Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What grade level of writing is this, very roughly?

DS just turned 5 in Feb. We are considering advocating for a grade skip (K to 1) next year, but I'm concerned about his writing skills, which don't seem so great to me. My DD was a very good writer and excellent speller, so I really don't know what is age-appropriate here. I am going to transcribe some sentences he wrote in a grade 1 reading workbook, without help (in response to comprehension questions)...are these like early K, mid K, late K, grade 1? The words that are correctly spelled are mostly copied from the provided text. My guess is that this is mid-K level, but like I say, maybe I'm way off? DD started K able to write much better than this.

I woud llik to ried a mery-go-roned

I woud not llike to hiik up bread loaf mountain

Becus its funy

I woud llik to see his dictionary

I woud not llik to to get so hot by a volcano so no

No becus its to snowey

Pensmanship is basically legible, but not great by any means. Letters are mixed caps and lowercase--no punctuation yet. Occasional letter reversals, but not a lot.

He answered all the reading comprehension questions correctly--in fact, they are too easy. He can easily answer reading comp questions for grades 2 and 3 and is reading 3rd-5th grade level books.

I have no idea ... but I LOVE his consistency! I too am curious to see what others have to say to compare when DS4.5 gets to that point.

I think that it probably past K. But, I would not necessarily advocate skipping K with a kid who writes like this and has occasional reversals, mixed caps, etc. It sounds to me like he needs a bit more phonics training which he would get in K. From my experience, kids who teach themselves to read at a young age do not know phonics well. This can cause problems in spelling and reading later on when they don't know the words and cannot sound them out. You may think about doing K and 1st and then skipping 2nd.

Oh, he can sound out anything. He was a phonics-based reader initially. I can't imagine that he would ever have any reading problems. It's just not going to happen. He reads aloud like a dream--surely 100+ wpm, with expression and vivacity. But obviously, the writing is way behind the reading. My DD never did anything like the "llik" that we see there (he does that over and over--??) so some part of me is just a bit confused. He doesn't really LIKE writing, but he doesn't hate it. Drawing skills are mildly advanced, but maybe by like 6 months.

Looks very good to me. Letter reversals and spelling will correct--unless you are at a school that doesn't believe in inventive spelling, in which case it might need to be taught before skipping. The sentence structure is good. It would be good to see him string together several sentences. I think first graders usually end with a conclusion from what I remember, like in the sentence where he says, "so no".

There's the writing process which looks like he is fine. Then there's the writing phonics, getting all the letter sounds in there. If every syllable is represented by a sound and you have some 3 syllable words, I think it's good enough.

Here's a link to info:
http://www.readingrockets.org/looking_at_writing/first_grade/writing_sample_1/

If you aren't sure, go into school and look at the writing on the wall. (Or ask an expert, which I am not)

Okay. His writing is more legible than many of those samples. It helps to see how they spell. I guess my DD was just completely in another category here--she never made any of these wild guesses. DS seems to be much more age-typical in his spelling ability. I just find it confusing--how can he read as well as he does and not know how to spell "like"? Brains are weird!

I understand that reading and spelling aren't linked. I can' recall where, but somewhere in this forum there was a thread on it. You can be very gifted in language, but still a terrible speller.

Just taking a wild guess here ... but I'd say he's spelling this way because he's used to reading phonetically? As opposed to if he was a sight reader, he'd know how to spell the word because he'd have the whole word memorized? Like I said. Just guessing here.

Interesting concept Mk13. Ds5 has never sounded words out, seemed like he just read one day. He has always been an excellent speller and was never taught how to.

I can confirm it doesn't work that way for my sight reader. Spelling is its own thing. And his reading guesses are fantastical (good and bad that way.) I'd say for a sight reader who uses pattern matching it is more like I can smell a carrot cake baking, but I couldn't tell you all the ingredients, their quantities, or put them together in the right order, etc.

We needed writing samples for DS7, but couldn't even guess where he was. I couldn't find an online resource, nothing. But when I walked down the hall at his school and saw the stuff posted, I was pretty confident of where he was in a short period of time and what the next level skill looked like.

The big thing I learned in exploring that topic, is a single sentence isn't enough to answer the question. The common core has complexity using a picture and words to explain it. Kindergarten definitely included concepts at a paragraph level as a standard. I think spelling is a different standard.