Competency 10: Writing Conventions

Question 1

Physical & Cognitive Processes

Answer 1

Fine & gross motor skills & thought processes needed for writing stages

Question 2

Stages of Writing Conventions

Answer 2

1) Environmental Print
2) Mock Letters
3) Letter formation
4) Word writing
5) Sentence construction
6) Grammatical expression

Question 3

Environmental print

Answer 3

1st stage of writing convention. Noticing the logos, signs, and words children see in their daily lives all around them are the beginning stages of literacy development.

Question 4

Mock letters

Answer 4

2nd stage of writing convention. Mock or imitation letters refers to young child’s attempt to write including scribbling, pictorial writing, and invented letters that children create to mimic writing in the early stages of pre-writing.

Question 5

Letter formation

Answer 5

3rd stage of writing convention. The student attempts and learns to write letters.

Question 6

Word writing

Answer 6

4th stage of writing convention. The student puts letters together to form words.

Question 7

Sentence Construction

Answer 7

5th stage of writing convention. The student puts words together to form complete sentences.

Question 8

Grammatical expression

Answer 8

6th stage of writing convention. Depending on the role of the word in a sentence, the inflection may vary.

Question 9

T O F: Students who cannot spell well frequently lack phonemic awareness

Answer 9

True

Question 10

Phonological awareness

Answer 10

the students’ awareness of the sound structure of spoken words and an important predictor of future reading abilities.

Question 11

Alphabetic awareness

Answer 11

the understanding that words are composed of letters that represent sounds.

Question 12

Conventional spelling

Answer 12

the correct spelling of a word, the standard spelling.

Question 13

Stages of Spelling Development

Answer 13

I. Early Spelling (Emergent Spelling)
1. Pre-communicative 
2. Semi-phonemic
3. Phonemic
II. Transitional Spelling 
III. Conventional Spelling

Question 14

Early Spelling (Emergent Spelling)

Answer 14

1st stage of spelling development. Children create scribbles, pictures, letters, and letter-like forms together, but they don’t connect these marks with sounds. May be written backward, top to bottom, randomly. Child has attained concept that print carries meaning. Upper case is most frequently used. Typical of EC-Kinder level. Children learn the difference between drawing and writing. How to correctly form letters. The direction of print letters (left to right, top to bottom, front to back)
Beginning alphabetic principle (letter-sound matches)

Question 15

Pre-communicative

Answer 15

1st substage of early spelling. The student’s writing does not communicate the stated message, but instead shows an understanding that print carries meaning.
Scribble- indecipherable by anyone but the child, but should still be praised as an attempt to write.
Pictorial- uses pictures & imitation writing.
Letter-like forms- uses letter-like forms that are not true letters.

Question 16

Semi-phonemic

Answer 16

2nd substage of early spelling. The student uses letter-sound relationships to create a string of letters that somewhat communicate and match sounds. Often one letter represents an entire word. Ex) IGADG (ive got a dog)

Question 17

Phonemic

Answer 17

3rd substage of early spelling. The student uses letter-sound relationships to create writing that includes individual words. Most words include the beginning and ending consonant. I mad pz wf dade. We Luv Pi.

Question 18

Transitional Spelling

Answer 18

2nd stage of spelling development. The student writes words using beginning and ending sounds as well as vowels for most syllables. Student frequently writes more than one sentence. The student usually leaves space between words and spells many high frequency words correctly, though may stumble on spellings that are not formed using simple letter-sound patterns.

Question 19

Conventional Spelling

Answer 19

3rd stage of spelling development. The student spells most words correctly, except when encountering a difficult word. When a student is challenged, he will fall, back to previous stages of development.

Question 20

T o F: Motor skills develop proximally (closest to the body core) to distally (farthest away from the body core)

Answer 20

True

Question 21

Writing conventions

Answer 21

Word usage, capitalization, punctuation, spelling.

Question 22

Syntax

Answer 22

The way words are put together and arranged to form clauses, phrases or sentences.

Question 23

Vocabulary choice

Answer 23

The choice of words that the writer uses in the writing selection that build the meaning and the clarity of the text.

Question 24

Stages of pencil grip

Answer 24

1) Fisted grasp
2) Palmar grasp
3) Immature five-fingered grasp
4) Correct 3 fingered or tripod grasp

Question 25

Fisted Grasp

Answer 25

child grips writing tool in a fist, with the tip of the tool extending from the bottom of the hand past the pinky. Movement comes from the large muscles of the shoulder. Very poor control of tool. Large, sweeping back and forth motions. Typical for toddlers.

Question 26

Palmar Grasp

Answer 26

Similar to fisted grasp, except reversed. Child grips the writing tool with the whole hand, using the whole palm to hold the tool. The tool’s tip extrudes between the first finger and thumb. Movement still controlled by large muscles of the shoulder. Elbow provides a brace & extended at a right angle. Increased control, scribbles and circular motions are easier to produce. Towards the end of stage, child may brace the writing tool by extending their pointer finger along with the barrel of the tool. Typical for toddlers to age 3.

Question 27

Immature Five Fingered Grasp

Answer 27

Similar to mature pencil grasp, except the child stabilizes the pencil using all 5 fingers. The wrist is held off the paper& fingers are rigid instead of relaxed. developmentally on target for a pre-k student.

Question 28

Correct 3 fingered or tripod grasp

Answer 28

The student balances the writing tool on the side of the first knuckle of the 3rd finger, with the first finger and thumb balancing the writing took.

Question 29

T o F: It is counterproductive to correct a child’s pencil grasp before they are developmentally ready.

Answer 29

True. Most children do not attain mature pencil grasp until 5-6.