Writing Sample Analysis

From University Elementary, I got a sample of a child’s writing to analyze in class today. It was very interesting to break down and really take a closer look at.  There is a lot you can learn from looking at a student’s writing.  We broke it down and looked at the semantics, the syntax, and the graphophonics of the child’s writing.  You can see if they are trying new things and what their strengths and challenges are.  It is important that we understand why a child is doing what they are doing.  It is true that we are professionals and need to be experts at looking at children’s work.  Anybody can see that word is misspelled but as teachers, we need to know what was going on in the child’s head when they misspelled the word.  This will help them build on their writing and give them the chance to become a stronger writer.  As we have our own students and classrooms, this will prove to be a very important aspect of improving the children’s writing.