Learning+to+Write

**__ LEARNING TO WRITE __**

**__THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING __**

When children talk, they cannot always write as much or as fast as they speak. This is due to the fact that writing is a very complex area of learning for a child to learn. Writing consists of learning how to do many things such as how to hold a pencil, how to hold that pencil properly, how to create letters, words and sentences to share with others. When I was in grade one I my mum bought me a book about my a girl named Katy and the book was about her hating her curls, as I did mine and inside the book there is a space that says, “this book belongs to…..”, I wrote in my name and this is what it looks like:



**__SPOKEN LANGUAGE__** Meanings are sometimes hidden and therefore the students may rely on context such as gestures of pointing the finger at something, or on the other hand meaning can be expressed and helped by the use of anger, sarcasm, the tone or the stress on particular words to affect the meaning of specific sentences or phrases.

__**WRITTEN LANGUAGE**__ When referring to the written language, the context is normally included and the meaning is very clear and detailed, not like the spoken language.

__**EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING**__ When most children start writing, it looks like they are just scribbling. This is in fact the early stages of writing and these repetitive squiggles are referred to as the recurring principle by Marie Clay, and these examples are ways children first discover how to write English.

This becomes evident to children when they realise letters and symbols mean something and stand for something.
 * sign principle**

This is the stage when children realise that symbols such as # is not a letter and cannot be used in a sentence or a word.
 * flexibility principle**

This is when children learn that the English language is written from left to right, no matter whether they are right or left handed.
 * linear principle**

children discover at this stage that their writing cannot be all one word, yet many words with spaces in between of approximately two fingers width.
 * spaces between words**

__**STAGES IN CHILDREN’S WRITING**__ Children copy adults writing, whether it is out of a book or from their mum or dads shopping list they write. They explore all the different letters and try to imitate as much as they can, yet it does not always turn out the same as an adults piece of writing, but they may think it does.

this is the stage where children start to draw to communicate with others, and then they try to read it out. This writing may not seem like it means anything, but once the child tries to read it, it can be made into reality.
 * beginning writing**

During this stage of writing, children explore the symbols to represent words or things. These symbols are drawings or letters which can represent whole words and even sentences.
 * early-emergent writing**

Letter like shapes are starting to develop and become a lot easier to determine and understand the child and what they are wanting to describe or say. Children start to write down letters to describe they way they think it sounds.
 * emergent writing**

Children are still creating and inventing their own words, and letters may represent a whole syllable like the letter ‘t’ may represent the word ‘tea’ for example.
 * early writing**

In this stage of a child’s writing, quantity over quality becomes evident and the children try to write as much as they can even if that means they repeat some words and sentences, they still find it fun and challenging. Finishing off the stories are a challenge for most children at this stage, but punctuation is well developed.
 * transitional writing**

Spelling becomes accurate, punctuation is clear and children learn many different text types through exploring through writing reports to stories.
 * extending writing**

__**ASSESSING WRITING**__ When assessing the writing of a student, the teacher should always keep in mind their comments, as “a child’s writing provides a window into their thinking and problem solving” (Hill 2006). When assessing a child’s writing, the three main elements you should look for and consider are the child’s written language, their ideas and the text conventions evident within the piece of writing.



Hill, Susan 2006, p.290