Teaching to the Next Level: Using the Developmental Writing Scale to guide instruction

 

My last blog post was about “Using the Developmental Writing Scale for Writing Assessment”. This blog post is going to focus on how you can use it to help guide your instruction once you have used it to determine where your students’ writing levels are at!

Just to repeat a little bit of information – the Developmental Writing Scale was published in 2012. The full reference is:

Sturm, J., Cali, K., Nelson, N.W., & Staskowski, M. (2012). The Developmental Writing Scale: A new progress monitoring tool for beginning writers. Topics in Language Disorders, 32(4), 297 – 318.

The Developmental Writing Scale has been so helpful, because it is the first writing scale we’ve found which has accommodations for students who are using alternative pencils. The scale has 14 levels and the scale overall gives us information about how to help a student move to the next level. So – let’s have a look at how that works.



                                                                 Level 1 – Drawing (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are early emergent writers. They need good emergent literacy teaching and daily opportunities to write. When they write we need to make huge use of those adult superpowers – attributing meaning and presuming competence.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing to the student e.g. morning message
    • Writing with the student e.g. predictable chart writing
    • Writing by themselves ie individual writing where they “scribble” with the alphabet and we attribute meaning
  • And the rest of good emergent literacy intervention
    • Repeated shared reading of books
    • WE point to text in books that we read e.g. this is where I start reading
    • Use talking books that highlight text as it is read
    • Incidental and explicit teaching about letters and sounds
    • Independent access to books


                                                                 Level 2 – Scribbling (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are emergent writers. They need good emergent literacy teaching and daily opportunities to write. When they write we need to make huge use of those adult superpowers – attributing meaning and presuming competence.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing to the student e.g. morning message
    • Writing with the student e.g. predictable chart writing
    • Writing by themselves ie individual writing where they “scribble” with the alphabet and we attribute meaning
  • And the rest of good emergent literacy intervention
    • Repeated shared reading of books
    • WE point to text in books that we read e.g. this is where I start reading
    • Use talking books that highlight text as it is read
    • Incidental and explicit teaching about letters and sounds
    • Independent access to books


                                                   Level 3 – Letter Strings (no groups) (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level continue to be emergent writers. They need good emergent literacy teaching and daily opportunities to write. When they write we need to make huge use of those adult superpowers – attributing meaning and presuming competence. And to help them move to Level 4 we’re going to make sure they’re aware of spaces in writing.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing to the student e.g. morning message; make sure you model leaving spaces
    • Writing with the student e.g. predictable chart writing; make sure you model leaving spaces
    • Writing by themselves ie individual writing where they “scribble” with the alphabet AND the space key (if it isn’t already on their keyboard) and we attribute meaning
  • And the rest of good emergent literacy intervention
    • Repeated shared reading of books
    • WE point to text in books that we read e.g. this is where I start reading
    • Use talking books that highlight text as it is read
    • Incidental and explicit teaching about letters and sounds
    • Independent access to books


                                               Level 4 – Letter strings grouped in words
(Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level continue to be emergent writers. They need good emergent literacy teaching and daily opportunities to write. When they write we need to make huge use of those adult superpowers – attributing meaning and presuming competence. And to help them move to Level 5 we’re going to make sure they’re that we think about words and letters when we write.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing to the student e.g. morning message; make sure you model using some high interest and high frequency words (like their names) and model thinking about initial sounds in words
    • Writing with the student e.g. predictable chart writing; make sure they cut up their sentences themselves
    • Writing by themselves ie individual writing where they “scribble” with the alphabet and the space key and we attribute meaning
  • And the rest of good emergent literacy intervention
    • Repeated shared reading of books
    • WE point to words in books that we read
    • Use talking books that highlight text word-by-word
    • Incidental and explicit teaching about letters and sounds
    • Introduce onset and rime
    • Independent access to books


                                                       Level 5: One intelligible words (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are heading towards being early conventional writers but are usually still emergent. They mostly still need some emergent literacy teaching but we start moving towards conventional instruction. We usually want to move to using a Word Wall and start with systematic phonics instruction to help them move to Level 6 – as long as they know most of the letters in the alphabet most of the time. If they don’t then we need to keep working on their alphabet knowledge.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing to the student e.g. morning message; make sure you use the word wall yourself and model “sounding it out” for words that aren’t on the wall
    • Writing with the student e.g. predictable chart writing; they should have been participating in re-reading their sentences already and you can continue this and also use this as an opportunity to talk about inner voice
    • Writing by themselves ie individual writing where they “scribble” with the alphabet and the space key and we still attribute meaning and celebrate their successes
  • And the rest of good emergent literacy intervention
    • Repeated shared reading of books
    • WE point to words in books that we read
    • Use talking books that highlight text word-by-word
    • Most students are ready to move onto word wall at this stage but continue with consolidating letters and sounds if needed.
    • Continue onset and rime but if the student is hearing initial sounds most of the time then move onto systematic sequential phonics
    • Independent access to books (and this is the time to introduce readers or books similar to readers)


                                                Level 6: Two to three intelligible words (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are now early conventional readers and writers. They should definitely have moved onto conventional literacy instruction – and continue to need daily opportunities to write for real reasons.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing to the student e.g. morning message; make sure you use the word wall yourself and model “sounding it out” for words that aren’t on the wall
    • Independent writing; students should definitely be using a full one-page alphabet display at this stage if they haven’t already move to it, such as a keyboard low tech or high tech.
    • Writing mini-lessons focusing on writing “one good sentence”.
  • And the rest of good conventional literacy intervention
    • Comprehension instruction
    • Independent access to books (and this is the time to introduce readers or books similar to readers)
    • Repeated reading of books by both the student and adults (shared reading can still also be helpful at this stage)
    • DO NOT point to words in books as you are reading – and don’t let them do that either!
    • Word wall
    • Systematic sequential phonics


                           Level 7  Three more more different intelligible words in a list
(Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are early conventional readers and writers. They need conventional literacy instruction – and continue to need daily opportunities to write for real reasons.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing to the student e.g. morning message; make sure you use the word wall yourself and model “sounding it out” for words that aren’t on the wall
    • Independent writing; students should definitely be using a full one-page alphabet display at this stage if they haven’t already move to it, such as a keyboard low tech or high tech.
    • Writing mini-lessons continue to focus on writing “one good sentence”.
  • And the rest of good conventional literacy intervention
    • Comprehension instruction
    • Continue actively working on inner voice
    • Independent access to books at or below their reading comprehension levelpeated reading of books by both the student and adults (shared reading can still also be helpful at this stage)
    • DO NOT point to words in books as you are reading – and don’t let them do that either!
    • Word wall
    • Systematic sequential phonics


                                   
                               Level 8 – Partial sentence of more than three words
(Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are early conventional readers and writers. They need conventional literacy instruction – and continue to need daily opportunities to write for real reasons.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing to the student e.g. morning message; make sure you use the word wall yourself and model “sounding it out” for words that aren’t on the wall
    • Writing mini-lessons continue to focus on writing “one good sentence”.
  • And the rest of good conventional literacy intervention
    • Comprehension instruction
    • Continue actively working on inner voice
    • Independent access to books at or below their reading comprehension level
    • Repeated reading of books by both the student and adults (shared reading can still also be helpful at this stage)
    • DO NOT point to words in books as you are reading – and don’t let them do that either!
    • Word wall
    • Systematic sequential phonics


                                               Level 9 – One to two complete sentences
(Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are conventional readers and writers. They need conventional literacy instruction including daily opportunities to write for real reasons.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing mini-lessons focus on expanding writing with who, what, when, where and why
  • And the rest of good conventional literacy intervention
    • Comprehension instruction
    • Continue actively working on inner voice
    • Independent access to books at or below their reading comprehension level
    • Repeated reading of books by both the student and adults (shared reading can still also be helpful at this stage)
    • DO NOT point to words in books as you are reading – and don’t let them do that either!
    • Word wall
    • Systematic sequential phonics


         Level 10 Three or more unrelated sentences (neither coherent nor cohesive) (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are conventional readers and writers. They need conventional literacy instruction including daily opportunities to write for real reasons.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing mini-lessons focus on expanding writing with who, what, when, where and why
  • And the rest of good conventional literacy intervention
    • Comprehension instruction
    • Independent access to books at or below their reading comprehension level
    • Word wall and Making Words

       Level 11 – Three or more related sentences (coherent but limited cohesion) (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are conventional readers and writers. They need conventional literacy instruction including daily opportunities to write for real reasons.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing mini-lessons focus on “writing is about telling stories” and use “give me 5” as a resource for topics
  • And the rest of good conventional literacy intervention
    • Comprehension instruction
    • Independent access to books at or below their reading comprehension level
    • Word wall and Making Words


         Level 12 – Three or more related sentences that cannot be reordered (coherent and cohesive)
                                                                                  (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are conventional readers and writers. They need conventional literacy instruction including daily opportunities to write for real reasons.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing mini-lessons continue to stretch student’s writing focusing on topics such as spelling, reading the room, capitals and full stops, editor’s checklist and author’s chair
  • And the rest of good conventional literacy intervention
    • Comprehension instruction
    • Independent access to books at or below their reading comprehension level
    • Word wall and Making Words


             Level 13 – Two coherent paragraphs of at least three cohesive sentences each (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are conventional readers and writers. They need conventional literacy instruction including daily opportunities to write for real reasons.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing mini-lessons continue to stretch student’s writing focusing on topics such as adding to a piece of writing, titles, spelling, publishing, writing a story with beginning, middle and end, ending punctuation
  • And the rest of good conventional literacy intervention
    • Comprehension instruction
    • Independent access to books at or below their reading comprehension level
    • Word wall and Making Words


        Level 14 Three or more coherent paragraphs of at least three cohesive sentences each
                                                                           (Sturm et al, 2012)

Students at this level are conventional readers and writers. They need conventional literacy instruction including daily opportunities to write for real reasons.

  • DAILY opportunities to write for real reasons
    • Writing mini-lessons continue to stretch student’s writing focusing on topics such as writing an information piece, using visual organisers for writing
  • And the rest of good conventional literacy intervention
    • Comprehension instruction
    • Independent access to books at or below their reading comprehension level
    • Word wall and Making Words

And that’s the end of the scale. Hopefully that was helpful – and “write on”.


Reference

Sturm, J., Cali, K., Nelson, N.W., & Staskowski, M. (2012). The Developmental Writing Scale: A new progress monitoring tool for beginning writers. Topics in Language Disorders, 32(4), 297 – 318.

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Comments (9)

  1. Helen Brunner

    Reply

    Hi Jane
    Enjoying following your posts on the use of the DWS. I have a question about the modelling of using “sounding out” the word in writing morning message etc. do you actually write the words as they sound…even when it isn’t correct spelling? I have seen it in books etc and understand why but I know that for many teachers it would be really counter-intuitive and hard to do ☺

    • jane

      Reply

      Hi Helen, I would spell them correctly – unless I’m modelling that it’s OK to make mistakes. I usually say something like “this is a word you’ve just got to learn how to spell”. Hope that helps.

  2. Reply

    Love & appreciate to past 3 DWS posts as they provide valuable insight and guidance to ensure we are engaging every student, everyday in every classroom to be a writer. The DWS also highlights and supports the need to capture evidence of writing development over time and set student focussed ‘next step’ goals to enable success for all writers.
    Bex Nikotemo

  3. Pingback: Using the Developmental Writing Scale. #AGOSCI2019 | Jane Farrall Consulting

    • jane

      Reply

      Hi Natasha, morning message is where a teacher writes a message to their class at the beginning of the day. It is something that comes true – so it teaches them that print has meaning. The teacher thinks about and writes the message in front of them to teacher that text is a code for speech. As students progress, teachers then use it to model print concepts e.g. using spaces, thinking about spelling, long words versus short words. If you Google “morning message classroom” you’ll see lots of examples. Cheers Jane

  4. Marie Anstiss

    Reply

    Hi Jane,
    great site. Im just discovering it. I wonder if you could explain ‘Give me 5’ and ‘writing is about telling stories’ that you mention in level 11?
    Thanks
    Marie

    • jane

      Reply

      HI Marie – Give me 5 is where you make a resource with students which consists of lists of their favourite 5 things e.g. Top 5 Movies, Top 5 places. Then when they are stuck for a writing topic, you suggest they look at their “Give me 5” book. Writing is about telling stories is a theme we introduce across a number of writing mini-lessons where you teach students that we write about interesting places, times, things and people and that their writing gives enough information. Cheers. Jane

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