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