Improve Students Writing and Spelling with Email

Do your children have email accounts?

I created Google email accounts (free safe Gmail’s plus-addressing) for my boys so I could email educational game links to their laptop computers. I didn’t realize how motivating email would be. They began writing letters to their father, grand parents, brothers and sisters.

Writing and receiving emails makes learning fun. Much more fun than traditional “skill-and-drill”.  Students write on topics that they enjoy. Receiving email gives interaction and feedback.

Students need to know how to compose an email. The New York Times reported ” Businesses are spending as much as $3.1 billion annually to teach white-collar professionals how to write clear, concise emails, reports, and other texts.”

Research from the BBC

• A survey of 3,001 children aged nine to 16 found that 24% had their own blog and 82% sent text messages at least once a month.  73% use instant messaging services to chat online with friends.
• …Of the children who neither blogged nor used social network sites, 47% rated their writing as “good” or “very good”, while 61% of the bloggers and 56% of the social networkers said the same.
• “Our research suggests a strong correlation between kids using technology and wider patterns of reading and writing,” Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, told BBC News.
• “Engagement with online technology drives their enthusiasm for writing short stories, letters, song lyrics or diaries.”
• “Our research results are conclusive – the more forms of communications children use the stronger their core literary skills.”
• Use a basic checklist before sennding mail: Are you sending it to the right person? Check for spelling mistakes in the address and message body.

Email Tips for  Readers

• Introduce your child the basic parts of a letter with attention to: salutation or greeting, body, closing and signature.
• Be available to help with spelling. Keep a list of words they ask about.
• Print out list of frequently words in alphabetical order for reference. (Please, thank you, etc)
• Give them a dictionary (or child’s dictionary) and teach them to use it.
• Use graphic organizers to help a child compose an email.
• Teach the child to attach photos, draw pictures and use other computer resources over time to enhance the emails.
• Teach them to use the spell checker and teach them how often spell checkers fail.

Email Tips for Non- Readers

• Use Charlotte Mason’s narration methods.
• Ask someone to write to your child. When your child receives an email, read the email to the child and ask if she wants to respond. Type the response for your child.
• Continue writing for the child until he has the typing and language skills to go it alone.

Email Safety

Gmail’s plus-addressing feature to create filtered in boxes and send-from address for  kids. Children can send and receive emails from their own address without being exposed to  spam of a full-fledged account, and you can keep an eye on what kind of communication their mail .

How to give your young children a personalized (managed) email address

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