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 multi-faceted 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

• 896 students– SA and Victorian Government Schools

• 2688 writing samples • 315 345 words

Data

Year 3: 1437 (479 students) Year 4: 1251 (417 students)School year (4th and 5th year of formal schooling)

GenderMale: 1332 (444 students) Female: 1356 (452 students)

School settingLow 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

Indigenous (1.7% of total)45 (15 students)

English Speaking (ESB)1629 (543 students)

Non-English Speaking (NESB)1059 (353 students)

Demographics

R Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 421 51 78 104 133

Average word count per sample

Year 3%

Year 4%No. of words

<50 13.8 8.950 – 99 41.5 28.9100 – 199 38.0 45.8200 – 299 6.0 13.1300 – 400 <1.0 2.5>400 <1.0 <1.0

Word count spread

Word counts

Text types: R - 4

Reception%

Year 1%

Year 2%

Year 3%

Year 4%

Narrative 17 31 48 55.6 58.9Recount 58 50 40 25.1 22.8Description 15 7.2 5.6 10.6 10.6Discussion 0 <1 0 <1 <1Explanation <1 <1 <1 0 0Exposition <1 2.1 1.3 1.0 2.8Info Report 5.3 6 3.1 <1 1.3Poetry <1 0 <1 2.3 1.0Procedure <1 <1 <1 2.6 1.0Response 3.4 1.7 <1 <1 <1Other <1 <1 0 1.4 <1

any

anything

arrived

been

before

both

box

boys

brown

bus

can'tchocolateclassclothes

cold

cool

dark

days

decided

died

differentdoingdroveeacheatingendeveneverything

excited

eyes

facefeltfewfinallyfireforestfrontgettingghostgiantgirlsgive

goal

gold

gone

green

ground

gun

hair

hand

happenedhardhavinghearheardhit

hole

hot

hour

hours

I'llkeptkickedkidskingknewlandlaterleftlet

Words on OWL Plus but not on OWL: 1

let's

life

light

live

looking

minutes

money

most

mother

never

no onenothingopenopened

parents

person

pet

police

puppy

quickly

rainreadyrepliedrightrunrunningsamesat

say

screamed

secondshotshouldshoutedsixsmallsoonspacestaystopstopped

storystuff

suddenly

sunny

tell

ten

than

think

thought

throughtoptownunderused

wait wasn'tway

week

which

whilewholewindowyearyearsyelled

Words on OWL Plus but not on OWL: 2

Pre-assess students’ spelling knowledge of words in the 2008 Oxford Wordlist no matter what their year level

Implications for educators: 1

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

Words form the thread on which we string our experiences Aldous Huxley

In summary...

http://www.oxfordwordlist.com/pages/search.asp

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