Writing is one of the greatest gifts you can give a person, along with reading. Writing is a skill that should be mastered and takes time and practice. It opens so many opportunities for a person in their life time and brings joy to many people too (Anon., 2018). So, let us share this gift with the younger ones and bring happiness and endless opportunities into their lives.
Writing is part of our every day lives and starts from the foundation phase right through to when we are grown-ups. Writing is a form of communication, is part of a student’s life and many people’s jobs too (Anon., 2019). Children should start by being taught the basics, such as how to recognize and form a letter as well as what each letter sounds like. From here they should then learn capital and lower-case letters and when to use them (Anon., 2018). Once this foundation has been laid only then should children be taught how to write sentences.
The development of writing starts write from when the child learns to ‘draw’. Children start off by scribbling which is not necessarily writing but this is where the development starts. From imitating writing through scribbles to copying letters all helps in the learning of writing in the foundation phase.
Drawing and imitative writing: This is when children have seen their parents writing so they imitate it through scribbles. This is their attempt of communication through writing.
Copying words: This is when letters start being formed. The child will start to copy words they see around them but most of the time won’t be put in the correct order, so the word won’t make sense.
Drawing and strings of letters: At this point drawings are accompanied by letters. The letters are random, and the words formed make no sense, but the letters are formed well.
Early phonetic writing: Now the child starts associating sounds with letters and the writing starts to make sense. Consonants are mainly used.
Phonetic writing: The child starts to form words depending on the sounds they hear. The words are not always spelt correctly because the sound they hear may not always match up with the correct letter. The words, even though they may not be spelt correctly, can be understood when read.
Conventional writing: The child is now able to write a few sentences about a certain topic and the spelling of the words is close to perfect.
- (Anon., 2019)
These steps all happen in the early days of development. From here they move on to learning about letters and their sounds and how to construct sentences properly. This is when the teacher plays a very important roll. As a foundation phase teacher, we must make sure that the children understand how to write and what they are writing. This will make sure the learners writing only goes from strength to strength and benefits the learners in the long run.
1. Teaching letters: As mentioned before the children should be taught how to recognize letters, the difference between capital and lower-case letters, directionality (which way the letter faces) and spaces between letters and words (Anon., 2018).
2. Sounds: Children should then be taught the sounds each letter makes and how to identify these sounds. This is a key factor for the child to start writing. Sounds of letters individually should be taught as well as sounds when letters are written next to each other (Anon., 2018).
3. Forming of words: The children should have a clear understand of letters and what they sound like so now they can use this knowledge to form words. As this stage children should be read to lots and well as different sentences shown to them so they can start to see how words are formed. Vowels and consonants should be taught in this step (Anon., 2018).
4. Sentence structure: Children will then need to be taught how to order words correctly for the sentences to make sense. Nouns, verbs and adjectives will need to be taught in this step and the children will need to be able to identify these words for the sentence structure to be correct. By the end of this step the children should be writing sentences that make sense (Anon., 2018).
5. Grammar: Parts of speech as well different tenses is very important when a child is learning to write. This will help children write and write well and make sure their sentences make sense (Anon., 2018).
6. Punctuation: Lastly is the punctuation. This is not always easy for the children to understand but punctuation will make sure their sentences are constructed properly and make sense to the person reading them. Later in life good punctuation shows good education and intelligence (Anon., 2018).
By the end of these 6 simple steps learners should be writing with ease and will be able to express their feelings and thoughts through a different skill.
As mentioned earlier writing is a form of communication. If a person knows how to write they will be able to express who they are as a person (Brandon Gustafson, 2018). Later in life writing will be used when signing contracts and agreements between people or businesses. Therefore, not only is it important to learn how to write but understanding what is being written is also extremely important. A person needs to understand what they are writing in order to get their feelings, facts etc, across. A person who can write well is also more likely to get a job over someone who cannot write well. Writing shows critical thinking, intelligence and education which is all looked for in a job interview (Anon., 2018). Therefore, it is so important to teach foundation phase learning the correct techniques to write well. It will benefit them in the long term and allow them many opportunities when they are older.
Jules Renard once said, ‘Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.’ This is so important. At the very beginning, if someone is taught how to write well, they will be able to express themselves on paper one day. This does not mean other people have to read it, but it can be that person’s escape, and opportunity to say what they want without feeling judged or being interrupted by anyone listening. Writing is a wonderful skill to have and should be gifted to everyone. But making sure you have the foundation for good writing is very important and this is what we as foundation phase teachers need to remember. If you have a good foundation you can go on to use writing however you want, and you will see doors being opened for you wherever you may be. And that is a gift, and this gift needs to be given to all our foundation phase learners.