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
click to edit