Can a teacher please tell me what level this would be marked at?

[muffinflop]

This is exactly how it was written

*

The magic dragon

Once upon a time there was a magic dragon. He had 5 eyes, 3 mouths and 89 feet.

People kept running away from him! But they didnt know that he was a magic dragon.

The next day he had a thought about everything that had happened. Just then he said hmm I know I will cast a spell on them. That worked and then they all liked him.

Also, how many NC levels are children 'expected' to improve between September and July (ie a school year)?

Thanks!

If the spellings are the child's own (unsupported) then they are demonstrating high level skills but the actual content of the writing (choice of vocabulary, use of connectives, adjectives, complex sentences, variety of punctuation etc ) isn't developed enough to warrant a level 2.

Exactly mrz - you are so much more eloquent than me!

And actually, if the child is capable of learning correct spellings for those words, they surely would be capable of learning how to use more connectives, punctuation, etc.

MumblingRagDoll no one is suggesting that the OP shouldn't be pleased with the writing.

A better link:

webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110113104120/nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/primary/assessment/literacy/assessingpupilsprogress/standardsfiles

This is a levelled 2C written by a Y1 child

Once upon a time there were three bears. Mummy bear made some porridge. Mummy bear said there is porridge then they went in the woods. Then Goldilocks came in too the house. Next she said this is too hot. Then she went to the next porridge but it was too cold. Next she went to baby bears porridge and eat it all up. Then she went in the living room but the furst chair was too hard. The second chair was too soft. Next she sat on baby bears chair. It broak up into little peeses. After that she went upstairs. She laid on the bed. She said this is too hard. After she had laid on the second bed but it is too soft. The last bed was just right.

squidgy - but it's not just about the spelling mistakes, it's about the varied sentence starters, use of connectives etc.

Ahhh! The age old debate... "better" work is neat handwriting, accurate, but basic punctuation and good spelling ... vs maturity of content, clear plot, exciting and appropriate word choices.
In an ideal world we get it all, but I have many boys with great imagination, complex plot, amazing use of vocabulary, etc. but in the heat of their excitement to write they forget capital letters and full stops (despite using !, ? & " accurately) and they use phonetic spellings that make sense, but are incorrect. Personall I know what I prefer if I really have to choose.

In the Goldilocks piece there are spelling mistakes
furst
peeses
broak

but they are phonetically plausible so perfectly acceptable

What takes it to the next level is the detail, connectives, then, next,after that ...
and yes a teacher would be looking for more than a few simple sentences. The Goldilocks writing is a side of A4 paper in the child's joined hand writing.

39

I don't think any of the teachers on here are saying that there is anything wrong with the OP's child's writing. She has a lot to be proud of (other than she is concerned with his progress). I would have been delighted if my DS had written like this in Year 1. But what we are saying is that using the criteria that we level the work against the Goldilocks story that mrz has exampled is at a higher level than the example given by the OP.

The second piece has been produced in class I imagine in response to work on fairy stories (Traditional tales and Fairy stories is a literacy unit in the National Framework) Children would be expected to

Retell stories, ordering events using story language
Independently choose what to write about, plan and follow it through
Use key features of narrative in their own writing
Find and use new and interesting words and phrases, including story language
Create short simple texts on paper
Text structure and organisation
Write chronological and non-chronological texts using simple structures
Group written sentences together in chunks of meaning or subject
Sentence structure and punctuation
Compose and write simple sentences independently to communicate meaning
Use capital letters and full stops when punctuating simple sentences

No I don't find girls write more than boys some boys write lengthy pieces and some girls write very short stories. My best writers are all boys.

squidgy it is knowing what is appropriate for what subject

If writing a piece of narrative it needs a certain length and detail
if writing a set of instructions bullet points would be the best way to present the information .

Which is why we don't really level a child on a single piece of writing. We use a selection of pieces in different genres.

This is a nice little story for Y1, but it shows the child's immaturity by it's lack of detail.
It doesn't really tell a clear story, with a sequence of events, although the plan is to get the dragon to cast a spell to make people like him.
There is no description of the dragon (only a list of numbers of body parts!!). A simple description would be expected at level 2, perhaps of his fiery breath, or glimmering scales.
There is no description of how the magic worked - with a puff or a wheeze?!
The reason for casting a spell is not clearly explained.
The story starts 'once upon a time', so the use of the time connective 'the next day' doesn't really make sense. (I would guess that the learning objective was something to do with time connectives!!)

Good on minimuffin, though! He'll come on a treat in Y2!

One of my boys wrote a story last week which included the line

...all night long the flames of the factory hissed and boomed as the men toiled to build the rocket ...

he's six

From the Standards website, this is shown as level 1 writing:
He is a gub pirate. anb he wess a pash. he hass a pat. and a huck. he has a wubn fut. and a reb clooc. he hass a goobn soob. anb a pirate hat. he hass a goobn ring. anb a dig dlac diyb. he hass a dig dgywn dot. he buss fin the tresh.
Transcript
He is a good pirate. And he wears a sash. He has a parrot. And a hook. He has a wooden foot. And a red cloak. He has a golden sword. And a pirate hat. He has a golden ring. And a big black beard. He has a big brown boat. He does find the treasure.

Surely the OP's ds has written at a much higher level than this. Ok, so he didn't use any adjectives other than magic and he needs more length/detail/description to be a very secure level 2 but his use of punctuation is very good - almost all sentences correctly demarcated, a comma in a list and correct use of exclamation mark. It can't really be compared to the "Goldilocks" story as that is just a child retelling a known story whereas this is his own creative writing.

I am looking at this from a KS2 perspective and have no recent experience in KS1 - I know there are lots of teachers of KS1 saying this would only be level 1 and I was just saying that surprised me - our year 3 children writing like this consistently would be levelled at 2b.