Week 9

"To be an effective teacher you must, first and foremost, know the students in your class and their abilities and interests." This part of the article, Understanding How Children Learn to Write: Developmental Stages, is the part that I feel is most important in basically all parts a student's learning. If a teacher is familiar with his/her students then they will be able to better measure the students success and shape their learning environment in ways that are most beneficial. This article largely focused on what to expect at each level of developmental stages for writers. The article summarizes the key components of all ten levels with the least developed being preconventional, typically ages 3-5 and the most developed being independent, having no age barriers. One part of the article that I particularly liked was that "a write may fluctuate between two categories until knew skills are firmly in place". Here one is able to take away that often times students will be intertwined in more than one developmental stage, and that that's okay. Rather than trying to put students into specific categories, it's important that teachers see where the students transitioning may need a little aid. I really liked this article because it helped me to see more in depth where my case study student may be at developmentally in his writing and where he will be going in the future. It's definitely helpful for me to see the areas that he has mastered as well as the areas that he still needs to develop and master before moving into the independent stage.