Reading, Writing, & Spelling progress

[kerilynn]

I was prompted to ask this question after reading the many interesting and diverse posts on the thread started by daniela_r. I hope my questions don't seem too redundant. They are along the same line, but a little different and I did not want to steamrail that thread.

 

My son is 4, will be 5 at the end of this month, and will start public Kindergarten this Fall. He can print all of his uppercase and lowercase letters without a model, as well as digits 0 thru 10.

 

Here is what I am wondering, and why: I see all over the internet on Kindergarten blogs examples of kiddos writing their own sentences (seemingly without a model?). I saw more examples of this in daniela_r's thread. Of course they are full of invented spelling, but it seems these kiddos are able to put their own thoughts down on paper without copying. It can be hard to tell on some of the blogposts I have seen, but it seems they are doing it on their own.

 

What I am wondering is the same as daniela_r...at what point in the year does this usually start to happen? How fast/slow is the progress from just being able to print individual letters, to independently expressing thoughts on paper? Also (and here is where my question varies a little), in your experience with your own DC, what has the correlation been like between reading ability, printing ability, and writing (I mean writing words/sentences)?

 

My DS has a little spiral notebook and pencil he carries everywhere. When he fills it up, we go to the dollar store and he picks out a new one. He is constantly drawing pictures in it and 'writing' different things, like a story, or a list, or thoughts. At this point, it is all (happy) nonsense. He's not yet to the point of invented spellings. Now, at the same time, he does not yet read. He knows all his sounds, but hasn't yet begun to sound out CVC words.

 

I am guessing the children who are writing sentences on their own (not copywork), whatever their age, have also been reading for awhile. Is this accurate? I guess my other question was about spelling in relationship to reading. It seems I read sometimes of parents teaching spelling as reading instruction? I guess that should be for another post, though, since I've blathered on long enough in this one :-).

[Tanikit]

All I can do is tell you how my own child developed - but all children are different and also get different instruction so answers will vary widely for this.

 

My DD began reading as a toddler mostly sight words she learnt as we pointed things out to her. She also learnt her letter sounds as a toddler. At 3 she was capable of sight reading very early readers and I thought I had better teach her phonics so I did using only the word lists in OPGTR and doing 4-8 words per day with her. It took about a year to get most of the way through that book and in that time she started reading the first grade readers suggested by Sonlight though stamina was an issue and she would read about a paragraph at a time at the most (usually one to four sentences, though it gradually increased as the print size also got smaller).

 

At 4.5 we started what was probably a kindergarten year - I started teaching handwriting and she wrote very large letters only - I taught small letters before capitals as I felt she would write far more small letters than capitals so she has never had the problem that many kindergarteners have of using capitals in the middle of words - once in a blue moon she will write a capital D rather than a small one simply because she sometimes reverses and doesn't want to. By 5 she was combining letters herself to form words - her phonological awareness has always been good so we started spelling and she automatically knew how to spell cvc words and most of the initial and ending blends without teaching - she was also never leaving out vowels which is a common stage for most children. So I moved on and taught her further spelling - we are now teaching most of the long vowels having taught ll, ff and ss endings, ch, th, sh, ck endings, oo sounds, silent e and so on.

 

From 4.5 to 5 we also did a lot of copywork on single lines (not between the lines) so that I could not push her too hard but that she could still learn which letters went up, which went below the line and which sat on the line. When that was achieved and the size of her print had decreased we moved over to lines at about 5.5 years of age. By this stage she was reading at a 4th grade level a chapter a day but was only able to write lists with reasonable spelling and one very short sentence with a picture. She did also go through a stage of labelling her own pictures which was single words mostly.

 

I do not believe that writing and reading follow a specific path - some people teach writing to teach reading, some can read fluently but struggle with writing. In our schools here my DD is about 4 grade levels ahead of where most kids are with reading and about 1 grade level ahead in writing (and I am talking our private schools - the public ones vary too much to even compare).

 

Writing takes a number of skills: 1. Formulate a thought (in a full sentence)

2. Remember (hold) that thought long enough despite distractions to write it down

3. Have the handwriting skills to form letters that can be deciphered

3.1 Be able to hold a pencil well enough for it not to hurt

3.2 Know how to form letters (ideally correctly but certainly visibly recognisable)

4. Have the concentration to finish the task.

5. Be phonologically aware enough to produce something decipherable to the reader and the

writer.

6. Be able to either do so perfectly or have the skills to get past that perfectionism to write down

what they want to say.

7. Understand what the point is and have the motivation to actually write.

 

This does make writing sound more difficult than it should be - it is a task however that combines many skills (as does reading) and it can be accomplished very young as long as someone is able to look at the long list of skills needed and determine which one (or ones) is missing in that child and work on that first if the child is struggling. I have a feeling many people miss skill number 7 above - the kids don't get the point of writing and so will write things that make no sense.

 

With your child you will probably have to teach basic handwriting first and then make sure he can read the letter sounds associated with the letters he is writing before he gets to sounding out cvc words. You can also teach spelling orally at this stage as an extension of the reading.

[Walking-Iris]

It starts with oral narration. Even at age 2 and 3. Listening to a child tell you a story and talking about their day or their game is laying the foundation for writing. Talking is a child's way to hold thoughts in their head and learn how to get them out ina grammatically correct order.

 

As far as pencil skills, I start at 2 and 3 with a lot of fine motor activities. Drawing, coloring, using stencils, puzzles, mazes, locks, lacing, sorting, etc are pre writing activities. Don't underestimate the importance of fine motor activities in a rush to get to a pencil and writing letters.

 

 

My kids then start to learn how to form letters by 3 and a half and age 4. As well as learning the sounds and some beginning reading.

 

By the end of K I expect a child to know the letters, do simple copywork, orally narrate while I scribe, understand sentence structure and simple punctuation, and work on spelling.

 

For me handwriting and spelling are not separate (shouldn't be separate) from reading instruction. Young children are physical more so than they are mental. Writing and spelling what you are learning to read is a more holistic than dividing them into distinct parts.

 

I absolutely believe a 5 year old is capable of holding a thought in their head and writing it down. I wouldn't require it, but I also wouldn't prevent it. Working on oral narration is a great start in helping them do this. Not just narrating what they learn back to you. Narration is more than that regurgitation of facts. It's also telling an anecdote, explaining how to play a game, etc. Oral communication.

 

If you then write down your child's own words for him, let him make little booklets and stories, it will go far in giving him a model for writing.

[kerilynn]

Tanikit, thanks so much for taking the time to get all that down for me.

 

"With your child you will probably have to teach basic handwriting first and then make sure he can read the letter sounds associated with the letters he is writing before he gets to sounding out cvc words. You can also teach spelling orally at this stage as an extension of the reading. "

 

...My DS is definitely not there yet with reading, and our current focus is phonological awareness. I would say he was ahead of most DC in printing, however. It's been more than a year that he has been able to independently write lowercase/uppercase letters and 0-10 numbers (and also his name). He has always had strong fine motor skills and never struggled to hold a pencil, etc. I attribute this to his attending a Montessori preschool. His letters are clear, appropriately sized, and he can write them neatly in a line with no reversals.

 

That being said, he is struggling with the reading, but...I am in no hurry. I just want to be sure I am giving him all the tools he needs. ;-)

 

ETA: He also has known all of his letter sounds for ~ a year. This is where we hit a wall.

[kerilynn]

Walking-Iris,

 

You're always so helpful!

 

As I mentioned in my reply to tanikit, fine motor skills are a strength for my son. His Montessori preschool was great for that. In addition (because I am crazy), I received a scholarship when he was about 2 years old, and purchased about $900 worth of Montessori materials for our home. So, he has had exposure to all the work at home to help with his pincer grip, etc. I purchased a movable alphabet, sandpaper letters/numbers...you get it :-).

 

 

 

"My kids then start to learn how to form letters by 3 and a half and age 4. As well as learning the sounds and some beginning reading."

 

***He has the sounds down (and we will begin vertical phonics this Fall), but not the reading.

 

By the end of K I expect a child to know the letters, do simple copywork, orally narrate while I scribe, understand sentence structure and simple punctuation, and work on spelling.

 

***This, I think we can do! ...and I think once we get over the decoding hump, he will progress quickly.

 

For me handwriting and spelling are not separate (shouldn't be separate) from reading instruction. Young children are physical more so than they are mental. Writing and spelling what you are learning to read is a more holistic than dividing them into distinct parts.

 

***I agree. Children take constructive criticism well. I am a mother who consistently parrots back what DS says, but with proper grammar if it needs to be corrected. He then repeats back what I said. Such a simple tool can be so effective.

 

I absolutely believe a 5 year old is capable of holding a thought in their head and writing it down.

 

***I agree. DS loves to tell stories. I know once he has his 'aha' moment with reading/phonological awareness, this will come quickly after.

 

I wouldn't require it, but I also wouldn't prevent it. Working on oral narration is a great start in helping them do this. Not just narrating what they learn back to you. Narration is more than that regurgitation of facts. It's also telling an anecdote, explaining how to play a game, etc. Oral communication.

 

If you then write down your child's own words for him, let him make little booklets and stories, it will go far in giving him a model for writing.

 

***This is what I was planning to do :-). DS is currently in France visiting his father (DS was born in France/has dual citizenship. And, yes...this has played a part as well. He's had exposure to French & English since he was a baby. In France, he is completely immersed in French. While this has posed some delays in the present, I know in the long run it will be such an attribute.). When he returns I am going to print out a bunch of blank half draw/half write notebooks. I was thinking of explaining he can write his own story..have him draw a picture, tell me what it is about, and I will write it for him. I think he will be so excited by this, and I think this will also help immensely to help him 'get it'.

 

 

[Tanikit]

It sounds like writing is his strength but that he needs help with phonological awareness and blending - my advice is usually to blend for him orally - pick nouns he enjoys and blend them - look at your toy cow (c-ow cow), lets p-l-ay play with it. It takes some work to get it more natural, but it definitely helps as this blending is more an auditory skill than a visual one. Once your child has heard blending done for him many times then he will be more likely to be able to do it himself.

 

If you want to use his writing then get him to write two letters together and then blend them for him then you write a real word and blend it as you write. It does help here to teach the vowels as it is easier for you to blend when there is a vowel inserted than when there isn't and then get him to write one letter and a vowel and then you blend it for him - never ask him to blend til he does it before you can by himself. He will gradually start to understand that those lovely letters he can make can be used to communicate something.

[kerilynn]

Tanikit- I like your ideas. To be honest, we did a LOT of work on this in the past year..lol. Both at home and at his preschool. It just wasn't going anywhere... it was like he was just stuck. Now, he did have a language delay, and he has regular visits to France where his father is the only person who speaks any English.

 

I did a lot of research (peer-reviewed journals), and purchased and downloaded several phonological awareness books, studies, lesson plans, etc.

 

He is gone the entire summer to France (too long for Mama!), and I think perhaps the break will do him good. I have read several examples on this forum alone that sometimes when a DC hits a wall, the best thing to do is to step back, take a break, and resume later. (I have, however, made sure that he is still getting at least some consistent exposure to proper English models. I have given a list of apps to his Father that deal with different phonological awareness and phonics skills. I sent him with several workbooks to continue to practice his handwriting. I also paid for a subscritiption to an online program and suggested apps to his Father for read-alouds so that DS does not miss out on being read to daily.)

 

He will, of course, go through another transition when he returns home. However, he has begun to comfortably code-switch between speaking French and English.

 

I am so grateful for the advice, personal experiences, and encouragement this forum provides. This Mama is a full time college student, and so DS will be attending public Kindergarten. I have always loved the role of helping my son learn, and so we will do what we can fit in at home without overwhelming him (or me!).

 

 

Aaah..I always feel like I just go on and on in these posts...so forgive my lack of pith....but looks like I am in similar company :-)