Early+Years+Writers

EARLY YEARS WRITERS

To be able to understand how an early year writes is to understand how a child develops from birth to pre-teen. “Children begin to write in literate societies by imitating the adults they see writing lists and notes and using computers” (Hill 2006).

//__ There are different stages in writing and they can be defined as follows: __//


 * Beginning Writing ** – The child uses drawing to communicate a message usually in the forms of scribble or shapes. Usually imitating in some way what they have observed from watching adults. (Hill 2006)




 * Early-Emergent Writing ** – The child moves on to either drawings or letters to represent words and these are separated into letter and picture symbols showing that the child has leaped in development displaying a directionality and placement of pictures and text on a page. (Hill 2006)




 * Emergent Writing ** – The child begins to create more letter-like shape and is aware of spacing between the letters and letters represent sounds. Writing appears left to right and sequences are used with some sequences repeating as the child refines the way the letters are made. (Hill 2006)




 * Early Writing ** – Children continue to create or invent spellings of words. With invented, a letter represents a syllable and phrases can be repeated, difference between lowercase and uppercase is made more apparent and spacing becomes consistent. Words in sentences (written elsewhere) are copied to further develop understanding. Different forms of texts are understood and the genres they belong to. (Hill 2006)




 * Transitional Writing ** – The volume of writing increases and sentences and phrases are repeated with a great emphasis on quantity. The child tries to write narratively and having an ending with punctuation taken into consideration by the child. (Hill 2006)




 * Extended Writing ** – Punctuation is definitely apparent and the writing resembles that of an adult. Spelling is accurate most of the time and text types are used with reference to different audiences. (Hill 2006)



When children begin to write, they make links between speaking, writing and reading. Early attempts at approximating writing provide valuable experiences for children. As written language develops, they learn words by sight and construct other words through their knowledge of letters and sounds. Teachers use a range of assessment tools to collect data in order to understand the child’s writing development. (Hill 2006) The younger the child, the shorter the one-on-one session and smaller group needed for assessment or help. The teacher knows what works best for each student and can help steer them in the right directions with their writing. Writing on a whiteboard is a core activity with younger children. It helps greatly with literary understanding and demonstrates a wide range of editing techniques. The task is read aloud, and the use of repeated words and phrases helps the child’s writing become familiar.

// Different text types are taught at various stages and these include // ; (Docstoc 2011)
 * ‘__Procedure__’, like making a recipe,
 * ‘__Explanation__’ like an account or article,
 * ‘__Persuasion__’ like a fantasy or realistic essay,
 * ‘__Description__’ like a questionnaire or poem,
 * a ‘__Retell__’ like a personal account and
 * ‘__Narrative__’ like a story or fairy-tale.

Teachers are invaluable as experts and are familiar with each child, as well as classroom resources and curriculum set etiquette. With every year of Primary Education, Children are immersed in language and writing and through this become skilled at writing stories themselves. The teacher acting as role model may help with writing stories but will generally encourage them to try and write their own stories. Stories tap into and enhance the creative imaginations of the child and when a child is enthusiastic they are more willing to write about what is important to them at the time.

__** Group Comments **__

When assessing my early year learners writing ability i determined they were in the early learning stage. As stated above children at this level tend to have consistent spacing and use uppercase and lowercase letters correctly. My early year learner was also able to space his words out along the line. He did not tend to invent words as he mainly copied spelling from the book in front of him. (Libby Salter)

There were only a small portion of students in my grade prep classroom who were at the early writing level, however this was usually only when they copied modelled writing. Whilst the rest of the class were all emergent writers getting the first sounding letter and usually the last correct, usually good spacing and some correct grammar as evident of an emergent writer. All students were able to write their name however one student wrote his name backwards, my student teacher mentioned that he was being assessed for learning difficulties. (Mark Tapscott)

The vast majority of students I encountered in Prep were in the Emergent or Early writing phase. A key concept they concentrated on was their 'two-finger spaces', fullt stops and capital letters, and sounding out unkown words. For struggling students, the teacher used modelled writing to enable them to participate. Some students struggled to write in a straight line from left to right, and most had difficulty with correct stroke order. (Sarah Mcilroy)

A portion of the preps in my prep class were still in the beginner stage. They were still struggling to identify and name letters, and when asked to write or reflect, they would draw pictures. the majority however were in the early emergent phase. The most interesting thing about their writing was that they were scared to try! Many of the children would refuse to write unless being told exactly what letters to use. (Hayley Gleeson)