The Stages of Writing Development

Development of Written Language

Understanding the developmental sequence of written
language is essential to the analysis of written language
development for students in the elementary years. 

Stage One - Scribbling: a child's first attempt at writing
is called scribbling. This scribbling represents written
language and only the child scribe can transcribe the
message. 

Stage Two - Drawing: a child moves from random scribbles
to drawing their message. Using the pictures, the child
can transcribe the story. 

Stage Three - Drawing with Labels: in this stage the child
includes labels within their pictures. These labels help
the child further delineate the story. Students who are
writing at Stages One through Three should be encouraged
to continue writing by drawing. These students should be
exposed to reading aloud, writing aloud, Language
Experience, patterned language, and books.

Stage Four - Inventorying: in this stage the child names
objects in a list format. Example:

Anmlas I Like seals I Like pigs. I Like cows.

Stage 5 - Inventorying + Description: in this stage the
child starts inventorying and adds a description. Example:

I lik to go to my Dad's house Be cause I can woch a lot of
MovIe.  

Stage Six - Description: in this stage the child abandons
inventorying and writes a descriptive phrase or sentence.
Example:

I like it wen it is suny and bowit one clowd. But O do not
like it wen it is raneing. 

Students who are writing at Stages Four through Six should
be encouraged to continue exploring written language.
These students should be exposed to patterned books,
reading aloud with voice pointing, writing aloud, and
Language Experience.

Stage Seven - Textual Features: in this stage the child
begins to write using the text structures of narrative and
expository text. Example

The Bide and Bug Bug was going to get Bird he was Singing
down The road haply wen he fel in a hole and Bug yeld
heleplhelep! And Bide came and he had a rope with him he
gave Bug one End of The rope and Bird Pulled Bug out of
The hole and Bug and Bird went to Birds hose and plad
checkrs and bird won.  

Once students enter the Textual Stage, they will begin to
write stories with a beginning, middle, and end. The
students' first attempts with writing connected text will
be organized differently from the adult standard. These
young writers will use what experts call the 'and
connection' when they write. They use the word 'and' to
connect thoughts. As students become more familiar with
how written language is organized, they will abandon the
'and connection' and will organize their written text
using sentences. Their stories will become more
sophisticated as they are exposed to the different forms
of text. They also begin to tell life stories using
expository text. Students who are writing at Stage Seven
should be encouraged to explore the elements and forms of
narrative text and the forms of expository text and begin
to play with written language with transformational
grammar exercises.