Blog
Why Developing is the most useful rating
Three-level ratings work because of the middle one. What Developing means, why it drives review, and how to keep it from becoming a place skills go to hide.
· 2 min read · Literacy Trail team
In short
Developing means the skill works with effort or support and is not yet automatic. It is the rating that schedules review without stopping the sequence, which is why it carries most of the information in a reading record. Its one risk is that skills sit there indefinitely; a skill at Developing for more than three sessions needs a different approach, not more time.
Secure is easy: move on. Needs support is easy: come back tomorrow. Developing is where the judgment lives, and it is the rating people give least confidently and most often. That is not a flaw in the scale. It is the scale doing its job.
What it means
The student can do it, slowly, or with a prompt, or in short words but not long ones. Retrieval is happening but it is not automatic. In a week, with the program's own spiral and one short revisit, it usually will be. Developing is a prediction: this will be secure soon without heroics.
Why it drives review
A Secure skill needs nothing. A Needs support skill needs the next session. Developing needs something in between: a look after a few sessions, when the program has moved on and the skill has to be retrieved from a little further away. That is the review that actually tests retention, and it only happens if the rating exists to trigger it.
The hiding place problem
The failure mode is a skill rated Developing in September that is still Developing in November. Nobody was wrong at any point; the skill just never got the different approach it needed. The rule that prevents it is simple: three sessions at Developing on the same skill is a signal to change something, exactly as two Needs support ratings would be.
Rating honestly at the table
- Rate the skill, not the mood. A cheerful session with slow decoding is Developing.
- Rate the cold retrieval, not the warm one. If you had to prompt, it is Developing.
- If you are torn between Developing and Secure, choose Developing. The cost is one short review. The cost of the other mistake is a hole in the foundation.
In Literacy Trail
Developing schedules a review after a number of sessions you can set; three is the default. The attention list flags a skill that has stayed there too long, so the hiding place does not exist.
Keep the record while you teach
Set up your students, pick the lesson each one is on, and the ratings you tap after each lesson do the rest.