Teaching Children to Write from the Start: Ability, Culture, Meaning and Mechanics
March 2, 2013
Dr. Paul RogersJanina Lao Admana
An Overview
• An interactive conversation – You are the experts on the children at your school
• Some background about writing and writing development
• Talking about some practices or strategies you’re using in your classroom around writing
Activity
Why focus on writing?
• Writing is a key element of academic success.
• Writing is a powerful learning too that supports both understanding and remembering.
• Writing is a key ability for full participation in the 21st century.
2 out of 3 U.S. students fail to meet grade level demands in writing.
When does writing begin?
• After children learn to read?• When they begin to write words
conventionally?
A Different Perspective
• Literacy development begins long before formal schooling
• Children learn about reading and writing simultaneously in their everyday experiences
Learning to write is about cognitive development and social participation
Children engage in writing to explore the characteristics of
writing materialsthe cognitive development
Children write to engage in positive interactions with adults and to form relationships with peersthe social participation
What motivates children to learn to walk and talk? To learn
anything?
By what mechanisms do children learn to walk and talk? Do children learn anything?
Focus on Engagement
Travel and Transportation
Signs at the airport
Traveling
• Postcard writing (picture)
The Basic Skills
• Spelling and punctuation• Thinking, memory, and language
a(speaking), plus fine motor skills
Children’s handwriting develops sequentially “through stages of
drawing, scribbling, the making of letterlike forms, moving to well-learned units, invented spelling, and conventional orthography”
(Boscolo, 2008)
Scribbling
Drawing
Random Letters
Invented spelling
Conventional Spelling
Writing before schooling can best be described as exploration …
But … there’s more
• What hypotheses do children develop about writing prior to entering school? (bringing down to earth)
Identify the background knowledge that all children possess … learning
revolves around the child’s mind not the teachers.
Not convention but intention
In schoolchildren learn what they are
taught.
So focus on the multiple purposes for writing like …
Why do YOU write?
Children’s purposes for writing are more related
to the amount and types of
exposure they have than age or socio-
economic status (Harste et al. 1984)
Identify the Roots of Writing Purposes Found
in What People Do
Authentic Purposes (Brainstrom)
Authentic Purposes• Telling what I’ve learned (reports)• Describing an experience (travel writing)• Keeping notes (journaling)• Comparing ideas (reviews)• Conducting research (creating knowledge)• Analyzing problems (making the world a better
place)• Sharing happiness and wisdom (fictional
narratives)• Introducing an important person (profiles)
Create an environment for writing
Examples of writing centers
Ideas for your writing center
• clipboards• alphabet stamps• sandpaper/felt letters• stencils• chalkboards• dry erase cards• name cards
• variety of writing utensils
(pencils, crayons, pens, markers, chalk)
• paper• tape, stapler, paper clips,
hole puncher (for bookmaking)
• notebooks/journals
Portfolios
• Picture of Penguin binders and examples of work inside
Portfolios
• Excellent way to document each individual child’s progress
• Informal assessment tool• Showcase child’s work giving value, creating
permanence• Can be used together alongside progress
reports during parent-teacher conferences• Home-school connection
Integrating writing with art
Linking reading and writing
What happened in “Click Clack Moo Cows That Type”?
• Sand• Salt or sugar trays (or
on the light table)• Playdough• Fingerpaint• Write letters in chalk,
erase using a paintbrush/cotton swab/finger
• Ziploc bags: pudding, hair gel, paint
• Goop• Colored snow• Shaving cream
Ways to write
Do-It-Yourself Letter Tracing Cards
Strategies
• Write every day• Revisit and reread • Share the writing as a group• Letter tracing• Name writing
Name Writing
• A window into children’s emergent writing• The child’s name is often the first word they
begin to write• The child first learns to recognize letters in
their name, especially the first letter (own name advantage)
Name writing tends to progress in the following manner:
• (a) scribble; (b) linear scribble; (c) separate symbols, with letter-like forms; (d) name written with correct letters and mockletters/symbols; (e) name generally correct, with some letters reversed or omitted; and (f ) name written correctly
Use Name Writing with Self-Portraits
Look for lots of little transitions
Strategies
• Focus on what’s RIGHT!• It is the act of writing that needs
encouragement• Write with your students
Strategies
• Extrinsic rewards??• Using mentor texts
– Supplied by both teacher and child• Share what You write• Celebrate writing• Writing floats on a sea of talk
Evaluation
• Respond to completion• Respond to pride of authorship• Encourage students to try out ideas
Freedom of Choice
• Varying the amounts and types of input– Experiment– Let’s spend the next few minutes writing anything
we want
What are the most important elements of of
written language that children need to learn?
Conventions or mechanics
Conventions and mechanics
Thank you for your attention