children's reading and writing

• what is a grapheme?

  a letter or a group of letters
• what is a phoneme?

  the smallest unit of sound e.g. /c/, /a/, /t/ in the word 'cat'
• what does masha bell point out?

  that the english language has ' different, logically unpredictable graphemes for identical sounds'

  • e.g. 'main' and 'lane'
• why is reading challenging for children?

  a challenge for children is grasping the symbolic system that lies behind written language.

  • cognitive theorists argue that this symbolic system forms the basis of the child’s future language development – an understanding that the marks on the page ‘stand for’ or represent the sounds in the real world.
• what is the impact on reading for children?

  children who are exposed to a rich reading environment in early years become more successful both in their writing and in school generally

  • this because children have increased exposure to the letters and early words that they are going to try to write
• what do early reading books include?

  • images (graphology)
  • short sentences
  • frequent or repeated lexical choices
• what did frank smith state?


  • that children will learn to talk by talking, and children will learn to read by reading
  • reading should not be broken down into component parts and children should not be presented with contrived or over simplified texts
• what are the two stated basic needs of the reader?


  1. the availability of interesting material that makes sense to the reader

  2. an understanding and more experienced reader as a guide
• what are the three cues that psycholinguistics explained?

  semantic cues- using knowledge and experience of stories to predict events, phrases and words

  syntactic cues- drawing on knowledge and experience of patterns in oral and written language to predict text

  grapho-phonic cues- using knowledge and experience of relationships between sounds and symbols to read particular words
• what did jeanne chall state?

  • as the child gets older, the links between reading and writing become more clear
  • suggested a number of stages through which children progress as they learn to read
• what are chall's first 3 stages of reading?

  pre-reading (up to 6)

  • children will be read to by caregivers but may imitate the reading process by turning pages and pretending to read

  initial reading and decoding (6-7)

  • children begin to decode words in order to read/understand basic texts. 
  • they may identify familiar words or recognise letters and blend sounds together to sound out words, makes reading process slower.

  confirmation and fluency (7-8)

  • reading will become a faster process. 
  • will be able to decode words readily and read fluently
• what are chall's last 3 stages of reading?

  reading for learning (9-13)

  • rather than learning to read, children now read in order to learn. 
  • they may be accessing a wider range of texts and reading to obtain facts/scanning for the most relevant details.

  multiple viewpoints (14-18)

  • will begin to recognise how meaning can be conveyed in different ways.
  • become more critical readers, recognising bias and inference.

  construction and reconstruction (18+)

  • individuals can read a range of sources to develop their own interpretations. 
  • can scan efficiently and recognise what is/is not important to read.
• what are the two types of phonics?

  synthetic phonics- teaches individual phonemes individual from reading, once embedded, they can blend them together and pronounce a word

  analytic phonics- does not teach the individual phonemes to children before they start reading but encourages the breaking down of words into key sections, these parts are known as onset and rime.

  the onset is the beginning of the word. e.g. /str/eet
• what are frith's 3 stages of reading?


  logographapic stage

  • pronounce individual letters
  • letters are connected with sounds
  • child can only link words to one phoneme

  alphabetic stage

  • child is more comfortable with the alphabet
  • can combine graphemes to make longer phonemes e.g. ‘th’

  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
• what are the two types of spelling?

  phonics method

  • teaching children to understand how sounds match up to different phonemes or phoneme combinations
  • words are broken down in relation to their sounds

  whole-word method

  • teaching children to recognise words as whole units without breaking them down into sounds.
  • words become the smallest unit of learning.
• what were vacca, vacca, and grove's first 2 stages of spelling?

  pre-communicative stage

  • child uses symbols from alphabet but shows no knowledge of letter-sound correspondences.
  • child may lack knowledge of the entire alphabet, the distinction between upper and lower-case letters, and the left-to-right direction of english orthography.

  phonetic stage

  • child uses a letter/letters to represent every speech sound that they hear in a word.
  • some of their choices do not conform to conventional english spelling, they are systematic and easily understood. e.g. KOM for come and EN for in.
• what are vacca, vacca and grove's last 2 stages of spelling?

  transitional stage

  • speller begins to assimilate the conventional alternative for representing sounds, moving from a dependence on phonology for representing words to visual representation and an understanding of the structure of words.
  • e.g. 'egul' for eagle

  conventional stage

  • speller knows orthographic system and its rules.
  • speller understands prefixes/suffixes, silent consonants, alternative spellings/ irregular spellings.
  • number of learned words are accumulated, and the speller recognises incorrect forms.
• what are barclay's 7 stages of writing?

  • scribbling: marks on paper
  • mock-handwriting: like scribbling with some recognisable letter shapes
  • mock letters: like emergent writing, emphasis on copying letters
  • conventional letters: child writing on own, usually single words/sentences, usually own name
  • inventive letters: child writes conventional letters that makes words that may not make sense
  • approximate/phonetic spelling: associate sounds with letters
  • conventional spelling: child's spellings become more conventional
• what are some of the functions of writing?

  • practical
  • job-related
  • stimulating
  • social
  • therapeutic
• what are kroll's 4 stages of writing?


  preperation (18month-6yrs)

  • children develop motor skills required to write.
  • they learn the basics of the spelling system.

  consolidation stage (7-8yrs)

  • writing is similar to spoken language – register is colloquial and informal.
  • there will be a large dependence on the coordinating conjunction ‘and’ to join clauses

  differentiation stage (9-10yrs)

  • increased awareness that writing is different to speech.
  • understands that writing should suit diverse audiences

  integration stage (mid teens)

  • personal voice in writing, controlled writing, and consistent
• what did read state?


  children tend to simplify consonant clusters in their writing much as they do in their production of sounds. E.g. they might say ‘’ship’’ as ‘’sip’’
• what did perera study?

  chronological and non-chronological texts
• what did perera discover in relation to chronological texts?


  children find chronological texts much easier to write, perhaps mirroring the ease with which children tend to pick up simple and compound sentences, as opposed to complex sentences.
• what did anderson and stokes find?

  that Anglo-American families engage in twice as many literacy events with children than Hispanic and Afro-American families.

  However these families spend more one to one time with their parents.
• what did shirley brice heath find?

  that middle class students have experiences with reading that prepare them better for school in ways that working class children lack
• what are Joan Rothery's categories for evaluating children's writing?


  observation/comment

  • writer makes an observation and follows with an evaluative comment, or mixes them with the observation.

  recount

  • usually a chronological sequence of events. Orientation-event-reorientation

  report

  • factual and objective description of events or things, tends to not chronological

  narrative

  • story genre where the scene is set for events to occur and be resolved at the end
• what are britton's 3 modes of writing?

  expressive

  • resembles speech, 1st person perspective and own preferences

  poetic

  • requires skills in crafting and shaping language
  • encouraged due to its creativity with rhythms and alliterations

  transactional

  • develops once children have dissociated speech from writing. Style of academic essays, more impersonal. Third person used. Formal sentence structures and graphological features.