Speak to any Year 6 teacher, and they will know about Dani, Leigh and Frankie. It used to be Morgan, but his work doesn’t seem to be up to scratch anymore, so Dani has replaced him. Each of these characters is used to give examples of what writing should look like at the end of Key Stage 2. Dani is working towards, Leigh is working at and Frankie is forging ahead at greater depth. For each person, there are multiple examples of their work. It’s a great idea and a boon to Year 6 teachers struggling to make a judgement.

As part of my research for my book Write It. Level It. Teach It. I had a look at the reading level of this work. Not to sound too clickbait, but the results shocked me. The reading level of Leigh’s work varied between Year 6 and Year 8. Frankie’s was even higher. If your children are expected to be writing at the same level, then it’s fair to assume that the reading level of their work will be just as high.

This poses problems. Peer assessment relies on children being able to read and then comprehend their peer’s work. If you are pairing a child writing at a higher level with somebody at a lower level, there is a good chance that the lower-level child won’t be able to access the writing. It will have a reading level above where they are.

Using tools like the ATOS Analyzer Tool by Renaissance allows you to check the reading level of your class’s writing. Knowing this, you can start to explore how they are learning from their reading. If you know they are reading higher-level books, but their writing is of a lower reading age, then they might not be making the link between reading and writing. They aren’t using what they are seeing in books. Similarly, a higher reading level is often a sign of more complex sentence structure and vocabulary choice. This can be a quick indicator of the level that they are using these tools in their writing.

As with everything, this isn’t a silver bullet. Checking in every now and then with the reading level of the writing in your class gives you another piece of the jigsaw that can help you start to bridge those gaps between where they are and where they need to be. Who knows, with a new curriculum on the way soon, we might have a whole new cast of characters to evaluate and guide us in our assessment!

Matt Beighton is a full-time children’s author and former primary school teacher. He also contributes to the Literacy Shed. You can learn more about Matt and his books at: mattbeighton.co.uk/