The following is a sample of a letter sent home in response to a parent inquiry.
Dear Mrs. Jones,
Thank you for your concern regarding Sarah’s progress in writing and your questions about the lack of worksheets she is bringing home. I would first like to tell you that Sarah’s writing is perfectly appropriate for her age and developmental level. To help answer these questions I would like to spend some time explaining the way children grow and learn in the language process.
Children go through stages of oral language development; according to researchers D.R. Cooter and R.B. Reutzal (2004) the stages are as follows:
- At age 1-2 children begin to put words together and learn the rules of the language; they speak in one or two word sentences.
- From ages 2-3 children take the two word phrases and begin to put together a more complex and natural forms of speech.
- Children aged 3-4 start to use complex sentences and know up to 1,500 “speaking words”
- And from ages 4-6, their vocabulary grows up to 6,000 words and have a basic knowledge of “adult speaking language”
Language is the foundation for reading therefore we spend a good deal of time focusing on nurturing the development of the children’s oral language (i.e. getting the students to talk). Some oral language activities students participate in during our class that promote this development are:
- Show and tell
- Class meetings
- Book talks (Think/Pair/Share)
- Shared Reading/Writing
Writing is also a process that is connected to reading because it allows the children to visualize the words in their head and recall them when spelling in their writing. The writing stages are also developmental and the approximate ages and example s of these stages are listed here for your comparison:
- Emergent stage – the child has no concept of the alphabet and just uses random scribbles to represent their writing. Near the end of this stage the students begin to write letters but the letters do not match the sounds they represent.
- Early letter-name spelling – The child can match most letters to sounds and use “invented spelling” to represent the beginning, middle, and ending sounds of words
- Orthographic – the words are generally spelled as the sound
- Transitional – there are less misspelled words at this stage, but some words are still spelled just like they sound
- And finally conventional – this is a stage of mastery, which some adults do not even master, so it is not expected out of elementary age children, especially not in first grade.
The writing you see on Sarah’s work is considered invented spelling, which is perfectly acceptable for her age. Just like in oral language, there are steps to written language, and one must master one step prior to moving on to the next. In the early stages of development children use inventive spelling because they have not yet mastered all of the patterns and rules associated with our language. They write what they hear.
We write for a variety of purposes in our room such as responding to readings, journal writing, creative writing, etc. These writing activities promote a positive attitude towards writing and authorship, as well as aid in the transition to the next stage in writing development.
To address your inquiry as to why I do not correct the spelling on all of Sarah’s papers that she brings home I offer up the following:
- I use the samples of the children’s writings as a diagnostic tool; by analyzing what the students write I can determine what stage of development they are in and focus on what phonics skills they may need to work on.
- It teaches students to match sounds to letters and discover how the language works.
- Not everything that we do in class is formal and in need of proper spelling. Journal entries are more casual and therefore grammar and spelling are not the focus, but published work is something that we will spend time on perfecting!
- When children know that what they are writing has to be edited or that it will be looked at with a critical eye, they can be nervous about what they put and their creativity may be squandered. When children are allowed to write freely without criticism their creativity and self-esteem are boosted.
I assure you that Sarah is excelling in her work at school. We will be sending published works home later in the year where you will be able to see the more formal writing she can accomplish. I also invite you to come to the class and see first-hand the kind of activities the children to take part in. Thank you again for your inquiry and interest in your child’s education. I hope this helped to settle your worries and concerns; feel free to contact me at any time.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Locati-Beck