CLA - learning to Write

Question 1

What are graphemes?

Answer 1

• the letter or blend of letters that represents a sound (g, s or ch etc).

Question 2

What is a phoneme?

Answer 2

• the sound of a letter or blend of letters within a word.
• e.g. /k/ for ‘cat, kit’,
  /ch/ for ‘chat, chin’

Question 3

How does the early exposure to printed lang help a child’s ability to develop their writing?

Answer 3

• enables young children to see phoneme-grapheme correspondence: correspondence between sounds they hear and written symbols that correspond to them.
• enables them to move on from speech to written expression once that connection has been firmly established.
• increased exposure to the letters and early words they will write in future. They become familiar with words such as their own name and names of those around them.
• if they enjoy language from reading then they are more likely to appreciate and understand the importance of the written word.

Question 4

What is the look and say approach?

Answer 4

• encourages child to identify familiar words as a whole to then read them accurately, rather than breaking word down into individual letters or groups of letters.
• encouraged alongside the phonic approach which is often starting point for children to decode the word as a whole, but also as they start to write words for themselves.
• phonic approach can be divided into 2 groups: synthetic phonics, analytic phonics.

Question 5

What were the stages Jeanne Chall suggested through which children progress as they learn to read?

Answer 5

• pre-reading or pseudo-reading
• initial reading and de-coding
• confirmation and fluency
• reading for learning
• multiple viewpoints
• construction and reconstruction

Question 6

What is the pre-reading or pseudo-reading stage (Cheanne Chall)?

Answer 6

• lasts up to 6 years old.
• children still read to by caregivers but might imitate the reading process by turning pages and pretending to read, or creating stories based on images in the books.
• they might identify some of the letters of the alphabet.

Question 7

What is the initial reading and de-coding stage (Jeanne Chall)?

Answer 7

• between ages of 6-7.
• Children will begin to decode words in order to read and understand basic texts.
• They may identify familiar whole words or recognise letters and blend sounds together to sound out words.
• This can make the reading process slower and can hamper the understanding of the text as a whole.
• as they enter this stage, children explicitly taught methods in school by which they start making sense of written texts they encounter: most accepted approaches as look and say approach.

Question 8

What is the confirmation and fluency stage (Jeanne Chall)?

Answer 8

• between the ages 7-8 years old.
• Reading will become a faster process.
• Children will be able to decode words more readily and read with some fluency.
• There will be a greater sense of the text as a whole.

Question 9

What is the reading for learning stage (Jeanne Chall)?

Answer 9

• between the ages 9-13.
• Rather than learning to read, students now read in order to learn.
• They might be accessing a wider range of texts by this point and reading to obtain facts and scanning for the most relevant details.

Question 10

What is the multiple viewpoints stage (Jeanne Chall)?

Answer 10

• between the ages 14-18.
• Students will begin to recognise how meaning can be conveyed in different ways, or with a different focus.
• As a result, they will become more critical readers, recognising bias and inference.

Question 11

What is the construction and reconstruction stage of learning to write (Jeanne Chall)?

Answer 11

• age 18+ onwards
• by this point, individuals can read a range of sources and synthesise these in order to develop interpretations.
• they can skim and scan efficiently and recognise what is and is not important to read.

Question 12

What are synthetic phonics?

Answer 12

• teaches children the individual phonemes independently from reading. Once these are embedded, they can then blend them together to pronounce a word.
• child is synthesizing individual phonemes to place them together into a whole word.
• e.g. if child learnt the individual sounds /k/. /a/ and /t/ they can sound out the whole word through identifying each of the familiar phonemes as they are read (‘cat’).

Question 13

What are analytical phonics?

Answer 13

• encourages breaking down of words into key sections. These parts are known as the onset and the rime.
• onset is start of word likely to be 1 or 2 letters long, e.g. ‘th’: ‘thorn, thief, third’
• rime is 2nd section that follows onset. System encourages children to recognise common patterns between individual words.
• e.g. if child identified ‘b-‘ as a onset followed by ‘-ond’ as rime forms ‘bond’, no difficulty recognising ‘pond or fond’.

Question 14

Give examples of common rimes:

Answer 14

• ack
• amp
• all
• eck
• emp
• ell

Question 15

What are the features of blending in learning how to write?

Answer 15

• blending means to say individual sounds that make up a word, then putting them together to create whole a word, e.g. ‘s’, ‘a’, ‘t’ is ‘sat’.
• encouraging child to say sounds of word quickly before then saying whole word.
• as child learns to blend more sounds, they can learn to blend complex words.
• encouraging child to make up words to have them think about separate sounds in words.
• important to keep practising/repeating words with child.

Question 16

List some tips for teaching phonics:

Answer 16

• saying sounds correctly: don’t add ‘ah’ to end of sounds, e.g. ‘mm’ not ‘mah’, ‘ll’ not ‘la’. Makes it easier for child to blend letters.
• linking sounds to letters, e.g. if teaching sound ‘mm’, show picture of ‘Masie’ standing next to mountains to help child remember ‘mm’ shape.
• read books with child until child develops storyteller voice.
• writing letters - teach child how to use tripod hold.
• read to child as much as you can - encouraging child helps them to learn faster.

Question 17

How does a child’s fine motor skills develop in writing?

Answer 17

• holding a pen is one of the 1st challenges for a child when learning to write.
• Carers actively encourage children to use a tripod grip when writing or drawing.
• young children refine their motor skills from gross to fine motor skills. Explains why children’s writing can initially be over large and imprecise.
• gradually is less of an issue as a child’s fine motor skills are honed.

Question 18

What are features of directionality?

Answer 18

• process of writing from left to right.
• Reading books helps children develop awareness that writing is positioned from left to right on a page and always presents itself in straight lines.
• early books contain images encouraging reader to hold book the right way up and recognise correctly aligned letters.
• early writers struggle to keep words in logical order, or in straight lines. For this reason, children are usually given paper with widely spaced lines to write on.
• Sometimes children focus on producing right letters in right order they don’t realise words are tumbling downhill on the page.

Question 19

What is the tripod grip?

Answer 19

• the way in which a pen or pencil should be held, using the thumb, forefinger and middle finger.

Question 20

What are gross motor skills?

Answer 20

• skills associated with larger movements, for example, walking , jumping, climbing, waving etc.

Question 21

What are fine motor skills?

Answer 21

• the skills associated with more precise movement, for example with the fingers. This might be using scissors, sewing, playing with lego or writing.

Question 22

What are features of the broad stages of writing development?

Answer 22

• Barry Kroll, in 1981 book ‘Exploring Speaking-Writing’ proposed children go through 4 stages in writing process:
• preparatory stage (up to 6)
• consolidation stage (age 7-8)
• differentiation stage (9-10)
• integration stage (mid-teens)

Question 23

What is the preparatory stage of writing development? (Barry Kroll)

Answer 23

• up to age of 6
• Children are developing their fine motor skills, practising holding a pen or pencils and starting to get to grips with basic spelling principles.

Question 24

What is the consolidation stage of writing development? (Barry Kroll)

Answer 24

• ages 7-8
• Children are writing as they speak, usually in short declarative sentences, using conjunctions.
• They will tend to use the conjunctions “and” or “but”.
• Sentences will often be incomplete.

Question 25

What is the differentiation stage of writing development? (Barry Kroll)

Answer 25

• ages 9-10
• Children are beginning to differentiate between speech and writing.
• Different styles of writing are understood. There are still a number of errors, so writing guides might be provided.
• Writing might reflect thoughts and feelings.

Question 26

What is the integration stage of writing development? (Barry Kroll)

Answer 26

• mid teens

- Children are developing a personal style and can alter their writing according to purpose and audience.

Question 27

Explain the features of emergent writing

Answer 27

• before children can write coherent letters/words, they will be in emergent stage.
• child engaged in complicated process of making signs on the page intending to represent particular word/series of words.
• attempting to be involved in process of writing.
• product on page may include recognisable letters but won’t make sense together.
• arguable that child is imitating what they have seen but have not grasped complexity of exercise.

Question 28

Explain the creative model (the creative approach to learning)

Answer 28

• children should be allowed to experiment creatively with lang without strict correction.
• by trial and error they improve.
• child less likely to be afraid of ‘mistakes’ if the focus is not mainly on accuracy.

Question 29

What are the 2 approaches to learning to write?

Answer 29

• the creative model (creative approach)

- rule based model (rule based approach)

Question 30

Explain the rule based model (rule based approach)

Answer 30

• if child understands conventions of writing (spelling, punctuation, grammar) progress is quick and will easily produce a text that is understandable/appropriate for audience/purpose.
• e.g. gov tests, primary school, children at end of KS1 able to proofread own work to check for spelling, grammar, punctuation a
  errors.
• by end of KS3, teach children to write accurately, fluently and effectively.
• To achieve success in English, important the spelling, punctuation and grammar rules are understood.

Question 31

What are arguments against the rule based model?

Answer 31

• children given this approach could stifle individual language patterns or idiolect, placing focus on accuracy rather than creativity / learning through experimenting with language.
• 1999, John Abbott used metaphor, “battery hens or free range chickens” to describe educational approaches, suggesting free-range chickens, being more independent / creative learners, might ones who thrive.

Question 32

What are the features of Jean Rothery’s model for learning to write?

Answer 32

• early 1980s, considered more functional approach: looking at purpose for the writing and how this can be fulfilled.
• identified 4 categories for early writing:
• observation/comment
• recount
• report
• narrative

Question 33

What is the observation/comment category of early writing (Jean Rothery model)?

Answer 33

• This is perhaps the simplest type of writing as they rely on child starting with own experiences in order to write.
• imagination not needed.
• A child observes something and makes a comment on it. E.g. ‘I saw a money. It was cheeky.’

Question 34

What is the recount category of early writing (Jean Rothery model)?

Answer 34

• subjective, chronological account of an event. E.g. Students might be asked to write a recount of a school trip.
• takes structure of orientation, event and reorientation:
• Orientation sets the scene (we went on a school trip to the zoo.) At the end, orientation draws a conclusion (We had a great day out and were happy when we got back to school).

Question 35

What is the report category of early writing (Jean Rothery model)?

Answer 35

• an objective and factual description of an event or thing rather than subjective recount (gives a personal opinion).
• student might produce non-chronological report on World Book day, focusing on key ideas/events rather than writing about the day from start to finish.
• more complex for child to write.

Question 36

What is the narrative category of early writing (Jean Rothery model)?

Answer 36

• story genre.
• perhaps hardest to achieve as it involves orientation, complication, resolution and coda. Orientation sets the scene, complication introduces a problem or issue, the resolution provides an answer to the problem/issue and the coda is the reason for the story or the moral of it.
• might take 3rd person perspective or be written from PofV of imaginary character.

Question 37

What are features for James Britton’s model for learning to write?

Answer 37

• suggested 3 key types of writing: expressive, poetic, transactional.
• as skills develop, Britton argues writing can be placed in 2 categories: transactional, poetic.
• approach allows us to focus on purpose of writing as a whole and writing style required to fulfil particular purpose.
• e.g. argument on creativity/rules: may argue if the function is transactional, a rule-governed approach is more necessary than poetic writing, enabling a more creative approach.

Question 38

What is expressive writing (Britton’s model)?

Answer 38

• writing children develop first. Starting point for children as it is the undifferentiated expression of self.
• takes the 1st person and enables children to explore own identity and preferences through writing.
• idea ties in with Piaget’s notion of children being egocentric until they are about 7 years old.

Question 39

What is poetic writing (Britton’s model)?

Answer 39

• writing is “literary”.
• Poetic writing often encouraged in early writing, as it allows children to be creative but encourages them to think about the craft of writing including imagery as well as phonological features, e.g. alliteration, rhyme and rhythm.

Question 40

What is transactional writing?

Answer 40

• writing is “worldly.”
• Transactional writing is seen as when the writer can separate own identity from writing, so the writer is able to become detached from the context of the writing.
• As a result, it will take on impersonal tone and is far removed from expressive writing.

Question 41

Explain how school and teacher input plays a role in helping children develop their writing

Answer 41

• school and input of teaching staff are arguably the most influential factors in learning to write at this point - just as the primary caregiver is instrumental in the child’s development of spoken language.
• teacher may use therapeutic handwriting strategies when child is calm and make sure they have control of process.
• e.g. ‘trace the 8’, child pictures 8 lying on its side and traces the 8 carefully.

Question 42

Explain how writing in the home environment can help children develop their writing

Answer 42

• birthday cards (will write names of friends and own name)
• thank you letters/birthday invites (will write names of multiple friends and use common phrases like ‘thank you’ or ‘dear…’
• A child encouraged to write for variety of purposes in home environment inevitably develops independence and starts seeing point/purpose in writing.
• child who does not write outside school might struggle to see the point of it within the context of their life outside of school.

Question 43

Explain how geographical and social influences affect a child’s writing development

Answer 43

• child will use different vocab choices according to context.
• The audience, purposes and genre of the writing will affect vocab choices, but so too will age, gender, regional background and social class.
• e.g. words child may write for female parent: mama (may come from a different culture/background (Philippines)), mother (may come from an upper class), mummy (young age) etc.

Question 44

Explain how a child’s handwriting and orthography develops when learning to write

Answer 44

• children encouraged to develop cursive script after initial acquisition of print handwriting
• advantage of this is speed which writing can be undertaken if pen is not repeatedly lifted from the paper.
• expectation that student has handwriting that is both readable and not too time consuming to complete.
• popular mid-point between cursive and print handwriting is casual cursive.

Question 45

What is cursive script?

Answer 45

• joined up handwriting.

Question 46

What is print handwriting?

Answer 46

• when each letter is written separately with no joins.

Question 47

What is casual cursive?

Answer 47

• when some letters are joined but others are not.
• popular mid-point between cursive and print-handwriting.
• has a combination of letter joins and pen lifts between letters.

Question 48

List the different spelling stages:

Answer 48

• stage 1: pre-communicative stage (or non-alphabetic writing).
• stage 2: semi-phonetic stage (partial alphabetic writing).
• stage 3: phonetic stage (or full alphabetic writing).
• stage 4: transitional stage.
• stage 5: conventional stage (or correct spelling).

Question 49

Explain spelling stage 1: pre-communicative stage (or non-alphabetic writing)

Answer 49

• Random letters or symbols appear on a page with no letter to sound connections.

Question 50

Explain spelling stage 2: semi-phonetic stage (or partial alphabetic writing)

Answer 50

• Letters might be used to represent whole words.

- Writing will generally be formed from left to right and there is some letter to sound connections.

Question 51

Explain spelling stage 3: phonetic stage (or full alphabetic writing)

Answer 51

• Spelling will be based on the sound of words, for example “preshus” instead of precious.

Question 52

Explain spelling stage 4: transitional stage

Answer 52

• Spelling will combine phonetic approaches as well as visual approaches.
• Silent letters might start to be acknowledged within words.

Question 53

Explain spelling stage 5: conventional stage (or correct spelling)

Answer 53

• Difficult spellings have been learnt and words with alternative spellings are known.
• e.g. their, they’re and there etc.

Question 54

List the common errors in early spelling:

Answer 54

• phonetic spelling
• undergeneralisation
• overgeneralisation
• omission
• substitution
• transposition

Question 55

Explain how phonetic spelling is a common error in early spelling

Answer 55

• when a word has been spelt phonetically.
• e.g. ‘rememberbrance’ instead of ‘remembrance’ as it is an unfamiliar polysyllabic word for young child.
• e.g. ‘conceed’ instead of ‘concede’.

Question 56

Explain how under generalisation is a common early spelling error

Answer 56

• under generalisation for spelling rule for plurals: e.g. ‘poppeys’ instead of ‘poppies’.
• standard rule is a word ending in ‘y’ becomes ‘-ies’ in plural (if consonant before y) but rule not applied where it should’ve been.

Question 57

Explain how overgeneralisation is a common early spelling error.

Answer 57

• if writer did the of under generalisation opposite and apply rule to words that did not require them.
• e.g. ‘donkies’ instead of ‘donkeys’. Word ‘donkey’ is irregular.

Question 58

Explain how omission is an early spelling error

Answer 58

• where letters are missing in the correct spelling of a word.
• e.g. ‘hapend’ the extra p and e have been omitted.
• If extra letters had been added to the word, this is known as insertion.

Question 59

Explain how substitution is a common early spelling error

Answer 59

• When a letter is replaced with a different letter within a word.
• E.g. placing “w” in “abowt” instead of the “u” of the proper spelling.

Question 60

Explain how transposition is an early spelling error

Answer 60

• This is when a pair of letters is switched around.

- For example, instead of writing “only” a child might write “olny, switching the ‘l’ and ‘n’.

Question 61

List some teaching strategies for spelling:

Answer 61

• practising writing words out by hand
• encourage reading
• play games to practice
• spell word out loud
• recognising patterns in spelling

Question 62

Explain how practising writing words out by hand is a good teaching strategy for spelling

Answer 62

• practice/memorisation may be boring but they help a lot when focusing on form/precision.
• having student copy a word multiple times helps.

Question 63

Explain how encouraging reading is a good teaching strategy for spelling

Answer 63

• the more child sees correctly spelled word, the easier it is for them to transfer knowledge of form into LTM.
  
  • e.g. have child read books containing repeat examples of words on a weekly spelling list.

Question 64

Explain how playing games for practice is a good teaching strategy for spelling

Answer 64

• having class involved in spelling games (e.g. hangman) is very helpful.
• students motivated to spell word correctly in order to win.
• delivering answers also necessitates written and spoken responses.
• some games gives a chance to evaluate fellow students’ responses and correct any misspelled words, e.g. lily pad letters (2 players).

Question 65

Explain how spelling a word out loud is a good teaching strategy for spelling

Answer 65

• saying/spelling words out loud encourages students to do the same.
• when kid spells out loud this helps them internalise correct order of the letters using their ears as well as their eyes.
• good tragedy for children struggling with learning difficulties and helps in preparation for competitions like spelling bees.

Question 66

Explain how recognising patterns in spelling is a good strategy for learning how to spell

Answer 66

• in reception, child may learn vowel digraphs (cluster of 2 letters that represents 1 sound) and think about listing words that appear in this way.
• e.g. ‘oo (/u/)’ appears in ‘book, took, foot, wood’ etc.
• e.g. ‘ly’ appears in ‘humbly, gently, slowly, quickly’ etc.

Question 67

Explain the features of the developmental model for learning to write

Answer 67

• When cognitive awareness is there, regarding different items/features/characteristics, child can incorporate this ambitious vocab in writing.
• child must have understanding on 2 different levels: knowledge on content/theme (what they are writing about) and linguistic knowledge, whether lexical, syntactic or rhetorical.
• links to Bereiter + Scardamalia (1987).

Question 68

Explain Bereiter + Scardamalia’s take on the developmental model of learning to write

Answer 68

• ‘The Psychology of Written Composition’, 2 levels of writing:
• knowledge-telling strategy (content knowledge).
• knowledge-transforming strategy.

Question 69

What is the knowledge-telling strategy (Bereiter + Scardamalia)?

Answer 69

• focused on content knowledge, e.g. child asked to write about holiday and will write about it from memory.
• more straightforward than knowledge-transforming.

Question 70

What is the knowledge-transforming strategy (BEREITER and SCARDAMALIA)?

Answer 70

• a writer able to use knowledge they have, and also use discourse understanding about writing techniques, in order to transfer the knowledge to different types of writing.
• e.g. child asked to write about holiday to produce tourist info guide for the area.
• more complex task since child will be using both content + discourse knowledge.

Question 71

How will a child’s lexis develop when they start accessing other areas of the curriculum (moving into KS1 and onwards)?

Answer 71

• Child starts learning subject-specific lexis they will want to employ to demonstrate precision.
  
  • E.g. typical science sheet for year 1 pupils asks them to name characteristics of wood, glass, plastic and metal. Must refer to transparency, strength and flexibility of these materials rather than simpler lexical choices (‘see-through’ instead of more accurate ‘transparent’).
  • Links with NC programme of study for KS1 stating: pupils should explore and ask/answer questions about everyday materials so they become familiar with properties, e.g. hard/soft, shiny/dull etc.

Question 72

How will a child’s writing develop grammatically (grammatical development)?

Answer 72

• Child moves from creating simple sentences to producing compound, then complex sentences.
• In terms of mood, child generally writes in declarative sentences. Notion of expressive writing suggests these are likely to be the dominant sentence type.
  
  • As writer becomes aware of how to consciously craft lang, exclamatory, imperative and interrogative sentences will emerge.
• More advanced writers also more likely to be able to use the passive voice, linking to idea that they then are able to develop a transactional style.

Question 73

Explain common grammatical errors in a child’s writing development

Answer 73

• What looks like an error, can actually demonstrate way a child is over generalising grammar rules.
  
  • E.g., ‘I runned’ (instead of ‘I ran’). Child is overgeneralising known rule that regular 1st person past tense formation will apply a suffix of -ed (I walked, jogged etc).
• other examples:
  
  • ‘the flames was falling down everywhere’ (was instead of were)
  • ‘he didn’t do nothing wrong’ (double negative, nothing instead of anything).