Early+Years+Writers


 * //What have you learnt about Early Years writers and text types through your engagement with early year’s learners?//**

As a group we have learnt that early years writers are all at different stages in their literacy development. This was discovered as each member of our group has had an opportunity to engage with early learners through an interview process, which assessed their writing through writing samples and different text types. Susan Hill (2006) describes nine different text types which early learners use to record writing information, these are Narrative, Poetry and songs, Transactional, Recount, Procedure, Report, Explanation, Discussion and Mixed genre (pp. 309-310). Each one of these types can be adapted to suit a child’s preferred style of writing and even show the teacher where a child is at in terms of their writing development.

For example, in Jennifer’s interview with Child A, the writing sample chosen was a narrative text type, as the child felt most comfortable to record her findings using this method. It was also clear that the child had an understanding of how to write a story and what a story included, as their sample included pictures from the story underneath the title. Furthermore, when Jennifer went on to assess the child’s actual writing development, using an adapted writing survey (Hill, 2006 p. 388), it was discovered that Child A really enjoyed to write using narrative and recount text types because she could share stories about her family which she valued very much.

In comparison to Jennifer’s findings, Trudie had a different response from the child she interviewed in her writing survey. She found that her child disliked writing because ‘her teacher makes her’ do it. However, when this response was investigated further Trudie discovered that the reason the child disliked writing so much was mainly because she was not a confident speller and this may have discouraged her ability to write a narrative or recount text type.

When Georgie conducted her interview her experience was that the child had a great expose to many different text types. The child's favourite texts to read included sporting books, (i.e. Soccer and Football), narrative texts and information reports. Georgie noticed that even though the child was a enthusiastic reader and writer for his age, when asked to give a sample he preferred to draw a picture. This made it difficult for Georgie to assess his writing abilities as there was no data to analyse.

Kendall's experience with text types was that her child she interviewed had a strong fascination with information reports. In particular factual books relating to Dinosaurs etc. When she asked the student if they enjoyed writing Kendall discovered that because she had poor handwriting it wasn't an enjoyable task. This was similar to Trudie's experience as this child also lacked in confidence so therefore her ability to perform well was hindered.

In summary, the assessors all found that each child enjoyed reading and had a good understanding of what different text types were, however, their responses to writing tasks were not so successful and collecting data to anaylse this further was a difficult task.


 * //Phases of Literacy and VELS//**

The writing development process for early years learners can come across a variety of implications in terms of teaching. This is particularly evident within Hills ‘Phases of Literacy’ (2006, p. 6), an assessment chart which outlines and places children at different stages in their literacy development. There are six phases: ‘Beginning, Early-emergent, Emergent, Early, Transitional and Extending’ (Hill 2006, p. 6). Each of these have set criteria as to where a child should be achieving in order to be correctly placed in their literacy development. These were initially created so that ‘teachers can use these phases as benchmarks of literacy development in English, and to plan for future learning’ (Hill 2006, p. 5). Issues with this style of assessment can arise when a child does not meet a certain criteria and may instead be in the middle of two criteria’s, as it then becomes difficult for teachers to genuinely assess where a child should be placed. In addition to the phases of literacy, the Victorian Essential Learning Standards, (also known as VELS), have set criteria which children need to meet in order to asses which level they are at or are working towards in their learning development. The description given on their Victorian website stated that:


 * //‘The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) outlines what is essential for all Victorian students to learn during their time at school from Prep to Year 10. They provide a set of common state-wide standards which schools use to plan student learning programs, assess student progress and report to parents’ (Victorian Government, 2009).//**

Each learning area has a standard and focus learning statement and these are provided so teachers can use them as a guide in establishing children’s learning levels.

When using the VELS system to assess the children from the early years learners interviews in terms of their writing development all assessors found it very difficult to have place their children in a level. This was because there was not enough written samples to assess. If the writing samples were more substantial, the assessors would have probably placed their child in either a level one or two of VELS as they were all around the age of eight and in grade two at Primary School. Below is a table of the VELS English standards for levels one and two:

(Victorian Government 2009). ||< 'At Level 2, students write short sequenced texts that include some related ideas about familiar topics. They write texts that convey ideas and information to known audiences. They select content, form and vocabulary depending on the purpose for writing, and describe the purpose and audience for their own and others’ writing. They use appropriate structures to achieve some organisation of the subject matter. They link ideas in a variety of ways using pronouns, conjunctions and adverbial phrases indicating time and place. They accurately spell frequently used words, and make use of known spelling patterns to make plausible attempts at spelling unfamiliar words. They use capital letters, full stops and question marks correctly. They reread their own writing and use a range of editing resources to revise and clarify meaning. They write upper- and lower-case letters legibly with consistent size, slope and spacing' (Victorian Government 2009). ||
 * = **VELS LEVEL ONE** ||= **VELS LEVEL TWO** ||
 * < 'At Level 1, students write personal recounts and simple texts about familiar topics to convey ideas or messages. In their writing, they use conventional letters, groups of letters, and simple punctuation such as full stops and capital letters. Students are aware of the sound system and the relationships between letters and sounds in words when spelling. They form letters correctly, and use a range of writing implements and software'