Reasons to write the date in full – blog

A daily practice for any of the students who come through my door and sit down with me for literacy tutoring is to write the date in full. Initially, it’s time-consuming for many students; however, as they begin to build automaticity with this task, the time once taken soon disappears. Why do I do this? Quite simply, the task of writing the date in full can be a teachable moment on so many levels.

It supports teaching proper nouns and when to capitalise. A proper noun is a specific person, place, or thing and needs to have a capital letter. Teaching students that days of the week and months of the year are proper nouns supports their understanding of when to capitalise and when they don’t need to. As days and months are specific, they need a capital letter.

Writing the date in full supports with irregular spellings. For example, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday contain irregular spellings, similar to January and February. Many of the students I teach also find August tricky due to the schwa sound in the second syllable.

It supports learning about ordinal numbers. An ordinal number is a number that indicates the position or order of something in relation to other numbers, like first, second, third, and so on.

Writing the date in full can support learners in remembering things that happened on a particular day by creating a stronger association between the written date and the events or activities that occurred on that day.

Finally, it provides more practice with letter formation. Writing the full date involves repeatedly forming letters, which can serve as practice for handwriting skills. Students get practice writing both uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers, which can contribute to overall handwriting improvement.

In conclusion, the simple act of writing the date in full serves as a multifaceted tool for literacy tutoring. From reinforcing proper noun capitalisation to aiding memory recall and improving handwriting skills, this practice offers valuable learning opportunities for students. Educators can effectively support students’ development across various language and literacy domains by incorporating the full date into daily routines.