DLI 1st grade guide

Science of Reading

Science of Writing

“Writing is essential for academic learning, social communication, and employment in modern society. Writing is required across all academic areas.” Writing is also important because it benefts reading. Writing is demanding, as it is the latest-developing and most complex language skill.

Like the components of the Simple View of Reading, each of the two major writing domains in the Simple View of Writing comprises many subskills. The foundational writing skills require mastery of the lower-level or mechanical encoding

skills. Composition requires mastery of higher-level or conceptual skills for the organization and expression of ideas. Like the mathematical equation in the Simple View of Reading, students cannot achieve skilled mastery without mastery of both components. Foundational Writing Skills require knowledge of the phonological, morphological, and syntactic aspects of language represented in orthography. Writing requires graphomotor skills to produce. The graphomotor skills, or the ability to write the letters and symbols that make up reading and writing, are necessary foundational skills for writing composition. The graphomotor system in the brain is wired into the language centers that support reading. Composition Skills depend on many sub-skills that are similar to the language comprehension strands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope. The mental demands of writing also engage working memory, cognitive fexibility, and self-regulation. Good writing skills include a command of sentence structure, planning, knowledge of text structures, vocabulary, awareness of audience and purpose, background knowledge, and the meta-cognitive skills involved in revising, editing, and receiving feedback.

Adapted from LETRS , Vol. 2.

Revised: 05/23/23