Looking at Print and Forming Letters as Part of an Integrated Literacy Program

The following extract is taken from the PETAA book, The alphabetic principle and beyond...surveying the landscape, Edited by Robyn Cox, Susan Feez and Lorraine Beveridge.

From Chapter 9 of this text, written by Noella Mackenzie, teachers will have learned that children need to be able to discriminate letters and other print features in order to learn to write and use letters. This cannot be left to chance but needs
to be explicitly taught and monitored. During the shared reading of Rosie’s hat, skills for looking at print and the formation of letters can be introduced incidentally – a little each day during short chats, but nothing too much.

During shared reading

The children can be asked to identify where upper-case letters have been used in ways that are different from the way we usually write them, such as at the start of names and the start of sentences. In Rosie’s hat whole words are in upper-case letters. Why has the author done that?

When looking at the page beginning with ‘The years go by . . .’, the teacher can discuss with the children how the print is in different places on the page and how it relates to the pictures. The teacher might say: ‘Oh look! In this book they do their ‘W’ and ‘g’ differently to the way we write them’. This shows the children that the capital ‘W’ has been written in a different way but is still ‘W’. Likewise, the way ‘g’ is written is different from the way the children are learning to write this letter.

With the children the teacher can search the book for upper- and lower-case ‘F’, the new letter they are learning to write. The teacher asks who has a name that starts with ‘F’, and together they write a list of names beginning with ‘F’. On the list, the ‘F’ can be written in a different colour or highlighted. Then the teacher can ask: ‘Whose name has an ‘f’ in it?’ Together the teacher and children can make another list and highlight the ‘f’ occurring inside names. This activity involves not only reading but also modelled writing, and learning to look at print. 

Handwriting

The handwriting activity would take about 10 minutes. It is a teacher-guided process, not just copying. During this activity, children learn how to correctly form ‘Ff’, and revise ‘Dd’ and ‘Rr’. The children’s names with ‘F’ or ‘f’ can be used to practise these letters. The children can also write some words from the book with ‘F’ or ‘f’. The teacher would refer back to the book to help the children find the words and then demonstrate how to write them, for example: FLAP, FLAP; FLY, FLY;
Feather flutters.

When implementing the writing lessons in this program, the teacher would need to develop activities that provide the children with more opportunity to use their own ideas to prevent the activities from being too prescriptive and restrictive.