Discuss in general terms how children develop their ability to write with competence. What are some competencies that change? Start with preschool, and end with high school

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER: Student response will vary, but hopefully will include some of the following: At about age three, children’s writing still may not include real letters, but it begins to look like letters and is written in left-to-right lines. Children believe they are writing, but no one else can read it. In kindergarten, most children learn how to form letters correctly and to pair letters with sounds. They begin to write with real letters, using invented phonetic spellings and pictures. As children begin to read in 1st grade, “emergent” literacy is replaced by “conventional” literacy. A primary task of 1st grade is learning to read and write. The task shifts around 4th grade to using reading and writing to learn other things. At first, children are asked to write mostly personal stories in order to practice writing, but by the end of elementary school, children are asked to write expository text, like reports, to show what they know. Children become better spellers across elementary school. At first, they leave out the internal phonemes of words. After 4th grade, they become more skilled at conventional spelling. Adolescents become able to use domain-specific vocabulary to read and write in domains like science, history, or art. Quality of writing increases during adolescence in other ways as well Adolescents can produce an organized, persuasive paper. Essays and sentences are longer. Adverb connectors and abstract nouns are used more.