Arkansas Foundations of Reading Test (FORT)

At the transitional stage of writing development, students typically:

1. Use a mixture of capital and lowercase letters appropriately

2. Write only in capital letters

3. Rely on pictures rather than text

4. Form letters in an unpredictable sequence

The correct answer is: Use a mixture of capital and lowercase letters appropriately

At the transitional stage of writing development, students demonstrate an understanding of the basic conventions of writing, including the appropriate use of capital and lowercase letters. This stage indicates that children are refining their writing skills and beginning to build connections between sounds and letters, as well as understanding the rules of grammar and punctuation to some extent. Their writing will often reflect a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters that are used correctly, showing progress in their ability to represent phonetic sounds with the corresponding letters. In this developmental phase, students are expected to be moving beyond writing solely in capital letters or relying heavily on pictures. Instead, they start to use text more frequently to express their ideas. The use of a mixture of letter cases shows an understanding of the writing system and the ability to mimic the writing styles they observe in books and other materials.