Another episode of "Rate this writing"!

[lucysnowe]

Hi all

I wondered if anyone was free to take a look at DD's writing - see here. She is 6 1/2 (April birthday) in Y2. She got 'expected' in her Y1 report for writing but personally I think her level is a bit below that. I just wanted to get some feedback from you lovely ladies and maybe some advice about how to help her/tell teacher at parents' evening.

(yes, it is the lyrics to Doe A Deer! :))

Didn't want to just read and run. I'm no expert, and my oldest DS is younger, but that does look a bit behind to me. I'd bring it up with the teacher.

I'm not an expert but my ds is almost 6 and in year 1. His teacher said at parents evening that he's achieving at the expected level, and I think he would possibly be able to do a bit better than that if he could actually be persuaded to do some writing

We'd need a range of 4-6 independent pieces of writing in various genres to be able to judge properly.

What is it exactly that is making you feel she's below?

Awww, bless- took me a while to work out what it was! To make a proper judgement, you would need to get something which is her own ideas though-could she write her own story?

From what I can see, she is using her phonic knowledge to spell, sometimes uses finger spaces but not always consistent, needs to start using full stops- but how would a 6year old know how to punctuate a song? So she does have some skills in place.

No expert here, but I don't think it looks bad enough to worry about.

Thanks for comments thus far :-).

I will try and find some more of her writing - it is quite similar though with the lack of capital letters, full stops and with words running on which makes me feel that it is below the standard for Y2. I wonder about her spelling as well but assume it is phonetically plausible? She also often gets her numbers the wrong way around (and mixes up s and z). She has only just started writing for pleasure so I don't want to turn it into a chore, but I wonder if she could do with some extra help...

Check on Amazon for some handwriting books, and lined pads. They are good for forming and spacing letters and words.

Get her to help you write out the shopping list, letter to milkman, Christmas cards etc.

Poor DH was taught cursive from primary one after learning 'normal' letters in nursery, and he is still rebelling/grumbling about it. He even stomped off to the Head and asked him why he had to learn to write in a different way (he must've been about 4 at the time).

My dd is the same age and that writing is very similar to how she would write that song, although she probably would have got bored before the end and not finished. I think my dd is a bit behind and she also is a bit behind in reading too and is getting a bit of extra help at school. She is starting to enjoy writing though so at this stage I am just trying to encourage her as much as possible and read with her as often as I can.

Thanks all. Lindy that is interesting. I am going to see what help my DD gets in school - I know she does handwriting practice.

Not to dripfeed, I am a bit worried because DH had lots of trouble with his writing at school (probably undiagnosed dysgraphia) and I wanted to make sure DD gets more support than he did.

I would judge it to be a 1B at NC standards which at this stage in Y2 is the lower end of expected. There are a few more months to go in Year 2!
I struggled to read it for the following reasons:
Lack of punctuation
No structure - words seem to follow onto the next line rather than beginning a word on a new line if it cannot fit as well as writing in the style of a poem/song.
Phonic knowledge seems to be poor - she certainly spells some words correctly but others lack the correct sounds
Letter formation
But the content of the writing is very strong and she is able to write what we consider quite a few sentences. If she was able to use punctuation and structure it in the form of a poem (though I know it is a song) and uses her phonic skills more accurately so it can be read easily, it would easily pass for a 2C.
In short, I wouldn't sorry too much about it, as long as her teacher is aware of what she needs to do to improve. Small steps; big leaps.

junkfood - thanks, that is really, really useful. I will see what the teacher says. She is not bad at phonics and average at reading but maybe if that improves too she will get more confidence. Her spelling has improved but we don't get tests for homework so I'm not sure by how much.

Also i find that children, particularly young children, don't complete writing tasks with the same quality as they do at school when doing them at home. So she could be far better. Ask to see her writing assessments.