Lower Dauphin School District
Revised DRAFT 07/09
Writing Development Continuum
Name
___________________________________________
Teacher
___________________________________________
Grade ______
Writing Stage
Example: Semi-phonetic Level 4.2
Baseline
___________________________________________
Blue
1st Marking Period
___________________________________________
Yellow
2nd Marking Period
___________________________________________
Orange
3rd Marking Period
___________________________________________
Green
4th Marking Period
___________________________________________
Pink
The child’s developmental stage of writing is the highest level at which the criteria for the stage has been met.
Small increments of progress can be reported by recording the level at which the child has met all descriptors, in addition to
adding the number of descriptors met at the next level.
For example, Level 4.2 shows that a student met all the descriptors at Level 4 plus 2 descriptors at Level 5.
Criteria requirements are listed below.
Stage 1
Emergent
Makes uncontrolled or unidentifiable scribble.
Stage 2
Scribble/Pictorial
(all descriptors must be evident)
Imitates writing with scribbles and/or pictures
Draws a picture
Tells about the picture
Begins to form shapes, letters, names, and numerals
Feldgus, E. & Cardonick, I. (1999) Kid Writing. Bothell, Washington: Wright Group Publishing, Inc.
Gentry, R. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Education: Early Childhood Classroom Assessment Framework Blackburn Scale: Pre-kindergarten –
Grade 2 Task Force
Lower Dauphin School District
Revised DRAFT 07/09
Stage 3
Precommunicative
(all descriptors must be evident)
Is interested in having ideas written down (is able to dictate a complete and meaningful thought)
Strings together random letters, numerals, and letter-like forms
Writes letters to convey a message
Attempts to read writing back
Prints own name
Prints an occasional word
Understands concept of word
Stage 4
Semi-Phonetic
(all descriptors must be evident)
Begins to understand there is a relationship between letters and sounds
Selects some letters to match sounds
Usually uses one correct beginning letter to write a word
Separates most words with spaces
Usually writes left to right (may reverse some letters)
Usually writes top to bottom
Spells some kindergarten high frequency words correctly; uses word wall appropriately
Writes the substance of one sentence (one meaningful thought); may not be accurately punctuated
Reads own writing
Feldgus, E. & Cardonick, I. (1999) Kid Writing. Bothell, Washington: Wright Group Publishing, Inc.
Gentry, R. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Education: Early Childhood Classroom Assessment Framework Blackburn Scale: Pre-kindergarten –
Grade 2 Task Force
Lower Dauphin School District
Revised DRAFT 07/09
Stage 5
Phonetic
(all descriptors must be evident)
Uses logical phonetic spelling with two or more letters in a word
Usually represents words with correct beginning and ending consonant sounds
Includes vowels (may not be correct); shows an awareness of medial vowels in words
Writes left to right, top to bottom in a linear format
Points to words while reading
Separates words with spaces
Spells kindergarten high frequency words accurately; spells some first grade high frequency words accurately
Uses both upper and lower case letters appropriately within words
Writes the substance of multiple sentences (at least 2-3) on a related topic; may not be accurately punctuated
** To bridge to the transitional level, the child should move away from patterned writing to using varied sentence structures.
Stage 6
Transitional
(all descriptors must be evident)
Uses logical phonetic spelling, including vowels
Writes multi-syllabic words, including vowels in most syllables
Correctly spells all kindergarten and first grade high frequency words
Uses a variety of class resources to locate spellings of unfamiliar words
Capitalizes all proper nouns and the pronoun “I”
Uses all capital and lower case letters correctly
Simple sentences are usually punctuated correctly (period, question mark, exclamation point)
Experiments with punctuation and its use (comma, apostrophe)
Writes the substance of multiple sentences (at least 3-4) on a related topic
Uses subject verb agreement
Uses a variety of sentence structures and lengths
Feldgus, E. & Cardonick, I. (1999) Kid Writing. Bothell, Washington: Wright Group Publishing, Inc.
Gentry, R. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Education: Early Childhood Classroom Assessment Framework Blackburn Scale: Pre-kindergarten –
Grade 2 Task Force
Lower Dauphin School District
Revised DRAFT 07/09
Writes using different genres of writing (stories, lists, notes, etc.)
** To bridge to the next level, the child should use varied complex sentence structures,
even though they may not be accurately punctuated (rather than a series of accurately punctuated simple sentences)
Stage 7
Conventional 1
(all descriptors must be evident)
Uses larger, correctly spelled vocabulary words; may use phonetic spelling for advanced words/multi-syllabic
words
Correctly spells most second grade high frequency words
Punctuates all simple sentences correctly (period, question mark, exclamation point)
Uses a variety of descriptive words
Uses varied and complex sentence structures (including conjunctions, prepositional phrases)
Uses subject verb agreement in all sentence lengths
Begins to revise and edit independently
Uses a larger vocabulary
Writes the substance of multiple sentences (at least 4-5) on a related topic
Stage 8
Conventional 2
(all descriptors must be evident)
Correctly spells most words with regular spelling patterns; may use phonetic spelling for unfamiliar or
advanced words
Uses a variety of sentence structure and length; incorporates transitional words and phrases
Organizes writing into appropriate paragraphs
Spells all second grade high frequency words correctly
Uses a rich and descriptive vocabulary
Usually uses advanced print conventions appropriately (quotation marks, commas, apostrophes, contractions,
possessives)
Uses verb endings (s, es, ed, d, ing)
Writes the substance of multiple sentences (at least 5-6) on a related topic
Feldgus, E. & Cardonick, I. (1999) Kid Writing. Bothell, Washington: Wright Group Publishing, Inc.
Gentry, R. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Education: Early Childhood Classroom Assessment Framework Blackburn Scale: Pre-kindergarten –
Grade 2 Task Force
Lower Dauphin School District
Revised DRAFT 07/09
Stage 9
Advanced
(all descriptors must be evident)
Uses conventional spelling and rules to include inflected endings, plurals, and verb tenses
Possesses a large body of written vocabulary; uses a variety of words consistently in writing
Uses advanced print conventions appropriately (quotation marks, commas, apostrophes, contractions,
possessives)
Edits written work for spelling and punctuation
Edits written work by adding new ideas and information
Uses writing as a tool for learning (summaries, reports, outlines, research)
Writes both fiction and nonfiction writing
Responds to a writing prompt
Writes topic sentence with relevant information to develop cohesive text
Organizes paragraphs logically to form cohesive text
Independently uses a plan to organize ideas; may use graphic organizers
Feldgus, E. & Cardonick, I. (1999) Kid Writing. Bothell, Washington: Wright Group Publishing, Inc.
Gentry, R. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Education: Early Childhood Classroom Assessment Framework Blackburn Scale: Pre-kindergarten –
Grade 2 Task Force