Early+Years+Writers

=//**Early Years Writers**//=

The information that has been gathered on the assessed Early Years learners indicates that they all learn from several different writing techniques. __**Guided writing**:__ involves the individual student or even small groups, again punctuation, grammar, spelling and syntax are practised, the students also experiment with different styles of writing including story writing or handwriting.
 * __Modelled writing:__** Is performed by the teacher, it shows the learners how to use words appropriately, correct punctuation, how to use sentences, record ideas and it also demonstrates the different purposes and styles of writing.
 * __Shared and interactive writing:__** includes a whole group or class and is led by the teacher, the purposes of this writing is for the students to learn from each other and be more involved in the lesson, Hill (2006, p.88) states that ‘shared writing builds confidence within a group, and can be the starting point for guided reading’.
 * __Independent writing:__** encourages the student to experiment and express their individual idea; its purpose is to build fluency. There are many ways to assess writing, Hill (2006, pp.290 -292) suggests the ‘Emergent and early emergent writing assessment sheet’ and a ‘more complex writing assessment sheet’, which is used for students who are at the transitional phase of literacy or above.

The writing interest’s survey that was conducted on each of the early year’s learners indicated that they all enjoyed writing and all have access to facilities that can help them with their writing such as dictionaries and computers. Story writing was a popular choice of the preferred writing style; however the students also mentioned that they enjoy handwriting and recall writing about their weekend.

The phases of literacy development are ‘designed so that teachers can envisage the distance or the zone of proximal development between what children can do and more sophisticated understandings’ (Hill, S 2006, p.5). A child’s zone of proximal development is the 'area between the students’ current independent level of functioning and what they can achieve with the assistance of others’ (ECL210, Lecture notes week 4, 2011).
 * Phases of Literacy Development**
 * **Phases of literacy development** || **Early year’s Learner** ||
 * Beginning (0 – 3 years of age) ||  ||
 * Early-emergent (3-5 years of age) ||  ||
 * Emergent (P-Kindergarten) || Student A (grade one); Student E (grade one) ||
 * Early (K- year 1) || Student B (grade one); Student D (grade two) ||
 * Transitional (Years 1-2) || Student C (grade two) ||
 * Extending (Years 2-4) ||  ||

The Early Year’s learners each appear to be at different phases of literacy, which is to be expected as they are different ages; the grade one students appear to be at the early and emergent phase. The student A was able to write about relevant topics that are meaningful towards the chosen text, write simple sentences and is aware of basic punctuation. Student B understands sentence structure and punctuation and is building a vocabulary of topic and interest based words. Student C appears to be at the transitional phase of literacy as they are more confident with the mechanics of writing, their letter formation is progressing and they use a variety of spelling strategies such as sounding out. Student D appears to be slightly less advanced in their writing skills for a grade two student, as they dont appear to be re-reading over their writing, and there are many spelling errors.

As the students were in different year levels their VELS level varied for their writing, Students C and D both came out at a VELS level 2 ‘laying the foundations’, whereas students A and B were seen to be working towards level two or already at level 2. The students appear to be achieving the expected level for their age; some may be even slightly more advanced. The teaching strategies should always aim to challenge the students in order to further develop their writing progress, the students can begin to explore the more complex purposes of writing such as report, argue, record and list.
 * VELS**