Chapter 9: Writing Development

Introduction

Like emergent reading, emergent writing provides a critical foundation for future literacy development (NELP, 2008). When young children, like the children in Mr. Jenbere’s and Ms. Daryl’s classes, are provided opportunities to draw, scribble, and write, they gain understandings of the role print plays in their lives and the way writing is used to communicate ideas (Kidd et al., 2014). Through these experiences, young children learn they can write to express their thoughts, share stories, communicate information, and convey opinions. Like Richelle, they begin to view writing, including their drawings and scribblings, as symbolic representations that enable them to communicate with their classmates, family members, teachers, and others. They also develop an understanding that writing can be used to make notes for themselves, such as play plans and reminders. As they write, they gain insights into writing as a process and develop a sense of ownership of their writing. In addition, like Hasan, they start to develop understandings of written conventions, including sentence structure, spelling, grammar, and mechanics. At the same time, children’s fine motor and handwriting skills also begin to develop.

Literacy processes are reciprocal and symbiotic in nature. When young children are engaged in activities that foster their emergent literacy skills, they begin to see the interrelationship among language, reading, and writing and are able to draw upon their emerging knowledge to enhance their literacy development (Goodman & Goodman, 1983). Conceptually, children at a young age begin to understand that reading and writing are communication processes. When children write, these processes are integrated as they read and reread their written message (Sulzby & Teale, 1985). This is seen with a child, like Richelle, as she listens to a story, writes a thank you note, and reads the thank you note to her teacher. At the same time, children are developing emergent literacy skills, such as phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, and concepts of print. These emergent reading skills influence skill development in writing and vice versa. For example, a child like Hasan, who is writing letters and words by listening to the sounds in a word and writing down the corresponding letter, is using his emerging understanding of letter-sound correspondence. As he strengthens his skills in letter-sound correspondence in writing, he enhances his ability to apply these skills when reading. Similarly, as he reads and develops his abilities to decode (read) words, he will develop his abilities to encode (write) words. By engaging in activities that develop these skills, he will become more proficient at generating text as he writes and generating meaning from text as he reads.

Discussions that situate emergent writing within the broader context of literacy development and acknowledge the interrelationship between reading and writing are important to understanding children’s literacy development. However, too often, writing is not given the time and attention that is needed in early childhood education classrooms (Pelatti et al., 2014). Therefore, in this chapter, we will focus specifically on understanding children’s writing development and how to use this knowledge to assess, plan, and implement meaningful writing experiences throughout the school day and at home. We will also examine factors that influence children’s emergent writing development. Developing these understandings is critical to ensuring that writing instruction is an integral part of the instructional day and multiple opportunities for writing are provided across the school day as well as at home.

In this chapter, we will use the Framework for Developing Emergent Literacy (see Figure 9.1) introduced in the previous chapter to explain the dimensions of emergent writing (Puranik & Lonigan, 2014). The first dimension, conceptual knowledge, focuses on the conventions and functions of writing, including children’s understandings of how print works and that print conveys meaning. The second dimension, procedural knowledge, focuses on the mechanics of writing, such as knowledge of the alphabet, name writing, letter writing, spelling, and handwriting. Lastly, the third dimension, generative knowledge, focuses on composing phrases and sentences that communicate meaning. For very young children, generative knowledge includes the emerging ability to communicate intentionally with others using drawings, scribblings, and symbolic representations. Using the Framework for Developing Emergent Literacy, this chapter will answer the following questions:

How do young children develop an understanding that writing conveys meaning and they can write to communicate their thoughts and ideas?

How do emergent writers progress on a continuum of development?

What can early childhood educators do to support emergent writers using effective instructional strategies and literacy assessments?

Writing is Communicating

Children learn at a young age that people use writing to express their thoughts, share stories, communicate information, and convey opinions. Within their homes and in the community, young children have opportunities to observe the functions of writing in their day-to-day lives. For example, children might see family members write a grocery list and then observe their dad read the list and cross off items while walking down the aisles of the grocery store. Or perhaps, they notice their mom write a note for an older sibling and then watch as the sibling later reads the note and takes fruit out of the refrigerator for a snack. Likewise, they may witness their sibling’s efforts to lobby for a new game by posting notes at strategic places around the home. As they sit on the couch next to an uncle, they could have an opportunity to watch him take out his phone, type in a text, and send the message to a friend. Out in the community, they might notice the server writing down their family’s order and then bringing the items requested to their table. Likewise, they could observe an auto mechanic writing down their family’s phone number and promising to give a call when the car is ready. These types of interactions in the home and community develop children’s conceptual knowledge of writing and their understanding of writing as a way to communicate.

Learning about writing continues to take place as children engage in writing activities not only in the home, but also in the classroom. For example, the children in Mr. Jenbere’s and Ms. Daryl’s classroom in the vignette above are developing their writing abilities and practicing their writing skills as they write their thank you notes. This activity provides an opportunity for children to draw pictures and talk about the story the assistant principal read as they write their thank you notes. Through their pictures, they record thoughts that are important to them with the understanding that these ideas can then be shared with others. At the same time, an activity like this allows children, like Arzu, to capture their thoughts through scribbles. Likewise, children, like Hasan, use their growing knowledge of letters and sounds to add words to their notes. This type of activity also enables children, like Richelle, to develop their understanding of the permanency of writing and to see themselves as writers with an audience. The children’s emerging understandings of writing are apparent in these efforts.

The Framework for Developing Emergent Literacy presented above provides educators with a way to think about children’s writing development. This framework recognizes the interrelationship between reading and writing and organizes emergent writing into three dimensions: conceptual, procedural, and generative knowledge (Puranik & Lonigan, 2014). These dimensions are important to consider when assessing children’s writing and planning and implementing instruction.

As writing is utilized in children’s everyday lives, their conceptual knowledge of writing develops and they gain insights into how print works. Puranik and Lonigan (2014) define conceptual knowledge as skills that “represent knowledge about the conventions and functions of writing” (p. 465). At a young age, children learn that writing is a means for communicating thoughts. They gain insights into the purposes or functions of writing and recognize that they can write to express ideas and feelings, tell a story, share information, and present an opinion or point of view. They also develop concepts of print specific to writing, such as writing in English occurs from left to right. In addition, they begin to understand writing as a symbolic representation of ideas as they recognize and assign meaning to logos, markings, and symbols they encounter (Byington & Kim, 2017).

At the same time, young children develop procedural knowledge of print. Puranik and Lonigan (2014) define procedural knowledge as “knowledge of the specific symbols and conventions involved in the production of writing” (p. 456). These skills are important to children’s future ability to use predictable letter-sound relationships to read and write fluently. As children develop procedural knowledge, they gain understandings of the alphabetic principle. As noted in Chapter 8, the alphabetic principle involves learning letter names and the sounds associated with them. Young children apply these principles as they begin to write letters and words, including names. As children gain an understanding of letter-sound relationships, they use this knowledge to help them spell words. Developing children’s fine motor skills and handwriting is also important in the early years (Byington & Kim, 2017).

Children’s generative knowledge of writing develops as they apply their conceptual and procedural knowledge of writing. Puranik and Lonigan (2014) define generative knowledge as “children’s emerging ability to compose phrases and sentences in their writing” (p. 456). Initially, young children use inventive markings to express ideas and convey important messages. Often, when we ask children to “tell us what you wrote,” they will hold up their drawing and point to the markings and orally state the phrases and sometimes sentences they composed. Even though these children may not be able to form letters yet, they are still applying their understanding about how writing communicates a message that can be shared. Over time, children begin to use letters as symbolic representations that are organized to signify meaning (Bialystok, 1992). Experiences during the early years provide a foundation for children’s later ability to use particular strings of letters to represent specific words and to use these words to compose phrases and sentences that communicate meaning (Puranik & Lonigan, 2014). In the early years, a foundation for generating meaningful text is laid as children use oral language and writing, including drawing and scribbling, to communicate (Byington & Kim, 2017).

Understanding how conceptual, procedural, and generative knowledge of writing develops in young children helps educators assess children’s writing and plan for differentiated instructional experiences that develop children’s emerging writing abilities. In the next section, we describe how emergent writers progress. Educators use this knowledge of writing progressions to inform the decisions they make when planning and implementing assessment and instruction.

How Emergent Writers Progress

As children interact with the world around them, their writing abilities develop along a continuum from emergent to more conventional writing. This pathway is not exactly the same for each child because children develop differently due to a variety of factors that will be discussed below. This was apparent in Mr. Jenbere’s and Ms. Daryl’s classroom with Arzu who was scribbling and Hasan who was using his knowledge of letters and sounds to write. Both were 4-year-olds writing a thank you note. However, procedurally, they were at different places along the continuum in terms of the writing they produced.

Although children’s developmental pathways vary by individual child, understanding children’s writing progressions can help educators as they assess children’s writing abilities, plan instruction, and provide a variety of learning experiences. In this section, we use the framework from Virginia’s Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS): Birth-Five Learning Guidelines to frame our discussion (see Table 9.1). In this framework, emergent writing skills are organized into three categories: writing to communicate, developing writing habits and skills, and handling writing tools. In each of these categories, the development of specific skills is broadly organized by age ranges. These age ranges are intended to provide a general understanding of typical progressions and are not to suggest that there is a simple linear progression of writing abilities. In actuality, children’s writing progresses as they increase their use of more advanced writing strategies and decrease their use of less advanced writing skills (Rowe & Wilson, 2015). For example, as children begin to use conventional letters, they may continue to scribble and use letter-like forms. Over time, they will decrease their use of scribbles and letter-like forms and will increase their use of conventional letters. For this reason, it is important to keep in mind that, although writing is a sequenced progression, there will be variability among children, as well as within children, as they are progressing along the continuum (Rowe & Wilson, 2015).

Writing to Communicate

As was evident in Mr. Jenbere’s and Ms. Daryl’s classroom, young children begin to understand that writing is a means to communicate thoughts, stories, information, and opinions. At an early age, children realize they can create drawings and make scribbles that they can then read to others (Bruyere, 2020). They come to understand that writing is intentional and is used to convey meaning (Rowe & Wilson, 2015). As their writing becomes more intentional, they begin to write for a variety of purposes and audiences and become more aware of the need to write so others can read their writing (Bruyere, 2020; Rowe & Wilson, 2015). They also become more cognizant of how the content of their writing varies depending on social expectations (Rowe & Wilson, 2015). For example, they learn what to include when they write a birthday card for a classmate or a story about a walk their family took in the park. Young children also develop a sense of ownership over their writing and begin to develop their identity as a writer (Bruyere, 2020; Kissel & Miller, 2015; Rowe, 2018).

Initial markings. Young children’s journey as writers begins at an early age when they move from making accidental markings with little to no motor control to moving their forearm to make large intentional scribbles (Rowe & Wilson, 2015). As children’s fine motor skills develop, they use their hand and wrist movements to make more refined scribbles (see Figure 9.2). These scribbles initially represent objects and then begin to represent ideas, words, and phrases. As children’s writing progresses, they scribble in a more linear manner using spaces between their scribbles, up-and-down looping motions, circles, waves, swoops, and zig zags. Over time, they add letters, which may be written backwards or upside down, to their scribbles and letter-like forms. Scribbles are eventually replaced with conventional capital and lower-case letters; however, there is no correspondence between letters and sounds (Rowe & Wilson, 2015).

Pause and Consider: Scribbles, Letter-Like Symbols, and Letter Formations

In Figure 9.2, there are three preschool writing samples. Use the writing continuum above to analyze the children’s writing. Consider the following questions:

• What do you notice about these writing samples?
• What aspects of the descriptions about scribbling and letters do you see in these samples?
• What do you notice about the drawings?
• What does their writing show about what they know?

Figure 9.2 Scribbles, Letter-Like Symbols, and Letter Formations

Moving toward using letters. Children also start to write their name and other words or phrases they have memorized (Rowe & Wilson, 2015). They learn to write their full name in English, for example, using capital and lowercase letters written from left to right. They also recognize their name as separate from their writing and that their name indicates ownership of what they produced. In addition, they begin to use conventional letters to write words and phrases they have memorized, like family members’ names, and phrases, such as, “I like cake.” They also begin to copy numbers, letters, and words from the environment into their writing.

Eventually, children start to write letters and groups of specific letters to represent their ideas as they use their growing knowledge of letters and sounds to write words, phrases, and sentences (Rowe & Wilson, 2015). This practice is often referred to as invented spelling. Initially, children tend to represent words using the initial letter sound (see Figure 9.3). For example, they might use “k” to represent “car” or “b” to represent “ball.” As children progress, they may write the initial and the final sounds (e.g., bk for bike) and eventually add middle consonant sounds (e.g, ktn for kitten). They add vowels (e.g., babe for baby) and begin to use correct spelling of some words (e.g., sat) as they move toward more conventional spelling.

Children are also developing understandings about directionality as their writing progresses (Rowe & Wilson, 2015). During the early years, children are learning how print is positioned on a page and the direction that print is written and read. For example, in English, children learn to write from left to right, move to the next line, and begin on the left again. Initially, children may place marks and scribbles anywhere on the paper. As they start to develop an understanding that writing is presented in a linear format, they may write from right to left horizontally or from top to bottom vertically. As children gain writing experience, they will begin to show more conventional directional patterns as they write.

Pause and Consider: Letter-Sound Correspondence

In Figure 9.3, there are three prekindergarten writing samples. Use the writing continuum above to analyze the children’s writing. Consider the following questions:

• What do you notice about these writing samples?
• What aspects of the descriptions about letters and words do you see in these samples?
• What do you notice about the drawings?
• What does their writing show about what they know?

Figure 9.3 Letter-Sound Correspondence

My brother and me	A butterfly	I saw Sammy at the park.

Handling Writing Tools

As young children interact with their literate world, they begin to explore a variety of writing tools, including paper, crayons, markers, pens, and digital writing tools such as phones and touchscreen tablets (Rowe, 2018). Their handling of writing tools becomes more proficient as their fine motor skills develop. Initially, young children have limited motor strength and control and, therefore, tend to grasp writing tools with their whole hand to make marks (see Table 9.3). As their motor skills develop, they may use their whole arm in an effort to control and direct their markings, scribbles, and drawings. Eventually, they use their fingertips to grasp the writing tool but their grip may be too high or too low. Likewise, it might be too loose or too tight. As they show increased fine motor strength and control, they are able to use three fingers to grip their writing tools to produce letters, words with invented spelling, and memorized words.

Similarly, many children are able to point and use their forefingers to make marks, draw, and scribble when using a touchscreen tablet (Crescenzi et al., 2014). As their fine motor skills develop, children use their fingers or a stylus on a touchscreen tablet to write letters, words with invented spelling, and words that are memorized (Rowe & Miller, 2015). Young children also learn to produce typewritten text, including their names, repeated letters, and words with invented spelling (Rowe & Miller, 2015). Digital tools also allow children to draw, use photographs and imagery, and record oral stories as they write (Eutsler et al., 2020).

As children experiment with and use a variety of writing tools and engage in daily opportunities to write and interact with peers and adults, they gain valuable insights into writing as a way to communicate ideas, stories, information, and opinions. At the same time, they develop important writing skills as they progress from making marks to using invented spelling and memorized or copied words to writing words, phrases, and sentences. As can be seen by the children in Mr. Jenbere’s and Ms. Daryl’s classroom, development along the continuum is individual. Accordingly, educators play an essential role in shaping an environment that promotes young children’s writing.