Sorreee!- writing level question

[bluegiraffe]

Hi, I know this has been done to death on here but I am confused by how much teachers have to be seen to record a child's 'level' and 'expected progress' etc. But I as a parent have no feedback other than verbal and occasional 'she's doing well' or (more recently) 'she's a good writer ..
So today my curiosity has got the better of me. My DD came out of school clutching some papers, the cover sheet hand-written (by her) says "Eva story time " -she had written it during "golden time" not for a particular lesson or task..

She has stuck several plain A4 sheets together, and hand drawn lines on them, on which she has written the following (I have copied exactly as written, all she has written is joined up/cursive) ...
Once a pon a time There was a little girl called Eva and her mummy called Jane. They were
having a Tea party. when Just then the door bell Rang. and There in front of Eva stood a bear but it wasent a bad bear it was a frendly bear so Eva let the kind bear in the house. They had tea together. Then The bear fat so Eva made him a bath. He had a lovely bath then he dreid his self with the towl. Then he and I went downstairs the the bear went home we were sad so was the bear. then daddy came home then he said what's the matter. So Jane and me told what happend and How The Bear came to tea.

Now I'm pretty sure it's good for age (she is just 6), but I'm interested in what level it might attain vs NC bands and what are the things in it are good for age/normal really.
And I'm really proud of her!! And don't feel I can enthuse about her at school without looking like PFB/pushy parent!
Thank you for any replies :-)

[friendlyface12]

Very sweet- having tea with her mummy!
I would say it's a Level 3-
Your dd uses full stops and uses capitals to start sentences sometimes. She has a beginning, middle and end to her story.She also uses some adjectives,'kind' and 'lovely'.
I think you should feel rightly proud of her.

1. The next step (target) would be to always use capital letter at the start of each sentence.
   
2. To use a new paragraph for each new place/time/character.
   

I am a secondary English teacher by the way.
By the start of secondary school children average a level, I would say.

[friendlyface12]

Sorry missed number off! Average a level 4 at start of yr 7.

I would say your dd's work is level 3c.

[ipadquietly]

I'd say a 1a/2c.

[juniper9]

I thought 2b. It's not sophisticated enough to be a 2a/ 3c, even though she has a good grasp of openers.

[sunnyday123]

Dd does loads of stories at age 7 so I'd say its typical of what she did in year 1 and she's above average but not unusually so.

[mrz]

I would say a level 1 piece.
Has she been reading The Tiger who came for tea at school? It sounds like a good innovation on the text which may be something they do in school.

[bluegiraffe]

Hi, thanks for all replies, surprised by range of possibilities for levels - I can see why best not to get hung up on them!

mrz - they haven't done Tiger Who CT Tea at school, but she does have the book and knows the story well! When you say level 1, would you
sublevel it a,b or c?

friendlyface - thank you, yes the capital letters are still a little hit and miss.
Does the fact that she does correct cursive writing (v neat!!) and spelling 'add'anything to level scores? Or is it more content ?

Anyway, long live her love of writing!! In this computer-filled age:-)

[mrz]

I would say 1A

[gorionine]

Bluegiraffe, I do not know about all the schools, but in my DC's one, they have, in the inside cover of their book, an APP sheet for each subject (numeracy, shape space data, writing and reading) Let's say your daughter works at a level 2, she would have a level 2 APP with 3 columns (2c, 2b,2a) each column has a range of skills that needs to be acquired in order to progress to the next sub level/level. Usually the teacher will tell the child what they can date/tick on their sheet. (usually needs several dates or tick in order for 1 skill to be considered sufficiently secure). Most children do know which level they are working at and what their next target level is.
I suggest you make an appointment with your DD's teacher to go over her APP and have a clearer idea of her level. I must say until the last few years our parents evening were very 'floaty' and we used to come out of them not knowing more than when we got in. In recent years, due to a change of leadership, parents are made very aware of their children's progress and it is much more helpful as we know exactly what we need to help with.

[lljkk]

Crikey, no consensus then!

In my amateur experience, that would be about typical for middle of y2, so something like a 2c.

[mrz]

Really lljkk?

[Jacksterbear]

Ds is 6.2 and in y1; we have had parents' eve this week and been told he is currently at level 1B for his writing and his teacher wants him to be at 1A by the end of the year. Your Dd's spelling is impressively good; much better than DS's. I get the impression from ds's teacher, though, that spelling is seen as less important in y1 than sentence structure. Ds apparently needs to work on using more adjectives, and starting all sentences with a capital and ending with a full stop - which your dd is doing.

[Ogretmen]

I'm a year 1 teacher and I would say that that piece of writing would indicate a high level 1 (1A).

In order to be a high level 1, you have to have elements of level 2, but there is not enough there to qualify it as a low level 2 (2C). Neat writing is part of the assessment but it isn't one of the assessment focuses (AFs) that you have to take into consideration to level it. Spelling is one of the AFs but there has to be a certain combination along with it.

Obviously, a writing level assessment would have to be based on more than one piece of writing.

Hope that helps.

[RedHelenB]

Capital letters are in the wrong places therefore more or less ruling out a level 2 punctuation wise but she is definitely on the right lines & her story is clear & makes sense ( I too suspected that they had been looking at The tiger who came to tea. Also her spelling is good too. To get onto a secure level 2 she needs more adjectives & perhaps some different connectives & punctuation.

But 1 b is the average for Y1 so she's doing well & you should rightly be proud of her!!!

[RedHelenB]

Sorry, typing this with a ds on my knee so excuse my own punctuation errors!!!

I think the more she writes off her own bat the better her class work will be so definitely encourage her to keep going with her story writing¬