What in the world are LITERACY STAGES and why is CHOICE so important?

Writing is displayed in a variety of forms, whether it be a diary, essay, text message, email, blog post, PowerPoint, etc. The important thing to realize is that writing surrounds us. There is no escape from it. This means that teaching students to fall in love with writing is only going to make them more successful. This also means that it is important to teach students through choice of writing. As stages progress, so should my students love for writing.

Click below to listen to me discuss the importance of loving writing.

Why Choice?

While on the topic of choice in literacy, it is critical for students success to understand that no one student learns, develops and/or presents information in the same way. This link will direct you to a choice-board, allowing students to choose what form they will relay information learned back to the class.

The Literacy Stages of Me,  Myself and I

Below is a list of the different literacy stages which demonstrate the need for choice. There is a lot of overlap with writing techniques and in order to keep students engaged, they need creativity. To represent the different stages through real life examples, this link will take you to my personal literacy timeline.

Literacy: Divided into Five Neat Stages

Stage 0: Ages 0-6 (Before Grade school)

  • No concept of words→alphabet→beginning stages of writing
  • Progression from 3 nouns to using 200-300 words
  • Scribbles→They may be directional or symbolic

Stage 1: Grade 1

  • Variety of writings are present: book reports, narratives, recounts, descriptions, letters, poems, etc.
  • Inventive Spelling present
  • Beginning stages of curiosity in writing: predictions and reasoning

Stage 2: Grades 2 & 3

  • Drafting a variety of texts
  • Repetition of previous forms of writing, but a development of historical fiction, informational texts, persuasive and text writing
  • Understanding and use of synonyms and antonyms

Stage 3: Grades 4-9

  • All of the previous writing forms are implemented
  • Writing is used as a way to learn now
  • Writing becomes more complex
  • Writing then progresses into a multi-step process including research, drafting, editing, etc.
  • Reading and writing to learn

Stage 4: Grades 9-12

  • The above texts expand into portfolios, reports, expositions, etc., which involve a combination of assignments
  • Full use of curriculum
  • vocabulary of about 40,000 words