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

I think he has discovered a new letter.

The long ll.

It sounds like typical example of asynchronous development.

He seems to spell phonetically which is a good start and upper case/lower case and punctuation comes in 1st and 2nd grades. I think our kids learn quicker using phonics and sounding out.

I remember my DD spelled "tisshoe" instead of "tissue" when she was little. They will make mistakes but 8 out of 10 times, they will get it right.

Or he's really a Welsh changeling.

Maybe there's a Llewellyn in his class.

Yes, writing is by far his weakest area. As I say, I have no idea what is actually expected in K and 1st because DD was so far beyond expectations in this area.

I asked him if he would write me a story this afternoon, and he cheerfully obliged, as follows:

Once there was a gulper eel that made friens
He met a pram bug
He made friens with it
H liked him
He askt foer a play daet.
He playd.
Goodbyy sied his friend.
Goodbyy he sied.

He asked for help on how to spell "once," and I reminded him about periods (which he did here and there, but not always, as you can see).

It's a clear narrative, but not exactly, uh, complex.

(ETA: Gulper eel: http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2007/rattray_mari/GulperEel.jpg Pram bug: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blo...mesoplankton/image/image_view_fullscreen You know, for visual reference.)

Yes, but the denouement is quite poignant, so he gets points for that.

Ultramarina, DD's output at five would probably have been LESS than that, but the punctuation and spelling would have been perfect for what she DID produce. Writing is also easily her weakest area academically. She would NOT have produced such robust writing at 4.5, in all likelihood. In fact, I have samples from when she was almost four, and they aren't as detailed or complex.



I think that there is a pretty wide range of "typical" for kids in K-2. I know a few kids who would still have been using phonetic, invented spelling for some words as late as late 2nd or even 3rd grade, though. It looks to me as though he actually KNOWS how to spell most of what he is using.... he's just really, really focused on the physical task of writing at this point, which is probably completely age-appropriate even as late as 6-7yo.

I'm guessing here, but solid 1st grade doesn't seem like a reach in any way.

He has never written anything of that length before. I have never really encouraged him to write, though he writes his name and practices letters at preschool. One thing in his favor is that he's a dream to teach--easy to lead. I just haven't wanted to turn him off writing and he hasn't seemed inclined--but I could probably "hothouse" him along quite easily over the summer to get him used to the idea of writing a few sentences in response to a prompt, etc. He had no trouble composing--just sort of, oh, I could write a story, eh? I suppose I could. La la. Here you go. (DD was different...she was clearly driven to write from very early.)

I'll second that as the best way to sum up what an individual school's expectation is going to be. The schools my kids have attended and the schools my friends' children have attended have all had different approaches to early writing, and writing samples can look very different from school to school based on what each school emphasizes. My kids' school, for example, cared about the thought process behind the product, guided the kids from explaining a picture into sentences into paragraphs, so that by the end of K the students would be given a picture and expected to write 2-3 sentences about it, sorta paragraph form, definitely tied-together meaningful story form. OTOH, the school believed in using inventive spelling - let the child spell the word however he/she wanted to, so that the act of figuring out how to spell didn't take away from the process of writing for meaning. Likewise teachers didn't worry about neatness or letter reversals etc. OTOH, some of my friends' children were in schools where the early emphasis was on spelling and simple sentences and grammar/punctuation etc - so you would have seen very different writing samples on the wall at each school.

Best wishes,

polarbear

DS gifted/accelerated school really pushes writing and writing development, which has been physically tough for DS with his fine motor stuff. In his K class which was doing K-1st work, they taught the inventive spelling to not distract them from getting thoughts on paper. In 1st where they are doing 2nd and 3rd, now it's spelling and spelling correctly. So the spelling issues are tolerated to get them writing but then they drop that approach pretty quickly. They are taught both non fiction and fiction writing and these kids are writing tons - even my kid.

Ultra - your DS writing almost sounds like it would have worked for their K poetry unit. But the issue or difference I think between K and 1st gifted or not, accelerated or not, is stamina. Most K kids can't sustain the writing or the thinking associated with it - that's what they built over time. DS school builds it quickly but it still has to be developed. Interestingly, advanced reading seems to complicate matters as the kids with the bigger vocabs try to use them and get stuck on spelling. Seems like the teachers are more understanding for misspelled big words at this point but expecting perfectly spelled from their word lists.

DeHe