Activity
Writing with a braille display: Lists part 3
Engaging activities for an emerging writer on an iPad and refreshable braille display.
The first post in this series, Writing and editing with an iPad and braille display: Intro part 1, introduced the blinking cursor, how the iPad reacts when inputting braille letters and how to edit with a refreshable braille display. The second post in this series, Writing with a braille display: Scribbling part 2 discussed the benefits of a refreshable braille display and introduced scribbling as a precursor to writing letters. This third post will focus on writing simple words in a list format.
Once your emerging writer is able to write a number of braille letters, what is next? Writing simple words! Typically, the first words will include the student’s name, simple CVC words, word families and/or standard sight words.
- CVC: Consonant, vowel, consonant
- Word Families: Group of simple words consisting of the same phonetic pattern or rhyming words. Examples of the “-at” family word group: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat
- Sight Words: Frequently used words in every day writing that children are encouraged to recognize/memorize as a whole by sight. These sight words are typically the most common words used in emerging reader books. While the number varies between different school districts, it is anticipated that preschoolers will know some sight words and kindergarten students have a required list of sight words. The number of required kindergarten sight words rangies from 40 words to 100 words that students must know by the end of kindergarten.
Before writing simple sentences, emerging writers will often begin by writing a list of words. The word list might be a list of CVC words or simply a list of words that mean something to the student.
Many emerging writers might start with a combination list that contains sight words which are CVC words that are also sight words, such as mom and dad. They might make a list of names, such as their name, Mom, Dad, and names of siblings, friends or pets. The goal of writing lists is to motivate the emerging writer to press the desired keys in order to practice writing a combination of letters to create simple words. Initially, spelling is not the main goal with this activity – the teacher can spell the word for the student to type. Emerging writers are excited to create these simple words that they – and others – can read. What a sense of accomplishment!
To make a list on the braille display, after each word is typed, press E Chord (1 + 5 + space; the action for E Chord is “Enter”).
Note: Braille displays have two additional keys: dot 7 and dot 8. Dot 8 is also known as the Enter key. However, with emerging braille writers, using E Chord (instead of dot 8) for Enter, reinforces the letter “E” in braille. It is also beneficial for emerging writers to position and keep their fingers on dots 1 – 6.
Create a simple list of names
For this activity, create a list that has at least five names.
- Ask your student to create a list of names, starting with his or her first name.
- Move to the next line by pressing E Chord (1 + 6 + space).
- Then, ask the student to choose additional names to add to the list.
- Encourage self-advocacy by teaching the emerging writer to ask how to spell various names, as needed.
- If desired, make suggestions such as Mom, Dad, siblings, pet names, friends, classmates, etc.
Additional list types
Create additional lists that go along with what is being taught in the classroom, such as a word family list, CVC words, and sight words.
Support the student by spelling a word as the student types. As soon as possible progress by spelling the entire word while the student listens carefully, then have the student type the entire word. If creating a word family list, suggest a word in that family or simply say the beginning letter and let the student figure out how what the word is and how to spell the word.
Resource
Want to see a 4 year old learning to type mommy, daddy and her sister’s name (Natalie) using her braille display? Watch Layla’s video in this post: Layla: 4 Year Old Learning VoiceOver and Braille Display post. The writing activity in the video begins at 7:00 minutes.
Resources in this series
- Writing and editing with an iPad and braille display: Intro part 1
- Writing with a braille display: Scribbling part 2
- Writing with a braille display: Lists part 3
- Writing and editing with a braille display: Editing part 4
- Writing and editing with a braille display: Proofreading part 5
By Diane Brauner
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