Child Written Language - Theory Flashcards
James Britton Types of Writing.
-Suggested no one can learn to write well without being given the chance to write about what matters to them.
-Expressive Writing: the first type of writing that children develop. First person, wholly concerned with themselves. Child explores identity.
-Poetic Writing: ‘literary’ writing, encouraged in early years and leads to children thinking about writing.
-Transactional Writing: writing for purpose, writer is able to detach themselves from writing, adopting impersonal tone.
Vygosky’s Purpose of Writing.
Suggested that writing fulfils three purposes: Building relationships with teachers, aiding learning by allowing organisation and extension of knowledge and categorising/exploring own experiences.
Rothery and Martin Early Writing Theory
-Conducted a study in 1980s and found early writing fell into four categories.
-Observation/Comment: A child makes an observation and comments on it.
-Recount: A chronological account of an event.
-Report: Factual account, not always chronological.
-Narrative: Structurally complex stories.
Frances Christie Extension of Early Years Writing
-Exposition: Writer explores issues and forms an opinion.
-Discussion: Discussion is both sides of the argument.
-Explanation: Identifies an event and explains why it happens and what the consequences are.
Jean Rothery’s Genre Based Approach
-Considered the effectiveness of teaching by looking at the purpose of writing and how best it can be fulfilled.
-Teaching often follows: Deconstruction, joint construction and modelling.
Rothery’s Creative Approach
-A child should be allowed to experiment creatively with language using trial and error. No strict correction.
Rothery’s Rule Based Approach.
-Suggests that progress will be more rapid when the child understands the conventions of writing.
Creative Approach- Sedgwick/Craft/Puttnam.
-Believed the recent curriculum has resulted in a ‘narrowing of the learning experience’ and that spontaneity and creativity have been pushed aside.
The Creative Approach- Robinson/Gardener.
-Argued that there is more to intelligence than academic ability and it would be more important to turn to potential creativity.
DfE Current Practice.
-Formation of nouns, adjectives and suffixes.
-Subordination/coordination in sentence formation.
-Correct and consistent use of present and past tense.
-Use of progressive form of verbs in the present/past tense.
-Use of capital letters, full-stops, question marks and exclamation marks.
-Apostrophes to mark omission and singular possession.
Lev Vygotsky’s MKO Theory.
-Believed although children are active participants in language acquisition, they need individual support throughout development.
-Suggested a MKO is needed to scaffold children’s learning and for them to move on to the next stage in writing.
-Mastery of writing comes from using it to satisfy some need to fulfil an intention.
Todorov’s Narrative Theory.
-Suggested all narratives contain equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition, resolution, and new equilibrium.
Todorov’s Equilibrium.
-Readers are familiarised with setting and characters.
Todorov’s Disruption
-An unforeseen event disturbs equilibrium.
Todorov’s Recognition.
-Narrative acknowledges the disruption.
Todorov’s Resolution
-Character aims to restore the equilibrium.
Todorov’s New Equilibrium.
-Character and plot develop a new equilibrium.
Cathy Barclay’s 7 Stages of Children’s Writing Skills.
-Scribbling, mock handwriting, mock letters, conventional letters, invented spelling, phonetic spelling, correct spelling.
Cathy Barclay’s Scribbling.
-Stage 1, random marks on a page, accompanied by speaking.
Cathy Barclay’s Mock Handwriting.
-Producing wavy lines, indicates and comprehends lineation.
Cathy Barclay’s Mock Letters.
-Letters are separate things.
Cathy Barclay’s Conventional Letters.
-Writing name as first word, letters on a page, read it as one word.
Cathy Barclay’s Invented Spelling.
-Child spells in a way that they comprehend, believe the word should be spelt their way.
Cathy Barclay’s Phonetic Spelling.
-Attached spelling with sounds.
Cathy Barclay’s Correct Spelling.
-Children can spell most words.
Phonetic Teaching.
-An approach to teaching some aspects of literacy by developing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the relationship between written symbols and sounds. This involves the skills of hearing, identifying and using the patterns of sounds or phonemes to read written language.
-It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language
Downsides to Phonics Teaching.
-It may not focus enough on comprehension and engagement with the text.
-The amount of words a child has to learn, and retain, in quick succession can be overwhelming.
Labov’s Narrative Structure.
-Abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result or resolution, coda.
Emergent Writing.
-Production of texts and images are a sign that a child is getting ready to write.
-Enables children to explore the connection between phonemes and graphemes.
-Children draw pictures that are usually connected to the world around them.
-First written word will likely be their name. Links to Piaget’s notion of egocentricity.
Rick Traw 1993
-Suggested that children become more fluent at writing when they’re more exposed to it which happens when they attend formal education.
