INTERVENTIONS OR STRATEGIES FOR THE

REMEDIATION OF PERCEPTUAL PROBLEMS

AFFECTING WRITING

Developing a Written Vocabulary

• For student who has just been taught English, the starting point for teaching writing would be just copying – requires that the student learn theme-related words like parts of body or types of transportation.

• When these words are taught, it is also necessary for the students to write down the words in the learning process, as when an exercise is given for the student to label the various parts of the body correctly.

• When the student has learned some words, they can be encouraged to make picture dictionaries, or the words learned could be filed in a word box so that they can be referred to later on.

A few simple copying activities that can be carried out with beginning students of English…

Mann, Suiter and McClung

Prepare worksheets of some words that can be traced, that is words written in dotted outlined.

Prepare exercises where students write out the plural form of the word.

Let students write all the words they have written on their word cards for a specified category.

Let student write out pairs of rhyming words they have written on their word cards.

Write a spelling pattern. Let the words of that pattern.

Mercer and Mercer have suggested some useful activities for developing the writing vocabulary of students. These activities to get more ideas on helping your students to develop a writing vocabulary.

Teaching Sentence Formulation

• One of the most recommended methods of teaching students to read written sentences is the Language Experience Approach – the student tells the teacher a story or anything at all about their self.

• The teacher then writes down what the student has told him.

• When this is done, the student will realize that written language actually represents oral language.

• The written experience story can then be used as a reading text.

• The student can then copy the text into his own book.

• Mann, Suiter and McClung have suggested some modifications to this approach. These include:– Writing a sentences on a word card illustrating a

picture.– Writing a sentences under a student’s drawing.– Retelling of stories previously read to the student.– Writing class poems, jokes and group stories

based on a shared experience.– Writing stories about pets.– Writing class science experiments

The following are more structured ways of teaching sentence formulation:

1. Sentence completion

a. The student copies from a modelThe cat is ……………… (big, black)

b. The student uses vocabulary cards to complete a sentenceThe cat is ………………………………………………………………...

c. The student writes original sentencesThe ………………………………………………………………………….

2. Have the student start with a short sentence and add words to make longer and longer sentences.

I saw a cat.I saw a black cat.I saw a little, black cat.I saw a little, old, black cat.

3.Write words that the students have been taught on separate index cards. The students take turns drawing cards. They then from sentences using the word. When all the cards have been used, the students read each other’s card

4.Plan activities that require writing only a few sentencesexample:a) greeting card messageb) post card messagec) Description of pictures of thing or persond) captions for pictures on bulleting boardse) small books about a subject – birdsf ) steps in an experiment

5.Sentence combining– The student can be taught to use compound and

complex sentences by structured drills.– A sentence pattern is provided and the student

combines two given sentences following the modeled pattern.

– Example • The ball is big. It is on the table.• The big ball is on the table.

6.Give the student the words of a sentence that have not been ordered and ask him to arrange the words form a grammatical sentence.– Cat, small, the, is– The cat is small

7.Give the student various noun and verb phrases and ask him to expand the sentence by adding descriptive words.– Many, boys, swimming, river– There are many boys swimming in the river.

Teaching Sentence Formulation

• Once the students are able to formulate simple sentence, the teacher should help them to use this ability to write basic texts.

• A few activities discussed earlier, such as the Language Experience Approach, involve the writing of simple texts.

Some of the activities suggested by Mercer and Mercer and also Mann, Suiter and McClung that can be carried out are

• Give the student a written paragraph in which the sentences are out of sequence. Ask him to rewrite the paragraph by arranging the sentences in a logical and meaningful order.

• Give the student individual pictures that make up a comic strip. Ask the student to put the pictures in sequence. Subsequently, ask the student to write sentences about each picture so that there is a sequential story.

• Ask the student to cut out an interesting picture from magazine. Paste in the picture on a large piece of paper. Then ask the student to write a few sentences about the picture.

• Have the student keep a daily dairy. At the end of each day, let him write a diary entry in which he expresses himself by summarizing his experiences, feelings and activities of the day.

• Start a class newspaper and ask all students to contribute some from of writing. Student can take turns serving as editors, printers, proof readers and distributors.

• Cloze exercises, in addition to being a good method of teaching comprehension, are a very structured way to develop the ability of the student in writing connected text.

Principles of Teaching Writing

• To ensure that writing is encouraged and that writing activities are carried out, it is necessary to create an environment conducive to writing.

• The teacher should– Provide opportunities for sustained writing– Establish a writing community– Allow students to choose their own topics– Model the writing process and strategic thinking– Develop reflective thinking and a sense of audience – Transfer ownership and control of the writing to the

students– Capitalize on current student interest– Avoid punitive grading– Differentiate between personal and functional writing– Schedule frequent writing

Remediating problems in writing

• Auditory perception and memory of letter sounds– Provide practice in auditory perception of letter

sounds, strengthen knowledge of phonics and structural analysis. This basically means that the teacher should carry out activities to help the students be aware of the individual sounds of in a word, and the structural component of a word.

– Example: The word “cats” consists of four different sounds and the “s” at the end represent the meaning of more than one.

• Visual perception and memory of letters – help student strengthen visual perception and memory so that the visual image of a word can be retained.– The Fernald method• Make a model of the word using crayon or marker – say

the word as you write• Check the accuracy of the spelling• Trace over by index finger while saying the word• Repeat step 3 five times• Copy the word 3 times correctly• Copy the word 3 times correctly from the memory

– Cover-and-method• Look at the word – say it• Write the word two times• Cover and write it one time• Check work• Write the work two times• Cover and write it one time• Check work• Write the words three times• Cover and write it one time• Check work

– Multisensory method• Meaning and pronunciation – look at the word,

pronounce and use it in sentences• Imagery – look, say and trace it• Recall – close the eyes and try to visualize • Writing the word from the memory• Mastery – cover the word and write