view - National Center for Education Development

d. Teaching writing skills
Teaching writing can start at any time, but the earlier it starts the better. An early
start gives pupils the maximum amount of time to practise writing and it helps them
link spoken with written speech. Pupils usually like to read what they have written
and what other pupils have written.
Lower case (small letters) should be learned before upper case (capital) letters. It is
not necessary to introduce letters in alphabetical order. Letters with similar shapes
are often taught together. Some prefer to teach letters that have only one sound (e.g.,
'b' or 'd') before they teach letters which have two or more sounds (e.g., 'c' or 'g').
Teaching individual letter
Generally, following steps are taken into consideration while teaching individual
letters for very young children.
� Draw four lines on the board.
� Write the letter clearly on the board.
� Describe how the letter is formed, for example, 'b' - down, up and round.
� Say the name of letter / bI/.
� Give the sound of letter /b/.
� Students repeat the name of the letter.
� Students repeat the sound of the letter.
� Students draw the letter in the air.
� Students copy the letter in their exercise books.
Some classroom activities for teaching writing skill
i) Completion exercises
Some incomplete sentences are given and the students are asked to complete them
with suitable words or phrases which may be given in box or not.
ii) Jumbled words
The letters of a certain word are kept in wrong order and students are asked to put
them in right order for a meaningful word. For example,
YOKMNE — monkey
SOEUH — house
iii) Writing questions
Another type of writing exercise is writing questions. Simple sentences are given to
the students and they are told to write questions for them. The sentences should be
related to their daily activities and surroundings.
iv) Describing pictures
44