Stages of Reading and Writing

January 2011

Through exposure children construct concepts about literacy. They need repeated opportunities to:

See spoken words in written form in order construct the relationship between oral and written language.

Explore books in order to:◦ distinguish pictures from print◦ Observe left to right and top to bottom progression

of text◦ Understand function of letters in forming words.

Preschoolers and Literacy

Phonemic Awareness- ability to recognize spoken words as a sequence of sounds

Phonetic Awareness- understanding of the relationship between letters (or group of letters)and their sounds.

Eventually students make the transition to reading by recognizing certain words.

Phonemic Awareness vs. Phonetic Awareness

From whole to the part.1. Differentiate print from the rest of the page

globally. 2. Distinguish words from the stream of

writing.3. Look at the parts of words in order as they

form letter-sound relationships.

The Process of Reading

Students move through levels of reading as they gain reading fluency and become more adept at solving problems that appear in text. These levels can be grouped into four developmental stages of reading:

1. Emergent 2. Early3. Developing4. Fluent

The guided reading lesson for each developmental stage differs in format and the skills that are targeted for development. The characteristics of the text also vary with the developmental level. The book levels and sources of predictability refer to those described by DeFord, Lyons and Pinnell (1991).

Stages of Reading

Emergent stage readers are learning that text and illustrations work together to tell a story. The repetitive nature of the text and the clear matching of each illustration to the corresponding text enable students to make connections between what he or she says and what is written. Students may substitute words like mom for mother or cat for kitten, but the meaning remains the same.

Emergent Stage

front and back of a book title and title page top and bottom of a page where to begin on a page left-to-right progression

and return sweep print contains meaning word boundaries first and last word

one-to-one correspondence (word match)

letter recognition some initial consonant

sounds basic punctuation (period,

question mark) at least ten high

frequency words

Target Skills for Emergent Readers

a small amount of print per page rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and natural language illustrations that are clear and uncluttered and directly

support the text captions/phrases or short sentences a consistent pattern of print placement a cover and title page that are an integral part of the

whole book repetitive sequences that introduce simple one word

changes at the end of each sequence simple story beginnings, middles, and endings surprise endings or twists on the story

Characteristics of books for Emergent Readers

Early stage readers understand the basic concepts of print and are reedy for more complex stories. Students are beginning to use clues from illustrations, clues from letters/words, and meaning clues when reading unfamiliar text.

Early Stage

solidifying knowledge of concepts of print (word/space, first/last word, one-to-one word match, and words/letter)

identifying at least twenty high frequency words

identifying and using initial consonants recognizing basic punctuation marks beginning to use reading strategies and cue

systems

Target Skills for Early Readers

an increasing amount of print per page within short and longer responses

dialogue mixed with prose in a variety of formats text that may not correspond directly with illustrations a varied pattern of print placement illustrations give text support but are only a part of

the story content two or more sentence patterns simple story lines with familiar experiences simple concepts related to real world experience increased vocabulary and text that may poise

questions

Characteristics of books for Early Readers

Developing readers are beginning to achieve independence in reading by using multiple cueing systems and strategies. Students are building their sight vocabulary and their understanding of simple literacy elements of plot, character, setting and dialogue.

Developing Stage

using picture clues as a means of cross-checking reading on to gain meaning using first and last consonants increasing sight vocabulary retelling stories identifying punctuation marks rereading for meaning self-correcting integrating strategies by using one strategy to cross-

check another inferring information from the text

Target Skills for Developing Readers

increased amount of print with several paragraphs per page

more complex story lines greater variety of words and more challenging and

specialized vocabulary more fully developed characters and plots more complex language structures such as similes and

metaphors paragraphs instead of simple sentences illustrations are less supportive of text and are intended

to add more details and create story atmosphere story lines involving different times and settings

Characteristics of books for Developing Readers

Fluent stage readers are able to read a variety of texts in an effective manner. Students are becoming involved in the text as they read and comprehend at a deeper level. Students are familiar with a variety of genre and are comfortable reading independently for extended periods of time.

Fluent Stage

increased fluency at higher reading levels able to read text independently automatic recognition of known words successful use and integration of reading strategies an understanding of basic literary Early Stage

◦ basic concepts of print ◦ ready for more complex stories.◦ use clues from illustrations, clues from letters/words, and meaning clues

when reading unfamiliar text. solidifying knowledge of concepts of print (word/space, first/last

word, one-to-one word match, and words/letter) identifying at least twenty high frequency words identifying and using initial consonants recognizing basic punctuation marks beginning to use reading strategies and cue systems

Target Skills for Fluent Readers

an increasing amount of print per page with short and longer sentences

dialogue mixed with prose in a variety of formats text that may not correspond directly with illustrations a varied pattern of print placement illustrations give text support but are only a part of

the story content two or more sentence patterns simple story lines with familiar experiences simple concepts related to real world experiences increased vocabulary and text that may pose

questions

Characteristics of books for Fluent Readers

Just as Reading progresses through a series of stages of increasing difficulty so does a child’s skills in writing. In order to progress into writing a child must be surrounded by meaningful writing.

The stages of writing

Scribbling is a child’s first attempt at reproducing writing. It is similar to the scribbling stage in art, but with more controlled marks. Think of scribbling as being similar to babbling in speech. Babbling allows children to explore the sounds of speech, scribbling allows them to explore with the visual appearance of writing.

Scribbling

Sometimes referred to as “personal cursive”, at this level children have refined their scribbling to look more like standard writing. Just like when a baby refines babbling by dropping the sounds that do not exist in their own language retaining only relevant sounds, children in this stage refine their own writing attempts to look more like real writing as they become more aware of how writing actually looks.

Linear/Repetitive Writing

Now children’s writing begins to become very similar to actual printing, in fact many of the marks start to look pretty close to actual letters. As they make the transition into the next stage teachers may observe letters and letter like forms intermingled in their writing.

Letter Like Forms

Children at this stage are beginning to reproduce letters and often use a single letter to represent and entire word. While the letters may not all by formed correctly , there may be a one to one correspondence between the number of words they represent This is similar to an early stage of speaking when children use a single word to represent entire thoughts, such as saying “out” for I want to go outside. At this stage the child indicates a clearer intent for the letters to represent specific words than in the previous stage.

Letters and Early Word-Symbol Relationships

Children in this stage of writing demonstrate quite clearly that they have constructed some letter sound relationships. The sounds children represent usually follow this order

1. Beginning consonants 2. More consonants added3. Vowels

While they may leave out some sounds or represent some sounds with the wrong letter, at this level students show a great deal of knowledge about the structure of words. Just like in speaking children progress to the point of making overgerneralizations in the rules of grammar, children at this stage may make phonics errors that show they understand the concepts.

Invented Spelling

In this stage children have understood that words have a standard spelling. Even in preschool some children remember the spelling for some words like mom, dad, love, cat, or their names.

If a child feels he/she has a lot to say they may revert to an earlier stage of writing.

Standard Spelling

Which stage is this sample from?

How about this one?

And this one??

Take the samples of writing and in groups order them in the correct sequence according to how children develop writing skills.

Thank you!