“The writer is an explorer. Every step is an advance into a new land.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Opening Vignette: Young Writers
Mr. Jenbere and Ms. Daryl combine classes for most of the school day. Mr. Jenbere’s class is a federally funded prekindergarten classroom with 18 students. Two of Mr. Jenbere’s students have Individual Education Programs (IEPs) and one of them uses a wheelchair. Ms. Daryl’s preschool class is for children who are identified as deaf and hard of hearing. All six of her students have IEPs. The students in these classes range in age from 2- to 5-years-old. Mr. Jenbere and Ms. Daryl believe that their co-teaching and inclusive practices strengthen the school experience of the children in both classes. Each of these classes has a paraprofessional and support from a variety of specialists, which gives these children a team of dedicated educators working towards their healthy development.
Mr. Jenbere and Ms. Daryl provide meaningful opportunities for writing throughout the day, including a specific time designated for writing instruction. They make an effort to connect writing instruction with all aspects of the curriculum in authentic ways. Today, the children are writing thank you notes to the assistant principal, who read them a story this morning. The children are gathered around tables with educators who are considering each child’s strengths and needs as they support and guide children during their writing time. They know that the unique abilities of individual learners must be considered in addition to the goals that they have for all of their children.
At Mr. Jenbere’s table, six children are engaged in writing using a variety of materials, including white unlined paper, colored construction paper, cardstock, markers, and crayons. Three children are using markers to draw pictures of the story the assistant principal read. They are talking to each other about the story as they draw. Arzu is using a crayon to scribble and is talking to herself as she writes. Mr. Jenbere helps Hasan identify the sounds in a word and then turns his attention to Richelle who reads her thank you note aloud. After listening to Richelle, he jots down an anecdotal note that documents not only the writing skills she used but also insights related to her comprehension of the story. Later, Mr. Jenbere and Ms. Daryl compare their anecdotal notes as they make plans for tomorrow’s writing instruction. They understand that assessment during writing instruction provides a window into the children’s learning and 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.
Figure 8.1.1 Framework for Developing Emergent Literacy
In this chapter, we will use the Framework for Developing Emergent Literacy (see Figure 8.1.1) 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.
Goodman, K., & Goodman, Y. (1983). Reading and writing relationships: Pragmatic functions. Language Arts, 60(5), 590–599.
Kidd, J. K., Burns, M. S., La Croix, L., & Cossa, N. L. (2014). Prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers in high poverty schools speak about young children’s authoring (and we need to listen). Literacy and Social Responsibility, 7(1), 50–71.
Pelatti, C. Y., Piasta, S. B., Justice, L. M., & O’Connell, A. (2014). Language- and literacy-learning opportunities in early childhood classrooms: Children’s typical experiences and within class variability. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29, 445–456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.05.004
Puranik, C. S., & C. J. Lonigan. (2014). Emergent writing in preschoolers: Preliminary evidence for a theoretical framework. Reading Research Quarterly, 49(4), 453–67. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.79
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