TOPIC 2 : DEVELOPMENTAL

STAGES OF WRITING
Writing Readiness
Writing readiness refers to a stage in
a childs early life where he displays
signs of wanting to put his thoughts
or ideas into visual forms.
These visual forms may initially look
like doodles,squiggles, crooked lines
or even drawings of stick figures.
representations of a childs:

knowledge
a realization that he can put his thoughts into
words which greatly increases his growing
knowledge of the world around him

interest
beginning to discover the interesting fact that
writing is another form of communication

visual readiness
beginning to recognize shapes and numbers as
well as distinguish letters in the alphabet


visual memory
beginning to recognize one or two syllable
words (cat, rabbit)

motor and coordination skills
- beginning to display a dominant writing hand
(eg: being left or right-handed)
- motor coordination of the hand, wrist, elbow
and shoulder when writing
- displaying eye and hand coordination skills.

Many preschool activities that just seem like
fun are actually building fine motor skills and
eye/hand coordination. Here are 10 examples
of activities:

Many preschool activities that just seem like fun are actually
building fine motor skills and eye/hand coordination. Here are
10 examples of activities:
* Working with
Puzzles
Building with blocks
* Pouring water into cups
*Stringing beads
Finger painting
* Bouncing and catching
balls
* Cutting with
scissors * Drawing
* Matching shapes
*Threading sewing
cards
Penmanship
Penmanship is the technique of writing
with the hand using a writing instrument
(pencil, pen, crayon, brush).
It is crucial that children are taught the
skills of penmanship despite the fact,
that computer-printed documents have
greatly reduced the need for handwritten
work.
Techniques of good handwriting
include:

space between letters, words,
paragraphs
alignment
proportion, size, height of letters
(upper case, lower case letters)
direction of pen movements

Early Writing
During this stage of writing, a child begins to
develop basic understanding of the mechanics
of writing.
Effective writing requires a sound understanding
of the mechanics of good writing. A useful
analogy in thinking about the mechanics of
writing is that of driving a car. Important
information includes
the various components of the car (parts of
speech in writing)

how these components function together (the
rules of grammar)

what is needed to keep the car moving along,
stopping and starting in the right places, and
pausing whenever it is necessary (punctuation)

Sentence construction and paragraph
writing
An integral part of writing is the
ability to construct sentences and
paragraphs.
It is important for a teacher or parent
to teach a child to write using
systematic methods and various
activities.
The main principles in teaching
children to write are :

provide meaningful context for writing
- create opportunities for children to write,
examples birthday card to daddy, thank you
card to grandma, writing shopping
lists,copying food labels

give children insights into writing
- create an awareness and develop a deeper
understanding of the various forms and functions
of writing


develop childrens curiosity and thinking skills
- encourage the desire to put their thoughts into
writing for example, a child writes a simple poem
expressing his sadness that the local council has
cut down his favourite tree in the park

read to children
- reading aloud and participatory reading of
stories provide rich resources for children to
develop ideas to write as well as increasing
their vocabulary range. Adults (teachers,
parents, grandparents) need to set aside time
and take the effort to read to children.
Developmental Writing
During this stage of writing, a child progresses
into a deeper understanding of the mechanics
of writing which includes the following:
spelling
grammar
text organization and cohesion

Spelling

When it comes to teaching children to spell,
there is no magical method but a practical
approach is to integrate spelling in listening,
speaking, reading & writing.


When teaching spelling, the teacher should
focus on :

teaching the relationship between the most
common phonemes (sounds) of English &
graphemes (letters)
teaching the most common words.
developing visual memory for shapes of
words.
developing relevant dictionary skills.
helping pupils devise ways of helping
themselves to remember common but some
trouble words.

Grammar
It is essential that children are taught
grammar rules to enable them to be better
writers. Teachers can refer to a range of
resources for ideas to teach grammar
meaningfully and enjoyable.
Expose your students to the proper
use of English grammar.

Children will internally develop grammar rules on their
own through exposure to the language.
Its your responsibility as the teacher to provide this
exposure.
This means always modeling proper grammar in your
speech and writing.
If you dont want your students to make errors in
subject-verb agreement, dont make these errors
yourself.
Also, get your students reading as much as possible.
Good writers do a lot of reading.
Dictation as a Writing Exercise
Dictation is a time-proven technique in writing
practice. It may seem conventional or even
outdated in this age of information technology
but this technique is beneficial in many ways.
Text structure and organization
The term text structure refers to how
information is organized in a text or
passage.
Information is organized according to
certain patterns/format.
Writers (as well as readers) need to know
the various patterns/format to enable
them to write accordingly.
Here are seven common text
structures:

cause and effect
choronological
compare and contrast
order of importance
problem and solution
sequence/process writing
spatial/descriptive writing