Words Children Write
An Investigation of High Frequency Words in
Year 3 & 4 Students’ Writing Development
Speaking our language:
The story of Australian English
“...of all the markers of identity, language is by
far the most significant. This language we speak,
which gives voice to our Australian identity is
not, however, a uni-faceted thing. It is...a multifaceted entity. Australian English is central to the
process of giving voice to our Australian identity:
in important ways, we are WHAT we speak, and
we are HOW we speak.” Bruce Moore
Data
• 896 students
– SA and Victorian Government Schools
• 2688 writing samples
• 315 345 words
Demographics
School year (4th and 5th year of formal schooling)
Year 3: 1437 (479 students)
Year 4: 1251 (417 students)
Gender
Male: 1332 (444 students)
Female: 1356 (452 students)
School setting
Low SES: 1170
(390 students)
Mid SES: 516
(172 students)
High SES: 1002
(334 students)
Location (Rural: 20% of total)
Rural: 537 (179 students)
Urban: 2151 (717 students)
Language background
English Speaking (ESB)
1629 (543 students)
Indigenous (1.7% of total)
45 (15 students)
Non-English Speaking (NESB)
1059 (353 students)
Word counts
Average word count per sample
R
21
Year 1
51
Year 2
78
Year 3
104
Word count spread
No. of words
<50
50 – 99
100 – 199
200 – 299
300 – 400
>400
Year 3
%
13.8
41.5
38.0
6.0
<1.0
<1.0
Year 4
%
8.9
28.9
45.8
13.1
2.5
<1.0
Year 4
133
Text types: R - 4
Narrative
Recount
Description
Discussion
Explanation
Exposition
Info Report
Poetry
Procedure
Response
Other
Reception Year 1
%
%
17
31
58
50
15
7.2
0
<1
<1
<1
<1
2.1
5.3
6
<1
0
<1
<1
3.4
1.7
<1
<1
Year 2
%
48
40
5.6
0
<1
1.3
3.1
<1
<1
<1
0
Year 3
%
55.6
25.1
10.6
<1
0
1.0
<1
2.3
2.6
<1
1.4
Year 4
%
58.9
22.8
10.6
<1
0
2.8
1.3
1.0
1.0
<1
<1
Words on OWL Plus but not on OWL: 1
any
anything
arrived
been
before
both
box
boys
brown
bus
can't
chocolate
class
clothes
cold
cool
dark
days
decided
died
different
doing
drove
each
eating
end
even
everything
excited
eyes
face
felt
few
finally
fire
forest
front
getting
ghost
giant
girls
give
goal
gold
gone
green
ground
gun
hair
hand
happened
hard
having
hear
heard
hit
hole
hot
hour
hours
I'll
kept
kicked
kids
king
knew
land
later
left
let
Words on OWL Plus but not on OWL: 2
let's
life
light
live
looking
minutes
money
most
mother
never
no one
nothing
open
opened
parents
person
pet
police
puppy
quickly
rain
ready
replied
right
run
running
same
sat
say
screame
d
second
shot
should
shouted
six
small
soon
space
stay
stop
stopped
story
stuff
suddenly
sunny
tell
ten
than
think
thought
through
top
town
under
used
wait
wasn't
way
week
which
while
whole
window
year
years
yelled
Implications for educators: 1
Pre-assess students’ spelling knowledge of
words in the 2008 Oxford Wordlist no
matter what their year level
Pre-assess students’ spelling knowledge of
words in the 2010 Oxford Wordlist Plus
Words that students can already spell
should not be included in their spelling
programs
Implications for educators: 2
Unknown words need to be taught
Words in the 2010 Oxford Wordlist Plus may
be used as a springboard
Develop students’ spoken and written
vocabulary
Teach students how to write more complex
sentences
Implications for educators: 3
Consolidate students’ understanding of
regular and irregular verbs
Tread carefully when putting quantity of
words ahead of quality
Adverbs enhance verbs
Prepositions have a place!
Keep building knowledge about compound
words
Implications for educators: 4
Expand pronoun knowledge
Increase expertise in the use of adjectives
Keep teaching comparatives and
superlatives
Designated NAPLAN text types aren’t the
only genre to be taught
In summary...
Words form the thread on which we
string our experiences Aldous Huxley
http://www.oxfordwordlist.com/pages/search.asp
Free downloadables
http://www.oup.com.au/primary/learning/thesuccessfulteacher
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Oxford Wordlist Bingo
Oxford Wordlist Flashcards
Oxford Wordlist Memory Snap
Oxford Wordlist Take Home Words
Oxford Wordlist Desk Chart
www.oup.com.au/thesuccessfulteacher