Graduate Program

Elementary Education

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Semester of Degree Completion

1993

Thesis Director

Mary Ellen Varble

Abstract

A first-grade teacher documents her students' progression through predictable stages as they learn to write: distinct units of scribbling and/or ground line and profile in drawing, letters, words, sentences, story structure (character, setting, problem, solving the problem, and ending the story/telling how the characters felt), and conventions (capital letters, punctuation, and conventional spelling).

Criteria based on readability at each stage by a knowledgeable and sensitive reader are an important aspect of this study.

The class writes every day using a five-day story format:

Day One: Character Pink paper

Day Two: Setting Blue paper

Day Three: Problem Yellow paper

Day Four: Solve the problem White paper

Day Five: End the story/tell how the characters felt Green paper

At whatever writing stage the child is, at least a picture can be drawn. The child begins to use letters, makes words, writes sentences, progresses through the story-structure stage, and begins to use conventions.

The literate climate in which writing occurs in this classroom is described and explained. The first week's data report is day-by-day. The second through thirteenth weeks are reported week-by-week with enough day-by-day information to explain the teacher's procedures and the progression the children make.

Twenty-two students entered the study at the beginning of the school year with nineteen at the drawing stage, two at the letter stage, and one at the sentence stage. At the end of the study, the students were at these stages: none at the drawing stage, two at the letter stage, two at the word stage, nine at the sentence stage, five at the story-structure stage, and four at the conventions stage.

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