Writing theory

Rothery's categories for evaluating children's writing

Observation/comment - Writer makes an observation - follows with an evaluative comment - 'I saw a tiger - it was very large'
OR
Mixes these in with the observation - 'I saw a very large tiger'

Recount - Chronological sequence of events Orientation - Event - Reorientation
O = sets the scene (e.g. journey to place)
R = completes the writing

Report - factual and objective description of events or things (not chronological)

Narrative - story genre where scene is set for events to occur and be resolved at the end
Orientation - Complication - Resolution - Coda (point of story) (not always added)

Britton - 3 modes of children's writing

Expressive - 1st mode

  • resembles speech
  • uses 1st person
  • content based on personal preferences

Poetic - 2nd mode

  • develops gradually
  • requires skills in crafting and shaping language
  • encouraged early on because of its creativity
  • phonological features (rhyme, alliteration, rhythm, descriptive - similes, adjectives

Transactional - 3rd mode - secondary school age

  • once children have dissociated speech from writing
  • style of academicessays
  • impersonal
  • 3rd person (used to detached tone)
  • formal sentence structures
  • formal graphological features
  • structures tend to be chronologoical

Katherine Perera - classifying texts (chronological/ non-chronological)

Chronological = rely on action words (verbs) and on linking ideas using connectives

Non- chronological = considered harder to write because they rely on logical connections between ideas

Complements Rothery's genre categories - focusing also on importance of discourse structure of the writing task as a way of assisting children to become competent and confident writers.

Barclay (1996) 7 stages

Stage 1 - Scribbling

  • random marks on paper
  • not related to words
  • talk about what they're scribbling

Stage 2 - Mock handwriting

  • draw shapes
    • letter - like -forms (pseudo -letters) begin to appear in or with drawings as the first sign of emergent writing (attempting to write letters)

Stage 3 - Mock letters

  • random letters
  • no awareness of spacing or matching sounds with symbols

Stage 4 - Conventional letters

  • matching sounds with symbols
  • no spaces
  • initial consonants to represent words (initial letter (h - horse) might be read out as if the full word is there

Stage 5 - Invented spelling

  • spelled phonetically
  • some may be spelled correctly (simple/familiar words)

Stage 6 - Appropriate spelling

  • sentences become more complex
  • child becomes aware of standard spelling patterns
  • writing becomes legible

Stage 7 - Correct spelling

  • most words spelt correctly
  • older children have usually started to use joined-up writing too

Kroll's 4 phases/ stages of development (1981)

Preparation - up to 6 years - basic motor skills - some principles of spelling

Consolidation - 7/8 - writing is similar to spoken lang

Differentiation - 9/10 - awareness of writing as separate from speech emerges

Integration - mid-teens - 'personal voice' - characterised by evidence of controlled writing

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