Description
Writing Development and Writing Process |
As a reading/literacy specialist, it is critical to know the stages of writing development and the writing process in order to gauge student’s knowledge and skills and properly create curriculum and instruction that meets the specific needs of the student.
For this assignment you will create a matrix in which you describe stages of writing development (scribbler, pre-writer, etc.). Include the following in your matrix:
- Description of each stage
- Skills students develop at each stage.
- A writing activity for each stage that would assist students to develop skills in that stage.
Below your matrix, describe the writing process as you would implement it with the selected grade range.
Support your work with 3-5 scholarly resources.
While APA style format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance
The Developmental Stages of Writing
1
Scribbling
Scribbling looks like random
assortment of marks on a
child’s paper.
Sometimes the marks are
large, circular, and random,
and resemble drawing.
Although the marks do not
resemble print, they are
significant because the
young writer uses them to
show ideas.
2
Letter-like Symbols
Letter-like forms emerge,
sometimes randomly placed,
and are interspersed with
numbers.
The children can tell about
their own drawings or
writings. In this stage,
spacing is rarely present.
3
Strings of Letters
In the strings-of-letters
phase, children write some
legible letters that tell us
they know more about
writing.
Children are developing
awareness of the sound-tosymbol relationship,
although they are not
matching most sounds.
4
Beginning Sounds
Emerge
At this stage, children begin
to see the differences
between a letter and a word,
but they may not use spacing
between words.
Their message makes sense
and matches the picture,
especially when they choose
the topic.
Children usually write in
capital letters and have not
yet begun spacing.
Adapted from the work of Richard Gentry& the Conventions of Writing Developmental Scale,” The Wright Group
The Developmental Stages of Writing
5
Consonants
Represent Words
Child begins to leave spaces
between their words and
may often mix upper- and
lowercase letters in their
writing.
Usually they write sentences
that tell ideas.
6
Initial, Middle, and
Final Sounds
Children in this phase may
spell correctly some sight
words, siblings’ names, and
environmental print, but
other words are spelled the
way they sound.
7
Transitional Phases
This writing is readable and
approaches conventional
spelling.
The writing is interspersed
with words that are in
standard form and have
standard letter patterns.
8
Standard Spelling
Children in this phase can
spell most words correctly
and are developing an
understanding of root
words, compound words, and
contractions. This
understanding helps
students spell similar words.
Their writing is readable.
Adapted from the work of Richard Gentry& the Conventions of Writing Developmental Scale,” The Wright Group
Stage
Description
Skills
Children/Students
develop in this
Stage
A Writing
Activity to further
develop the Skill
Early Emergent
Early emergent is the first
stage of writing
development characterized
by ‘scribbling.’ Children
pretend to be writing, but
are randomly hitting the
keys on the keyboard or
attempting to move the pen
on a plan paper. The
children’s scribbles are
intended or assumed as
writing. The scribbling
resembles writing, and the
children start to hold and
use writing materials like an
adult (Deane, 2018). The
stage is characterized by
exploration, role playing, or
awareness. Children also
draw in this stage. A young
scribbling child, while
grasping the pencil or
crayon with a full fist, is
exploring with form and
space.
During this stage, the first
skill a beginner student
develops is awareness of
their writing. They learn to
be intentional when holding
the writing tool. At this
point, students realize that
their
scribbling
and
drawings mean something,
and they also learnt that
words move from left to
right when spelling them,
and when printed (Rosarío,
2019). Although the marks
may not resemble print, the
beginner students use the
drawing/scribbling skill to
show ideas.
In order to help students
develop writing skills
during the scribbling and
writing stage, they should
be taught to write their own
stories. Teachers can help
by using repetitive words so
that students can follow
along. Teachers should also
label items, and have the
names of students appear on
Emergent
The stage is characterized
by strings of letters where
the students learn to move
from mock to actual letters;
letter strings or random
letters are used in sequence.
It is at this stage that
students undergo a
remarkable growth where
they start group letters with
spaces in between, thus
resembling words (Quinn &
Bingham, 2019). The stage
is also characterized by
labelling pictures where
students march beginning
sounds using a letter to label
pictures. There is also
environmental print where
students copy
letters/classroom print, and
words from the
environment.
Transitional
The stage is characterized
by improper spacing, lack
of uniformity, and early
comprehension, which
students use capital letters
in different ways. Students
start to add vowel sounds
and final consonants when
writing (Quinn & Bingham,
2019). At this stage, there is
a connection between
sounds and letters in the
writing, for example,
students spell words like
‘people’ as ‘pepl.’
Students gain remarkable
skills in this stage where
they, first, learn how to
write their names
distinctively, and can also
write the same letters in
different forms. They also
gain a reading skill, while
attempting to writing
familiar writing forms such
as letters, lists, and
messages. They also learn a
one-on-one correlation
between spoken words and
written, while realizing print
carries messages.
Children are able to develop
a personal style in this
stage, as well as having the
ability to manipulate writing
forms to suit their
objectives. They also
become proficient in
standard spelling. They also
develop the needed control
over conventions like
punctuations and spelling.
In this stage, students have
also learned to make their
writing clear, comforting,
and comprehensible
(Graham, 2019).
To assist the students in this
stage to further develop the
writing skill, pen pals can be
set between two or more
classrooms or within a
classroom, and have them
writing each other words.
Assignments can also be
given requiring students to
develop word cards and
underline consonants with
Students can be given a
learning activity requiring
them to compare a lot of
words, and differentiate
them in terms of sound.
Random words can also be
given to them as an
assignment that requires the
identification and
differentiation using capital
letters and punctuations.
desks, and boards. For
writing tools, students
should be provided with a
variety of materials such as,
paper (lined or unlined),
markers, crayons, pens, and
pencils. Teachers should
then have students learn to
draw and scribble words as
they see it.
the objective of creating
sounds and matching letters
to the same sounds (Rosarío,
2019)
The Writing Process
The stages of writing are significant markers of learning development, and must be
monitored adequately. In this case, the writing process as I would implement it with the selected
grade range involves prewriting and drafting. For instance, the writing process starts with
drawing/scribbling where children are given an opportunity to use crayons or pencils, and explores
blank spaces and forms (Rosário, 2019). The transitioning involves children creating letter-like
shapes and forms where they display their comprehension using symbols on blank spaces to
convey some form of meaning (Graham, 2019). Next, letters are involved in the writing process
where random letters are selected, and arranged to mean something although attention to spacing
may lack. Letters are also arranged to form salient forms before spacing is used to arrange words
to mean something when read in a sentence. All these are facilitated by taking notes, exploring
thoughts, brainstorming, and gathering information prior to writing.
References
Deane, P. (2018). The challenges of writing in school: conceptualizing writing development
within a socio-cognitive framework. Educational Psychologist, 53(4), 280-300.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00461520.2018.1513844
Graham, S. (2019). Changing how writing is taught. Review of Research in Education, 43(1),
277-303. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0091732X18821125
Quinn, M. F., & Bingham, G. E. (2019). The nature and measurement of children’s early
composing. Reading Research Quarterly, 54(2), 213-235.
https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rrq.232
Rosário, P., Högemann, J., Núñez, J. C., Vallejo, G., Cunha, J., Rodríguez, C., Fuentes, S., …
Manalo, E. (2019). The impact of three types of writing intervention on students’ writing
quality. PLOS One, 14(7).
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218099
Course Code
REA-500
Class Code
REA-500-O500
Criteria
Criteria
Percentage
100.0%
Stages of Writing Development
20.0%
Skills to Master
20.0%
Writing Activities
20.0%
Overview of Writing Process
20.0%
Research
10.0%
Format and Documentation of Sources (layout,
citations, footnotes, references, bibliography,
etc., as appropriate to assignment and style)
5.0%
Mechanics of Writing (includes spelling,
punctuation, grammar, language use)
5.0%
Total Weightage
100%
Assignment Title
Writing Development and Writing Process
No Submission (0.00%)
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Total Points
105.0
Insufficient (69.00%)
Includes an insufficient description of each of the stages of
writing development applicable to the grade range selected.
Skills students should master at each stage are irrelevant to
the stage or inappropriate for the grade range.
The writing activities inadequately assist students to develop
skills in the selected stages.
Overview of the writing process is incomplete and how it
would be implemented with the selected grade range is
inappropriate.
Sources provided do not support the claims of the
presentation or are not credible. Required number of sources
may not be met.
Documentation of sources is inconsistent and/or incorrect, as
appropriate to assignment and style, with numerous
formatting errors.
Surface errors are pervasive enough that they impede
communication of meaning. Inappropriate word choice or
sentence construction are used.
Approaching (74.00%)
Includes a marginal description of each of the stages of
writing development applicable to the grade range selected.
Skills students should master at each stage are vague and
shallow for the grade range.
The writing activities superficially assist students to develop
skills in the selected stages.
Overview of the writing process is minimal and how would be
implemented with the selected grade range is lacking detail.
Submission includes only 1-2 sources, sources do not fully
support claims, or sources are not all credible.
Sources are documented, as appropriate to assignment and
style, although some key formatting and citation errors are
present.
Submission includes mechanical errors, but they do not
hinder comprehension. Effective sentence structures are
used, as well as some practice and content-related language.
Acceptable (87.00%)
Includes a clear description of each of the stages of writing
development applicable to the grade range selected.
Skills students should master at each stage are relevant to the
stage and appropriate for the grade range.
The writing activities appropriately assist students to develop
skills in the selected stages.
Overview of the writing process is competent and how it
would be implemented with the selected grade range is clear.
Research is relevant and generally supports the information
presented. All of the criteria stated in the assignment are
addressed.
Sources are documented, as appropriate to assignment and
style, and format is mostly correct.
Submission is largely free of mechanical errors, although a
few are present. A variety of effective sentence structures
and figures of speech are used, as well as appropriate
practice and content-related language.
Target (100.00%)
Includes a comprehensive description of each of the stages of
writing development applicable to the grade range selected.
Skills students should master at each stage are insightful for
the stage and specific for the grade range.
The writing activities meaningfully assist students to develop
skills in the selected stages.
Overview of the writing process is comprehensive and how it
would be implemented with the selected grade range is
insightful.
Research is supportive of the information presented. Sources
are timely, distinctive and clearly address all of the criteria
stated in the assignment.
Sources are documented completely and correctly, as
appropriate to assignment and style. Format is free of error.
Comments
Submission is virtually free of mechanical errors. Word choice
reflects well-developed use of practice and content-related
language. Sentence structures are varied and engaging.
Points Earned
Stage
Description
Skills
Children/Students
develop in this
Stage
A Writing
Activity to further
develop the Skill
Early Emergent
Early emergent is the first
stage of writing
development characterized
by ‘scribbling.’ Children
pretend to be writing, but
are randomly hitting the
keys on the keyboard or
attempting to move the pen
on a plan paper. The
children’s scribbles are
intended or assumed as
writing. The scribbling
resembles writing, and the
children start to hold and
use writing materials like an
adult (Deane, 2018). The
stage is characterized by
exploration, role playing, or
awareness. Children also
draw in this stage. A young
scribbling child, while
grasping the pencil or
crayon with a full fist, is
exploring with form and
space.
During this stage, the first
skill a beginner student
develops is awareness of
their writing. They learn to
be intentional when holding
the writing tool. At this
point, students realize that
their
scribbling
and
drawings mean something,
and they also learnt that
words move from left to
right when spelling them,
and when printed (Rosarío,
2019). Although the marks
may not resemble print, the
beginner students use the
drawing/scribbling skill to
show ideas.
In order to help students
develop writing skills
during the scribbling and
writing stage, they should
be taught to write their own
stories. Teachers can help
by using repetitive words so
that students can follow
along. Teachers should also
label items, and have the
names of students appear on
Emergent
The stage is characterized
by strings of letters where
the students learn to move
from mock to actual letters;
letter strings or random
letters are used in sequence.
It is at this stage that
students undergo a
remarkable growth where
they start group letters with
spaces in between, thus
resembling words (Quinn &
Bingham, 2019). The stage
is also characterized by
labelling pictures where
students march beginning
sounds using a letter to label
pictures. There is also
environmental print where
students copy
letters/classroom print, and
words from the
environment.
Transitional
The stage is characterized
by improper spacing, lack
of uniformity, and early
comprehension, which
students use capital letters
in different ways. Students
start to add vowel sounds
and final consonants when
writing (Quinn & Bingham,
2019). At this stage, there is
a connection between
sounds and letters in the
writing, for example,
students spell words like
‘people’ as ‘pepl.’
Students gain remarkable
skills in this stage where
they, first, learn how to
write their names
distinctively, and can also
write the same letters in
different forms. They also
gain a reading skill, while
attempting to writing
familiar writing forms such
as letters, lists, and
messages. They also learn a
one-on-one correlation
between spoken words and
written, while realizing print
carries messages.
Children are able to develop
a personal style in this
stage, as well as having the
ability to manipulate writing
forms to suit their
objectives. They also
become proficient in
standard spelling. They also
develop the needed control
over conventions like
punctuations and spelling.
In this stage, students have
also learned to make their
writing clear, comforting,
and comprehensible
(Graham, 2019).
To assist the students in this
stage to further develop the
writing skill, pen pals can be
set between two or more
classrooms or within a
classroom, and have them
writing each other words.
Assignments can also be
given requiring students to
develop word cards and
underline consonants with
Students can be given a
learning activity requiring
them to compare a lot of
words, and differentiate
them in terms of sound.
Random words can also be
given to them as an
assignment that requires the
identification and
differentiation using capital
letters and punctuations.
desks, and boards. For
writing tools, students
should be provided with a
variety of materials such as,
paper (lined or unlined),
markers, crayons, pens, and
pencils. Teachers should
then have students learn to
draw and scribble words as
they see it.
the objective of creating
sounds and matching letters
to the same sounds (Rosarío,
2019)
The Writing Process
The stages of writing are significant markers of learning development, and must be
monitored adequately. In this case, the writing process as I would implement it with the selected
grade range involves prewriting and drafting. For instance, the writing process starts with
drawing/scribbling where children are given an opportunity to use crayons or pencils, and explores
blank spaces and forms (Rosário, 2019). The transitioning involves children creating letter-like
shapes and forms where they display their comprehension using symbols on blank spaces to
convey some form of meaning (Graham, 2019). Next, letters are involved in the writing process
where random letters are selected, and arranged to mean something although attention to spacing
may lack. Letters are also arranged to form salient forms before spacing is used to arrange words
to mean something when read in a sentence. All these are facilitated by taking notes, exploring
thoughts, brainstorming, and gathering information prior to writing.
References
Deane, P. (2018). The challenges of writing in school: conceptualizing writing development
within a socio-cognitive framework. Educational Psychologist, 53(4), 280-300.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00461520.2018.1513844
Graham, S. (2019). Changing how writing is taught. Review of Research in Education, 43(1),
277-303. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0091732X18821125
Quinn, M. F., & Bingham, G. E. (2019). The nature and measurement of children’s early
composing. Reading Research Quarterly, 54(2), 213-235.
https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rrq.232
Rosário, P., Högemann, J., Núñez, J. C., Vallejo, G., Cunha, J., Rodríguez, C., Fuentes, S., …
Manalo, E. (2019). The impact of three types of writing intervention on students’ writing
quality. PLOS One, 14(7).
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218099
Competency 3: Language
Skill 1: Identify and evaluate the developmental stages of writing (e.g., drawing,
dictating, writing).
Introduction
The stages of the developmental stages are fluid. Students move from preliterate drawing and
scribbling, to early emergent where they make letter-‐like forms, emergent where they make
random-‐letters or letter strings, transitional where they write using inventive spelling, and
eventually find themselves fluent writers using conventional spelling. The stages are the
cornerstone of writing.
Developmental Stages of Writing
As you will learn, the developmental stages of writing are rather fixed. However,
researchers have renamed, merged, and expanded the stages over time. What may
have appeared in your textbooks as drawing, dictating and writing, have expanded into
more robust terms. Therefore, for this purpose, we will settle upon the following
developmental stages of writing: drawing, scribbling, letter like symbols, strings in
letter, beginning sounds emerge, consonants represent words, initial, middle and final
sounds, transitional, and standard spelling.
When a student draws, he believes that his images represent writing and that they
convey messages with these drawings. Furthermore, if asked, they can “read” their
drawings as they would a text. This is no surprise, since students see this modeled
repeatedly when their teachers, parents, and caregivers read picture books to them. In
picture books, there are no words, thus teachers “read” the pictures to tell the story of
the book. Students who are learning to write naturally do this as well.
Students move from drawings to scribbling. Thus, scribbling resembles writing as well
and like drawings are intentional. They also begin to hold their writing tools the way
they have seen adults hold them. It is common for students to use drawings and
scribblings together. At this point, students know that their drawings and scribblings
mean something, and is becoming aware that words move from left to right when
spelled and when printed on paper. Scribbling looks like random assortment of marks
on a child’s paper. Sometimes the marks are large, circular, and random, and resemble
drawing. Although the marks do not resemble print, they are significant because young
writers use them to show ideas.
To assist students’ writing development during the drawing and scribbling stages,
teachers can write stories together while writing and repeating words as they are
spoken. Teachers can also label items and have students’ names appear on desks and
boards.
During letter like symbols, students become aware of the different shapes of symbols
that make up the words in a line of print, shapes in writing actually resemble letters but
are not actually letters; many letter-like marks are unique. Letter-like forms emerge,
sometimes placed randomly, and interspersed with numbers. Children can tell about
their own drawings or writings. In this stage, spacing is rarely present.
During strings in letter, students begin to move from mock letters to real letters;
random letters or letter strings are used in sequence. Students undergo remarkable
growth at this stage: they begin to learn to write their names, they write the same
letters differently, they begin to read their own writing, they attempt writing familiar
forms of writing such as lists, letters, and messages, they use simplified oral language
structures, they begin to understand that there is a one-to-one correlation between
written and spoken words, and they realize that print carries messages. In the stringsof-letters stage, children write some legible letters that tell us they know more about
writing; although they are slowly becoming aware of the of the sound-to symbol
relationship, they are not matching most sounds. Children usually write in capital letters
at this stage and have not yet begun spacing.
To assist students’ writing development during these stages, teachers can make big
books that are fictional or nonfictional, set up pen pals between classrooms or within
the class, create word cards and underline consonants, given them written instructions
on cards and have them follow them.
Beginning sounds emerge at this stage; students begin to match letters to sounds
often only writing the beginning sound to represent a word. Students are beginning to
write left to right directionality, but will display letter reversals. At this stage, children
begin to see the difference between a letter and a word, but they may not use spacing
between words. Their message makes sense and matches the picture, especially when
they choose the topic.
During the consonants represent words stage, students include beginning and ending
consonant sounds and may attempt to add vowel sounds. Sight words are used and
frequently spelled correctly, and they may even mix upper- and lowercase letters. Their
writing is becoming easier to read, and they begin to leave spaces between their
words. Finally, when they write sentences ideas are present.
Composing more than one sentence with spaces between words, occur during the
initial, middle, and final sounds stage. During this stage they have developed an
increased understanding of letter sounds and spelling patterns and can apply them
when writing. Even though they may spell some sight words, siblings’ names, and
environmental print properly, they spell all other words the way they sound, but the
handwriting is legible.
Transitional, or early writing is characterized by a lack of uniformity, improper spacing,
and early comprehension that capital letters are used in different ways. They also begin
to add final consonant and vowel sounds when writing. As their writing matures, more
words are spelled conventionally as they continue to rely on obvious sounds; but some
letters are still invented or omitted. They use few text forms and sentence structures,
but will vary sentence beginnings. They can discuss contextual purposes of when to
write, such as for making a shopping list or telephone messages to assist memory.
Writers have developed a personal style and are able to manipulate forms of writing to
suit their purposes, during the standard spelling/proficient writing stage. They have
control over conventions such as spelling and punctuation. They have steadily
increased the size and range of their vocabulary and can now pull from there when
needed. Their writing is clear, comprehensible, and comforting.
By the time students reach standard spelling, they are becoming familiar with most
aspects of the writing process, able to select forms for different purposes, and are able
to use writing conventions according to the complexity of the writing task. Children in
this phase can spell most words correctly and are developing an understanding of root
words, compound words, and contractions. This understanding helps students spell
similar words.
Check for Understanding
Suggestions for activities to support the early stages of writing development appear in
the early parts of this text; however, there aren’t any after beginning sounds emerge,
consonants represent words, initial, middle and final sounds, transitional, and standard
spelling. Using the following pairings, provide examples of the type of activities that
you could use in your class to support students are they move through these stages.
Pair 1: beginning sounds emerge; consonants represent words; initial, middle and final
sounds
Pair 2: transitional; standard spelling
Response
Pair 1: Beginning sounds emerge; Consonants represent words; Initial, middle and final
sounds
• Play games where students match sounds to letters
• Give them a photo (use cutouts from magazines or printouts from online) and
have them write a story about the picture.
• Have students write a short story. Collect the stories and pass them out so that
no student receives their own story. Then instruct students to continue the story.
• Have students create sight words from people, places, and things in their homes
and communities.
• Put students in groups of three and give them cards with letters on them that
spell multiple words, give the groups 5 minutes and see how many words they
can find (e.g. S T O P – TOP, TOPS, POT, POTS, SOP, SPOT)
Pair 2: Transitional; Standard spelling
• Model and discuss how to choose a topic and the selection of details depending
on the purpose of writing.
• Encourage children to write for purposes that are relevant to them such as
letters, cards, messages, and to do lists.
• Jointly construct, display, and use various forms of functional print, such as
schedules, calendars, rules, charts
• Create sets of card banks and sentence strips that are relevant to specific
centers.
• Have word cards available for children who repeatedly ask how to spell certain
words.
• Give students opportunities for personal choice writing such as diaries and
journals.
• Talk about the features of their writing, including; topics, purpose, audience
Activities
Watch the following videos for additional information.
• Developmental Writing Stages: Whiteboard
Demonstration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQdNGnc54QM
• Written Expression https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4BSMrhKC80
• Stages of Writing
Development https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4BSMrhKC80
•
“Go Deeper”
• How Writing Develops http://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-writingdevelops
• Stages of Early Writing Development https://www.zanerbloser.com/media/zb/zaner-bloser/WriteOn_WritingDev.pdf
• Developing Stages of Writing https://www.zaner-bloser.com/media/zb/zanerbloser/WriteOn_WritingDev.pdf
• Stages of Writing
Developmenthttp://www.communityinclusion.org/elm/Professionals/1%20Profe
ssional%20Development/2%20ELL%20and%20Making%20Print%20Talk/files/
StagesofWritinghandout.pdf
• Kindergarten Developmental Writing
Stages http://www.kaneland.org/d302/depts/ca/curriculummaps/Language%20
Arts/K-5%20Writing/Writing%20stages%20rubric%20%20kdg%200910%20report%20card.pdf
Summary
The stages of writing are important markers of student development and must be
adequately monitored. Thus, teachers must know when students are to move from one
stage to another and how to help them along. It is also the teacher’s responsibility that
students get off to a good start with writing and monitor their progress as they enter
and exit grade levels. Waiting until the student is heading to high school is not the best
time to notice that he doesn’t write as well as he should. There is of course a difference
between lack of motivation to write well, physical or mental challenges that interfere
with writing, and developmental delays as he attempts to move from one stage to the
next.
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
1
Scribbling
Scribbling looks like random
assortment of marks on a
child’s paper.
Sometimes the marks are
large, circular, and random,
and resemble drawing.
Although the marks do not
resemble print, they are
significant because the
young writer uses them to
show ideas.
2
Letter-like Symbols
Letter-like forms emerge,
sometimes randomly placed,
and are interspersed with
numbers.
The children can tell about
their own drawings or
writings. In this stage,
spacing is rarely present.
3
Strings of Letters
In the strings-of-letters
phase, children write some
legible letters that tell us
they know more about
writing.
Children are developing
awareness of the sound-tosymbol relationship,
although they are not
matching most sounds.
4
Beginning Sounds
Emerge
At this stage, children begin
to see the differences
between a letter and a word,
but they may not use spacing
between words.
Their message makes sense
and matches the picture,
especially when they choose
the topic.
Children usually write in
capital letters and have not
yet begun spacing.
Adapted from the work of Richard Gentry& the Conventions of Writing Developmental Scale,” The Wright Group
The Developmental Stages of Writing
5
Consonants
Represent Words
Child begins to leave spaces
between their words and
may often mix upper- and
lowercase letters in their
writing.
Usually they write sentences
that tell ideas.
6
Initial, Middle, and
Final Sounds
Children in this phase may
spell correctly some sight
words, siblings’ names, and
environmental print, but
other words are spelled the
way they sound.
7
Transitional Phases
This writing is readable and
approaches conventional
spelling.
The writing is interspersed
with words that are in
standard form and have
standard letter patterns.
8
Standard Spelling
Children in this phase can
spell most words correctly
and are developing an
understanding of root
words, compound words, and
contractions. This
understanding helps
students spell similar words.
Their writing is readable.
Adapted from the work of Richard Gentry& the Conventions of Writing Developmental Scale,” The Wright Group
Stage
Description
Skills
Children/Students
develop in this
Stage
A Writing
Activity to further
develop the Skill
Early Emergent
Early emergent is the first
stage of writing
development characterized
by ‘scribbling.’ Children
pretend to be writing, but
are randomly hitting the
keys on the keyboard or
attempting to move the pen
on a plan paper. The
children’s scribbles are
intended or assumed as
writing. The scribbling
resembles writing, and the
children start to hold and
use writing materials like an
adult (Deane, 2018). The
stage is characterized by
exploration, role playing, or
awareness. Children also
draw in this stage. A young
scribbling child, while
grasping the pencil or
crayon with a full fist, is
exploring with form and
space.
During this stage, the first
skill a beginner student
develops is awareness of
their writing. They learn to
be intentional when holding
the writing tool. At this
point, students realize that
their
scribbling
and
drawings mean something,
and they also learnt that
words move from left to
right when spelling them,
and when printed (Rosarío,
2019). Although the marks
may not resemble print, the
beginner students use the
drawing/scribbling skill to
show ideas.
In order to help students
develop writing skills
during the scribbling and
writing stage, they should
be taught to write their own
stories. Teachers can help
by using repetitive words so
that students can follow
along. Teachers should also
label items, and have the
names of students appear on
Emergent
The stage is characterized
by strings of letters where
the students learn to move
from mock to actual letters;
letter strings or random
letters are used in sequence.
It is at this stage that
students undergo a
remarkable growth where
they start group letters with
spaces in between, thus
resembling words (Quinn &
Bingham, 2019). The stage
is also characterized by
labelling pictures where
students march beginning
sounds using a letter to label
pictures. There is also
environmental print where
students copy
letters/classroom print, and
words from the
environment.
Transitional
The stage is characterized
by improper spacing, lack
of uniformity, and early
comprehension, which
students use capital letters
in different ways. Students
start to add vowel sounds
and final consonants when
writing (Quinn & Bingham,
2019). At this stage, there is
a connection between
sounds and letters in the
writing, for example,
students spell words like
‘people’ as ‘pepl.’
Students gain remarkable
skills in this stage where
they, first, learn how to
write their names
distinctively, and can also
write the same letters in
different forms. They also
gain a reading skill, while
attempting to writing
familiar writing forms such
as letters, lists, and
messages. They also learn a
one-on-one correlation
between spoken words and
written, while realizing print
carries messages.
Children are able to develop
a personal style in this
stage, as well as having the
ability to manipulate writing
forms to suit their
objectives. They also
become proficient in
standard spelling. They also
develop the needed control
over conventions like
punctuations and spelling.
In this stage, students have
also learned to make their
writing clear, comforting,
and comprehensible
(Graham, 2019).
To assist the students in this
stage to further develop the
writing skill, pen pals can be
set between two or more
classrooms or within a
classroom, and have them
writing each other words.
Assignments can also be
given requiring students to
develop word cards and
underline consonants with
Students can be given a
learning activity requiring
them to compare a lot of
words, and differentiate
them in terms of sound.
Random words can also be
given to them as an
assignment that requires the
identification and
differentiation using capital
letters and punctuations.
desks, and boards. For
writing tools, students
should be provided with a
variety of materials such as,
paper (lined or unlined),
markers, crayons, pens, and
pencils. Teachers should
then have students learn to
draw and scribble words as
they see it.
the objective of creating
sounds and matching letters
to the same sounds (Rosarío,
2019)
The Writing Process
The stages of writing are significant markers of learning development, and must be
monitored adequately. In this case, the writing process as I would implement it with the selected
grade range involves prewriting and drafting. For instance, the writing process starts with
drawing/scribbling where children are given an opportunity to use crayons or pencils, and explores
blank spaces and forms (Rosário, 2019). The transitioning involves children creating letter-like
shapes and forms where they display their comprehension using symbols on blank spaces to
convey some form of meaning (Graham, 2019). Next, letters are involved in the writing process
where random letters are selected, and arranged to mean something although attention to spacing
may lack. Letters are also arranged to form salient forms before spacing is used to arrange words
to mean something when read in a sentence. All these are facilitated by taking notes, exploring
thoughts, brainstorming, and gathering information prior to writing.
References
Deane, P. (2018). The challenges of writing in school: conceptualizing writing development
within a socio-cognitive framework. Educational Psychologist, 53(4), 280-300.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00461520.2018.1513844
Graham, S. (2019). Changing how writing is taught. Review of Research in Education, 43(1),
277-303. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0091732X18821125
Quinn, M. F., & Bingham, G. E. (2019). The nature and measurement of children’s early
composing. Reading Research Quarterly, 54(2), 213-235.
https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rrq.232
Rosário, P., Högemann, J., Núñez, J. C., Vallejo, G., Cunha, J., Rodríguez, C., Fuentes, S., …
Manalo, E. (2019). The impact of three types of writing intervention on students’ writing
quality. PLOS One, 14(7).
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218099
Course Code
REA-500
Class Code
REA-500-O500
Criteria
Criteria
Percentage
100.0%
Stages of Writing Development
20.0%
Skills to Master
20.0%
Writing Activities
20.0%
Overview of Writing Process
20.0%
Research
10.0%
Format and Documentation of Sources (layout,
citations, footnotes, references, bibliography,
etc., as appropriate to assignment and style)
5.0%
Mechanics of Writing (includes spelling,
punctuation, grammar, language use)
5.0%
Total Weightage
100%
Assignment Title
Writing Development and Writing Process
No Submission (0.00%)
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Not addressed.
Total Points
105.0
Insufficient (69.00%)
Includes an insufficient description of each of the stages of
writing development applicable to the grade range selected.
Skills students should master at each stage are irrelevant to
the stage or inappropriate for the grade range.
The writing activities inadequately assist students to develop
skills in the selected stages.
Overview of the writing process is incomplete and how it
would be implemented with the selected grade range is
inappropriate.
Sources provided do not support the claims of the
presentation or are not credible. Required number of sources
may not be met.
Documentation of sources is inconsistent and/or incorrect, as
appropriate to assignment and style, with numerous
formatting errors.
Surface errors are pervasive enough that they impede
communication of meaning. Inappropriate word choice or
sentence construction are used.
Approaching (74.00%)
Includes a marginal description of each of the stages of
writing development applicable to the grade range selected.
Skills students should master at each stage are vague and
shallow for the grade range.
The writing activities superficially assist students to develop
skills in the selected stages.
Overview of the writing process is minimal and how would be
implemented with the selected grade range is lacking detail.
Submission includes only 1-2 sources, sources do not fully
support claims, or sources are not all credible.
Sources are documented, as appropriate to assignment and
style, although some key formatting and citation errors are
present.
Submission includes mechanical errors, but they do not
hinder comprehension. Effective sentence structures are
used, as well as some practice and content-related language.
Acceptable (87.00%)
Includes a clear description of each of the stages of writing
development applicable to the grade range selected.
Skills students should master at each stage are relevant to the
stage and appropriate for the grade range.
The writing activities appropriately assist students to develop
skills in the selected stages.
Overview of the writing process is competent and how it
would be implemented with the selected grade range is clear.
Research is relevant and generally supports the information
presented. All of the criteria stated in the assignment are
addressed.
Sources are documented, as appropriate to assignment and
style, and format is mostly correct.
Submission is largely free of mechanical errors, although a
few are present. A variety of effective sentence structures
and figures of speech are used, as well as appropriate
practice and content-related language.
Target (100.00%)
Includes a comprehensive description of each of the stages of
writing development applicable to the grade range selected.
Skills students should master at each stage are insightful for
the stage and specific for the grade range.
The writing activities meaningfully assist students to develop
skills in the selected stages.
Overview of the writing process is comprehensive and how it
would be implemented with the selected grade range is
insightful.
Research is supportive of the information presented. Sources
are timely, distinctive and clearly address all of the criteria
stated in the assignment.
Sources are documented completely and correctly, as
appropriate to assignment and style. Format is free of error.
Comments
Submission is virtually free of mechanical errors. Word choice
reflects well-developed use of practice and content-related
language. Sentence structures are varied and engaging.
Points Earned
Stage
Description
Skills
Children/Students
develop in this
Stage
A Writing
Activity to further
develop the Skill
Early Emergent
Early emergent is the first
stage of writing
development characterized
by ‘scribbling.’ Children
pretend to be writing, but
are randomly hitting the
keys on the keyboard or
attempting to move the pen
on a plan paper. The
children’s scribbles are
intended or assumed as
writing. The scribbling
resembles writing, and the
children start to hold and
use writing materials like an
adult (Deane, 2018). The
stage is characterized by
exploration, role playing, or
awareness. Children also
draw in this stage. A young
scribbling child, while
grasping the pencil or
crayon with a full fist, is
exploring with form and
space.
During this stage, the first
skill a beginner student
develops is awareness of
their writing. They learn to
be intentional when holding
the writing tool. At this
point, students realize that
their
scribbling
and
drawings mean something,
and they also learnt that
words move from left to
right when spelling them,
and when printed (Rosarío,
2019). Although the marks
may not resemble print, the
beginner students use the
drawing/scribbling skill to
show ideas.
In order to help students
develop writing skills
during the scribbling and
writing stage, they should
be taught to write their own
stories. Teachers can help
by using repetitive words so
that students can follow
along. Teachers should also
label items, and have the
names of students appear on
Emergent
The stage is characterized
by strings of letters where
the students learn to move
from mock to actual letters;
letter strings or random
letters are used in sequence.
It is at this stage that
students undergo a
remarkable growth where
they start group letters with
spaces in between, thus
resembling words (Quinn &
Bingham, 2019). The stage
is also characterized by
labelling pictures where
students march beginning
sounds using a letter to label
pictures. There is also
environmental print where
students copy
letters/classroom print, and
words from the
environment.
Transitional
The stage is characterized
by improper spacing, lack
of uniformity, and early
comprehension, which
students use capital letters
in different ways. Students
start to add vowel sounds
and final consonants when
writing (Quinn & Bingham,
2019). At this stage, there is
a connection between
sounds and letters in the
writing, for example,
students spell words like
‘people’ as ‘pepl.’
Students gain remarkable
skills in this stage where
they, first, learn how to
write their names
distinctively, and can also
write the same letters in
different forms. They also
gain a reading skill, while
attempting to writing
familiar writing forms such
as letters, lists, and
messages. They also learn a
one-on-one correlation
between spoken words and
written, while realizing print
carries messages.
Children are able to develop
a personal style in this
stage, as well as having the
ability to manipulate writing
forms to suit their
objectives. They also
become proficient in
standard spelling. They also
develop the needed control
over conventions like
punctuations and spelling.
In this stage, students have
also learned to make their
writing clear, comforting,
and comprehensible
(Graham, 2019).
To assist the students in this
stage to further develop the
writing skill, pen pals can be
set between two or more
classrooms or within a
classroom, and have them
writing each other words.
Assignments can also be
given requiring students to
develop word cards and
underline consonants with
Students can be given a
learning activity requiring
them to compare a lot of
words, and differentiate
them in terms of sound.
Random words can also be
given to them as an
assignment that requires the
identification and
differentiation using capital
letters and punctuations.
desks, and boards. For
writing tools, students
should be provided with a
variety of materials such as,
paper (lined or unlined),
markers, crayons, pens, and
pencils. Teachers should
then have students learn to
draw and scribble words as
they see it.
the objective of creating
sounds and matching letters
to the same sounds (Rosarío,
2019)
The Writing Process
The stages of writing are significant markers of learning development, and must be
monitored adequately. In this case, the writing process as I would implement it with the selected
grade range involves prewriting and drafting. For instance, the writing process starts with
drawing/scribbling where children are given an opportunity to use crayons or pencils, and explores
blank spaces and forms (Rosário, 2019). The transitioning involves children creating letter-like
shapes and forms where they display their comprehension using symbols on blank spaces to
convey some form of meaning (Graham, 2019). Next, letters are involved in the writing process
where random letters are selected, and arranged to mean something although attention to spacing
may lack. Letters are also arranged to form salient forms before spacing is used to arrange words
to mean something when read in a sentence. All these are facilitated by taking notes, exploring
thoughts, brainstorming, and gathering information prior to writing.
References
Deane, P. (2018). The challenges of writing in school: conceptualizing writing development
within a socio-cognitive framework. Educational Psychologist, 53(4), 280-300.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00461520.2018.1513844
Graham, S. (2019). Changing how writing is taught. Review of Research in Education, 43(1),
277-303. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0091732X18821125
Quinn, M. F., & Bingham, G. E. (2019). The nature and measurement of children’s early
composing. Reading Research Quarterly, 54(2), 213-235.
https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rrq.232
Rosário, P., Högemann, J., Núñez, J. C., Vallejo, G., Cunha, J., Rodríguez, C., Fuentes, S., …
Manalo, E. (2019). The impact of three types of writing intervention on students’ writing
quality. PLOS One, 14(7).
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218099
Competency 3: Language
Skill 1: Identify and evaluate the developmental stages of writing (e.g., drawing,
dictating, writing).
Introduction
The stages of the developmental stages are fluid. Students move from preliterate drawing and
scribbling, to early emergent where they make letter-‐like forms, emergent where they make
random-‐letters or letter strings, transitional where they write using inventive spelling, and
eventually find themselves fluent writers using conventional spelling. The stages are the
cornerstone of writing.
Developmental Stages of Writing
As you will learn, the developmental stages of writing are rather fixed. However,
researchers have renamed, merged, and expanded the stages over time. What may
have appeared in your textbooks as drawing, dictating and writing, have expanded into
more robust terms. Therefore, for this purpose, we will settle upon the following
developmental stages of writing: drawing, scribbling, letter like symbols, strings in
letter, beginning sounds emerge, consonants represent words, initial, middle and final
sounds, transitional, and standard spelling.
When a student draws, he believes that his images represent writing and that they
convey messages with these drawings. Furthermore, if asked, they can “read” their
drawings as they would a text. This is no surprise, since students see this modeled
repeatedly when their teachers, parents, and caregivers read picture books to them. In
picture books, there are no words, thus teachers “read” the pictures to tell the story of
the book. Students who are learning to write naturally do this as well.
Students move from drawings to scribbling. Thus, scribbling resembles writing as well
and like drawings are intentional. They also begin to hold their writing tools the way
they have seen adults hold them. It is common for students to use drawings and
scribblings together. At this point, students know that their drawings and scribblings
mean something, and is becoming aware that words move from left to right when
spelled and when printed on paper. Scribbling looks like random assortment of marks
on a child’s paper. Sometimes the marks are large, circular, and random, and resemble
drawing. Although the marks do not resemble print, they are significant because young
writers use them to show ideas.
To assist students’ writing development during the drawing and scribbling stages,
teachers can write stories together while writing and repeating words as they are
spoken. Teachers can also label items and have students’ names appear on desks and
boards.
During letter like symbols, students become aware of the different shapes of symbols
that make up the words in a line of print, shapes in writing actually resemble letters but
are not actually letters; many letter-like marks are unique. Letter-like forms emerge,
sometimes placed randomly, and interspersed with numbers. Children can tell about
their own drawings or writings. In this stage, spacing is rarely present.
During strings in letter, students begin to move from mock letters to real letters;
random letters or letter strings are used in sequence. Students undergo remarkable
growth at this stage: they begin to learn to write their names, they write the same
letters differently, they begin to read their own writing, they attempt writing familiar
forms of writing such as lists, letters, and messages, they use simplified oral language
structures, they begin to understand that there is a one-to-one correlation between
written and spoken words, and they realize that print carries messages. In the stringsof-letters stage, children write some legible letters that tell us they know more about
writing; although they are slowly becoming aware of the of the sound-to symbol
relationship, they are not matching most sounds. Children usually write in capital letters
at this stage and have not yet begun spacing.
To assist students’ writing development during these stages, teachers can make big
books that are fictional or nonfictional, set up pen pals between classrooms or within
the class, create word cards and underline consonants, given them written instructions
on cards and have them follow them.
Beginning sounds emerge at this stage; students begin to match letters to sounds
often only writing the beginning sound to represent a word. Students are beginning to
write left to right directionality, but will display letter reversals. At this stage, children
begin to see the difference between a letter and a word, but they may not use spacing
between words. Their message makes sense and matches the picture, especially when
they choose the topic.
During the consonants represent words stage, students include beginning and ending
consonant sounds and may attempt to add vowel sounds. Sight words are used and
frequently spelled correctly, and they may even mix upper- and lowercase letters. Their
writing is becoming easier to read, and they begin to leave spaces between their
words. Finally, when they write sentences ideas are present.
Composing more than one sentence with spaces between words, occur during the
initial, middle, and final sounds stage. During this stage they have developed an
increased understanding of letter sounds and spelling patterns and can apply them
when writing. Even though they may spell some sight words, siblings’ names, and
environmental print properly, they spell all other words the way they sound, but the
handwriting is legible.
Transitional, or early writing is characterized by a lack of uniformity, improper spacing,
and early comprehension that capital letters are used in different ways. They also begin
to add final consonant and vowel sounds when writing. As their writing matures, more
words are spelled conventionally as they continue to rely on obvious sounds; but some
letters are still invented or omitted. They use few text forms and sentence structures,
but will vary sentence beginnings. They can discuss contextual purposes of when to
write, such as for making a shopping list or telephone messages to assist memory.
Writers have developed a personal style and are able to manipulate forms of writing to
suit their purposes, during the standard spelling/proficient writing stage. They have
control over conventions such as spelling and punctuation. They have steadily
increased the size and range of their vocabulary and can now pull from there when
needed. Their writing is clear, comprehensible, and comforting.
By the time students reach standard spelling, they are becoming familiar with most
aspects of the writing process, able to select forms for different purposes, and are able
to use writing conventions according to the complexity of the writing task. Children in
this phase can spell most words correctly and are developing an understanding of root
words, compound words, and contractions. This understanding helps students spell
similar words.
Check for Understanding
Suggestions for activities to support the early stages of writing development appear in
the early parts of this text; however, there aren’t any after beginning sounds emerge,
consonants represent words, initial, middle and final sounds, transitional, and standard
spelling. Using the following pairings, provide examples of the type of activities that
you could use in your class to support students are they move through these stages.
Pair 1: beginning sounds emerge; consonants represent words; initial, middle and final
sounds
Pair 2: transitional; standard spelling
Response
Pair 1: Beginning sounds emerge; Consonants represent words; Initial, middle and final
sounds
• Play games where students match sounds to letters
• Give them a photo (use cutouts from magazines or printouts from online) and
have them write a story about the picture.
• Have students write a short story. Collect the stories and pass them out so that
no student receives their own story. Then instruct students to continue the story.
• Have students create sight words from people, places, and things in their homes
and communities.
• Put students in groups of three and give them cards with letters on them that
spell multiple words, give the groups 5 minutes and see how many words they
can find (e.g. S T O P – TOP, TOPS, POT, POTS, SOP, SPOT)
Pair 2: Transitional; Standard spelling
• Model and discuss how to choose a topic and the selection of details depending
on the purpose of writing.
• Encourage children to write for purposes that are relevant to them such as
letters, cards, messages, and to do lists.
• Jointly construct, display, and use various forms of functional print, such as
schedules, calendars, rules, charts
• Create sets of card banks and sentence strips that are relevant to specific
centers.
• Have word cards available for children who repeatedly ask how to spell certain
words.
• Give students opportunities for personal choice writing such as diaries and
journals.
• Talk about the features of their writing, including; topics, purpose, audience
Activities
Watch the following videos for additional information.
• Developmental Writing Stages: Whiteboard
Demonstration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQdNGnc54QM
• Written Expression https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4BSMrhKC80
• Stages of Writing
Development https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4BSMrhKC80
•
“Go Deeper”
• How Writing Develops http://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-writingdevelops
• Stages of Early Writing Development https://www.zanerbloser.com/media/zb/zaner-bloser/WriteOn_WritingDev.pdf
• Developing Stages of Writing https://www.zaner-bloser.com/media/zb/zanerbloser/WriteOn_WritingDev.pdf
• Stages of Writing
Developmenthttp://www.communityinclusion.org/elm/Professionals/1%20Profe
ssional%20Development/2%20ELL%20and%20Making%20Print%20Talk/files/
StagesofWritinghandout.pdf
• Kindergarten Developmental Writing
Stages http://www.kaneland.org/d302/depts/ca/curriculummaps/Language%20
Arts/K-5%20Writing/Writing%20stages%20rubric%20%20kdg%200910%20report%20card.pdf
Summary
The stages of writing are important markers of student development and must be
adequately monitored. Thus, teachers must know when students are to move from one
stage to another and how to help them along. It is also the teacher’s responsibility that
students get off to a good start with writing and monitor their progress as they enter
and exit grade levels. Waiting until the student is heading to high school is not the best
time to notice that he doesn’t write as well as he should. There is of course a difference
between lack of motivation to write well, physical or mental challenges that interfere
with writing, and developmental delays as he attempts to move from one stage to the
next.
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