Stage 1

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UNIT objectives 
In this stage, students are:
• writing a one-word label for a common object
• writing a one-word label for a picture
• focusing on slow articulation of a word
to write the sounds heard
• writing left to right across a word
• developing letter formation for known
letter/sound correspondences

MATERIALS • Students learn to write the letters in their names first. Thus, provide
each student with a small version of a class Name Chart for reference
or put a label on the students’ desks or tables with their individual
names. This is also a good tool to refer to during Interactive Writing.
• An Alphabet Chart with letters (for handwriting and letter formation)
and picture cues (for the sounds related to each letter) is also a very
helpful reference tool for students at this developmental stage in
writing. Small, table- or desk-size versions of this chart can be provided
for every student as well as the large chart for the whole class to use.

All of these charts are helpful tools for reference for the new
language learner.

teaching for
understanding Setting the Stage: Introducing Interactive Writing
• A good way to introduce beginning writers to the idea of labeling is
through Interactive Writing. Interactive Writing, or shared-pen
experience, serves as a scaffolded model for students’ writing and
supports the development of independent writing.
• Introduce the idea of labeling during Interactive Writing at the
beginning of the school year. During Interactive Writing, students
should be sitting on the floor in front of an easel, close to the teacher.
Use blank chart paper, without lines, for this early writing experience.

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• Within arm’s reach, have a large chart of students’ names. Prepare the
Name Chart in advance. Have the first letter of students’ names (capital
letter) in red or blue and the rest of their name in black in lowercase
letters. A Name Chart is a good resource for writing because students
often learn to write their names first.
• An Alphabet Chart, with large manuscript letters and a picture/sound
cue is also a good resource for helping students in beginning writing.
• During Interactive Writing, students should be encouraged to write
letters for the sounds they are successfully able to identify in words and
know how to form. The teacher should then fill in silent letters and
difficult letter patterns. This is also an excellent opportunity to reinforce
the concepts of a letter versus a word, and of letters combining to form
words that have a meaning.
Application: Linking Independent Writing Opportunities
• Allow students to practice writing independently from the first day of
school by giving them opportunities to explore writing with drawing
and beginning attempts at letter/sound correspondence and letter
formation. These opportunities should be provided even before
introducing students to labeling objects or pictures.
• Once the Interactive Writing has provided an introduction to labeling
objects or pictures, encourage students to label pictures they draw
independently, perhaps during journaling or art opportunities.
PART 1: LABELING
OBJECTS Step 1: Explain to students that they will learn how to write labels for
objects found in their classroom. Point to several common objects
(blocks, books, chair, pen) and talk about the names of these objects.
Choose one-syllable words for these first attempts. Point to the pen.
Say: Today, we will write the word pen.
Step 2: Tell students that when you write together, it is called Interactive
Writing. Students and teacher should share the pen to write what they
want to say.
Step 3: Tell students that when they want to write a word, it is
important to slowly stretch the word out in order to hear all of the
sounds. Say: When I stretch a word, I begin by pretending to stretch a rubber
band. I slowly stretch the sounds in the word as I say the word. Model
slowly stretching the sounds in the word pen as you pretend to stretch
a rubber band.

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 Stage 1
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Step 4A: Ask students what sound they hear at the beginning of the
word pen. Model referring back to the Name Chart established in your
classroom, asking students to identify any students with a /p/ sound at
the beginning of their name. For example, you might have a student
with the name Pam. Say: At the beginning of the word pen, I hear the /p/
sound, just like the sound at the beginning of Pam. Pam, what is the first
letter in the spelling of your name? Invite Pam to come to the board and
model writing the letter p in the air to the whole class, including Pam.
After practicing, invite Pam to write the letter p on the chart paper. Say:
Pam wrote the letter p. The letter p stands for the /p/ sound that we hear at
the beginning of the words Pam and pen. Practicing with the whole class
and with Pam will help support all students.

Note: It is preferable that students use the lowercase letter p for

the label. It is likely that Pam will want to write a capital letter P.
Consider using the Alphabet Chart to distinguish the upper- and
lowercase forms of the letter.

If there are no students with a name that begins with the letter p, use a
name with a /p/ sound in a final position. Another choice is to use the
Alphabet Chart with a picture/sound cue of a more familiar word.
Have the rest of the class write the letter p on the floor several times or
on their hands with their index finger. During the writing, continually
reinforce the name, letter formation, and the sound of the letter p. The
reinforcement and repetition will help students to learn their letter
names, formation, and sound in a connected way.
Step 4B: For students who have trouble segmenting a word, approach
the sounding of the word pen using easy-to-hear breaks in the word—
onset and rime. Have them separate the initial sound /p/ from the rime
en. Say: Sometimes we want to break a word into chunks to help us write the
word. The letter p stands for the /p/ sound that we hear at the beginning of the
words Pam and pen. After writing the onset and rime that students
heard in the word, have them blend the word pen together orally and
reread what they wrote on the easel.
Step 5: Continue writing the rest of the letters in the word pen. After
each letter/sound is written, stretch the word again and help students
think about the next sound they hear. Call on students who will be
successful identifying and writing the letter/sound. When possible, link
to letters and sounds in their names, using the Name Chart. While the
student is writing on the easel, have the rest of the class practice
forming the letters on the floor or on their hand. As needed, model
referring to the letters students have in their names as well as the
picture cues on the Alphabet Chart.
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 Stage 1
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Note: You will likely have to fill in the medial e in the middle of
the word pen. Remember not to encourage students to write
sounds they don’t hear. Write the letters for any sounds that
students are unable to identify.

Step 6: Write the complete label on a sentence strip or chart paper. Cut
out the complete label and tape it to the table. Continue to label other
objects around the room, such as: clock, door, book, chair, and so on. Have
students write only the sounds they can identify and supply the more
difficult sounds in the words. Try to use only one-syllable words at the
beginning of this process.
Step 7: Each day, as students enter the room, have them find the labels
and attach them to the common objects that they name.

Sufficient rereading of the label/writing will support learning

new vocabulary.

PART 2: LABELING
PICTURES • After 1–2 weeks of labeling common objects using Interactive Writing in
whole group lessons, make the explicit jump to be more directive in
Independent Writing. Independent Writing has been part of the
classroom activities all along, but now move to a more structured
opportunity to link to whole group instruction. Make an overhead or
poster-sized version of one of the Student Writing Templates. Use this
as a model for student writing.
Step 1: Explain to students that they can label pictures they draw, just
like the labels they created for objects in the classroom, such as the pen
and the clock.
Step 2: Draw a picture of an object to label, such as a cat. Say: Today I
want to write about a cat, so I am going to draw a picture of a cat in the box.
Draw a cat in the box on the template.
Step 3: Model writing the name of the object. Say: I want to write the
name of the object I just drew on the paper. To do this, I will stretch out sounds
in the word cat just as I did with the words we used to label objects in the
classroom. Model slowly pulling the sounds in the word cat using
the rubber-band analogy. Articulate the word slowly, and then segment
the phonemes in the word, being careful not to stretch each individual
phoneme. For example, the /k/ should sound like /k/, not (/kkkkkk/)
and not as if the sound has a vowel connected to it (ka).

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 Stage 1
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Step 4: Write the letters for the sounds in the word cat in the space
below the picture on the template using Interactive Writing as done
earlier. Say: Now I will think about the first sound I hear in the word cat. I
hear a /k/ at the beginning of cat. I will look at the Alphabet Chart or at a label
in the classroom that begins with the /k/ sound. I see a cat on one of the
alphabet charts in the classroom. It is next to the letter c. The letter c stands
for the /k/ sound that I hear at the beginning of the word cat. I can also look at
the Name Chart. I know that Casey (example) also begins with the /k/ sound.
Casey begins the spelling of his name with the letter c. Invite a student to
write the letter c on the board to make the writing more interactive.

Note: You may wish to use the template that includes writing
lines. However, with young writers, it is often preferable to initiate
writing experiences at the beginning of the year on paper without
lines. This confines them less and lets them concentrate on the
sound/letter correspondence and aspects of letter formation.

Step 5: Stretch out the sounds in the word cat each time before adding
another letter/sound. Encourage students to refer to the Name Chart,
the alphabet charts, and previously created classroom labels as
references. Write any sounds/letters that students have difficulty
identifying or hearing. Emphasize that the letters are written left to
right in serial order on the paper.
Step 6: Once you have completed writing the word cat, discuss with
students how they can follow the same steps to label pictures they
draw during their independent writing. Make the connection explicit so
that the increased expectation for independent writing is clear.
Step 7: Orally brainstorm with students a list of items (nouns) of which
they could draw a picture and add a label to that picture. Try to stay
with one-syllable words initially. Give each student a blank template.
Have students draw and label a picture.

• Providing pictures for students to choose from may help with

learning names in English for common objects.
• Oral language rehearsal before writing and rereading of the label/
writing will support learning new vocabulary.

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 Stage 1
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Note: Remember, students often learn to write beginning sounds

first. Then they write beginning and ending sounds. Writing
medial vowels is usually last. Students may not use left-to-right
serial order in early writing. Collect student papers at the end of
the day and assess each student’s development. Use this
information to reteach and plan future modeled lessons in
Interactive Writing.

Step 8: After Independent Writing, highlight students’ positive

attempts by inviting them to share their writing sample. For example,
the sample of a student who used support materials to find and
write the initial sound of a word (writing a b for ball) might be shared
in order to encourage other students’ attempts the following day.
ASSESSMENT Observation: Observing individual students as they attempt to say the
sounds in words is very helpful. Observation of writing attempts is also
key, whether at the easel or as they try to form letters for practice in the
group. Having a clipboard or notepad to write quick observations is
useful when working with a whole group. Do not try to write down a
comment for each student’s efforts, but rather focus on a few students
in each lesson and note their attempts. You may want a preprinted
chart of a class list to make it easier to write notes, or a class snapshot.
To do this, take a single piece of paper and divide it into squares, one
for each student in the class. As you make notes of a student’s attempts
to segment words, form letters, make spaces at the easel, and other
attempts at writing, jot a short note in one of the boxes and put the
student’s name in the box. Review these notes as you plan for the next
Interactive Writing lesson to support early learning. It will help you
decide who to call on, who to continue watching, and who you may
not have noticed or written a comment on in a while. The key issue is
to write down things you notice connected to the goals of that lesson.
Checklist: Students can learn to monitor their independent writing
based on what the focus was for the whole group lesson. A simple
checklist can be created to get students to think about the goals of the
lesson. In this lesson, students should each have a small piece of paper
to attach to their Independent Writing journal or notebook. It should
have no more than three items for students to self-evaluate. For this
lesson, the student could self-evaluate whether they drew a picture and
attempted to write a label for the picture. In very simple student terms,
using icons if possible, make a checklist that has these two things
pictured, and show students in the whole-group lesson how to check
on their own writing.

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