In analyzing the writing samples I have gathered from some of my kindergartners, the results vary tremendously. One of the students is certainly classified within Stage 1, Emergent Spelling, as she is learning how to make letters and understands the direction of writing on a page, but also tends to incorporate several scribbles into her writing. Because of this, I wonder if she has clearly distinguished the difference between writing and drawing as her entire page is filled with pictures, letters, and scribbles. There is not yet any demonstration of letter-sound matches.
Another student may also be classified within Stage 1, Emergent Spelling, as she has clearly made a distinction between writing and drawing, neatly keeping her drawing within the specified space and her writing within the specified lines. She has learned to write letters and follows the direction of writing on a page. She is also learning to make sound letter matches, such as “bk” for book perhaps almost to the point of classifying her as nearing the beginning of stage 2, Letter Name-Alphabetic Spelling. Further supporting the idea of her being classified as the beginning of stage 2 is the fact that her entire writing sample is written in capital letters.
Perhaps also in between stage 1 and two is my next student, who has mastered all of the concepts like student 2, but has incorporated some words that include vowels. I’m unsure if this is classified as stage 2 however, as they are sight words such as “mom” and “dad.”
The next two students are both easily classified within stage 2. Both students have mastered the alphabetic principle as well as consonant sounds. One of the students is still learning to work with vowels and diphthongs, as represented in her interpretation of the word outside as “owtsid” and friends as “freds.” However, the last student, at least in the writing sample I have gathered, seems to be mastering more complex vowel combinations such as “went” and “jumping.”
Students in this class will benefit from a range of “sorting activities”, in which some students in more emergent stages of spelling may sort pictures based on the beginning letter sound of the word, while others in a later stage may work on identifying the vowels within a word in a similar way. This could be implemented by focusing on select letter sounds at a time, rather than having a wide set of “options” as the alphabet provides. Perhaps there are five sounds represented at one time, and with vowels maybe only one or two. Students could possibly cut pictures out and glue them under a column labeled with the corresponding letter/sound.
See below my embedded Venn Diagram comparing two New Literacy topics!
I am also in a kindergarten class like Jessie and I get to see a lot of reading and writing because my MT focuses on literacy and does literacy centers everyday. From the writing samples that I collected most of the students seem to be at Stage 2- Letter-Name Alphabetic Spelling. I do not see any scribbling in the writing samples that I collected and they are at least trying to spell the words correctly by putting the first letter of the word. Even though I cannot read some of what they are writing I am still able to make out the letters and they stay within the space provided and write from left to right and top to bottom.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I have to say that I am a little surprised that they are already writing this well at such a young stage but I think it is because they spend a lot of classtime working with letters and sounds. Literacy is definitely a big focus point in the classroom and it is clearly helping the students improve their writing skills
In my first grade placement, I would say most of the students are also at a mid to higher level of Stage 2. Like Jessie and Chelsey mentioned, their writing reflects that they are very familiar and comfortable with consonant sounds. The first and last letters are correct most of the time, with just the middle letters sometimes proving to be a bit difficult. A few examples of this are 'playeg' (playing), 'presons' (presents), and 'owt' (out).
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, the writing samples I collected have some spelling errors but are pretty easy to read. The students have mastered staying within the given lines and have a decent sense of punctuation and capitalization. I was actually surprised at how well some of the words were spelled- one student correctly wrote 'morning' and 'living'. The school has a primary focus on math and literacy, which has probably given these students an edge when it comes to writing and spelling.