The Development of Writing

At the beginning of chapter seven there is a quote that really stood out to me. This quote by Donald Graves reads, "Children want to write. They want to write the first day they attend school. This is no accident. Before they went to school they marked up walls, pavements, newspaper with crayons, chalk, pens or pencils, anything that makes a mark. The child's marks say, I Am." This quote stands out to me because it is showing that all children are ready to learn how to write. The are excited for it, which as teachers, we need to take advantage of so that we can make their learning experience as fun as possible. Since children learn a lot about literacy through play and the observation of others it is key that we understand that and model that behavior. Soon the marks the children are making will become written messages from which children understand the meaning. I think it is very important that future teachers understand the six steps of writing development in order to know where each of their students are with their development.
1. Writing via Drawing: The child will draw a picture to replace that of where words would usually be. The child sees drawing as a specific and purposeful message. When a child is using writing via drawing they will read their picture to us as if they were reading what they would have written.

2. Writing via Scribbling: The child will scribble on the page but intends it as writing. It is often that the scribbles appear to be going from left to right. This shows the comprehension of visually seeing an adult write and the mimicking of that behavior such as how the pencil moves and the writing sounds a pencil makes. The scribbles resemble writing.

3. Writing via Making Letterlike Forms: The shapes the child make at first glance look as if they are letters. However, if you look closer to the drawing they only resemble that of letters and are actually divided shapes. 

4. Writing via Reproducing Well-Learned Units or Letter Strings: The child will write a letter sequence commonly using letters they are comfortable with, such as letters that are in their name or that they most likely see more of.

5. Writing via Invented Spelling: Students use many varieties and levels of invented spelling. Students create their own spelling for words when they do not know the actual spelling of the word. One letter may represent an entire word, and words sometimes overlap and are not properly spaced. Sometimes the words or spelled correctly but only missing one letter.

6. Writing via Conventional Spelling: The students writing resembles that of adult writing.