This writing continuum can be used to help students self-evaluate their writing. Questions to ask students might be:

• Which of these stages does your writing look like? Why?
• How is your writing different than the stage that came before?
• What do you need to work on as a writer to move to the next stage?
• What is your plan to accomplish that?

Teachers can create this sample continuum and post it in an easily-accessible area.  Students can then compare their own writing to the writing on the continuum, and share with peers or teachers during writing conferences.

Stage 1 - Student scribbles
Stage 2 - Student draws a picture. No text.
Stage 3 - Student draws a picture. There is an attempt at writing, but no readable text.
Stage 4 - Student draws a picture and uses random letters OR copies random words from the room.
Stage 5 - Student writes some initial sounds. Teacher can begin to guess the meaning of the text.
Stage 6 - Student writes initial sounds and some consonants and vowels using phonetic spelling.
Stage 7 - Student uses initial sounds,  and has some phonetically spelled words using consonants and vowels. Student is spacing between words.
Stage 8 - Student uses consonants and vowel sounds to phonetically spell words. Student spaces between words and spells some sight words correctly.
Stage 9 - Student writes recognizable text using phonetically correct spelling. Student spells sight words correctly, has spaces between words, and begins to use capitalization and punctuation.
Stage 10 - Student writes recognizable text using phonetically correct spelling. Student spells sight words correctly, has spaces between words, and uses correct capitalization and punctuation. Student remains on topic.