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| This article first appeared
in the June 1998 issue of Literacy
Today (issue no. 16). |
Early
years write from the start
Dr
Nigel Hall, Manchester Metropolitan University
| Nigel
Hall makes a case for real communication as well as phonics and spelling
exercises. |
In days when a Secretary of State
for Education can say on radio that children can't do anything until they
have learned to read and write, it is worth looking at just what young children
can do with their developing literacy knowledge. While young children may
be learners, while they may be at an early stage in their literacy development,
and while they may have a long career of literacy exercises in front them,
they need not be denied the opportunity to use what they do know in order
to communicate to other people.
Some of the most powerful examples
of this can be found through using interactive writing with young children.
In interactive writing two people exchange meaningful messages. It may
be through written conversation, dialogue journals, letters, fax, or e-mail.
While one of the correspondents is a young child, the other could be any
other writer: a teacher, a parent, a classroom assistant, an outside adult,
an older child. The list of possibilities goes on and on. Let's look at
just one example. It is a written conversation between a teacher and a
six-year-old . The child has struggled desperately with literacy and her
difficulties might well have resulted in some people prescribing for her
an endless diet of phonic and spelling exercises. Some of these may well
help her but she can still be a real communicator with her writing. L
is the child and T the teacher.
T: How are you? Do you like
being in Year 2?
L: Yos I dow Mis KsateBec is
nas tus
Yes, I do Miss Kate because
there are nice toys
T: I wonder which toys you like
the best?
L: The sad is my best line sand
is my best.
T: I like playing with sand on
the beach.
L: I dow as wlal 1 do as well.
T: Once I built a sandcastle
right up to the sky.
L: Ut to the suln Up to the sun?
T: It was as tall as the sky
and wide as the sea.
L: I will to the sea and I put
the sad in the buct and wut?
I went to the sea and I put
the sand in the bucket and water.
T: I think that is very clever,
L.
The three little pigs built
their houses in a funny way like that.
L: hw dud the 3 little pigs built
ther hss? How did the three little pigs build their house?
T: The 3rd little pig put sand
and water together like you did to make bricks.
L: I will to atm tws I went
to Alton Towers.
I sad the tow in it I hd a nas
1 saw the tower in it. I had a nice toum I had a nice time.
and I win to the pup and 1 went to the pub.
Every reader can see that this
child has problems with literacy, but nevertheless she can still act as
a real communicator. In the process of engaging in a spirited written
conversation, she reads, she writes, she asks questions, expresses feelings
and plays a complete role in keeping the conversation moving. The teacher,
you will note, asks only one question. She does not need to keep asking
questions as a device to keep this written conversation going. It is the
child who makes that possible. Limited literacy skills do not stop this
child from using written language meaningfully, and in many respects very
successfully. Such children may need specific help, but they also need
real experiences of using writing for real communication.
| For
more information about interactive writing, see Keeping in touch:
using interactive writing with young children, edited by Nigel
Hall and Anne Robinson, and published by Hodder and Stoughton. |
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