Writing and Reading

Introduction

Although it is traditional to refer to "reading and writing, we at Amity always say "writing and reading".

The trite explanation is that writing must have come first, or there would have been nothing to read!

There is a more important reason however, and that is the expression "reading and writing" gives greater importance to "reading" because it comes first. You may not think this is important, but so ingrained is the psychology of giving greater importance to the first item in a list, that we have found inexperienced volunteers making comments like "I am concentrating on the reading first and will move on to writing later".

Writing and Reading

The reality is that when it comes to acquiring literacy skills writing and reading go hand in hand, they feed off each other and you should always include both writing and reading in every session.

As you know, getting your student to repeat a word three times is a useful aid to reinforcing the memory of a new word. Getting your student to "write" the word three times as well, is a powerful addition to that process. The sheer mechanical process of writing the word and forming the letter shapes reinforces the visual memory of it and improves retention.

It doesn’t just work for basic skills either. I attend a lot of meetings and often take detailed notes. I find my memory of the meetings where I take notes is better than for those meetings when I don’t. Indeed, so effective is the memory reinforcement of writing notes, I find that I seldom need to consult them!

Starting Writing

Many students with literacy problems often have very poor handwriting skills, they find writing hard work and the results unattractive. The lack of practice over the years has simply made matters worse, writing is a precise skill, but with frequent practice it can be improved.

The are a number of ways to make practising more effective.

It is important for the student to be able to visualise the letter shapes. At the early stages this can be helped by encouraging your student to trace out a letter shape at large scale with their finger on the table or a notepad. It is possible to buy large format letter shapes (or make your own) which the student can trace over; if these letter shapes have different tactile surfaces, all the better.

Another useful technique is for you to hold the pen and ask your student to tell you how to draw the letter shape. Be quite explicit about insisting you be told what to do (starting with where to put the pen on the pad), and follow those instructions. This can be highly interactive, following instructions exactly, going wrong and getting immediate feedback from your student is not only a powerful learning technique, it can be fun too. Your student will learn quite a lot in such a session, not least what happens when you try and draw the letter with the pen starting in the wrong location. It also helps develop the student’s skills in giving clear and unambiguous directions, a skill with far wider application.

Although each letter shape is different, there are a number of common strokes, which when combined in different ways, make the individual letters. These include vertical strokes, horizontal strokes, diagonals, loops, curls and circles all in different sizes. Practising the strokes in attractive patterns will help to develop the motor skills to make writing more fluent.

Developing Writing

Early writing will start with the formation of each letter shape independently (this is known as precursive script). However, as your student’s skills develop, you will want them to move towards joined up writing (or cursive script).

It is only when you move to joined up writing that the importance of forming letter shapes properly comes into full prominence. If the pen does not start the letter shape in the correct location, it will not end up at the right point to start the next letter.

All this means that it is vital to teach the correct way to form each letter from the very beginning; learning how to write is enough of a challenge without having to learn it all over again when moving onto joined up writing.

Most of us know instinctively how to form letter shapes correctly, after all we use that knowledge every day in our own writing. However it is so instinctive, that it is often difficult to describe clearly.

Link to Illustration on Forming Letter Shapes

To help you here, we have posted a table of letter shapes describing the sequence of strokes for each letter, both capital and lower case; numbers are included too. Clicking on this link will take you to the table.

More Writing Techniques

Another useful technique at this point is to jot down a few of your student’s own comments in pencil and ask them to trace over the text in biro. Following correctly formed letter shapes reinforces good habits, and writing their own words is an added incentive.

However, if your handwriting is like mine, this may not be such a good idea!

It is at this point that some clever computer software can come to our aid. Try "Handwriting for Windows" produced by Kath Balcombe (Educational Resources). This software produces text and worksheets in simulated handwriting with all the correct letter shapes and joins. Even more helpfully, it will also allow you to print the text using grey dots, so they can be traced over easily – great for homework to improve handwriting outside the tuition session. You will find contact details on the Useful Links page under software.

Conclusions

Handwriting is an important communications skill and a fundamental part of basic literacy skills. In addition, handwriting can reinforce and improve the acquisition of reading skills and is an aid to memory development.

So please, think "writing and reading", and include some writing in every session with your student.