Learning to write is no easy task. Learning to write well is becoming a rare skill. At Read Write Educate, we aim to help students master the art of writing. We believe good writers are needed in our society today. Perfecting writing skills has the ability to unlock many different opportunities.
Below, we have gathered resources and guides to help develop writing skills for all levels. It’s important to work with your student where they are, and let them develop in their time frame.
Preliterate
In the preliterate stage, students are making a connection between their pencil and language. They are learning that they can communicate on paper. This stage varies from scribbles, to symbols and mock letters.
Early Emergent
At this stage of writing, the student is experimenting with letters and letter formation. They will write long strings of seemingly meaningless letters, and often make the same letter in various ways.
Emergent
At the emergent stage, writers begin to associate sounds with letters. They can label the beginning letter of a picture. Writers can copy a word or words around them.
Transitional
The transitional writing stage is where the writer begins to decipher words. They can write the first and last letter of a word. They continue to use letter-sound relationships to communicate ideas. They begin to spell words phonetically and use word spacing. The writing becomes readable.
Fluent
The fluent stage of writing covers a broad range- from elementary writers to the professional writer. At the beginning of the fluent stage, writers can communicate a phrase in writing. They can send a message about an illustration. This skill then grows into sentence writing. The writer can spell correctly, uses proper spacing, and uses punctuation. From sentence writing, the writer turns their focus to the six traits of writing.
As a middle school teacher, I spent much of my time teaching the six traits of writing and developing the art of the essay skills. This is perhaps my favorite topic to teach. However, I have young writers at home. My oldest is at the beginning of the fluent stage. She is mastering sentence writing. My younger daughter is just about ready to master sentence writing as well. My son is at the preliterate stage. I’ve had to set aside my academic writing expectations in order to meet my children where they are at. I’ve learned a lot about the developmental writing process. Hopefully I’ve done the heavy lifting so that you can share the joy and wonder of written word and story telling with your children.