns

The final stage: refining the process The basics of writing are now firmly in place for most children and it is a matter of learning (and more importantly remembering) an increasing number of high frequency words, common spelling patterns, alternative spellings for the same sound (e.g. stalk, stork; been, bean), and exceptions to the rules. Simultaneously, children are structuring their sentences with more sophisticated uses of punctuation, to include not only capital letters and full stops, but also question marks, commas, speech marks and exclamation marks. Children at this level are more aware of the audience for whom they are writing and will adjust their style according to whether they are writing a story, a science report or a letter. It is important to realise that not every child will proceed smoothly from one stage to the next. There will often be overlaps between the different levels. Some children will need longer to consolidate one aspect, others may get to grips with sentence structure, but still be poor spellers. Another group will stick at the phonetic spelling stage and need help to progress further.

Helping children with writing and spelling 33

What is involved in writing? The creative aspect Before putting pen to paper, children need to formulate their ideas about what they want to write (see Figure 3.5). They also need to be able to express their thoughts in sentences. When children see adults writing, they only see the final result of the thinking process. Understanding how to get from thinking to writing needs to be taught. Talking through ideas for writing, whether mentally or aloud is a crucial part of the writing process for children. It helps them to shape their thoughts into language and to structure their writing, so that it is coherent. In story-writing, for example, there need to be characters, a beginning, a sequence of events and an ending. Younger children and older ones with special needs often find it difficult to manage this ‘talking through’ process mentally and need to verbalise their thoughts aloud, preferably to an adult who can support them in the process (see Figure 3.6).

tiger

snake

jungle

naughty

girl monkey

animals

IDEAS

Figure 3.5 The creative aspects of writing – thinking up ideas

Let’s think about the characters who are going to be in your story.

There’s a monkey who lived in a tree, and a tiger and a snake and a girl.

Figure 3.6 The creative aspects of writing – putting thoughts into words

34 Helping children with writing and spelling

The technical, or secretarial aspect As well as thinking about the content of their writing, children also have a great many things to remember when they are writing such as handwriting, spelling and punctuation. Handwriting Forming letters correctly is a skill which has to be learned carefully, over time. A young child’s inner dialogue could well be something like this when writing: Which way round is a letter d? Does the tail on the g hang down below the line? How tall is the h supposed to be? How small does the teacher want my writing – she said it was too big?’ When children learn to join letters there is sometimes a pause in the development of other writing skills, as there is so much to remember when writing: Does the o join on at the top or bottom? How do I join a b? I can’t remember if capital letters have to join! Is that a letter l or a t in the word I’ve just written? Why does my u look like a letter i?

Figure 3.7 The technical aspects – handwriting

Spelling When children pause in the process of writing, as they try to remember a spelling, or to look it up, is it any wonder that they sometimes forget what the rest of the sentence was meant to be? It is the equivalent of an adult answering the phone in the middle of a conversation. It takes a great deal of concentration to immediately get back on the right track. What can happen is that children find the process too daunting and rely on less interesting vocabulary, in an effort to avoid spelling mistakes. In this example in Figure 3.8, the child wanted to write gigantic, but was unequal to the spelling task, and settled instead for the mundane very big.

Figure 3.8 The technical aspects – spelling

Helping children with writing and spelling 35

Punctuation As well as spelling and handwriting, children are also expected to be developing their skills in punctuation. In Key Stage 1, pupils are learning to use capital letters, full stops and question marks correctly, and beginning to use speech marks in their writing. By the age of 11, children are also expected to be able to cope with exclamation marks, apostrophes, commas and semicolons and to structure their writing into paragraphs. Sometimes children become impressed by a particular form of punctuation which they have just discovered, or been taught. This can result in full stops at the end of every line, or exclamation marks at every possible opportunity. These phases are often shortlived and in young children are best seen as a form of experimentation (see Figure 3.9).

It is Very HaRd for soMe cHildren ? to remEmber where to” puT! caPital lEtters? and otHer puncutatioN markS”

Figure 3.9 The technical aspects – punctuation

When children are learning to write, bringing together all these component parts of the two aspects of writing – the technical and the creative – can seem a frustrating task so it is important that they are supported in their efforts, just as they are in reading.

Supporting children with writing Writing frames Being faced by a blank page to write on can be intimidating for children. Just as we can help them by introducing a new book before they try to read it by themselves, we can use a writing frame to structure their writing, and provide them with the scaffolding around which to build their writing. The KWL grid (see Chapter 2) is a useful frame for non-fiction writing. There are more photocopiable examples of writing frames for stories, letters, book reviews, instructions and reports on pp. 81–4.

Other ways to support children’s writing • • • • • • •

Help with the thinking and talking stage first and write down the main ideas. Use a helpful stimulus, e.g. a picture, if writing about a particular topic. You write the child’s words, letting the child write what he or she is capable of. Have a ‘practice page’ for trying out spellings (or a dry-wipe board). Write sentences in turn, with the child, so that the process is shared. Write on the computer so that changes can be made easily. Let the child dictate the story onto a tape-recorder, then help them to transcribe it.

36 Helping children with writing and spelling

Helping children with spelling What do you think this word is? ghoti You probably came up with something that sounded like goatee, or gotty. Think of the letters in this way and try again: rough

the gh sounds like f

women the o sounds like a short i station the ti sounds like sh As you can now see, ghoti is actually an alternative spelling for fish! The playwright, George Bernard Shaw, used this ridiculous example to demonstrate the difficulties of English spelling. In fact, he was so annoyed by it that he devised a phonetic version of English, where every letter always had the same sound. It failed to catch on, however. Why is English spelling so difficult? Hundreds of years ago there were several different languages and dialects in the British Isles. English, as we speak it today, has developed over the last two thousand years, by accommodating itself to visitors from overseas, who first invaded and then settled here. Everyday words from French (centre) or German (night) or Latin (education) are in our language because of the influence of the Romans, the Normans and the Saxons, hundreds of years ago. As if this wasn’t complicated enough, we also have words which we have adopted from other languages such as Greek (chemist), Italian (spaghetti) and Indian (pyjamas). Until the eighteenth century, English words could be spelt according to the whim of the writer. This could result in tiresome misunderstandings, as you may imagine. Occasionally, people even spelt their own names differently. (Shakespeare sometimes used ee, instead of ea in his name.) Dr Samuel Johnson, a writer, decided that it would be much more convenient if everyone used the same spelling to mean the same word, and wrote a dictionary which has been the basis of English spelling ever since. (Now you know who to tell children to blame if they cannot get to grips with spelling a difficult word.) Because the English language is such a ragbag of words acquired from elsewhere, and because these words from other languages are often spelt as though they were pronounced in their original language, it is not helpful to rely just on the phonemes (sounds of the letters) for spelling. Phonics is tricky, in English, because there are approximately 44 separate phonemes (e.g. ch, ow, th, ar, ea as well as the single letters) but only 26 letters to represent them. Just think how many common ways there are to spell the phoneme which sounds like ‘e’ (me, see, pea, key, these, field), before we look at the less regular forms (people, quay, machine, ceiling, ski). Although there is a system, to which the spelling of most words conforms, it is a very complicated one.

Activities to help children with spelling Everyone has some words that they always find difficult to spell. My own pet hate is macaroni. Or is it maccaroni, or even macarroni? Adults get round this in several ways

Helping children with writing and spelling 37

(I simply write mac on my shopping list), but there is a very useful way to learn to spell a new or difficult word which works for anyone, not just children.

LOOK – SAY – COVER – WRITE – CHECK This is a successful and easily remembered method to learn spellings (Peters 1993). If you train children to learn a new word using this method, every time they want to remember a spelling, they will nearly always be successful. 1

LOOK

LOOK carefully at the word, its length and shape.

2

SAY

SAY the word first, then spell the letter names aloud.

3

COVER

COVER the word up, so that you can’t copy it.

4

WRITE

WRITE the word down (spell the letters out loud if it helps).

5

CHECK

Uncover the word and CHECK to see whether you got it right.

A child can repeat this whole process as often as necessary until he or she spells the word correctly three times in a row. Even if the spelling is forgotten later, some of the letters will be correct, and relearning the spelling will be much quicker the second time. This method is effective because it uses three different senses to help the memory. This is known as multi-sensory learning: the eyes are used to look at the word; the hand feels the pattern and shape of the word, as you write it; the ears hear the letter names as you say them. When children are learning to spell a word, simply repeating the letter names is often not enough to enable them to remember it (unless they are naturally good spellers). Writing the words down is, in general, a better method to learn to spell. It seems to work better if children use joined handwriting, probably because they are remembering the feel of the whole word’s shape. (This has an extra benefit in that it gives a child further practice in joined handwriting.) The Look – Say – Cover – Write – Check method gives the brain at least three chances to store the word in the memory: • • •

the visual memory – what the word looks like; the auditory memory – the name for the whole word and the individual letters; the tactile memory – what the word feels like when the child is writing it.

The second reason for its success is that repeating the practice means that the learning is revised as often as necessary to fix the spelling in the memory. Also, children using this method are in control of their learning and working towards 100 per cent success at their own pace. There is a photocopiable reminder sheet for children on p. 76.

Syllable jigsaws A good reason for children to know the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) is that every English word contains at least one of them. Although the letter y is, strictly speaking, a consonant (as in yes or yellow) it also behaves like an honorary vowel. It can sound like i or e, particularly

38 Helping children with writing and spelling

at the end of a word (e.g. fly or baby). This can be explained to children as the letter y wanting to be as important as the vowels, and trying to get in on their act. When two or sometimes three consonants are found together in a word, this is called a consonant cluster, e.g. tr, spr, fl. In fact, each syllable of a word contains one or more vowels, so if children are taught to count the number of syllables in a word by clapping the beat for each one, they will know if they have left out vowels when they write a word. For example, if a child attempted to spell enter and wrote ntr, he or she could check the number of syllables in enter (en/ter – two claps, therefore two syllables). Having realised that the word must have at least two vowels the child can then rethink the spelling. An entertaining way to practise this skill is with syllable jigsaws. In this example in Figure 3.10, the words hibernate and invention have been cut into syllables. The exercise can be self-correcting, as with hibernate where the pieces will only fit together when the syllables are in the right sequence. Invention is a more difficult version where the edges of each piece are straight and children have to read each syllable carefully in order to fit the word back together correctly.

hi ber nate in ven tion Figure 3.10 Syllable jigsaws can help with spelling

Using memory aids (mnemonics) When my son was younger, I was once writing a quick note to his teacher to let her know that he was returning to school, after a bout of diarrhoea. After three or four attempts, I gave up trying to spell diarrhoea and wrote stomach upset instead. (I could of course have used a dictionary but please bear in mind that this happened in the usual morning rush to work and school.) If I had known this useful mnemonic I would not have had a problem. Dash in a rush. Run! Hurry or else accident! A mnemonic (pronounced nemonic – the first m is silent) is a memory prop, in this case using the first letter of each word in the sentence to spell the tricky word. A mnemonic I have used with many children to remember because is: Big elephants can always upset small elephants Recalling the sentence can be almost as difficult as remembering the spelling for children with poor memories, however.

Helping children with writing and spelling 39

Onset and rime spelling patterns When children can hear that some words rhyme, and can see that words like day, may and stay have letters which stay the same, they are able to use their understanding of onset and rime to help them to spell. You will remember from Chapter 2 that in onset and rime, the rime is the end of the word – the part that rhymes – in day, may and say, i.e. -ay. The onset changes each time. The onset of day is d, the onset of stay is st, etc. When children can see and hear these patterns, they are learning to generalise their knowledge so that they do not have to remember every single word as if it bore no relationship to any other word they can already spell. In the Literacy Strategy this is referred to as spelling by analogy with known words. This skill can be encouraged by practice in looking for a pattern and applying it to words that sound and look the same, in lists of words and dictated sentences.

Target word:

-ook look book took shook

-all ball call fall wall

-ay day say play may

-ing sing wing thing ring

Sentences for practice: 1 2 3 4

The cook took a look at the book. Is my ball going to fall off the wall? May we play with you today? The king can sing about a ring.

Revision: Today the cook will sing in the hall. Tips for onset and rime exercise: • • •

Use a word which has come up in their reading or writing as the target word. The words in the spelling lists and the sentences are to be dictated. The children do not see the words. Work on only one word list in each session.

Ask the children to write the target word (the first word in the list). If they cannot write it correctly, show them how. Use the Look – Say – Cover – Write – Check technique for practising if necessary. Help them to think of other words that rhyme, or sound the same, as the target word. Read each word from the list in turn, for them to write down. Make sure they are noticing the letter-string pattern that looks the same in each word. Dictate the sentence and have the children repeat it, then write it down. The children’s own word list could be covered up, while they are writing. Make sure they check what they have written, including punctuation. The children underline all the words with the pattern in their sentence. After they have learned four lists, use the revision sentence a few days later to check whether they can remember.

40 Helping children with writing and spelling

Word wheels and flick books

g

t

Onset and rime spelling patterns lend themselves to two practical applications: word wheels and flick books, which are entertaining ways for children to practise their spelling skills. The examples in Figures 3.11 and 3.12 are for the -old spelling pattern.

f

c old b s

Figure 3.11 Word wheels help children recognize spelling patterns

The rime for the words in a word wheel is written on the strip of card which turns freely behind the wheel. Each time the wheel is turned to match a new onset, a different word is formed: cold, gold, told, fold, sold and bold. The rime for the words in a flick book is written on the longer strip of paper. Each small ‘page’ has a different letter (b, c, f, s, t and g) to form the onset of each word. As the pages are flicked through, the words can be read (see Figure 3.12).

c old Figure 3.12 Flick books are a fun way to practise onset and rime

Helping children with writing and spelling 41

Another useful way to teach spelling patterns is by using magnetic letters on a board. The child can easily move the letters to form different words (see Figure 3.13).

Figure 3.13 Magnetic letters are useful for teaching spelling patterns

Linking spelling to grammar If children can learn that the endings (e.g. -ing) of some words are always spelt the same way, this will help them to remember how to spell. Children usually do not have difficulty in hearing and understanding the -ing ending which is attached to verbs, e.g. looking, playing, going. But the -ed ending is more problematic. Look at these three words, all of which end with the letters -ed. loved

wanted

looked

Say each one aloud and listen carefully to the endings. Each one is different, and it is only wanted that sounds as though it might end with -ed. Did you notice that looked sounds as if it has a letter t at the end? (Sometimes children mis-spell it as lookt.) The reason they are spelt the same way is that they are all verbs in the past tense. If children can look for the root word (in this case: love, want and look) they are more likely to appreciate that when writing about something that has already happened (i.e. the past tense) they will be using the -ed ending. This can be linked to the knowledge they already have about adding -ing to words.

42 Helping children with writing and spelling

Linking spelling to meaning Root words can also be used to help children to see the connections between words which sound different even though they mean something similar. A word such as medicine is difficult to spell, because the letter c is soft (i.e. it sounds like the letter s). However, medical shares the same root and the letter c can be clearly heard in it. Similarly, sign with a silent letter g is linked by meaning to signal and signature.

Using dictionaries If you have ever watched a poor speller trying to look up a word in a dictionary to check the spelling, you will know it can often be a frustrating experience. How do you find the word if you don’t know how to spell it in the first place? A child pronouncing th as f will not get very far trying to find out if fird really is the correct spelling for third. Another problem is that some children have difficulty finding their way around in a dictionary. The following activities make practising the necessary skills (e.g. alphabetical order) more like games than work. The four quarters A dictionary divides roughly into four quarters. The first quarter is A–E; the second quarter is F–M; the third quarter is N–S; and the fourth quarter is T–Z. The letters which need to be learned for this are E, M and S. The mnemonic for remembering it is: Elephants

Make

Squirts

To practise: give the children a word. They have to decide which quarter of the dictionary it belongs in, then check to see if they are right. Tracking the alphabet Cut out a newspaper article. With a highlighter pen, find and mark the first letter a that you can find, continue along the lines of print until you come to a b, then a c, etc. If you run out of newspaper before you get to the end of the alphabet, start from the beginning of the article again. This can be made a timed exercise, so that children can see if they are improving. Computer alphabet Practise typing the alphabet on the computer keyboard. Before and after The first child in the group says a word, e.g. ‘dog’ and adds ‘before’ or ‘after’. A correct response to ‘dog – before’ could be ‘cabbage’ because it begins with the letter c (the letter which comes before the first letter of dog – d in the alphabet). If the first child had said ‘dog – after’ the answer could be ‘everyone’ which begins with the letter e (one letter after d in the alphabet). The child who is first to find and read a word that begins with an appropriate letter in the dictionary has the next turn.

Helping children with writing and spelling 43

Jumbled sentences When children have decided what they want to write, they often forget their original sentence as they are struggling with spelling and handwriting, so ask them to repeat the sentence a couple of times, before they start and each time they pause in their writing. Use a practice sheet or a dry-wipe board, for having a go at difficult words. (A dry-wipe board can easily be made from a piece of A4 card, covered in tacky-back plastic.) If the word is a useful high frequency one that they are going to need to write often, teach them to spell it by writing it a few times on the dry-wipe board, using the Look – Say – Cover – Write – Check method (see p. 37). Another way to help is to draw boxes for the letters in the word (if it is one where the phonemes can be heard fairly easily.) Ask what they can hear at the beginning, middle and end of the word, then put in the missing letters yourself. In this example in Figure 3.14, the child wants to write ‘dragon’, and can hear the d, the g in the middle and the n at the end. The child writes the d, g and n. You help them to say the word several times, so that they might hear the other phonemes, then tell them any letters they cannot manage for themselves (see Figure 3.15).

d

r a g o n

Figure 3.14 Using boxes to help children hear and write the letters in a word

Figure 3.15 A Learning Support Assistant helps Year 1 children to spell ‘rocket’

44 Helping children with writing and spelling

When children have finished writing a sentence, with your help, make sure they read it through again. Remind them about capital letters and full stops, by prompting, ‘Have you thought about how to start and end your sentence?’ Now you copy the sentence onto a strip of paper, and cut it into separate words, (see Figure 3.16). Mix up the words of the sentence, and ask the children to put them back in the correct order. At first, children may need to look at their written sentences to do this. Ask the children to close their eyes while you hide one of the words, and close the gap in the sentence. They have to work out which word is missing.

The green dragon was hiding in his cave. dragon

his

in

was hiding

green cave.

The

Figure 3.16 The words in the sentence are jumbled for the children to reassemble

Invisible messages This is a simpler version of hangman. Instead of choosing a word for children to guess the letters, make up a secret sentence, e.g. Hello, what did you eat for dinner yesterday? The children guess letters until the message appears. This sharpens all the skills required for spelling. They have to be aware that all words contain vowels; they soon learn which are the most common letters (e.g. e and t); they recognise that certain letters never follow each other (e.g. ck, not kc). Children will start to predict what a word might be, while some letters are still missing, and will be constantly reading as well as thinking about spelling as they try to guess the message. It is also fun to play and invaluable when you have a 5-minute gap at the end of a lesson, or for wet playtimes.

More ways to encourage better spelling • • • • • • • •

Let children proof-read their writing and underline any words they think are incorrect. Use mistakes as learning opportunities. Tick all the correct letters in a child’s attempt. Encourage them to link spelling patterns by listening for rhymes in spoken words. Practise segmenting simple words into phonemes (for children at the early stages). Write two or three possible spellings for the child to choose from. Encourage children to spell out the names of the letters as they write high frequency words. Don’t use a spellchecker on the computer until they have the reading skills to cope with the list of alternative words provided.

Helping children with writing and spelling 45

Rules for spelling Although, as we have seen, English is a very complicated language, there are a few rules which are worth helping children to learn. However, almost every rule has exceptions, so beware! Remember: • •

•

• •

The letter q is always followed by a letter u. The letter v never comes at the end of a word (tell the children it is worried about toppling over on its wobbly point, and likes to have a friendly letter nearby to catch it). This is why words like love, have and give have a letter e at the end. The letters e, i and y make c soft (so that it sounds like s) e.g. centre, acid, bicycle. The same rule applies to g, e.g. gentle, giant, Egypt, but there are several common exceptions: get, give, girl. Double a single consonant before the ending (if the vowel is short), e.g. run – running, hop – hopped, fat – fatter. Most words ending in y (e.g. baby, fly) change to ie before a letter s is added (e.g. babies, flies). This does not apply, however, if there is a vowel immediately before the y, e.g. day, toy.

A spelling quiz Here are four spelling problems commonly experienced by children. See if you can match them to their possible solutions. 1 2 3 4

Reverses words when writing (e.g. was/saw and no/on). Is very slow when writing familiar words. Mixes up words that look similar (e.g. they/then). Can never remember how to write a new word learned recently.

Possible solutions to these problems are: A B C D

Practise writing faster, using a one-minute sand-timer for writing 1 familiar word, then 2 words, then 3. Get the child to write one of the confusing words three times, every day, for a week. Send the new word home for parents to help the child to practise spelling it, or use a ‘spelling buddy’ in class, every day. Focus on the first letter sound of each word.

Each solution is only one possible way of helping the child. Can you think of any other ways of helping children with these problems? ANSWERS:

1D

2A

3B

4C

The vast majority of children are more advanced in their reading than they are in spelling. When reading, as we saw in Chapter 2, it is possible to read an unknown word correctly by using cues from the pictures, the first few letters and the context of the sentence. Being almost correct (e.g. misreading house as home) is not going to affect the child’s understanding of the text greatly. In spelling, on the other hand, the child is relying largely on memory, and the attempt to spell an unknown word is either going to be right or wrong. It is important not to be over-critical of children’s attempts to spell difficult words, if we want to encourage them to have a try.

46 Helping children with writing and spelling

Handwriting How much does handwriting matter, in the technological world of the twenty-first century? Although it is possible for adults to use the computer in order to side-step handwriting, there are times when we cannot avoid it. Most form-filling requires handwriting, notes and lists are usually jotted down and some employers insist on seeing an example of the handwriting of each candidate for a job. Apart from these long-term considerations, in school children are still expected to be able to write legibly and neatly. Some unfortunate children struggle with handwriting for many years while neat, wellformed letters seem to come naturally to others. It used to be the case that children were not taught to join letters until they entered junior classes, but now some Key Stage 1 classes start joined writing much earlier. (In France all children are taught to write in an elegant script from the age of 6.) Your school will have a handwriting policy, which includes an example of how the letters should be formed. It is important that children see a consistent model of writing from the adults supporting or teaching them, in order to avoid confusion, so make sure you are aware of what is required in your own school. Apart from obvious handwriting errors where letters are reversed so that s is backto-front, b becomes d, or w looks like m, there are many letters that children can form wrongly. It is difficult for class teachers to know exactly how each child in the class is forming letters, unless they work individually with every child. Often a finished letter looks perfect even though it has been written from bottom right to top left instead of vice versa. As a general rule, children should begin all letters, except d and e from the top. Why does it matter, if the finished result looks reasonable? If a child, for example, starts a letter h at the bottom right and works in the opposite way to usual, to end at the top of the long stroke, the pencil is in the wrong place to join the h to the letter that follows it. To avoid this, many infant classes teach children to write letters with ‘flicks’ at the end of the final strokes. In this way, children learn that to write a letter d they should think, not about ‘a ball and a stick’ but of making the pencil go round in a circle, then up, down again and ending with a flick, in one continuous movement. In order to make it easier to remember the patterns, letters are often taught in groups: round letters (based on c):

c

a

g

d

q

s

o

straight letters (based on l):

i

l

t

h

f

b

k

letters with ‘tails’ (based on j):

j

y

g

letters with short vertical lines (based on u):

u

n

m

letters with diagonal lines (based on v):

v

w

x

odd letters:

e

r

p

z

Handwriting can be very difficult to read, if children do not show a clear difference in the height of their letters, and their position in relation to the line. There is no substitute for practice until this becomes second nature. A way to make the practice more fun is to group the letters into giraffes and monkeys The monkeys (j, g, y) like to sit on a branch with their tails (descenders to give them the

Helping children with writing and spelling 47

correct term) hanging down. Their cousin p is an unfortunate monkey whose tail won’t curl! The giraffes (l, h, t, f, b, k, d) are tall letters with long necks (ascenders) who like to see over the heads of other animals. The children have three columns, one headed monkeys, the second giraffes and the third others with appropriate illustrations, if desired. You name a letter and the children have to write it in the correct column, making sure it is accurately positioned on the line.

Left-handed children We live in a mostly right-handed world, and writing proceeds from left to right across the page in a way which is natural for right-handed people. As a right-handed person writes, the letters are immediately revealed, but left-handed children find that the letters are disappearing under their hand as they write them. Ink pens are a problem to many left-handers because the wet ink is smudged by the moving hand. This can be avoided by a very simple strategy. Rather than writing on paper which is placed straight in front of the child, move it so that it is at an angle with the lower edge turned away to the left. In this way, the letters are more visible as the child writes, and the writing remains clear. The forearm should be resting on the table, to prevent tiredness, and the non-writing hand should be holding the paper, so that it doesn’t move on the table. (This applies equally to right-handed children, some of whom seem to think the function of their other hand is for resting their chins.) They should remember to push the paper or book away from them, as their writing moves down the page, to avoid an uncomfortable position (see Figure 3.17).

Figure 3.17 The correct position for writing with the left hand

48 Helping children with writing and spelling

Summary Development of children’s writing: • experimental writing, letters • phonetic spelling • remembering words and patterns, refining the process What is involved in writing? • creative aspects (thinking and talking first) • technical aspects (spelling, handwriting, punctuation) Writing frames: providing a prop to support children’s writing Spelling: how and why spelling has changed Helping children to spell: • • • • • • • • • •

Look – say – cover – write – check technique/multi-sensory learning syllable jigsaws memory aids onset and rime word wheels and flick books spelling/meaning/grammar using dictionaries jumbled sentences letters in boxes invisible messages

Spelling rules: qu, v, double consonants, soft c and g, y and ies Handwriting: • • • •

correct formation reversals monkeys and giraffes game left-handed children

Helping children with writing and spelling 49

Further reading Cripps, C. (1988) A Hand for Spelling, Wisbech: LDA (photocopiable resource). Lewis, M. and Wray, D. (1996) Writing Frames: Scaffolding Children’s Non-fiction Writing in a Range of Genres, Reading: University of Reading, Reading and Language Information Centre (photocopiable resource). Lewis, M. and Wray, D. (1998) Developing Children’s Non-fiction Writing, Leamington Spa: Scholastic. Peters, M. (1993) Spelling in Context: Strategies for Teachers, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Phonological Awareness Training (1994) London: University College, Educational Psychology Publishing. Read, G. (1993) Spelling in Context, Dunstable: Folens (photocopiable resource). Sassoon, R. (1989) The Practical Guide to Children’s Handwriting, London: Thames and Hudson. Sassoon, R. (1990) Handwriting: The Way to Teach It, Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes.

4 Children with Special Educational Needs

Nowadays, many children with special needs are included in mainstream schools. Children who, a few years ago, would have been educated separately in special schools, are now educated in their own local community, and are able to learn and play alongside their friends and brothers and sisters. Some primary schools have units attached to them for children with a particular difficulty, such as the deaf and partially hearing, autistic children, or children with delayed speech and language. In many parts of the country it is not unusual to find children with a physical disability using walking frames or wheelchairs, in primary schools. As well as children with a particular disability, there are often children who cannot keep up with the progress of the rest of the class, for a variety of reasons. They may be generally slower to learn, or they may have a specific difficulty in one aspect of their learning, such as literacy. Children whose behaviour is disturbed often find it difficult to concentrate in order to learn to read and write. Children who have been identified by a thorough (and sometimes lengthy) assessment process, as having a significant difficulty in learning, will have a Statement of Special Educational Needs. This means that the children need more support than the school is able to provide. The Local Education Authority (LEA) will provide funds so that the school can buy a number of hours each week of additional help, usually in the form of a Learning Support Assistant or specialist teacher who may be from the LEA’s Learning Support Service. There are nearly always a few children in every class (whether or not they have a Statement) who need more support than the rest in order to be able to understand the lesson, or to keep up with the rest of the class. Classroom Assistants are often asked by teachers to help these children. Most of such children will be on the Special Needs Register, in which the Special Needs Coordinator (SENCO) keeps a record of children’s needs and progress. All children with special needs, whether or not they have a Statement, should have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) which is reviewed every term by the class teacher and SENCO with the child’s parents. The IEP is the focus of the support the child will be receiving. It contains learning targets which he or she is working towards, and examples

Children with Special Educational Needs 51

of strategies and methods which will be used to help the child (see Figure 4.1). IEPs usually also indicate which adults will be helping the child, and Classroom Assistants are sometimes named as the person who will take responsibility for one or more aspects of the IEP. Learning Target

Strategies

Resources

Paul will recognise and spell 20 high frequency words from the National Literacy Strategy word list for Reception Year

1 Playing word games, such as lotto and pairs 2 Practice in writing words using Look – Say – Cover – Write – Check technique 3 Weekly spelling test

Working in s small group for 15 minutes 3 times a week with Mary G. (Classroom Assistant)

Figure 4.1 Example from an Individual Education Plan

Hearing difficulties Have you ever said or thought any of the following? • • • • • •

He was really good yesterday, why isn’t he listening today? She loves story time, but she is always the last one to come and sit down. She’s a daydreamer. She’s in a world of her own. He hears when he wants to. Why doesn’t he speak more clearly? Why doesn’t he know his letter sounds yet?

According to figures from the National Deaf Children’s Society, about one million children under the age of 8 have a temporary hearing loss. These may or may not be children who will need hearing aids; they are not deaf on a permanent basis, but they cannot hear clearly. One million children represents 25 per cent of the school population. In an infant class of thirty children, seven or eight may not be able to hear properly. These are startling statistics. In some deprived inner city areas it can be even higher. Most of these children have a condition known as glue ear, also known as conductive hearing loss, following heavy colds, and sinus or middle ear infections. The effect of glue ear is to muffle sounds. (Try putting your fingers in your ears, then listen to the radio and you will know how it feels.) Often these children do not realise there is anything wrong, so they will not ask for help because they do not know they have missed something. Glue ear is a condition which is sometimes difficult to detect, because the hearing can be reasonable one day, then impaired on the next. Some children have an operation to insert grommets into the ears, to drain the fluid, which may help the condition. (They occasionally fall out, however, and as children’s ears grow they fit less well.) In addition to the children with a temporary hearing loss, there are also those for whom deafness is a permanent condition. These children have a sensori-neural hearing loss and may wear hearing aids. In some cases a deaf child and teacher may wear radio

52 Children with Special Educational Needs

aids which link the child’s hearing directly to the teacher’s voice, so that it can be heard wherever the teacher is in the room. The emphasis on phonics in the early years of school can make the learning of literacy skills more difficult for children with hearing difficulties. If you are using similarsounding phonemes (e.g. the short vowels e and i), you will need to check whether a child can hear any difference between them. The behaviour of children with a hearing loss can sometimes be misinterpreted. For example, if a young child cannot hear the difference between ‘must’ and ‘mustn’t’, the teacher’s instruction: ‘You mustn’t put your wet paintings down on the table’ can be heard as ‘You must’. Young children can then appear wilfully naughty, although the intention of their behaviour was to do as they were told.

Helping children with hearing loss The hearing and listening channel is obviously weaker than the visual sense in deaf and partially hearing children, including those who have a temporary hearing loss because of ear infections. Ways to help: • • • •

• • • •

If a child wears hearing aids make sure they are in place, switched on and with working batteries (and check that spare batteries are kept in school). Get the child’s attention first, for example, by touching him, or with a visual cue. Make sure you are in a position where the child can easily lip-read, and ‘read’ your facial expressions, e.g. you should not have your back to the window. Use gesture and body language (you don’t need to know sign language, but some gestures are easily understood, e.g. rocking your arms for ‘baby’, holding a glass for ‘drink’). Find alternative ways for the child to answer questions, e.g. by pointing to something in a picture, or to a word, or by demonstrating with an action. Overemphasise the main content words in your speech. Being able to listen clearly is important, so in a group make sure that only one voice is heard at any time. Use props, e.g. a toy snake for the letter s.

Some of the suggestions for supporting children with speech and language difficulties are also useful for partially hearing children, see below.

Speech and language difficulties We tend to think of language difficulties as problems with producing speech (e.g. a stammer, or a child who mixes up s and sh sounds) but it is much wider than this. There are two aspects to language difficulties: •

expressing language: pronouncing sounds clearly, knowing the words for things, putting words together so that sentences make sense, knowing the appropriate language to use in different situations;

Children with Special Educational Needs 53

•

understanding language: knowing what someone means in a conversation, understanding what they read, following instructions, understanding metaphors (e.g. ‘Pull your socks up’).

You will recognise the children with language difficulties. Apart from those who can’t pronounce certain sounds easily, there are the ones who talk about the ‘thingy’ or tell you something is ‘kinda like’ all the time. Do you know a child who is still thinking about the last question you asked the group, when the rest have moved on? Or a child who, when he or she is telling you about something that has happened, leaves you no wiser at the end of the conversation than at the beginning? These may all be children with speech and language difficulties. For example, if the difference between the question words (what, when, where, why, etc.) is not understood, a conversation that would not be out of place in Alice in Wonderland can result: Adult: When do you eat your breakfast? Child: Cornflakes. Literacy learning is based upon language, so it is not surprising that children who are delayed in learning to use language often do not learn to read and write easily.

Helping children with speech and language difficulties Children with speech and language difficulties tend to rely on what they can see, as well what they can hear, because they cannot always understand what others are saying. Ways to help: • • • • • • •

Say the child’s name first to get his or her attention. Emphasise the most important words when you are speaking. Speak in short clear sentences – don’t over-load the child’s memory. Give the child time to respond – he or she will take longer than others to work out what the question meant and then to find the words to answer it. When giving instructions, break them down, step by step. Make sure that children in a group respect the rule about listening to the person who is speaking, and not interrupting, so that they can concentrate on what is being said. Use gesture and body language.

As well as using the visual channel, you can also help children with language difficulties through the physical (sometimes called the kinaesthetic learning channel). This means using their sense of touch or feeling. • •

•

Help the child to feel the shape of their mouth when pronouncing a particular phoneme (letter sound), e.g. the round shape for o, or the tongue sticking out for th. Teach the child to associate an action with a word, e.g. put a finger on your lips for sh, make a steam train motion with your arms, for ch. Your school may already be using a system of phonics which uses actions, e.g. Jolly Phonics, so check first. Get the child to write a new word several times to learn the physical feel of its sequence of the letter shapes.

54 Children with Special Educational Needs

•

Use physical actions wherever possible. To teach verbs, use flash cards with words like jump, sit, run, laugh, frown, etc. and let the child respond by actually ‘doing’ the word.

Visual impairment Children in primary schools who have limited sight will probably have a Learning Support Assistant working with them. However, they may not have support all the time, and you might find yourself helping a group which includes a child with visual difficulties. Ways to help: • •

•

•

•

• •

• • • • • •

• • •

Use all their senses including whatever level of vision they do have. If you are using a Big Book or a large copy of text for the whole group to look at and read, the visually impaired child will need to have his or her own copy placed close enough to be easily seen. If you have to make photocopies of a text or other material for a group of children, the visually impaired child may be helped if you enlarge the text and print it on yellow paper. Being able to listen clearly is important so ensure that other children in the group respect the rule about listening to the person who is speaking, so that only one voice is heard at once. Make sure the child is positioned so that he or she can hear you clearly, preferably with the light (e.g. window) behind the child. Ask the teacher about the vision the child can use, so that you can position yourself in the field of vision, e.g. if the child has tunnel vision or only has sight in one eye. Use props that the child can handle, e.g. a toy cat to associate with the letter c. Use clear language, and check that the child has understood. If the child tells you he or she can see something, don’t assume this is the case – sometimes a visually impaired child thinks he or she can see when he or she can’t. Let the child look at the text or other material at whatever angle or distance is most helpful. Don’t ask a visually impaired child to share a copy of a book or other material. When learning letters, use tactile two-dimensional letter shapes (e.g. felt letters) or let the child trace the letters in sand. Encourage the child to point to the words (or use a ruler or other marker to slide down the lines on the page) as he or she reads, or follows the text while others read. Saying letter names while spelling may help the child to remember the sequence of letters. When using the ‘Look – Say – Cover – Write – Check’ method (see p. 37) to learn spellings, include ‘Trace’ as well as ‘Look’, so that the child gets the feel of the letter shapes. Let the child write with black felt pen instead of pencil, so that the letters are more distinct. Heavily lined paper may be useful for some children. Allow children to experiment with different types, thicknesses and colours of pen to see which is easiest to read.

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Dyslexia or specific learning difficulties Although it is possible for a child who is delayed and slow in every aspect of learning to have dyslexia, it is more noticeable in children of average and above average ability. The term dyslexia, as its alternative name (Specific Learning Difficulties) implies, means a particular difficulty in one area of learning, nearly always reading and spelling (although maths can be affected too). Dyslexia can range from a minor difficulty with spelling to a severe problem in learning to read. Dyslexic children and adults cannot be ‘cured’ but can be taught how to understand and manage their difficulties and sometimes achieve as much as many nondyslexic people. Examination Boards make allowances in certain subjects at GCSE and A level examinations, so that pupils are not penalised, for example, in Science, because they cannot spell accurately. Some pupils with dyslexia go on to universities and colleges, and you may know of famous examples of geniuses in history such as Leonardo da Vinci and Einstein who were probably dyslexic. There are dyslexics in all walks of life, many very successful, and knowing this may help dyslexic children to feel less ‘different’. Because they are not obviously slow-learning, dyslexic children may sometimes be mistakenly diagnosed as lazy, when they appear not to be working hard. In fact, learning to read and write is often so difficult for them that they find it very tiring, even though their achievements may not represent the effort they make. Dyslexic children are also often easily discouraged because although they know they can understand just as much as their class-mates (and sometimes more), and can sometimes talk very intelligently in a lesson, they are just not able to read as well or as quickly, or put their thoughts down on paper. Sometimes they feel that others consider them to be stupid, and they may even come to believe it themselves. If they are not recognised and helped, some dyslexic children may also start to play up in class, either as a distraction from their difficulties, or because they are so frustrated. More boys than girls are affected by dyslexia, for reasons that are not fully understood. A common difficulty for dyslexic children is reversing the letter shapes when writing, so that b becomes d and u becomes n. They also often have difficulty in remembering the order or sequence of the letters, so that they will write paly for play. But, do bear in mind that many young children make these kinds of errors. Dyslexics are the ones who don’t grow out of it. Any activity which relies heavily on memory (such as reading and spelling) can be extremely difficult. Dyslexic children can appear naughty, and seem not to be doing as they were told, when they have simply forgotten what they were told to do. Remembering what is needed for an activity and where to put things away can also be difficult, so the dyslexic child is often disorganised, too. Some children with dyslexia have one learning channel which is stronger than the others. Paul, although he had perfect hearing, always struggled to remember the phonemes (letter sounds) but could remember many whole words, particularly if they related to his love of martial arts. He was using his visual sense to remember what the words looked like. Bob, on the other hand, was doing fairly well in learning phonics, but forgot simple words like the and are. His strength was in the auditory channel (hearing sounds) and he struggled to remember things he had to remember by looking, even though there was nothing at all wrong with his eyesight. The more severe dyslexics are weak in both their visual and auditory channels.

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Helping dyslexic children with writing and spelling All dyslexic children are helped greatly by multi-sensory learning. It is a belt and braces approach to teaching which leaves nothing to chance. This is also a technique which will probably benefit all children, not only those with dyslexia. As we have already seen in Chapter 3, it can also be used with any child to help them remember spellings (see p. 37 Look – Say – Cover – Write – Check). Using this approach to spelling helps even dyslexic children who are weak in both the auditory and visual channels, because they can use the physical feel of the word as they write it, to help them remember. Usually, writing the word several times, in joined handwriting, can fix a word in their memory. It will need to be revised regularly, however, as you should never assume that a dyslexic child will remember anything he or she has learned without repetition and revision. Tracing a word may also help these children (as it does children with visual problems). A game that can be played to reinforce this kinaesthetic sense (touch) is to draw a letter shape on the child’s back with your finger to help them to have a ‘feel’ for the letter. Sometimes, writing a word with eyes closed can help a child to concentrate on, and remember, the feel of its shape as they write it. Memory aids like mnemonics (see p. 38) are another helpful way to learn spellings. If the child draws a picture of the image conjured up by the mnemonic, it can be a visual clue. It can be useful to get children to devise their own mnemonics, in order for them to be more easily memorised. Here are some tried and tested ones: busy

A bus is busy (draw a bus full of passengers).

heart

He loves art (with love represented by a heart shape).

beautiful

Big elephants are usually beautiful (to remember the first three vowels).

Word-pictures may also help (see Figures 4.2 and 4.3).

look

Figure 4.2 This word picture helps children to remember the spelling for ‘look’

bed Figure 4.3 The letters b and d are more likely to be remembered if children can link them to a mental picture of a bed

Children with Special Educational Needs 57

A child who always has difficulty remembering which way round to write the letters b and d, may be helped in this way. Hold your hands up with the palms facing each other. Make a circle with the thumb and first finger on each hand, and hold the rest of the fingers straight up. The thumbs should be about three inches apart. You will see that your left hand has made the shape of the letter b and the right hand has made the d. Imagine there is a letter a just to the left of your left hand, and a letter c in between your left hand and your right. You have the start of the alphabet: a, b, c, d. The left hand can only make the b, and the right hand the d (see Figure 4.4). All the child has to remember now is the a, b, c, d sequence, and the direction in which it goes (i.e. left to right). Even children at the top of Key Stage 2 can use this method, by holding their hands on their laps under the table and checking if they are unsure which way round to write a letter.

a

c

Figure 4.4 Using fingers to form the letters is another way of remembering how to write the b and d

For children who sometimes reverse m and w, teach them that the letter w has to be able to hold water (because it starts with w), so if it is written as m, the water will fall out, and it cannot, therefore be a w (see Figure 4.5).

w

Figure 4.5 If the letter w is reversed, it becomes a letter m and its water will fall out

58 Children with Special Educational Needs

The letters u and n can also be tricky for some dyslexic children. If they learn to link the u with an upside-down umbrella, it may help (see Figure 4.6).

Figure 4.6 A letter u is like an upside-down umbrella

Helping dyslexic children with reading •

•

•

•

• •

The reading ability of dyslexic children can vary from day to day. You cannot assume that just because a child reads a particular story one day he or she will be able to read it again the next. Revision of earlier learning is crucial. A reading session is best for dyslexics if it starts with an easier, familiar book to build confidence. Another way to help is to start with a paired reading, where your voice and the child’s are reading together (see p. 26). The dyslexic child may need help to get started if he or she is feeling anxious about reading. If a child is struggling when reading a book which is new, you could use paired reading until he or she feels able to continue reading independently again. Learning to read high frequency words (see p. 8) will be easier if the words are also written a few times, using the Look – Say – Cover – Write – Check routine, and the letter names spelt aloud as the child writes. This reinforces the pattern of the sequence of letters which make the word and it is more likely to be remembered. Children who reverse whole words (e.g. on/no and was/saw) can be helped by drawing their attention to the first letter and its phoneme (sound). When children have been struggling with learning to read and write for a long time, they can become disillusioned and unwilling to try, if they expect to fail. Using the computer can offer an attractive alternative to the book or the pencil (see Chapter 6).

General learning difficulties Some children are slow to learn in every area of the school curriculum. In a well-organised classroom the class teacher modifies the content of the lessons and the way they are presented to accommodate these slow-learning children, and others with special needs.

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This is differentiating the curriculum. In this way the needs of all pupils can be catered for. Classroom Assistants can play a useful role in preparing resources for children with special needs, and then supporting them in class, often in a small group. Another form of support is to introduce new learning to an individual child or group, at a slower pace and using appropriate materials, before the class lesson. The same skills or learning can then be reinforced by practice after the class lesson. For example, a Year 1 class teacher is going to teach the class about the -ing word ending. The Classroom Assistant takes a small group before the lesson, and plays an action game involving jumping, running, hopping, sitting, talking etc., getting the children to use the words and hear the -ing at the end. She shows them how to write the letters ing and they practise writing them with pens on dry-wipe boards, saying the letter names, as they do so. In the class lesson, the teacher asks specific questions that he knows the children who have been working with the Classroom Assistant will be able to answer. After the class lesson, later in the day the Classroom Assistant helps the children to make a book ‘What are we doing?’ with drawings of their actions and sentences (‘I am jumping’ etc.). The -ing part of each word is highlighted. At the end of the day, after story time, the children in the group show their book to the rest of the class and read their sentences.

Helping children with special needs Children who are experiencing reading and writing difficulties can be very difficult to help. Remember you are not expected to have all the answers. If you are worried about a child in your group, or one you have been asked to support individually, do speak to the class teacher or SENCO about your concerns. There are a few cardinal rules to remember when supporting children with any kind of learning difficulty: • • • • • • • • •

Find the child’s strengths and use them to support the learning. Make the difficult aspects as simple as you can, by offering support and encouragement. Break the learning down into manageable steps. Don’t assume anything will be remembered – revise constantly. Make sure the child succeeds before you move on to the next stage. Find an alternative to ‘No’, e.g. ‘Nearly right, just look at the end of the word.’ Let the child be physically involved, whenever possible. Encourage children to help themselves when they say ‘I don’t know’, e.g. ‘What can you do when you are stuck?’ And most importantly: believe that the child can succeed.

There is a truism about learning, which applies especially to children with special needs: ‘What children can do with help today, they will be able to do by themselves tomorrow.’ Of course, for some children ‘tomorrow’ may mean next term, but the principle remains the same.

60 Children with Special Educational Needs

Summary Children with Special Needs in primary schools Children with Statements The role of the SENCO Individual Education Plans Types of Special Educational Needs: • • • • •

hearing loss speech and language difficulties visual impairment dyslexia/Specific Learning Difficulties General learning difficulties

Ways to support children with SEN

Further reading Babbage, R., Byers, R. and Redding, H. (1999) Approaches to Teaching and Learning: Including Pupils with Learning Difficulties, London: David Fulton. Bentley, D. and Reid, D. (1996) Supporting Struggling Readers, Widnes: United Kingdom Reading Association. Mittler, P. (Series ed.) Special Needs in Ordinary Schools, London: Cassell. Pollock, J. and Waller, E. (1997) Day to Day Dyslexia in the Classroom, London: Routledge. Teaching Today Pack (1997) Dyslexia in the Primary Classroom, (video and booklet) London: BBC Books.

5 Supporting bilingual children

Being able to speak more than one language is an asset, not a disadvantage, for any child or adult, and learning English as a second language should be seen in a positive light. Valuing the additional languages (and cultures) that children bring into school can give bilingual children status and confidence. Also, knowing about how one language works can help children to learn to speak, and to read and write, in other languages. For children who are at the beginning stage of learning English, there is often a period (sometimes quite a long one) when they speak very little, especially in class or a group. This is often because the children are listening and developing understanding before they commit themselves to speech. They may talk first in less formal situations, perhaps to other children in the playground. Classroom organisation plays a part in helping bilingual children to understand what is expected of them, and helps them to be able to make their needs known, even if they can only use a few words of English. If there is another child in the class who shares a common language, and who can act as interpreter for the newcomer, the initial settling-in period is made less traumatic for the bilingual child. Beware of letting the new child become over-dependent on one friend, or there will be less motivation to learn to speak English quickly. Many primary schools with large numbers of bilingual children have special assemblies and displays, often based on the major festivals (e.g. Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, or Chinese New Year).

Working with groups including bilingual children Practical activities such as cooking, or board games can be used to provide an enjoyable and familiar context for the learning of spoken language and reading and writing. Raising the status of bilingual children in a group will also boost their confidence. One way to do this is by giving them the opportunity to demonstrate what they know in their mother tongue. For example, if learning the names of colours, or days of the week, bilingual children can be asked to tell the group how to say some of the words in their

62 Supporting bilingual children

first language. Most children enjoy learning to say ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ in other languages, too. In this way, especially if you point out that the bilingual children know things that you (and even their teacher) do not know, they will be able to see themselves as valued and ‘clever’. The rest of the group may also see them in a different light.

Practical activities Making books with children learning English is a very useful way to develop both their language and literacy skills. For example, if the class has been growing plants from seeds in their Science lessons, your group could draw the sequence from seed to plant at different stages and write captions: 1 2 3

First we put some compost in the pot. Then we planted the seeds. Next we poured some water onto the seeds, etc.

The children will be learning new vocabulary related to the Science topic (water, plant, seed, grow, stem, measure) as well as words for time sequences (first, next, then, last). The drawings and captions could be made into a book, which can provide reading practice for the children in the group, as well as being an interesting book for the rest of the class. Extra reading practice can easily be provided by writing out some of the caption sentences and cutting up the words, so that games like ‘missing words’ and ‘jumbled sentences’ can be played (see Chapter 3, p. 44). The whole activity, because it relates to a real experience, will be meaningful and more easily understood. When children can see their own words, particularly their own and their friends’ names in print, reading and writing are more meaningful to them. It also enables them to think of themselves as authors in their new language, if they have joined their classmates in making a ‘real book’.

Using reading books to help bilingual children There are now many more books available for children learning English, particularly early picture books (Spot books, for example, are published in many languages). Most of these books are ‘dual text’ where English and another language are side by side (see Figure 5.1). In recent years publishers have responded to the need for positive images of nonwhite British characters in children’s fiction. It is rare today to find a reading scheme with only white middle-class children. Bilingual pupils realise that their families and culture are an accepted part of school life. When using published reading books with bilingual children, remember that even apparently very simple texts may have unusual language structures, which are not heard in everyday speech, e.g. ‘In went the pig, wishy, washy, wishy, washy’. Children may need to hear such phrases repeated several times before they get to grips with it. Hearing and repeating the language of rhymes and traditional stories play an important part in becoming literate. Singing and chanting games have a useful role in developing an ‘ear’ for the language used in books.

Supporting bilingual children 63

Figure 5.1 A Learning Support Assistant shares a dual-language text with a Turkish boy

Bilingual children are particularly helped by the talking and listening which take place before the introduction of a new reading book (see Chapter 2, p. 17). This gives them the opportunity to look at the illustrations while hearing points about the story, spoken in the kind of language they will be using when they read the book for themselves. It also gives an opportunity to check if they have understood and to encourage them to ask questions. The process also develops their understanding and vocabulary, since they are learning what new words mean, in every book. Following the text, either by pointing to the words, or sliding a line-marker down the page, while listening to an adult reading, can also be a helpful approach. In this way, bilingual children have heard all the sentence structures before they are expected to read independently. This increases their accuracy and understanding and improves fluency and expression. Understanding should not be taken for granted, when bilingual children are reading. It is possible for a child to appear to be reading well, but to only be decoding words, rather than understanding the text. Asking children to retell a story is one way to check comprehension (see Chapter 2, p. 27 for other suggestions).

64 Supporting bilingual children

Using real objects can make reading and writing more meaningful as well as more enjoyable. Some Key Stage 1 classes have collections of dolls and objects, relating to particular books, that make the books come to life for children (e.g. the ‘I want my potty’ story has a Princess doll and her potty). Some reading schemes have puppets for the main characters. Children who are reluctant to speak may find it easier to do so when they are pretending to be someone else. Role play can also help children to make sense of a story they have read. After reading, the group can retell the story by acting it, with each child playing the part of a character. In general, happy, secure and confident children will learn more quickly, so the aim should be to make the experience of school as positive as possible for bilingual children. Using the knowledge and experience they already have as a framework for learning English will help to speed up the process.

Summary Valuing second language learners Working with groups: • • •

practical activities raising the status of bilingual children making books

Using reading books: • • • • • •

positive multicultural images rhymes and traditional stories introducing vocabulary making sure of understanding using real objects role play and puppets

Further reading Clipson-Boyles, S. (1998) Supporting Language and Literacy, London: David Fulton. Edwards, V. (1995) Reading in Multilingual Classrooms, Reading: University of Reading, Reading and Information Centre.

6 Using computers to support literacy

Trying to keep up with developments in the world of computing (or Information and Communication Technology, to give it the correct title) often feels like a losing battle, with new technology coming in to action ever more frequently. Today’s primary school children have grown up with this state of affairs and expect newer and better computer games and equipment to appear regularly (in the shops if not in their homes!). They are better adjusted than many adults. I have a suspicion that many children have learned to use the Internet faster than adults simply because they have put in the necessary hours to get to grips with it, without worrying about the size of the phone bill. However, computers are here to stay and have revolutionised our lives, despite the love/hate relationship many of us have with them. There is no doubt that in the twentyfirst century the use of computers (and other technological aids) will be one important aspect of literacy. Computers are very motivating for children, particularly those who have become frustrated because they are struggling with learning to read and spell. They are also very patient. The computer never minds how many times a child gets something wrong, and never gets cross, unlike humans. If errors are made, they can easily be erased using the delete or escape keys.

Reading and writing with computers Interactive books (also called multimedia books) can interest children who have become bored with reading. They are illustrated stories (usually in CD format), with entertaining animations and sound effects that work by clicking the mouse on a part of the screen. The computer will speak the text aloud to the children, and the words are usually highlighted on the screen, so that they can be easily followed as they are heard. It is also possible for the children to read the story by themselves. If they are stuck on a particular word, a simple click of the mouse on that word will allow them to hear the computer speak it for them (see Figure 6.1). After reading an interactive book several times on the computer, children may have increased their confidence and be willing to try to read the book for

66 Using computers to support literacy

Figure 6.1 Two children enjoy a talking book on the computer

themselves (many CDs are accompanied by copies of the text). Examples of interactive books are: Living Books, e.g. The Tortoise and the Hare and Just Grandma and Me, and the Oxford Reading Tree Talking Stories. Word-processing (writing) programs which speak the text are becoming more common in schools. When children write on the computer, they hear their words spoken, either as the space bar is pressed after each word, or when the full stop is placed at the end of the sentence. In this way, there is instant feedback which enables them to spot words they have missed out, or spelling mistakes. A child typing gril instead of girl will hear the error immediately, and be able to use a spell-checker on the screen to attempt to correct it. They also become aware of the need for full stops. Examples of word-processing programes are: Write Out Loud and Talking Write Away. There are a great many spelling programs available for the computer. They often take the form of games which children play, progressing to the next level of difficulty as they succeed with each set of words. The best ones encourage the children to see the links between words by presenting them in word families, and allow different ways of practising. They can motivate children who would not practise spelling with paper and pencil. Examples of spelling programs are: Word Shark and Starspell. Other word-processor programs have banks of words, usually at the bottom of the screen, which can be inserted into the children’s text on the screen, by a click of the mouse. It is usually possible to put in your own bank of words, for a particular topic, or for a group or individual child. An example of this kind of program is Clicker Plus. Making and ‘publishing’ books is a very satisfying activity to carry out on the computer, because the results look so professional, and can be shown with pride to family and friends. There are a number of programs which enable children to draw and colour their own pictures, as well as ‘clipart’: a huge library of ready-made pictures

Using computers to support literacy 67

which children can use in their stories. The child can then write a story or other text, complete with illustrations, and a book cover, also designed on the computer, will give it the finishing touch. Examples of such programs are Story Book Weaver, Publisher and Easybook. When you are feeling confident on the computer, a full-blown multimedia program which allows you to put in recorded sound and video clips, and to animate the pictures as well as write and draw is yet another option. Hyperstudio is such a program. Writing and receiving their very own email messages can be exciting for children (and adults too) and can motivate children who are reluctant to do much reading and writing. Because the incentive for email is the desire to communicate a personal message, there is no need to impose a purpose or audience to encourage a child to write. The motivation to understand the reply can also make children persevere in reading. Using the Internet to find information is an interesting but often time-consuming alternative to searching in books. It is easy for children to be led up blind alleys in their search, which can be a frustrating experience. As the World Wide Web becomes more sophisticated, the process may become streamlined, enabling this tool to be more useful in the primary school. There is a much greater amount of material on the Internet than in any school library. The only question is – how easily and quickly can the relevant information be found? The best way to come to terms with computers, or to learn how to use a program, is to ask someone who is familiar with it to run through the basics with you, then sit down at the computer yourself and play with it. It helps if the colleague is not too far away to come to your aid, if you are well and truly stuck, but there is no substitute for having a go yourself. Just make sure there are no children in the room, as they will be only too keen to ‘help’ and take over!

Summary New technology – a revolution in our lives Reading and writing with computers: •

interactive books

•

talking word-processors

•

spelling programs

•

word banks

•

publishing children’s own books

•

multimedia software

•

sending and receiving email

•

using the Internet

68 Using computers to support literacy

Further reading and useful websites Bolton Curriculum Centre (1999) IT in Primary Literacy, www.tfict.org.uk/pri www.vtc.ngfl.gov.uk/resource/literacy/index.html – Literacy Time (practical ideas) www.vtc.ngfl.gov.uk/vtc/class/html – useful worksheets www.vtc.ngfl.gov.uk/resource/esr – educational software database

Glossary of terms

adjectives

describing words for nouns, e.g. small

adverbs

how or when something was done, e.g. slowly

blending

combining phonemes (letter sounds) together in order to read words (sounding out)

brainstorming

gathering any existing knowledge, ideas or words before starting to read a text

conductive hearing see glue ear loss consonant cluster

2 or 3 consonants together, often at the start of a word, e.g. tr, st, fl, spr

consonants

any letters that are not vowels

context (reading)

using the meaning and the sentence structure to understand the text

cues (reading)

the meaning (including illustrations), sentence structure and phonic information which readers use

dyslexia

difficulty in learning to read and spell (and sometimes with mathematics) associated with problems in remembering and sequencing symbols (see Specific Learning Difficulty)

fiction

stories, novels or any text that is invented by an author

genres

different kinds of writing, e.g. adventure, science fiction, fairy tales

glue ear

a common middle-ear infection in young children that results in temporary loss of hearing (also known as conductive hearing loss)

70 Glossary

grammar

the rules for how words are put together in a sentence

high frequency words

common words, such as the, and, is, but

IEP

an Individual Education Plan for a child with Special Educational Needs. It will contain learning targets and strategies

kinaesthetic

using the sense of feeling or touch

KWL grid

a chart used in reading information texts. K = know already, W = want to know, L = learned

mnemonic

a memory prop such as using the first letter of each word in the sentence to spell the tricky word

modelling

demonstrating to the children how you want them to do something, e.g. reading with an expressive voice

multi-sensory

using the sense of sight, hearing and touch, e.g. saying the word, writing it and looking at it, when spelling

non-fiction

information and reference books and other texts

nouns

words for names, e.g. table

onset

the consonant (or consonant cluster) at the beginning of a one-syllable word, e.g. in the word star the onset is st

phoneme

the sound associated with a letter, or sometimes two letters, e.g. d is the phoneme at the start of dog; sh is the phoneme at the end of fish; igh is the middle phoneme in fight

phonics

the system of representing sounds by the letters of the alphabet

phonological skills understanding letter-sounds (phonemes) and rhymes punctuation

using capital letters, full stops, question marks, speech marks, etc. in reading and writing

rhyme

words which sound the same in their final syllable, e.g. acrobat, chat

rime

the part of a one-syllable word that follows the onset, consisting of a vowel and the rest of the word, e.g. in the word star the rime is ar

segmenting

separating phonemes (letter sounds) in order to spell words

self-monitoring

checking that reading is making sense, sounds right and looks right, and stopping if it doesn’t

Glossary 71

SENCO

a Special Educational Needs Coordinator is the teacher who has responsibility for helping class teachers to teach all the children with Special Needs in a school, including those who have a Statement

Specific Learning Difficulty

An alternative term for dyslexia

strategies (reading) techniques which children can use to help them to read effectively (e.g. going back to the beginning of the sentence and reading it again, when they make an error) syllable

each beat in a word, e.g. day – 1 syllable, Summer – 2, butterfly – 3

verbs

action words, e.g. swim

vowels

the letters: a, e, i, o, u; the letter y also sometimes behaves like a vowel, e.g. my

writing frame

a framework to help children to write, with a layout to support them

Terms used in the Literacy Hour guided reading

children reading independently, in a group of similar ability with the support of the teacher

guided writing

children writing independently, in a group of similar ability with the support of the teacher

plenary

in the last 10 minutes of the Literacy Hour the whole class reviews, reflects on and consolidates what they have learned

sentence level work grammar (see verbs, nouns, adjectives) punctuation (full stops, capital letters, etc.) shared reading

the whole class reads a text (e.g. a Big Book) with the teacher modelling

shared writing

the whole class writes some text (e.g. a poem) with the teacher modelling

supported reading

children of similar ability reading in a group with the support of a Classroom Assistant or other adult

text level work

reading and comprehension of books and other texts, writing stories, poems, reports, etc.

word level work

phonics (c-a-t), spelling, vocabulary

Photocopiable sheets

 Photocopiable resource

High Frequency words National Literacy Strategy I

go

come

up

you

went

day

was

look

are

the

of

we

this

dog

me

like

going

big

she

and

they

my

mum

see

on

away

it

at

play

no

yes

dad

for

a

can

he

am

all

is

cat

get

said

to

in

© RoutledgeFalmer

Useful questions to ask when helping children with reading That was nearly right, could you just try reading that part again?

Did that sound all right?

Do you think that part made sense?

What did that mean?

What’s happening in the story?

Does the word look like the one you said?

Could you miss that word out and read on a bit, then try it again?

Does that word look like another word you know (e.g. look, book)?

Can you see any little words you know inside that word (e.g. them, understand )?

Can you break the word up into smaller bits?

For children at an early stage:

Did you point to each word as you said it on that line?

Have you looked at the picture to help you to think about the story?

Do you know a word that starts with the same letter?

© RoutledgeFalmer

 Photocopiable resource



How to remember spellings 1

LOOK

LOOK carefully at the word Is it short or long?

Photocopiable resource

What shape is it?

2

SAY

SAY the word Say the letter names out loud.

3

COVER

COVER the word up. Don’t copy it.

4

WRITE

WRITE the word down

5

CHECK

Uncover the word and CHECK. Did you get it right?

Don’t worry if it wasn’t right first time. Just go through LOOK – SAY – COVER – WRITE – CHECK again. Next time it will be easier.

© RoutledgeFalmer



Useful words for writing

Name

Photocopiable resource

© RoutledgeFalmer



Wordsearch

Photocopiable resource

Words:

© RoutledgeFalmer



Lotto game

Photocopiable resource

© RoutledgeFalmer

What do we want to find out?

What have we learned?

Photocopiable resource

What do we know?

KWL grid writing frame



© RoutledgeFalmer

Writing frame – Information books Before I read I already knew that

Now I have learnt some new facts that I didn’t know before I read the book. For example, I learnt that

I also learnt that

Another fact I learnt was

However, the most interesting thing I learnt was

© RoutledgeFalmer

 Photocopiable resource

 Photocopiable resource

Book Review Title: Author

I thought the book was

because

My favourite part was

I didn’t like

I would give the book a score of

1

2

© RoutledgeFalmer

3

4

5

Instructions Instructions for making You will need:

First

Then

Next

After that

Finally

© RoutledgeFalmer

 Photocopiable resource

© RoutledgeFalmer

Then

Next

© RoutledgeFalmer

Characters

Title:

Finally

When the story begins

Photocopiable resource

Setting

Story plan



Index

adjectives 69 adverbs 69 alphabet: computer 42; tracking 42; using a dictionary 42 apprenticeship approach 17

bilingual children: described 61; practical activities 62; summary 64; using reading books 62–4; working with groups including 61–2 blending 14, 69 brainstorming 24, 69 Breakthrough to Literacy 17

Clay, Marie 20 comprehension: after reading session 27; developing 26; during reading session 27 computers: described 65; email 67; interactive books 26, 65–6; multimedia software 67; publishing own books 67; reading/writing with 65–7; spelling programs 66; summary 67; talking word processors 66; using Internet 67; word banks 66 consonant cluster 38 consonants 37–8 context (reading) 22, 69

cues (reading) 18–20, 69

dictionaries: four quarters 42; using 42 differentiating the curriculum 58–9 dyslexia 55, 69; helping with reading 58; helping with writing/spelling 56–8

fiction 17–18, 69 flick books 40

genres 69 grammar 41, 70 guided writing 71

handwriting 34, 46–7 hearing difficulties: conductive hearing loss 51; glue ear 51, 69; helping children with 52 high frequency words 12–13, 58, 70

Individual Education Plan (IEP) 50–1 Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA) 16–17

Johnson, Dr Samuel 36

86 Index

kinaesthetic learning channel 53–4, 70 KWL grid 24–5, 33, 70

language difficulties see speech/language difficulties language experience approach 17, 26 Learning Support Assistant 50 left-handedness 47 Literacy Hour 25–6, 71; guided reading 26, 71; shared reading 25, 71 Local Education Authority (LEA) 50 look and say 16 Look – Say – Cover – Write – Check 37, 43, 58

mnemonics 38, 56, 70 modelling 70 multi-sensory learning 37, 70

National Deaf Children’s Society 51 National Literacy Strategy 13 non-fiction 23–4, 70 nouns 70

onset 14, 39, 70

Peters, M. 37 phonemes 13, 70 phonics 13–15, 15, 36, 70 phonological skills 70 plenary 71 punctuation 35, 70 reading: for bilingual children 62–4; computer interactive books 65–6; devellopment of comprehension skills 26; developing children’s self-help strategies 20–1; different ways to support 25–7; and dyslexia 58; early books 15–17; elements of 12–15; fashions in teaching 15–17; helping children use cues 18–20; high frequency words 12–13; important things to remember 21–2; introducing

fiction 17–18; learning to 11–12; in the Literacy Hour 25–6; making it easier 17–25; making sure children understand 27; non-fiction 23–5; oneto-one matching 15; outside Literacy Hour 26; patience 22; and phonics 13–15; praise 21; present practice 17; problems 23–5; prompting 22; summary of 28; to understand 12 Reading Recovery Programme 20 rhymes 39, 70 rime 14, 39, 70

segmenting 70 self-monitoring 20, 70 sentence level work 71 Shakespeare, William 36 shared writing 71 Shaw, George Bernard 36 special educational needs 50–1; dyslexia/specific learning difficulties 55–8; general learning difficulties 58; hearing difficulties 51–2; speech/language difficulties 52–4; summary of 60; visual impairment 54–5 Special Needs Coordinator (SENCO) 50, 59, 71 Special Needs Register 50 Specific Learning Difficulty 71 speech/language difficulties: expressing 52; helping children with 53–4; understanding 53 spelling: activities to help with 36–46; computer programs 66; and dyslexia 56–8; helping with 36; linked to grammar 41; linked to meaning 42; look – say – cover – write – check 37, 58; more/better ways to encourage 44; onset/rime patterns 39; phonetic 31; quiz 45; refining the process 32; remembering patterns 31–2; rules for 45; summary of 48; syllable jigsaws 37–8; technical/secretarial aspect 34; using dictionaries 42; using memory aids 38; word wheels/flick books 40 strategies (reading) 21, 22, 71

Index 87

supported reading 71; adult reads/child points 26; guided 26; interactive books 26, 65–6; language experience 26; paired 26; shared 25; supported 26; talking books 26; turn-taking 26 syllable jigsaws 37–8 syllables 38, 71

text level work 71 traditional reading schemes 16

verbs 71 visual impairment 54 vowels 37, 71

word level work 71 word pictures 56–8 word pronunciation 42 word wheels 40 writing: creative aspect 33; and dyslexia 56–8; experimental 30; giraffes and monkeys 46–7; how children learn 30–2; invisible messages 44; joined-up 46; jumbled sentences 43–4; lefthanded strategy 47; legibility 46; punctuation 33; refining the process 32; remembering words 31–2; summary of 48; supporting 33; technical/secretarial aspect 34–5; using letters 31; what is involved 33–5 writing frames 33, 71

 Photocopiable resource

new

Creating Writers Developing Literacy Through Creative Writing James Carter A practical manual designed to help teachers working with pupils at KS2 and 3 on developing their writing skills. The book combines advice from published writers with worksheets developed by the author and covers areas of poetry and non-fiction writing as well as fiction. The author also provides an author visit guide illustrating how to plan an author visit and how to make the most of follow-up activities. September 2000: A4: 248pp Pb: 0-415-21691-5 Please telephone out Customer Orders Hotline on 08700 768853 for availability and price.

new The Reading for Real Handbook Edited by Colin Harrison and Martin Coles

2nd edition

A practical guide on teaching literacy. This new edition has been written in order to take into account the National Literacy Strategy and the introduction of the Literacy Hour. Several other new topics of interest are also addressed, including: •

teaching fiction/non-fiction

•

integrating writing and spelling work

•

assessment

•

working with slower readers

December 2000: 234 x 156: 256pp Pb: 0-415-21995-7 Please telephone out Customer Orders Hotline on 08700 768853 for availability and price. Available as an inspection copy



new

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INSET for NQTs A Complete Course for Teachers in the Primary School Neil Kitson An independent-study workbook designed for newly qualified teachers (NQTs). This text will lead the teacher through a range of activities which have been designed to help them to get to know and understand all the important school systems, the children and themselves as teachers. The materials can be used throughout the first and/or second years of teaching. August 2000: 296 x 210: 210pp Pb: 0-415-22348-2 Please telephone out Customer Orders Hotline on 08700 768853 for availability and price.

 Photocopiable resource

Shortlisted for the 1999 BAAL Book Prize

Making Progress in English Eve Bearne This manual is designed for teachers with any length of experience at key Stages 1 and 2. Covering all aspects of English, it will help teachers raise standards of achievements in pupils at all levels of fluency and confidence. ‘Practical and stimulating . . . Bearne’s text conveys the arguments for her approaches with enviable clarity: they are worth heeding.’ – Times Educational Supplement 1998: A4: 376 pp Pb: 0-415-15996-2. Please telephone out Customer Orders Hotline on 08700 768853 for availability and price.