University of Brighton
Faculty of Education and Sport
School of Education
PRIMARY LANGUAGE RECORD: TALK/KS1/KS2
Observations and Samples
Attach extra pages where needed
Name:
Year Group:
Talking and Listening: diary of observations
The diary below is for recording examples of the child’s
developing use of talk for learning and for interacting with
others in English and/or other community languages.
Include different kinds of talk (e.g. planning an event,
solving a problem, expressing a point of view or feelings,
reporting on the results of an investigation, telling a story
etc).
Notes the child’s experience and confidence in handling
social dimensions of talk (e.g. initiating a discussion,
listening to another contribution, qualifying former ideas,
encouraging others etc).
LEARNING
CONTEXTS
SOCIAL CONTEXTS
pair
small child small/
group with large
adult group
with
adult
collaborative reading
and writing activities
play, dramatic play,
drama & storytelling
environmental
studies & historical
research
maths & science
investigations
design, construction,
craft & art projects
The matrix sets out some possible contexts for observing
talk and listening. Observations made in the diary can be
plotted on the matrix to record the range of social and
curriculum contexts sampled.
Dates
JS/cj
Observations and their contexts
1
University of Brighton
Faculty of Education and Sport
School of Education
PRIMARY LANGUAGE RECORD: READING/KS1/KS2
Reading Samples (reading in English and/or other community languages)
To include reading aloud and reading silently
Dates
Title or book/text (fiction or
information)
Known/unknown text
Sampling procedure used:
Informal assessment/running
record/miscue analysis
Overall impression of the
child’s reading:
 confidence and degree of
independence
 involvement in the book/text
 the way in which the child
read the text aloud.
 Strategies the child used
when reading aloud:
 drawing on previous
experience to make sense
of the book/text
 playing at reading
 using book language
 reading the pictures
 focusing on print
 (directionality, 1:1
correspondence, recognition
of certain words)
 using semantic/syntactic/
grapho-phonic cues
 predicting
 self-correcting
 using several strategies or
over-dependence on one.
 Child’s response to the
book/text:
 personal response
 critical response
(understanding,
evaluating, appreciating
wider meanings).
What this sample shows about
the child’s development as a
reader
Experiences/support needed
for further development
 Use the points as a guide. Comment on those relevant to the child and reading context.
JS/cj
2
University of Brighton
Faculty of Education and Sport
School of Education
PRIMARY LANGUAGE RECORD: WRITING/KS1
Writing Samples (writing in English and/or other community languages)
‘Writing’ to include children’s earliest attempts at writing
Dates
Context and background
information about the
writing:
 how the writing arose
 how the child went about
the writing
 whether the child was
writing alone or with others
 whether the writing was
discussed with anyone while
the child was working on it
 kind of writing (e.g. list,
letter, story, information
writing)
 complete piece of
work/extract.
Child’s own response to the
writing.
Teacher’s response:
 to the content of the writing
 to the child’s ability to
handle this particular kind
of writing
 overall impression.
Development of spelling and
conventions of writing.
What this writing shows about
the child’s development as a
writer:
 how it fits into the range of
the child’s previous writing
 experience/support needed
to further development.
JS/cj
3
University of Brighton
Faculty of Education and Sport
School of Education
PRIMARY LANGUAGE RECORD: READING/KS2
Reading Samples Key Stage 2 (reading in English and/or other community languages)
To include reading aloud and reading silently
Dates
Title or book/text
W Well known
K Known
U Unknown
T Teacher chosen
F Fiction
P Poetry, rhymes
I Information
C Child chosen
Dates
Sampling procedure used:
M Miscue Analysis
I Informal
(Individual/group)
Overall impression of the child’s reading:
 confidence and degree of independence
 way in which the child reads the text aloud (e.g.
fluency, expression)
 choice of text.
Strategies used when reading aloud:
 drawing on previous experience
 using semantic/syntactic/grapho-phonic/
illustration cues
 predicting
 using analogy
 self-correcting
 using several strategies or over-dependence on
one.
 using strategies appropriate to this kind of text
(e.g. information text).
Response, understanding and analysis
How far the child is able to:
 make links with personal experience and other
texts, indicating preferences
 explore literary meanings e.g. retell, predict,
read pictures/diagrams
 hypothesize and make inferences, using
evidence critically reflect on author intention
and style, interpret wider meanings
 discuss patterns and features of texts
Child’s self-assessment and learning aims
Plan the next steps for this child as a reader
(e.g. developing confidence, strategies, range of
texts, response and understanding).
 Use the points as a guide. Comment on those relevant to the child and reading context.
JS/cj
4
University of Brighton
Faculty of Education and Sport
School of Education
PRIMARY LANGUAGE RECORD: WRITING/KS2
Writing Samples (writing in English and/or other community languages)
Dates
Title/type of writing
(Draft/finished work)
Context
 How the writing arose.
 Degree of confidence and independence.
 Nature of support given.
Process
 How the child went about the writing.
 How far the child discussed and developed the
writing.
Compositional aspects
How far the child is:
 developing ideas through writing
 able to handle this particular kind of writing
 writing with a reader in mind
 drawing on experience of reading in structuring this
text
 organising this text coherently
 choosing language thoughtfully.
Transcriptional aspects
How far the child is:
 using punctuation appropriately to mark meaning
 drawing on a range of strategies in spelling e.g.
known words plausible phonetic spellings, visual
patterns, knowledge of word structures and meanings
 using organisation structures e.g. paragraphs,
headings
 using a fluent handwriting style.
Child’s self-assessment and learning aims
Plan the next steps for this child as a writer
(e.g. developing confidence, range of writing,
compositional and transcriptional aspects)
JS/cj
5
University of Brighton
Faculty of Education and Sport
School of Education
WRITING DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK:
Working within Level One
Name
Languages used:
Compositional Features
Whole class or group focus
 observes shared writing
 concentrates during shared
writing sessions
 concentrates and contributes
to shared writing
 asks what adult is writing
 notices print asks “what does
it say?”




Working Independently
 understands that writing is  enjoys bringing own writing
not drawing
to school from home
 writes with encouragement  enjoys sharing own writing
with others
 chooses to write
 uses other children’s names
 can write own name
in own writing
 experiments with a range
 begins to copy words from
of writing materials
the environment – books,
including computer
labels
keyboard
 sustains concentration while
 usually draws a picture to
writing
rehearse the story
 own writing maintains
 adopts known text to give
meaning over time
marks meaning
Writing for Different Purposes
mimics adult writing behaviour
 writes in role-play situations
writes labels, messages, captions etc
 explores story writing
writes to record events, investigations,
 writes for different audiences
experiments etc
 makes books
writes lists
Language Study and Standard English
 contributes to shared writing or poems, rhymes, jingles exploring: rhythm and
repetition, the look of words, the sound of words and generating new patterns and
words.
Sharing (conferencing)
 able to talk about own
picture or painting
 composes a story to be
scribed by the teacher
 tells stories to an adult or
tape recorder
 able to tell story about own
picture, painting or model
 able to give marks a
meaning and to say it aloud
 able to sequence talk about
marks/writing
 able to respond to question
“what would you like your
writing to say?”
IT
 uses concept keyboards for label,
messages etc
 experiments with word processor
 uses the computer keyboard in role
play situations.
Transcriptional Features
Handwriting
Early Stages
Directionality
 makes random marks  experiments with
on paper
direction of writing
 distinct shapes begin  writes in direction of
to appear
heritage language
 produces continuous  regular left to right
scribble
pattern emerging
 writes left to right and
top to bottom
Spelling
Auditory
Auditory and Visual
 hears letter sounds in  begins to show
words
knowledge of letter
sounds in writing
 hears letter names in
words
 hears and writes
initial consonants in
 hears initial letter
some words
sounds
 hears final consonants  hears and writes letter
names in words
 hears rhyming sounds
 begins to write
Increasing Print Awareness
recognisable words
Visual
 marks take specific
 uses mainly lower
 repeats invented
letter-like shapes
case letters
spellings
 random use of upper  distinguishes numbers  uses random letters as
and lower case letters
from letters
‘place-holders’
and/or numbers
 letter-like shapes
 begins to use known
 use of letters from
often fill up all the
letters
home language
spaces on the page
 understands that
 begins to form letters  begins to use more
letters go together to
with correct starting
known letters
make words
and finishing places
 uses letters in own
 attempts to write
 enjoys making
name
words from visual
patterns with letter begins to leave spaces
memory
like shapes
between word
 sees rhyming patterns
 uses mainly upper
attempts
 sight words begin to
case letters
appear
 chooses to self-correct
when own writing
doesn’t look right
 identifies high interest
letters on computer
keyboard
JS/cj
Punctuation
 notices punctuation
in print, asks “what
does that say?”
 experiments with
punctuation
 begins to show an
awareness of use of
full stops
6