Writing/ reading theories

imitate the reading process by turning pages and pretending to read or creating stories based on the images in the books.  They may identify some letters of the alphabet.

•Initial Reading and Decoding: Children will begin to decode words in order to read and understand basic texts.  They may identify familiar whole words or recognise letters and blend sounds together to sound out the words.  This can make the reading process slower and can hamper an understanding of the text as a whole.

•Confirmation and Fluency: Reading will have become a faster process.  Children will be able to decode words more readily and read with some fluency.  There will be a greater sense of the text as a whole emerging by now.

•Reading for Learning: Rather than learning to read, students now read in order to learn.  They might be accessing a wider range of texts by this point and reading to obtain facts and scanning for the most relevant details.

•Multiple Viewpoints: Students will begin to recognize how meaning can be conveyed in different ways, or with a different focus.  As a result, they will become more critical readers, recognising bias and inference. 

•Construction and Reconstruction: By this point, individuals can read a range of sources and synthesize these in order to develop their own interpretations.  They can skim and scan efficiently and recognise what is and is not important to read.

Frith (1985) 3 Stages to a child

Stage 1: Logographic stage. 

•Pronounce individual letters.

•Letters are connected with sounds.

•Child can only link words to one phoneme

Stage 2: Alphabetic stage. 

•Child is more comfortable with the alphabet. 

•Can combine graphemes to make longer phonemes. E.g., ‘th’

Stage 3: Orthographic stage. 

•Recognise a string of graphemes without having to decode them.

•Greater phonological awareness – recognise more sound patterns. 

•Analogy – compare and apply patterns and rules.

B.M. KROLL (1981) 4 stages in the development of writing.  

Stage 1: Preparatory stage.

•Masters the basic motor skills needed to write.

•Learns the basic principles of the spelling system.

Stage 2: Consolidation stage. (age up to 6)

•Child writes in the same way it speaks.

•Uses short declarative sentences which include mainly ‘and’ conjunctions.

•Incomplete sentences as they don’t know how to finish the sentence off.

Stage 3: differentiation stage. (age up to 9)

•Child becomes aware of the difference between speaking and writing.

•Recognises the different writing styles available e.g., letter, essay.

•Lots of mistakes.

•Use writing guides and frameworks to structure work.

•Write to reflect thoughts and feelings.

Stage 4: Integration stage. (12+)

•Child develops a personal style.

•Child understands that you can change your style according to audience and purpose.