CRJ#2

Promoting Preschoolers Emergent Writing

Teaching Elementary school students to be effective writers

Critical Reflective journal #2

Fairlight Lieber

Writing in Early Childhood classrooms: Guidance for best practices

Promoting Preschoolers' Emergent Writing

Promoting the development of emergent writing builds conceptual, procedural and generative knowledge.

Surprising research on emergent writers ...

• Children start imitating writing as young as 2 years old. (Rowe & Neitzel 2010).

• An average of just 2 minutes a day for writing practice or writing instruction in 4-5 year old classrooms! (Pelatti et al. 2014).

+Reference

Emergent writing is a child's earliest attempt at making meaning. In its earliest stages, writing looks like scribbling and drawing and eventually begins to include letters of the alphabet, invented then conventional spelling, and basic grammar.

4 Recommendations to Teach Elementary School Students to be Effective Writers

Graham recommends these four practices that'll help students use writing as a means to learn and communicate their own ideas.

3). Teach students to become fluent with writing mechanics Just like having a large mental wordbank decreases the need to decode thus helping with comprehension, the physical act of writing should not stall a student from communicating their ideas. 4). Create a supportive writing environment Writing is not just for kids. Model the joy of writing.

+Reference

1). Provide DAILY writing time Research is saying children aren't spending enough time writing. Evidence shows that they should have a dedicated writing time for explicit instruction.2). Teach students to use the writing process for a variety of purposes A large amount of evidence suggests that a gradual release model is the best way to teach a specific strategy for each step of the writing process.

Writing in Early Childhood Classrooms: Guidance for Best Practices

Research says writing is underrepresented, sometimes even non-existent, especially in preschool classrooms.

• Writing time needs to go beyond the desk or the "writing center." It needs to be incorporated in daily activities.

• If writing materials are not present, then no writing will occur, so make them available everywhere.

• Children's writing can be scaffolded by bringing their playtime to reality with various writing opportunities.

+Refernce

Some ideas from the research...

• Young children writing, even if it's only their name, is related to later reading and literacy skills.

• Name writing is the developmental progression of writing as it relates to letter knowledge, word recognition and phonological awareness.

• Have students write their name whenever and wherever possible as a starting point to build writing into the daily schedule.

Kids are very egocentric. It makes sense to begin the writing process with what kids know best, their own name. The letters in our names are perfect starting points as a focus on correct letter formation. Baby steps!

Writing doesn't come naturally so teachers should take advantage of playtime to model writing scenarios like how doctors might write in their patient's charts or a receptionist writes down notes when taking a phone call.

Writing has purpose and print is meaningful.

Conceptual knowledge

A Framework of Emergent Writing

Procedural knowledge

The mechanics of letter and word writing including spelling.

Generative knowledge

The end goal of writing phrases and sentences that convey meaning.

Reference

Gerde, H.K., Birmingham, G.E., and Wasik, B.A. (2012). Writing in Early Childhood Classrooms: Guidance for Best Practices. Early Childhood Education.

• Teachers should participate by writing and sharing their own writing

• Give students writing choices
• Encourage students to collaborate as writers
• Provide students with opportunities to give and recieve feedback

Engaged Community of Writers

• Science lab reports with observations
• RDW in math
• Diary entries from people in history
• Responding to reading text

The hour of writing should consist of 30 minutes dedicated to explicitly teaching specific writing strategies, techniques and skills. This is Writer's Workshop!Another 30 minutes should be spent on applying these skills during any content-area lesson to allow critical thinking.

30 minutes core + 30 minutes integrated

1 hour a day!

Graham, S. (2012). Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers. What Works Clearinghouse. US Department of Education

Reference

Reference

Byington, T. (2017). Promoting Preschoolers' Emergent Writing. NAEYC

• Help students understand different genre characteristics
• Expand students' concept of audience so they know who they are writing for
• Provide many different examples of exemplary writing to emulate
• Teach students which techniques can be used for different purposes

PersuadeInformEntertain

Reasons for writing is as easy as PIE!

• Young students struggle with fine motor skills and need to be taught how to properly hold a pencil as well as correct letter formation

• Spelling instruction is more than just memorizing patterns. Connect it with frequently misspelled words in writing.

Don't get caught up in the mechanics!

• Demonstrate how sentence construction and variety with punctuation and capitalization really matters to the meaning!
• Typing and word processing fluency should begin in 1st grade so that by the end of 3rd grade a student is typing as fast as they can write by hand