Abstract
Writing is a key area of literacy in the early years, however writing receives less research attention than reading despite its impact on students’ learning generally, and literacy development specifically. Writing skills have also been shown to be quite stable−good writers in the early years stay good writers in the later years. Therefore it is critical to better understand the aspects of writing central to development that might support teaching and learning. In this paper we share findings from the analysis of 500 writing samples from 250 students. The students were in Year 1, which is the second year of school in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia. Samples were collected at two points in time (approximately four to five months apart) and analysed using a writing analysis tool developed by the authors in an earlier stage of the study. The results reported and discussed here show levels of attainment and changes in students’ writing in the areas of text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and handwriting, and also highlight relationships between these dimensions as students develop increasing control over writing. Socio-educational advantage, gender differences, and findings specific to children who learn English as an additional language are also reported. The findings have implications for practice in the early years of schooling. They also offer a conceptualisation of students’ early writing based on an analysis process that integrates the authorial and secretarial dimensions of writing and provides teachers with relevant data to plan instruction.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
Writing analysis tool
Rating | Text structure | Sentence structure and grammatical features | Vocabulary | Spelling | Punctuation | Handwriting/legibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | No clear message | Random words | Records words of personal significance, such as their own name or those of family members | Random letters/letter like symbols | No evidence of punctuation | Letter like forms with some recognisable letters |
2 | One or more ideas (not related) | Shows an awareness of correct sentence parts, nouns/verb agreement. May require interpretation for meaning to be construed | Uses familiar, common words and two/three letter high frequency words | Semi-phonetic, consonant framework, alongside representation of dominant vowel sounds. Correct spelling of some two and three letter high frequency words (e.g. my, to) | Some use of: Capital letters Full stops | Mix of upper and lower case letters some reversals/distortions (e.g. hnr/a d/bp/v y/i l) |
3 | Two or three related ideas | Simple sentence structure, nouns, verbs, adverbs used. Meaning clear | Everyday vocabulary, (Ref: Oxford first 307 word list) | Phonetic spelling –plausible attempts with most sounds in words represented. Correct spelling of two and three letter high frequency words (e.g. the, my, is, to) | Correct use of capital letters and full stops at the start and end of sentences | Mostly correct letter formations yet contains poor spacing, or messy corrections |
4 | Uses simple and compound sentences with appropriate conjunctions (e.g. and, but, because, then) and adverbial phrases to indicate when, where, how, why, what | Uses a range of vocabulary, including topic specific words | Use of orthographic patterns or common English letter sequences. If incorrect they are plausible alternatives (e.g. er for ir or ur; cort for caught). Use of some digraphs (ck, ay). Correct use of inflections (ed, ing). Correct spelling of three/four letter high frequency words (e.g. was, like, here) | Some use of: Proper noun capitalisation, or Speech marks, or Question mark, or Exclamation mark Commas for lists | Letters correctly formed, mostly well spaced and positioned | |
5 | Evidence of structure and features of genre (text type) Eg. Recount, narrative, report structure and features | Uses a variety of sentence structures: simple, compound and complex sentences. Consistent use of tense. Pronoun reference correct to track a character over sentences. Verb agreement | Includes descriptive or emotive language. | Use of some irregular spelling patterns (e.g. light, cough) Application of spelling rules (e.g. hope/hoping, skip/skipping). High frequency words spelt correctly (e.g. there, their, where, were) | Use of a variety of punctuation including for example: Proper noun capitalisation Speech marks Question marks Exclamation marks Commas | Regularity of letter size, shape, placement, orientation and spacing |
6 | Complex text which shows: Strong evidence of features of genre (text type) Purpose and audience | Demonstrates variety in sentence structures, length, and uses a variety of sentence beginnings. Sentences flow with logical sequence throughout the piece | Correct use of technically specific vocabulary and/or figurative language | Correct spelling of most words including multisyllabic and phonetically irregular words | Demonstrates control over a variety of punctuation, all correctly applied | Correct, consistent, legible, appearing to be fluent |
Mackenzie, Scull & Munsie | ||||||
Appendix 2
Means, standard deviations and significance statistics for dimensions of writing by time and gender at Time 1 and 2
Females (n = 132) | Males (n = 118) | F | Sig. | η2 | d | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean | SD | Mean | SD | |||||
Time 1 | ||||||||
Text Structure | 4.32 | .97 | 3.89 | 1.04 | 11.33 | .001 | .04 | .43 |
Sentence Str | 3.73 | .75 | 3.47 | .71 | 8.38 | .004 | .03 | .36 |
Vocabulary | 3.67 | .81 | 3.50 | .74 | 2.88 | .091 | .01 | .22 |
Spelling | 3.34 | .82 | 3.25 | .79 | .87 | .353 | .01 | .12 |
Punctuation | 2.56 | .94 | 2.37 | .86 | 2.72 | .100 | .01 | .21 |
Handwriting | 3.49 | .90 | 3.23 | .97 | 4.98 | .027 | .02 | .28 |
Time 2 | ||||||||
Text Structure | 4.55 | .73 | 4.34 | .97 | 3.91 | .049 | .02 | .25 |
Sentence Str | 3.78 | .65 | 3.62 | .70 | 3.59 | .059 | .01 | .24 |
Vocabulary | 4.14 | .66 | 3.92 | .63 | 7.21 | .008 | .03 | .35 |
Spelling | 3.62 | .85 | 3.36 | .80 | 6.39 | .012 | .03 | .32 |
Punctuation | 2.96 | 1.00 | 2.72 | .97 | 3.88 | .050 | .02 | .24 |
Handwriting | 3.85 | .95 | 3.40 | 1.00 | 13.31 | .001 | .05 | .46 |
Appendix 3
Means, standard deviations and significance statistics for dimensions of language by EAL at Time 1 and 2
NonEAL (n = 210) | EAL (n = 40) | F | Sig. | η2 | d | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean | SD | Mean | SD | |||||
Time 1 | ||||||||
Text Structure | 4.23 | .99 | 3.53 | .98 | 16.84 | .001 | .06 | .71 |
Sentence Str | 3.67 | .72 | 3.28 | .78 | 9.89 | .002 | .04 | .52 |
Vocabulary | 3.65 | .76 | 3.28 | .82 | 7.93 | .005 | .03 | .47 |
Spelling | 3.29 | .79 | 3.33 | .92 | .06 | .805 | .01 | .04 |
Punctuation | 2.50 | .93 | 2.35 | .74 | .87 | .351 | .01 | .03 |
Handwriting | 3.41 | .93 | 3.15 | .99 | 2.58 | .110 | .01 | .27 |
Time 2 | ||||||||
Text Structure | 4.49 | .85 | 4.25 | .89 | 2.64 | .105 | .011 | .28 |
Sentence Str | 3.72 | .67 | 3.60 | .71 | 1.12 | .290 | .005 | .17 |
Vocabulary | 4.08 | .66 | 3.78 | .58 | 7.46 | .007 | .029 | .48 |
Spelling | 3.50 | .84 | 3.45 | .85 | .14 | .705 | .001 | .06 |
Punctuation | 2.91 | .99 | 2.53 | .81 | 5.33 | .022 | .021 | .42 |
Handwriting | 3.62 | .99 | 3.70 | .99 | .20 | .659 | .001 | .08 |
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Mackenzie, N.M., Scull, J. & Bowles, T. Writing over time: An analysis of texts created by Year One students. Aust. Educ. Res. 42, 567–593 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-015-0189-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-015-0189-9