A student uses reverse phonics to write in his journal.

WRITING

THE JOURNAL

SKILL: The child will differentiate between conventions of writing such as capital letters, lower case letters, periods, letters, words, and sentences.

MATERIALS: The journal consists of unlined pages in a three-tab folder.

ACTIVITY: The student draws anything s/he wants and then tells about it. His/her words are written down on the page by the teacher.  It is explained that a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a dot called a period and that we can count the periods to know how many sentences there are. The student is asked how many sentences are on the page. We count together and the student writes the number, copying from a model number. It is explained that a word has spaces around it. We color the spaces between words. The student underlines the words. We count them together. The student writes the number on the page, copying from a model number. It is explained that letters make the sounds in words.

This helps the student differentiate between letters, words, and sentences. The differences are often not taught directly and can cause great confusion.

JOURNAL WITH REVERSE PHONICS

Please contact Jean Borne for further information about Journal with Reverse Phonics ;-)


NAME PRACTICE

SKILL: The child will recognize and write his/her own name.

MATERIALS: Paper, marker, magnetic letters, plastic page protector, dry erase marker

ACTIVITY: The student's name is written all in capitals on a piece of paper and then matched with magnetic letters from a pile. Depending on the age, ability, and length of name, just the first name or both names may be used.

ACTIVITY: For older kids, both names are printed on a name plate. The name plate is placed under a plastic page protector and then traced over with a dry erase marker.



WRITING

SKILL: The child will write large shapes, letters, and numbers.

MATERIALS: Markers, unlined paper, dry erase marker, white board

ACTIVITY: The child writes large shapes, letters, and numbers either by using a model or by tracing over a model.
Writing should always be done with a marker or pencil with a soft holder on it in order to reduce hand strain. Regular diameter pencils are difficult to control without fine motor skill development. Hand strength is practiced everyday with large diameter writing tool practice and cutting with scissors. Paper should not be lined so as to promote success. The students do not have to write on lines until their fine motor skills are refined.
The child can practice with a dry erase marker and white board.