Strategies to improve pupils’ spelling and note-taking ...

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Strategiestoimprovepupils’spellingandnote-takingskillsarediscussedhere.Teachersshouldintroducethesestrategiestopupilsexplicitlyandencouragethemtoapplythesestrategiesinthedailylearningandteachingprocess.

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Tohelppupilsunderstandtheletter-soundrelationshipsanddevelopphonicsskills, teachers should let pupils know that there are different sounds fordifferent letters. For example, the word ‘boy’ ismade up of the consonantsound‘b’andthevowelsound‘oy’.Also,pupilsoftenmisstheendingsounds(e.g.theendingconsonants‘t’asin‘foot’and‘d’asin‘food’)iftheydonotpayfullattention.Teachersshouldalertpupilsthataslightdifferenceinsoundwillmakeabigdifferenceinmeaning.

Besides,pupilsshouldberemindedthatthesamesoundmayhavedifferentspellings(e.g.theending‘s’soundin‘glass’,‘piece’and‘horse’;thelong‘e’soundin‘me’,‘teeth’and‘sea’).However,itisnotnecessarytoteachallthevariationsatonetime.Throughexposingpupilstomorereadingtexts,teacherscan build on pupils’ prior knowledge of letter-sound relationships and drawtheirattentiontothevariationsinthespellingofthesamesound.

Toencouragetheapplicationofphonicsskills thatpupilshavebeentaught,teachersshouldletthemtrypronouncingnewwordstheyencounterinsteadoftellingthemthepronunciationrightaway.

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Inordertoworkoutthepronunciationorthespellingofnewwords,teacherscanguidepupilstodividebigwordsintosmallwords(e.g.‘foot’and‘ball’in‘football’,‘break’and‘fast’in‘breakfast’).Sincethesmallwordsaresimpler,pupilsmayknowhowtheyarepronounced.Itwillthenbeeasierforthemtoworkoutthepronunciationofthenewwordsbythemselves.

Incasetherearenosmallwords,pupilscandividethewordsintosyllables(e.g.cho/co/late).Thiscanhelpthemworkoutthepronunciationorthespellingofthewordsontheirown.

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Arootwordisthebasicformofaword.Itstandsonitsownasawordandithasameaning.Newwordscanbeformedfromrootwordsbyaddingprefixesandsuffixes.

Aprefixisagroupof letters(e.g. ‘un’, ‘re’, ‘mis’)whichcanbeaddedtothebeginningofarootwordtochangethemeaningoftheword(e.g.un+kind=unkind).Teacherscanexplain topupils themeaningofprefixes (e.g. ‘un’means‘not’,‘re’means‘again’,‘mis’means‘wrong’)wheneverappropriate.

Asuffix isagroupof letters(e.g. ‘ed’, ‘ing’, ‘ful’)whichcanbeaddedtotheendofarootwordtochangethepartofspeechoftheword.Forexample,byadding‘ful’totherootword‘help’,thewordisturnedintoanadjective‘helpful’.

Teachersshoulddrawpupils’attentiontowordformationandhelpthemspellandrememberwordsmoreeasily.

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Letter patterns are groups of letters that often appear together in lots ofEnglishwords (e.g. ‘ough’, ‘ight’, ‘ould’). It is a good idea to remindpupilstolearnlettersasagrouporpatternratherthanasanindividualletteronitsown.Forinstance,‘ough’isfoundinthewords‘tough’,‘rough’or‘enough’andpronouncedas/ʌf/;‘ight’in‘light’,‘fight’or‘night’andpronouncedas/аt/;and‘ould’in‘should’,‘would’or‘could’andpronouncedas/ʊd/.

To help pupils consolidate the learning of the letter patterns, teachers candesign someactivities (e.g.writing rhymes / poems)where pupils have tobrainstormdifferentrhymingwords.

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Teacherscanidentifywordsthatareconfusingtopupilsandguidethemtopayextraattentiontospellthesewords.Twoexamplestoarousepupils’awarenessofsilentlettersinwordsandthewordswithcontractionsareillustratedinthefollowingparagraphs:

Silentlettersarelettersthatyoucannothearwhenyousaythewords,butthelettersaretherewhenyouwritethewords.Therearenofixedrulesandpupilsneedtolearnthewordswithsilentlettersfromtheirexperienceandmakeextraeffort torememberthewords.Forexample,theword‘know’hasasilent ‘k’,whichmeansthe ‘k’sound isnotpronounced.Teachersshoulddrawpupils’attentiontothesilentletterswhenevertheyappear.

Itisalsonoticedthatsomecontractionsandwordssoundthesameorsimilar(e.g.‘it’s’vs.‘its’).Pupilsshouldberemindedtothinkaboutthepartsofspeechandthemeaningsofthewordsincontextinordertowritethecorrectwords.

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Many English words sound the same, but have different spellings andmeanings.Theyarecalledhomophones(e.g.‘hour’vs.‘our’,‘knew’vs.‘new’,‘here’vs.‘hear’).Whenpupilsareconfusedwithwordsthathavethesameorsimilarpronunciation,teachersshoulddrawtheirattentiontothemeaningsofthewords.

Inthefirstexample,‘Theson/sunisshining’,teachersmaysay,‘Iunderstandthatyouareconfusedwithwhichwordtowrite.Youmayreadthesentencethatcomesbeforetogetsomehints. Itsays,“It isveryhot.” It isabout theweather.Nowyoushouldknowwhichwordtowrite.’

Inthesecondexample,‘Iuseapen/pantofryanegg’,teachersmaysay,‘You have nearly got the spelling of “pan” right. Here, we’re talking aboutsomethingwhichisusedforcooking.Doweneeda“pen”tocook?Canyouthinkofanotherwordwhichhasasimilarsoundto“pen”?’

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Itisimportanttodeveloppupils’note-takingskillsthroughdictation,asitisausefulskill forpupils to learn independently.Bothnote-takingandcontrolleddictationrequirepupilstolistencarefullyandwritedownthewords.However,whenpupilsaredoingnote-taking,theyonlyneedtowritedownthekeypoints.In order to jot down thewords quickly, they canmake use of short forms,abbreviations,numbersandsymbols.Toorganisetheirideas,theycanmakeuseofheadings,tablesandothergraphicorganisers.

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Itisimportanttohelppupilsunderstandthemeaningsofkeywordsinatextbeforeengagingtheminmoredemandingdictationactivitiessuchasdicto-comp/dictogloss.

Teachersshoulddefinethemeaningsof‘keywords’clearly.Theyareimportantmessages that indicate the time, place, people involved and things thathappened.Functionwords(e.g.articles,verbtobe)inthepassagearelessimportantasmostof themdonotaffectourunderstandingof themessageevenwhentheyaremissing.Asastart,teacherscouldmakeuseofareadingtexttodemonstratetopupilswhatismeantby‘keywords’.

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Tobuilduppupils’confidence innote-taking, teacherscould readaloud thesametextandaskpupilstojotdownthekeywordsintheirexercisebook.

Initially, when pupils have not yet acquired the note-taking skills, teacherscoulddividethetextintoseveralpartsandreadittopupilsbitbybit.Guidingquestionscouldalsobeprovidedtogivepupilsaclearfocusforlistening(e.g.WhenwillLeovisitHongKong?HowmanydayswillhestayinHongKong?).Teacherscouldreadaloudthetextseveraltimesifnecessaryandgivesufficienttimeforpupilstotidyuptheirwork.

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Pupilsshouldmakedecisionsaboutwhat is importantandwhatcanbe leftoutwhentakingnotes.Theyshouldbeguidedtoidentifythemainpointsandsupportingdetailsaswellastounderstandthatthereisnoneedtojotdownallthewordstheyhear.Inthisexample,pupilsareaskedtonotedownwhatmakesMrChanagoodteacherandgivesupportingdetails.Withaclearfocusinmind,pupilswillknowwhattheyhavetolistenfor.Teachersshouldremindpupilsoftheorganisationof the text.Usually, themainpointsare followedby thesupportingdetails.The adjectives (e.g. humorous, helpful, healthy) are used to describe thespecialqualitiesofagoodteacherandtheyarethemainpoints,whereastheexplanation and elaborationwhich follow the adjectives are the supportingdetails.Teacherscanalsodrawpupils’attentiontotheconnectives(e.g.first,also,lastly)thatsignaltopupilstheyaregoingtohearanewidea.Withsufficientpracticeandexposure tonote-takingactivities,pupilswillbeabletodeveloptheskillsprogressively.

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Tohelppupilsdevelopnote-takingskills,morepracticeshouldbeprovided.Teacherscouldprovideheadingssothatpupilswouldknowwhattheyshouldpay attention towhile listening. In this example, when pupils are asked tointroducethemselves,theirclassmatescouldbeaskedtonotedownthekeypointsintheformofatable.Theheadingsprovidedcouldhelppupilsjotdownthekeypoints.

Apart from taking notes when listening to presentations, pupils could beengaged in authentic activities where note-taking is necessary, such asinterviewingatouristinprojectlearning.

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Tablesandothergraphicorganisersareflexibleandconvenienttoolstohelppupilsnotedowninformationandideassystematically.Herearetwoexamples:• atablecanbeusedtolistinformationclearlyunderdifferentcolumns/ headings,and• aspiderweb/mindmapcanbeusedtoshowthetopic,mainideas, examplesorsupportingdetailsclearly.

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Pupils should be taught to use short forms, abbreviations, numbers and symbols when taking notes. Teachers should introduce some commonly used short forms / abbreviations. Pupils should be reminded to use numbers instead of full words, especially in writing telephone numbers and dates. Below are some examples:

a) Units of Measurements • centimetre (cm), kilogram (kg), feet (ft), two minutes and thirty seconds (2 min 30 sec or 2’30”), hours (hrs or h), percent (%)b) Time / Days / Months / Dates • seven o’clock in the morning (7am), Monday (Mon), January (Jan), 28 February 2011 (28.2.2011)c) Places • Kowloon (Kln), Mong Kok (MK), Seventh floor (7/F), Street (St), Road (Rd), Building (Bldg), Room (Rm)d) Subjects • Chinese (Chi), English (Eng), Mathematics (Maths), General Studies (GS)e) Other common abbreviations • with (w/), without (w/o), page (p.)

Pupils can use symbols (e.g. “ ” for “between”; “&” for “and”; “@” for “each”), arrows or simple drawings (e.g. an arrow pointing upward represents an increase; an arrow pointing downward represents a decrease) to note down quickly what they have heard. Pupils can also create their own short forms or abbreviations (e.g. “diff” for “difficult”; “exp” for “expensive”; “rest” for “restaurant”; “Δ” for “sandwiches”).

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