Literacy Theories Flashcards
1
Q
Read
A
- Children’s spellings are creative because they notice distinctions that adults are no longer aware of
- E.g. a child may spell ‘cruise’ as ‘crews’ - adults are most likely over-exposed to the word ‘cruise’ so are less likely to think of the spelling as irregular (in contrast to a child)
2
Q
Ferreiro
A
- Believes that children think that words must have several letters
- E.g. QWE could be a word, but QW could not
- Also states that children believe that words should have different letters and as a result, could explain why double letters are missed out in words
3
Q
Biancardi
A
- Children think that the bigger an object, the bigger the word should be
- E.g. they may include more letters in ‘whale’ than in ‘ladybird’
4
Q
Seidenberg
A
- Pattern finding is a part of finding connections between words
- E.g. a child may notice that lots of words end in ‘ed’ when we’re talking about things in the past
5
Q
Treiman
A
- The child’s own name can have an influence on their orthography
- States that quite often, the child will use a capital when there is no need because it is drilled into them that their name needs a capital
6
Q
Statistical Learning
A
- States that children find patterns in spelling from exposure to forms of writing
- Can also be linked to reading development
7
Q
Kroll - Stage 1 (writing skills)
A
- Preparatory stage
- Up to 6 years
- Motors skills acquired
- Basic spelling system is in use
8
Q
Kroll - Stage 2 (writing skills)
A
- Consolidation stage
- 6-8 years
- Written work reflects spoken language
- Writing can be colloquial
- Declarative mood dominates
- Hypotaxis
- Child struggles to end sentences
- Sentence form emerges, but often without punctuation
9
Q
Kroll - Stage 3 (writing skills)
A
- Differentiation stage
- 8-mid teens
- Differences in mode become apparent to the child - work becomes less speech-like
- An awareness of genre develops
- Structure emerges
- Grammar is more complex and accurate (including sentences)
- Punctuation is often more controlled and accurate
10
Q
Kroll - Stage 4 (writing skills)
A
- Integration stage
- mid-teens upwards
- Writing is very accurate
- Expanded vocabulary
- Spelling is more accurate
- An awareness of the audience and purpose of the writing can alter the way a piece is written
- Personal written style is developed
11
Q
Kroll - Evaluations
A
- Not all children will progress through their writing in this manner; determinist theory
- Doesn’t account for individual differences between people such as dyslexic children
- Easy for a layperson to understand and does follow the structure of the UK national curriculum
- Outdated - created in 1981 so may not hold true today
12
Q
Barclay - Stage 1 (orthography and graphology)
A
- Scribbling
- Any marks on the paper are random and are not letters or words
- Control of the pen is unsure
- The child talks through what they are doing as they are doing it
13
Q
Barclay - Stage 2 (orthography and graphology)
A
- Mock handwriting
- Lots of shapes now forming though not actually fully comprehensible
- Pseudoletters begin to form - writing skills become emergent
14
Q
Barclay - Stage 3 (orthography and graphology)
A
- Mock letters
- Letters are now formed but not as words - just random letters
- Spacing is irregular - can sometimes have huge gaps and sometimes be cursive
15
Q
Barclay - Stage 4 (orthography and graphology)
A
- Conventional letters
- Sounds are now linked to letters
- Spacing still isn’t there
- Sometimes words are reduced to the initial-position consonant e.g. ‘g’ for ‘goat’
16
Q
Barclay - Stage 5 (orthography and graphology)
A
- Invented spelling
- Phonetic spelling dominates
- Words which are familiar and simple are often spelled correctly
17
Q
Barclay - Stage 6 (orthography and graphology)
A
- Approximate spelling
- Complexity arises in sentences
- Standard spelling is now more apparent
- Writing is now quite legible
18
Q
Barclay - Stage 7 (orthography and graphology)
A
- Correct spelling
- Spelling is now more accurate than not
- Cursive font is now common
19
Q
Barclay - Evaluations
A
- Not all children will fit all of the criteria of a certain stage at the same time; determinist
20
Q
Maley (Accuracy vs Creativity)
A
- Creative writing promotes a playful engagement with language which allows children to test out the bounds of writing in a supportive environment
- Believes that creative writing develops children lexically, grammatically and phonologically
21
Q
Craik and Lockheart (Accuracy vs Creativity)
A
- Creative requires semantic processing which indicates an act of deep processing
- Accuracy is more about structural and phonemic processing which is indicative of shallow processing
22
Q
Dornyei (Accuracy vs Creativity)
A
Believes that creative writing can
- Motivate students
- Allow students to experience success and autonomy
- Make tasks more enjoyable and the classroom seem less monotonous
23
Q
Crystal (Accuracy vs Creativity)
A
- Writing can sometimes be seen as a prison
- Playing with language in a creative way might be the key to opening success within writing
24
Q
Goouch and Lambirth (Accuracy vs Creativity)
A
Believe that there is a negative impact on a child’s self-esteem if their writing is wrong
25
Heckman (Accuracy vs **Creativity**)
- Believes that we live in an **audit culture** in which measuring learning and accuracy is more important than creativity
- This has been created by pressure placed on schools by the government
26
Points supporting creativity (general)
- Being creative allows for a child to be unique and develop individuality
- Creative work allows a child to reflect on their own experiences and feelings
- There is not such thing as being 'wrong' in creative writing
- Creativity cannot be measured
- Creative writing courses support the idea that creativity can be learnt
27
The National Curriculum (**Accuracy** vs Creativity)
- A prescriptive set of measures which is designed to judge children on their ability to write in certain ways
- In essence, it measures a child's accuracy as a way of judging their writing ability
- E.g. it may expect a child of X years to use a semicolon in their writing
28
Rickford (**Accuracy** vs Creativity)
- Argues that there is a necessity of having rules and that as such, creative writing should be done with rules in place
- He also thinks that children should be taught to write in dialectal colloquial and accent forms with the ultimate goal of getting children to write in Standard English
29
Torrance (**Accuracy** vs Creativity)
Believes that teachers can enhance a student's creativity through judging their level of accuracy and that correcting them leads to better writing
30
Points supporting accuracy (general)
- Accuracy can be measured
- Specific advice and feedback can be given to aid development
- Accuracy marks out superior members of groups (gifted and talented) which enables them to maximise their success
- Accurate work often makes a better, more enjoyable read
31
Rothery - Categories of writing
- **Observations and comments** - the writer will make observations and evaluative comments
- **Recounts** - chronological recounts of events which are subjective following a set pattern of 'orientation-event-reorientation'
- **Reports** - factual descriptions in an objective manner of events or things, not usually chronological
- **Narratives** - stories which follow a set order of beginning-middle-end; children often find this difficult
32
Brice-Heath - Ethnographic study
- Examined how social class and culture affected a child's ability to make literacy progress
- **Maintown (middle white class)** - plentiful exposure to literacy activities like bedtime reading, interrogative mood is used to question SPAG understanding, children are encouraged to look beyond the story into wider significance
- **Roadville (white working class)** - parents were aware of their socio-economic status and wanted their children to perform as well as the Maintown students, children also surrounded by books but lacking interrogative mood, children often started education well, but this deteriorated as time went on
- **Trackton (black working class)** - oral style of storytelling is cherished and leads to a lack of books and therefore comprehension of orthography and syntax, creativity is more important than accuracy, as a result students could create a very good story but are severely behind in writing accurately
33
Goodman's principles of development
- **Functional principle** - the notion that writing can serve a purpose and has a function for the writer
- **Linguistic principle** - the notion that writing is a system that is organised into words and letters and has directionality
- **Relational principle** - in which children start to connect what they write on the page with spoken words; understands that the written alphabetic system carries meaning
34
Clay's principles of development
- **Recurring principle** - child only knows a certain number of letters so repeats them to create a messgae
- **Directional principle** - reading and writing from left to right and then using a return sweep to start the process again
- **Generating principle** - child realises that there are only a certain number of letters in the alphabet to use and that these can all be used in different ways; start to understand patterns which can be used to convey meaning
- **Inventory principle** - child begins to package knowledge into a list of letters and words that they know and can convey meaning with
35
Kress - multimodality
- Found that children naturally behave multimodally
- Children use objects and mix these with toys to construct 'worlds' of play
- Play can be seen as part of broader literacy practice, considering cultural influences from wider media
- HOWEVER he studied his own children so findings are highly subjective, limited and could be subject to researcher bias
36
Britton - Writing styles/modes
- **Expression** - first mode that resembles speech, often with first person POV (based on personal references)
- **Poetic** - encouraged early on as is creative; involves using rhythm, rhyme, adjectives and similes
- **Transactional** - secondary school, essay-style; impersonal style and tone with formal sentence structures and features that signpost ideas
37
Gentry - misspelling stages
1. Insertion
2. Omission
3. Substitution
4. Transposition
5. Phonetic spelling
6. Over/undergeneralisations
7. Salient sounds
38
Perera - Chronology in texts
**Chronologically ordered texts** - rely on verbs and temporal connectives to link ideas
**Non-chronologically ordered texts** - rely on links between ideas, connectives used are based on logical/causal relationships
39
De Villiers and De Villiers
- Caregivers rarely give feedback on correctness
- Support with how parents value honesty over accuracy
40
REMEMBER - spoken theorists can be used!
- **Piaget** - cognitive stages of development e.g. preoperational stage a child will more likely be egocentric in their writing
- **Bruner & Vygotsky** - parents and teachers acting as MKOs and scaffold the children
- **Skinner** - positive/negative reinforcement through comments on written work (by teachers)
- **Chomsky** - universal grammar e.g. SVO constructions, use of conjunctions to coordinate main clauses, virtuous errors
- **Halliday** - functions
- **Rescorla** - over/underextension
