Sulzby's Continuum of Writing Levels
Random
Important Terms
Issues for ELL/ Instructional Strategies/ Assesments
Stages of Writing Development
100
The spelling of certain words become more accurate as students are continuously exposed to different genres of print.
What is conventional spelling?
100
Activities designed to duplicate or reflect writing topics that are relevant to the students' lives.
What is authentic writing activities?
100
Repetitive moves
What is a recurring term?
100
Some languages use ______ over English letters.
What are symbols?
100
Strings of letters (not representing speech sounds in any systematic way)
What is pre-phonemic?
200
The student begins to read based on pictures only.
What is drawing?
200
Manipulating letters to to create new letters.
What is flexibility?
200
Understanding symbols represent text.
What is sign concept?
200
Words that look and sound similar in different languages but do not have the same meaning.
What is a false cognate?
200
Letters selected to represent phonemes (based on the similarities between the sounds of the letter names and the phonemes)
What is letter- name?
300
Writing still consists of drawing and scribbles; however, letter like forms start to appear.
What is letter string?
300
Making a list of new letters and words.
What is inventory principle?
300
Using the same letters over and over in different variations.
What is generative?
300
Repetition, tracing, copying and generating are all examples of these...
What are instructional strategies?
300
Words look like English (often spelled incorrectly); estimated spelling, conventional spelling stages
What is the transitional stage?
400
Writing starts to differ from drawing as it takes a specific form.
What is scribbling?
400
Writing over the letters that someone else has written.
What is tracing?
400
The space between words.
What is negative space?
400
A simple way to assess a child's writing is simply to look at the final product.
What is product?
400
Letters are used to represent sounds (letters are often written for only one or two sounds in a word); letter like forms and letter strings, estimated spelling stages
What is the early phonemic stage?
500
Actual letters begin to appear in this stage. Children begin to use the sounds of certain letters to make up different words, although the spelling may not always be correct.
What is invented spelling?
500
Using the letters someone else has written as a prompt.
What is copying?
500
How print is organized.
What is directionality?
500
An assessment tool which looks at the child's writing process; paying attention to the pre-writing, actual writing and revision
What is Process?
500
Majority of words are spelled correctly; conventional spelling stage
What is the correct/final stage?