Learning+to+write

Children begin to learn to write by observing and copying adults. They begin by using a pen or pencil to make marks on paper which leads to beginning writing. In the stage of beginning writing, "the child might use drawing to communicate a message and then read out the message in the drawing. Writing can occur in large circle shapes or in scribble like lines that may proceed from left to right. The child is exploring the writing they have observed when adults write in a flowing cursive form in a continuous line." (Hill, 2006, p.283) The stage following beginning writing is early-emergent writing. In this stage children begin to explore the use of symbols and shapes or letters to represent words. They may begin to seperate pictures from words on the page and the child learns about the positioning of written text. The next stage of development is Emergent writing in which "the child begins to create more letter-like shapes. There may be spaces between the letters, and letters begin to represent sounds within words......The writing may appear in lines from left to right." (Hill, 2006, p.284) Following emergent writing is the stage of Early writing in which they demonstrate the understanding of the difference between upper case and lower case letters, spacing between words etc. The children begin to write in sentences and may repeat or practice known words and copy words into sentences. At this stage, children understand that there are different types of texts and different genres of writing. One of the more advanced stages of writing development is transitional writing, in this stage the volume of writing increases and quantity rather than quality becomes noticeable. The writing may start to take the form of a particular genre or style and punctuation is usually well developed by this stage. The final stage of learning to write is Extending writing - "there is punctuation and the writing resembles that of an adult. Spelling is accurate most of the time. Children learn to use different text types that are appropriate to different audiences" (Hill, 2006, p.286)

The following video sourced from http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=7452c00244351e4d91f6 shows a student reading his piece of text that he has created. media type="custom" key="706681"