Ideas
Posted on the Discussion Board from Previous Writing Classes:
Question:
"I am a home licensed provider (15 years) and I have
children from age 2 to 5. When including the alphabet
in various areas within our space, i.e. blocks, magnetic
letters, flannel pieces etc. I tend to stick with upper
case letters. When I "label" things and write
children's names I use both upper and lower. My question
is, when should children be introduced to lower case?
I tend to think presenting them in their play may add
confusion and yet it's important to include them. Thanks,
gina"
Answer
from Sue Bredekamp: "If
you read to children or expose them to print in any
way, they are already being exposed to upper and
lower case letters. So there's no specific time when
we are "introducing" upper or lower case.
I think that labels and other writing by adults (such
as dictation) should be the way adults write (using
upper and lower case). In helping children write
their names, it's often easier to show them all upper
case. The best strategy is as the other reply indicated,
help children learn that there are multiple ways
for letters to look. Afterall, what they are learning
is the "essence" of the letter. This is
not as difficult as it sounds. Children learn what
a dog is and yet think about the difference between
a terrier and a retriever."
Question: "Joey" stomped
on a banana slug today. [of course, killed it. ] The
teacher was very upset and decided to force Joey to
write sentences: "I will not stomp on a banana
slug again". Ten times.!! I am not kidding. Anyway,
I told his Mom that I thought that was a very "old
fashioned" way of going about this and perhaps
Joey would lose his interest in writing......Joey is
not even 5 yet, goes to a private school where they "stress" academics.
The Mom thought the Teacher was right in her assignment.
I say; that was back in the dino age. Children need
to be excited about learning and of course, excited
about writing. This boy will not be 5 for 3 more weeks.
QUESTION: Am I crazy, or was this"punishment" out
of bounds for this guy?! Please send in your responces.
Thanks. Julia
Answer
from Sue Bredekamp: Dear
Julia, No you are not crazy. We should never use
writing as punishment!! We should encourage children
to love everything about reading and writing. Also,
the "punishment" was totally unrelated
to the behavior and the child would not be able to
make the connection at all. In addition, punishment
doesn't teach a new behavior. In this case, I assume
the teacher wants to teach respect for living things
but her punishment will not accomplish that at all.
If anyone is crazy, it's someone who uses this type
of behavior management for a 5 year old child. (But
that's just my opinion.)"
