A year 2 writing sample....

[theangryredpixie]

I've worked myself up into a slight panic about my ds who seems to struggle with writing. His Literacy book at parent's evening seemed really empty. He's sat and done this on his own tonight bribed with a comic please have a look and tell me if I'm right to be concerned or if I'm over reacting. He's just 7 and has completed his first half term in year 2. Thanks!

over reacting personally some just take longer to be neat than others some never are!

Please don't worry, I work in ks1 and really wouldn't be concerned.

Looks fine to me. You'll always get other children that are joining up and with perfect spelling but honestly this looks fine.

His writing is pretty neat but he needs to practice which letters go under the line (for example the letter g)

His sentences are long and varied.

Maybe his books are empty because he's easily distracted in the classroom?

Actually forget what I said about letters under the line.

Overreacting to his book being empty or to that being his standard of writing? Do you think he is showing what he is capable of in school or not? I teach KS2 but that looks at least average for Y2 ability at this stage in the year, quite possibly above average.

Overreacting to his book being empty or to that being his standard of writing?

When I say the book was empty I mean there were very few actual pieces of writing (maybe 3) and they were all one short paragraph long. The rest of the book looked like a series of sentences where you're teaching spelling or punctuation.

1. My dog is black.
2. Is my dog black?

That sort of thing. It just made it look as if he was being heavily supported and wasn't capable of producing much on his own.

I'm happy that people think he's generally on track, if messy though, so thanks for your help

It’s on a par with my son’s writing (also Yr2) but he did not reach age related expectations for writing at the end of Yr1 (he’s fine for everything else). Writing is definitely my son’s weakest area. What did the teachers say to you about his writing at the parents evening?

I’m a Y2 teacher. I wouldn’t be overly worried about that. It looks broadly on track. Talk to the teacher if you’re worried but you should have been told at parents evening if there were any concerns.

I did talk to the teacher but felt a bit fobbed off tbh. She focussed heavily on the handwriting issue (saying we can use a keyboard eventually if he's really struggling) which I know is a mess but it's improving so that's good. The thing is, we're learning new spellings every week, he does well in the tests but then it doesn't seem to feed into his work, is that normal? Plus capital letters are definitely lacking. His dad thinks give it until Christmas then have another conversation, which is probably quite sensible.

Senco here. If a teacher brought this to me I'd be saying 'fab, this boy has a great imagination' and I'd have no concerns at all. He's clearly learned a great deal already.

Y2 teacher here. Wouldn’t be worried at this point in the year, plus he has a great imagination

You say he’s not applying spellings but I can see two Y2 common exception words in there - climb and because! I

Looks really normal for his age

OP - I don’t think that your son’s handwriting is that bad at all. What he’s written is legible - he might not have the finest penmanship in the world but surely legibility is the goal? As I mentioned before - your sons writing ability is on a par with mine (although yours has a much better imagination than mine!). We’re trying to help my boy with basic grammar such as capitalising the first letter in new sentences and making ‘tall letters’ as tall as they should be.

Thanks @BabyMommaDec2012 it's tricky to know whether to do lots at home or leave them to develop naturally isn't it? I've been getting him to dictate something to me whilst I scribe, then we read our shared version, put it away and he has a go at his own version of writing. This seems to help him get over his mental "I can't do it" block.

I have a Y3 boy who is nowhere where that. I have done a lot of research into literacy and handwriting and your boy seems just fine! His creativity and literacy skills are very good and his neatness isn’t bad at all. I’d keep encouraging him and do things like diaries, writing letters and cards (that’s your Christmas cards sorted ).
Also don’t compare. My son IS behind and I’m getting help for him but your boy is doing just fine. Keep up with the reading and get him to write but in a non stressful way.

Thanks for that and big thanks to everybody that replied, it's made me see that I've been a bit OTT so whilst I'll keep being supportive I'll back off a bit and try not to stress.

My DS's handwriting was way worse than that at the end of Y2 (he's Y4 now) and would struggle to write that much, despite scoring in the top 1% in the (computer based so no writing) English assessment they did at school. I worked with him a little a day over the holiday; we kept a diary every day and he would get rewards for writing in proper cursive. By the beginning of Y3 his writing was no longer conspicuously awful compared to the rest of the class and now in Y4 it's totally fine. To be honest I couldn't care less about handwriting as long as it's legible and fits within the space provided and doesn't look so awful it puts people off reading!

I’m not a teacher but I think it looks ok for Y2. I have a child in Y2 and whilst waiting at a recent parents last week I saw a lot of class writing displayed on the walls. I was pretty surprised at such a range of ability to be honest, some of it looked amazing, like adult writing and some was quite basic reception standard writing. The range of normal is huge.

Better than one of mine in Y2 (dyspraxia diagnosis), worse than one of mine when they were in Y2 (came out at greater depth across the board at the end of the year).

Looks very neat compared to my DD, who is also in Y2. Academically, she is soaring - has progressed further in reading than anyone else in her class, has a very wide and advanced vocabulary and her composition of sentences is excellent. Her handwriting is barely legible, though. She is going to get special help with it this year. Your son's writing looks far neater than my daughter's so I really would not worry.

Much better than my year 2 DD.

My son is 6 but will be 7 in February. I would be really happy if he wrote something like this. It's a great story and the handwriting is legible. 7 is still young. Hope he enjoyed his comic :)