Spelling, Punctuation and Grammatical Development

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammatical Development

1. PEDAGOGY (HOW CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT TO SPELL)

   • THE 'PHONICS' METHOD
     • Children learn that sounds (phonemes) are connected to certain letters (grapheme)
     • Segmenting: 'sounding out' words
     • Blending: putting back together all of the letters and sounds to produce the whole word
     • Strengths: Easy to do, children learn it quick and many enjoy practicing it. Boosts confidence when they put it back together
     • Limitations: Some words cannot be spelt phonetically (eg. silent letters). Time consuming when writing
   • THE 'WHOLE WORD' METHOD
     • A teacher will hold up a card with a word and the child will repeat the word
     • Due to repetition of seeing the same word represented by the same letters and sounds, the child should learn to recognise the spelling by sight (sight recognition)
     • Strengths: Can learn silent letters
     • Limitations: Only really works for visual learners, need a card for every word. Can't work it out in their own way. Only learning words that the teacher is showing them
   • RHYME AND REPETITION
     • Children practice writing a list of words with the same letter and sound patterns
     • Limitations: Some words don't rhyme- Eg. Orange. Unfair to children who do not have a wide vocabluary
     • Copy, Cover, Write, Check
   • MNEMONICS
     • Little songs/rhymes that help the children to remember the order of letters in words or information
     • Strengths: Easy to remember a story than a hard spelling
     • Limitations: Too much to remember

2. GENTRY: 5 STAGES OF SPELLING ACQUISITION

   • 1. Pre-Communicative (non-alphabetic): Emergent writing- no letter to sound connection
     • 2. Semi-Phonetic (partial alphabetic): Link letter shapes and sounds, using this to write words; writing is generally left to right (directionality)
       • 3. Phonetic (full alphabetic): Spelling will be based on the sound of words, words become more complete
         • 4. Transitional: Combine phonetic knowledge with visual memory. Silent letters may be acknowledged
           • 5. Conventional: Spell most words correctly; difficult spellings have been learnt, differentiation between homophones

3. OTHER INFLUENTIAL FACTORS WHEN LEARNING HOW TO WRITE

   • Reading: enjoyment and early exposure = more successful in writing and in school in general
     • Age, gender, regional background and social class
   • Cognitive Awareness: need to attach meaning to a word
   • Learning in the Home Environment: magnetic letters for the fridge or foam letters for the bath- become aware of letter shapes. Access to reading books. Encouraged to draw, print and write their names on cards. Complete drawing, painting and early literacy activities on a weekly basis
   • School and Teacher Input: prior to starting school, most children will have reached the stage of emergent writing. School and teaching staff are arguably the most influential factors when learning to write
   • There is a significant difference between a child who has just turned four and a child who is almost 5, particularly in relation to the fine motor skills essential when learning to write

4. THE DEVELOPMENTAL METHOD

   • They will often understand more than what they can write- mismatch between their writing skills and their understanding of the world
   • Predominance of monosyllabic lexis- one syllable, eg. Cat
     • Easier to encode accurately than longer words
   • As child becomes more confident- will use nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. Conventions of writing
   • Progresses through the school curriculum and studies subjects such as science- jargon. Asked to consider synonyms in order to improve their quality of writing

5. A simple sentence is fundamentally one unit of thought

   • Compound sentence is more difficult- units of thought need to be organised and put logically together
   • Complex sentences are likely to be the last sentence type mastered by children

6. Child will initially write in declaratives. When they become aware of how to craft language- use exclamatives, interrogatives and imperatives