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Lesson Plan: Pre-writing after story telling

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Lesson Plan: Pre-writing after story telling

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Pre-writing worksheet to get ideas flowing!

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Lesson Plan - Writing a letter is Easy as 1-2-3

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By Richard Gentry and Steve Peha

What's the best way to teach reading to beginners in preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or home school and how can we do it better? Both research and practice are offering a novel idea: teach kids to read by writing.

Early writing is of great benefit for learning to read. Yet this methodology seems not to be used to its best advantage. While it might seem novel it also has a powerful precedent: Maria Montessori (1870-1952) observed that children as young as 2 years of age were interested in tracing sandpaper letters and that many learned to write before reading.

Even though learning to read English with its complex and "opaque" spelling system is harder than learning to read Montessori's native Italian, both research and practice reveal that many English speaking 3- to 6-year-olds write first and read later. [1] [2]

Here are five reasons why you want to show your beginning reader how to pick up a pencil or crayon and write.
1. Early writing helps children crack the reading code.
Because our language is a sound-symbol system, attempting to write the sounds kids hear is great phonics practice. It also combines segmenting and blending, the two fundamental early reading skills, in one purposeful activity.

Writing is great phonics practice because it requires kids to apply the Alphabetic Principle, the central concept of printed language: "Words are made of sounds that are written with letters." To write a word, kids have to "hear" it. Then they have to associate the sound they hear with a letter symbol. Literacy is easier to acquire when kids work the way their language does. In the case of alphabetic language, that's "sound to symbol."

In a recent post, " Sounding Out Words " [3], we demonstrated techniques that make it easy for beginners to turn sounds into letters. Research now supports writing to read: brain scan studies show that early manuscript lessons help activate and coordinate reading circuitry. [4]
2. The first words kids read are often the first ones they write; early writing builds reading confidence.
The first words and sentences kids can read are often the first words and sentences they write. Writing gives them early and much needed confidence with literacy.

Writing first helps kids get the meaning connection because they are conveying their own thoughts. Often, the first words kids write will use unconventional spelling and even unconventional drawing of some letters. However, if we ask kids to read what they have written, and especially if we point to each "word" as kids read along, they can often remember their ideas and read them back.
3. Writing gives kids a head start on handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and other concepts of print.
Learning to write early on means kids get more chances to learn to practice handwriting, to learn to spell, to learn to punctuate, and to think about many of the conventions of printed text that are required to become successful readers.

Though we're not aware of it as adults, there are many "concepts of print" (as psychologist and Reading Recovery inventor Dr. Marie Clay termed them) that kids have to learn. These include things like writing words left-to-right and lines top-to-bottom, putting spaces between words, understanding the relationship between words and pictures, and so on. Early writing then becomes a form of self-testing, distributed practice, and interleaved practice of concepts of print and conventions-learning techniques that psychologists have found to be effective. [5]
4. Writing is a brainpower workout.
At a time when kids' brainpower is growing extremely rapidly, writing may be the single best brain workout they can get: it requires all the skills of reading, some of the logical skills of math and science, small motor coordination, and even some emotional intelligence as well when they begin to consider writing for an audience.

This means that writing is very hard for little kids. But doing hard things is very good for learning. As long as kids aren't pushed past the point of frustration, writing will naturally push them to the edge of their literate abilities-and move them past that edge very quickly.

Unlike basic reading books, and phonics programs, which introduce new words and letters in gradual and very controlled ways, kids wanting to communicate through print will want to write whatever words they want to write. As long as they have some basic techniques for doing this (sufficient handwriting practice, basic knowledge of letter sounds, a strategy for sounding out words, etc.), they'll push themselves hard because they're so invested in their own success.

Writing also conveys an interesting sense of ownership to many kids. Reading involves working with the words and ideas of others. While kids can and do take great pride in reading their favorite stories, the sense of agency and satisfaction they take in writing their own words can be even greater.
5. Writing is a useful assessment of reading ability.
Research shows that beginning reading and writing "are one and the same, almost." [6] You can assess a kid's early reading development and monitor progress by looking at their writing. [7]

Observing what kids do and how they are thinking when they write provides information that can guide instruction. Performance samples of written work are representations of activated reading circuitry and reveal a child's reading skills. Unlike trying to guess what a kid can comprehend or determine a kid's degree of fluency as they read aloud, teachers and parents can study kids' writing carefully and learn a lot about which letters and sounds they know, how they spell, how they're doing with handwriting, how they make sense of text, and many other important things that guide instruction.
Here are five things you can do to promote early writing:

1. Give kids writing tools and encourage them to use them. The smaller the hand, the bigger the tool. For very small kids, sidewalk chalk is great. But as soon as kids can grip a fat pen or pencil, teach them how to hold it correctly.

2. Have kids watch you when you write, especially when you write simple things like lists. Kids not only want to please adults, they want to be adults or "big kids." Seeing that you write will naturally make them feel that writing is a "big kid" thing. Remember, that when you read silently, kids may not know you are reading. But when they see you write, they know exactly what you're doing.

3. Have kids write the alphabet once a day. Even if they can only form a few of the letters, have them write those. Concentrate on the lowercase letters. Over 95% of the letters we encounter in print are lowercase. Lowercase letters also take longer to learn, so kids need more time to learn them.

4. Have your kids write "thank you" notes when they receive gifts. It's a wonderful habit for kids to develop, and it gives them a real reason to write to a real person. Also, using many of the same words over and over (like "thank you" and "I really like...") will help kids improve both their technique and confidence-even if you spell some or all of the words out for them.

5. Have kids copy out their favorite stories from books. Kids can make their own books, either as copies of books they love or as original creations of their own. Many kids create their own entire libraries. You can write a book, too. Offer to create a book in front of your child. When kids see you fold the paper up correctly, number the pages, and make a pretty cover, it sometimes feels to them that you've done something magical-and that they can do magic, too!

Steve Peha is the founder of Teaching That Makes Sense, Inc., an education consultancy in Carrboro, NC specializing in literacy and instructional leadership. In addition to providing teacher training for schools and districts throughout the US and Canada, he writes regularly on education practice and policy. His work has been featured in The Washington Post, The National Journal, Edutopia, and many others.

Dr. J. Richard Gentry is the author of Raising Confident Readers, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Write-From Baby to Age 7. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedInand find out more information about his work on his website.

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5 Reasons Why Writing Helps Early Reading

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Writing is one of the best ways to teach beginners how to read.

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Introduction - Grade 1

Depending on your class situation and available time, Writer's Workshop activities can be a useful and meaningful extension to TeachersFirst's online instructional units. Writer's Workshop is a teaching technique that invites students to write by making the process a meaningful part of the classroom curriculum. In the First Grade classroom, students learn to write daily through varied activities. Writer's Workshop exposes First grade students to the organization and thought required to create a story or write about a favorite topic. Because they choose the topic, students are motivated to create and complete works to read to classmates. The Writer's Workshop format includes story planning, revision, teacher editing, and direct instruction in the mechanics of grammar. In the First Grade, this teaching technique allows teachers to observe the learning progress of both reading and writing.

First Grade students' skills vary and progress at different rates. The goal, therefore, is to move emergent/ early fluency readers into the writing process by guiding them to use phonetics to sound out words, copy and use sight words in meaningful ways, create an awareness of punctuation, and refer to outside resources for spelling corrections. First Graders enjoy the independence of early independent writing, the power of their words to express thoughts, and the opportunity to describe experiences to classmates.

Writer's Workshop can also be paired with reading activities to create a powerful motivating tool when teaching literacy. A teacher can quickly see which words a student 'owns' by what they write; a teacher can see how a child approaches organization of thought by how a student presents ideas in a story and a teacher can see how a student's abilities grow through the year by the progression of plot and text in their writing.

The Writer's Workshop is typically a part of each day. However, for teachers with a schedule problem it can be a 3 day a week activity. Teachers with curriculum set by Districts may use Writer's Workshop as an occasional extension activity for specific curriculum units. The main components of the Writer's Workshop include a Mini-lesson, Status of the class, Writing & Conferencing, and Sharing & Author's Chair. Some of these components may already be a part of your classroom routine.
Mini-Lesson
A Mini- Lesson is usually a 5-10 minute whole class activity and may be as simple as doing guided writing from a story. An example is to lay out a favorite story's events in beginning, middle, and end form, create an idea web about the student's reactions to the story, or bring attention to basic use of punctuation. A group reading activity such as a big book, or song or poem written on chart paper can introduce patterns in language and rhyming words, it could be used to search for phonetic sounds, or even to recognize beginning sight words. This is a direct teaching opportunity for teachers to present the information a class is ready to learn. Some teachers require students to use the mini-lesson information immediately; other teachers will gently re-introduce information to students at the conferring sessions according to their individual readiness.
Status of the Class
The Status of the Class takes about 2-3 minutes and provides the student and teacher with information about how the student's work is progressing. It can be done with a quick handing out of the folders and a quick response from the students such as Illustrating, Work in progress, Publishing, or it may be a bulletin board that has color-coded cards. A written work must have the following format:

· Front cover: typically a piece of colored construction paper with title, author's name, and illustration (This information can be completed after the book is written and revised)
· Title Page: with title, author's name, and illustration and date of completion.
· Dedication Page
· Story pages: in order with page numbers, traced or in students writing with illustrations.
· Back Cover: usually a piece of colored construction paper with Author's page and self portrait or student photo on the inside. (This information can be completed after the book is written and revised.)

Write and Confer
Writing & Conferring is ideally a 20 - 40 minute session. In the beginning of the First Grade year however, shorter sessions may work better. First Grade students who are at the emergent literacy level will begin by dictating, with the teacher taking down the student's words with a yellow highlighter after they finish an illustration. The student is then asked to write over the words with pencils or markers to make them all their own. This process provides small motor development, handwriting practice, and brings meaning to the written word. Students with good small motor skills and an awareness of phonetics can be encouraged to write on their own. Initially, teachers may want to overlook corrections of standard spelling to allow students to focus on fluency of story telling and to build confidence in their efforts.

The child receives a new page after they have illustrated, traced or written, and reread the previous page to the teacher. This is called the conference; a teacher reviews the writing with the student. In the beginning of First Grade editing is not the focus of the conference. Instead, the emphasis is on fluency of ideas, logical story ordering, and the connection of thoughts from page to page. This helps foster self- esteem. By the middle of First Grade teachers may begin to expect correct use of sight words and teachers can begin to guide students who are ready for punctuation. Depending upon the curriculum guidelines, spelling may be corrected, or inventive spelling may be respected as the developmental effort of the student. Many teachers will only very lightly pencil underneath if a child has created their own first attempts at writing marks on the page telling the child, "This is so I can remember these important words you've written."

By the end of First Grade most students understand the need for correct spelling and that punctuation will make their thoughts clear to the reader. All students should be aware of the importance of their ideas. Teachers may use the editing process to encourage individual students to attempt more and more challenging writing. Teachers may keep a list of words that are being misspelled and use those as weekly spelling words. Some classrooms have word banks or picture dictionaries as references, it is important not to place spelling in competition with content in the early grades. Experience and editing will help the child strive for "publishable" quality material. Students love to have their writing typeset and "published" on the computer to illustrate, teachers can require student text be correctly spelled and punctuated before it can be considered suitable for publication. Publishing is a great motivating tool for all students, but great value needs to be placed on the process of first drafts and revisions. This is where the real business of literacy takes place and life long skills are developed.
Sharing: Author's Chair
Sharing and Author's Chair usually take ten minutes and be done either by having the students read to the class a "published book" or by children sharing their work in pairs. If peer editing is to be part of your classroom structure, careful introduction to a process such as TAG will be required. TAG stands for - tell one thing you liked about the story, ask one question, and give one suggestion.

Student Assessment is done by keeping a portfolio of revisions and copies of completed work.

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TeachersFirst - Writer's Workshop - First Grade

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Depending on your class situation and available time, Writer's Workshop activities can be a useful and meaningful extension to TeachersFirst's online instructional units. Writer's Workshop is a teaching technique that invites students to write by making the process a meaningful part of the classroom curriculum.

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Introduction

During free-choice time, Mrs. Jackson (all names are pseudonyms and vignettes fictional) moves around her preschool classroom. Her students are busy in centers - some engaging in dramatic play, some working in journals, and some drawing animals at the science center. Carmen looks up to Mrs. Jackson as she passes her table and asks, "How do I write snake?"

Mrs. Jackson looks around the classroom at her students, who are just beginning to experiment with writing. Some students, like Carmen, know the names of all the letters and can produce most of them accurately. A lot of Carmen's classmates, however, are still learning to write their own names, and others do not yet know the difference between drawing and writing. How can Mrs. Jackson help all of her students when they are in such different places in their development?

How should Mrs. Jackson respond? Should she name the letters of the word? Focus on the sounds in the word? Encourage Carmen to write down her "best guess" and praise her hard work? And how should Mrs. Jackson help the next child, and the next?

Many preschool teachers recognize the importance of early writing by making writing materials available in their classrooms and providing opportunities to write during the school day (Gerde & Bingham, 2012). However, for teachers like Mrs. Jackson who want to offer explicit writing instruction to their students, the diversity of skill levels in a typical classroom presents a real challenge. Preschool teachers receive limited practical guidance about how to apply the research on early writing to help individualize instruction for children. Not surprisingly, recent research indicates that few teachers understand how to appropriately scaffold instruction to help children take the next step in their writing development (Gerde & Bingham, 2012).

In this article, we offer a straightforward framework that teachers can use to easily evaluate children's writing and help children take the next step in development. We address why it is important to foster early writing skills, how writing typically develops in young children, and how teachers can actively support this development. We discuss in detail four different students who might appear in a typical preschool classroom and how teachers can use their understanding of early writing to shape instruction for these students.

We also provide examples and concrete suggestions for fitting individualized writing instruction into common classroom contexts, including centers, journaling, and morning message. This article will help teachers individualize early writing support for all students and at the same time foster other important early literacy skills through writing.

Early writing and why it matters

Early writing, often used synonymously with the term emergent writing, encompasses the following: (a) the manual act of producing physical marks (i.e., mechanics), (b) the meanings children attribute to these markings (i.e., composition), and (c) understandings about how written language works (i.e., orthographic knowledge; Berninger, 2009). Although mechanics and composition are important features of early writing, we focus our attention on orthographic knowledge-how children's marks reflect growing understandings of the writing system.

These understandings include both general conventions (e.g., print goes from left to right on a page) and understandings of specific features (e.g., speech can be represented by individual sounds, which can be written down using letters). We use the term early writing to refer to children's representations of their knowledge about the writing system (i.e., orthographic knowledge).

Early writing is one of the best predictors of children's later reading success (National Early Literacy Panel [NELP], 2008). Specifically, early writing is part of a set of important foundational literacy skills that serve as necessary precursors to conventional reading (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998), including developing understandings of both print (i.e., print concept and alphabet knowledge) and sound (i.e., phonological awareness).

Print knowledge includes general understandings of how print works (e.g., left-to-right directionality) and the names and sounds of the alphabet. Knowledge about sound, or phonological awareness, includes the ability to attend to and manipulate sound structure of language, progressing from awareness of larger chunks (e.g., sentences, rhyme, beginning sounds) to blending and segmenting individual units of sound (i.e., phonemic awareness), for example, understanding that the word cat is made up of /c/, /a/, and /t/. These early skills work together to lay a foundation for later reading success (NELP, 2008).

As children integrate their knowledge of print and sound, they begin to grasp the alphabetic principle, a critical achievement in early literacy. The alphabetic principle is the understanding that oral language is made up of smaller sounds and that letters represent those sounds in a systematic way. Children can grow in their understanding of how print and sound work together through experimenting with writing. Writing serves as a type of laboratory, in which even very young children are actively creating and testing hypotheses about how writing works (Bissex, 1980). Children notice print in their environment and use their experiences to invent and revise ideas about the rules that govern writing, "cracking the code" of literacy one piece at a time.

For example, a child might believe based on his experience with print and knowledge of the world that really big animals have really big written representations. So he might represent the word elephant with a very big and wide scribble and might represent the word bee with a very short, tiny scribble. As he begins to grasp the alphabetic principle, his hypotheses change, and he may later represent the word elephant with an L and the word bee with the letter B.

How early writing develops

To help young children develop as writers, teachers need to understand typical writing development and use this knowledge to identify what children already know and what they are ready to learn next. Specifically, each child's writing provides teachers with a window into what that child knows about print and sound.

Children learning to write in an alphabetic language such as English typically follow a specific sequence of development (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2008; Clay, 1975; Ferreiro & Teberosky, 1982; Hildreth, 1936; Kaderavek & Justice, 2000; Lieberman, 1985; Schickedanz & Casbergue, 2009; Temple, Nathan, & Temple, 2012). Drawing on this body of work we next describe four levels of early writing development, designed to provide teachers with a straightforward framework with which to evaluate children's written efforts.

Drawing and Scribbling

Early in development, children's drawings are their writings, and children make no distinction between the two when asked to write. Children then begin to make separate marks representing "writing" apart from their drawings, a key developmental event indicating that children have begun to grasp the functionality of writing as separate from illustration. These early marks are often directionless scribbles. These scribbles then begin to take on features of written text children see in their environment, becoming horizontal and moving from left to right on a page. The scribbles eventually evolve into separate, distinct characters (e.g., Lieberman, 1985).

Connections to other literacy skills

Children who are drawing and scribbling usually do not yet understand that writing is related to speech. Similarly, when listening to a storybook being read aloud, children at this level may not understand that the text carries its own meaning, and that the words the teacher is saying to tell the story come from the text (Justice, Pullen, & Pence, 2008). Their alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness skills are at the beginning points in development. They may know a few letter names, such as the first letter in their name. They may also be working on phonological awareness skills that attend to larger units of spoken language, such as rhyme.

Letters and Letter-Like Forms

Next, children begin to write with letter-like forms and a few letter shapes. Although these early forms mimic letter shapes, they are at first not conventional letters. When children do begin writing conventional letters, they often produce what may appear to be random strings of letters because they do not yet connect letters to the sounds in spoken language. Children typically begin by reproducing letters found in their names. The first letter of their first names, along with other name letters, are usually seen repeatedly in children's early writing (Treiman, Kessler, & Bourassa, 2001). Children at this level may mix symbols and numbers with random letter-like forms and conventional letters.

Connections to other literacy skills

When children are consistently writing with seemingly random letters and letter-like forms, they understand that print carries meaning, but they still do not generally understand that letters represent the sounds in spoken words in a systematic way. Although they may be growing in phonological awareness and developing knowledge of the alphabet, including the names of some letters, they have not yet made the speech-to-print connection. Because they represent their knowledge of print in their writings without representing sounds, their messages cannot be understood by adults without children's interpretations.

Salient and Beginning Sounds

Children reach a critical point in writing development when they start to represent the sounds that they hear in spoken language. Relying on their growing knowledge of both print and sound, children begin to invent spellings, which means they create logical phonetic spellings based on their knowledge.

They often represent salient sounds, or the sounds that are the most prominent because of the way they feel in the child's mouth (Bear et al., 2008). For example, a child might write B for the word baby, because her lips come together twice when saying the word. She might spell V for elevator, because that sound is the most distinct due to the vibration felt when saying the word. She might logically substitute F for V because the sounds feel similar on the lips. Beginning sounds in words are often the most salient ones, so children will have many beginning sounds in words represented. When writing a sentence, children may represent a letter for each salient sound they hear, for each word or for each syllable. For example, when writing the sentence, I like juice, a child may write IKJ without any spaces.

Connections to other literacy skills

Children who are writing with salient and beginning sounds are beginning to grasp the alphabetic principle. At this point, children combine their knowledge of print and sound for the first time. They are just beginning to understand this principle and cannot yet identify where spoken words begin and end in written text (Morris, Bloodgood, Lomax, & Perney, 2003), so they usually do not use spaces between words while writing. This understanding shows up in in children's "reading" as well. When finger-pointing to the words in memorized texts such as songs and nursery rhymes, children will most likely point to words according to stress units or syllables, getting off track on multisyllabic words (Flanigan, 2007).

Beginning and Ending Sounds

As children's phonemic awareness grows to the point at which they can attend to individual sounds in words, they begin to represent beginning and ending sounds of words in their writing. They also consistently write with spaces between words, indicating that they understand where word boundaries occur. When writing the simple consonant-vowel-consonant pattern word map, children at this level will write MP.

Children also use a letter-name strategy when beginning to spell, using their knowledge of letter names to create spellings; for example, eight might be spelled AT. Children who are writing with beginning and ending sounds generally do not consistently represent the middle sounds in words, especially vowel sounds, until the next phase in their development (see Bear et al., 2008).

Connections to other literacy skills

Children's invented spellings mirror their early reading ability very closely (Morris et al., 2003). At this level, they are able to finger-point accurately to the words of a memorized rhyme and make self-corrections if they get off track. They actively use their knowledge of letter sounds and letter names to help them identify words, but often guess based on the first letter and sometimes last letter of a word, not yet attending to the vowel sounds; cat and cut would be most likely read the same way (Ehri, 2005). Over time, children's spellings become more conventional as they learn to represent all the sounds in words.

Providing appropriate support for young writers

This developmental writing framework provides teachers with guidance for appropriately scaffolding young children's efforts in early writing. The next sections provide classroom examples of individualizing writing support for children in each of the four developmental levels. In each example, Mrs. Jackson uses her observations of what the child already knows (as represented correctly in his or her writing) and what he or she is on the verge of learning (according to his or her level of development) to scaffold work for that child within his or her instructional range. By using the framework outlined in the Table 1, Mrs. Jackson is able to efficiently provide support to each child, moving him or her toward the next step of writing development.

Drawing and Scribbling: Katrina

"This says castle," Katrina says, pointing to her drawing of a castle in her journal. Katrina is an imaginative young girl who, inspired by story time today, wants to build a castle in the block center. The center is already full, so Katrina must sign up for the next turn, writing her name as a single horizontal scribble. While she waits, she draws a plan for her castle in her journal. Mrs. Jackson provides time in class every day for students to write or draw in their journals and encourages their use throughout the day.

At this point in her development, Katrina has had little experience with print and pays more attention to the pictures in books. Her journal pages contain only drawings, and she draws or scribbles when asked to write. She can recognize her name and about three letters that appear in her name, but she has not yet begun to learn the sounds associated with these letters and does not yet incorporate them into her writing.

As indicated by Table 1, there are three important goals for Katrina's writing development. She needs to develop a distinction between pictures and text, start using individual units while writing, and develop her representation of her own name beyond the first letter.

Mrs. Jackson decides to focus on the first goal today and uses the picture book from story time as an example of the difference between pictures and print. "I love your castle, Katrina! Let's look at our book again. Yes, there's a picture of a castle there too! And let me show you one other thing, over here, there is the word castle. See, the book tells the story in two ways - in the pictures and in the writing." Mrs. Jackson coaches Katrina to add some scribbles beneath her picture and praises the result - "It looks like the book now!" She then directs Katrina's attention back to the book, highlighting how each word is made up of letters. She focuses on some words that include the letter k, the letter most familiar to Katrina.

Going forward, Mrs. Jackson will engage Katrina in a dialogue about her journal entries, over time encouraging her to incorporate familiar letters into her writing. Although Katrina's journal does not at all resemble conventional writing at this point, it is the first step toward making print concrete for Katrina. At this point, Katrina's writing development focuses on increasing her knowledge of print; she is not yet ready to integrate phonological awareness or her letter-sound knowledge into her writing activities.

Letters and Letter-Like Forms: Marvin

Marvin is playing doctor in a dramatic play center, writing and signing prescriptions for other students in his group. All of Mrs. Jackson's centers include opportunities and materials for writing. Mrs. Jackson encourages students to make signs and labels for their creations at the blocks and clay centers, draw and label animals and plants in the science center, and incorporate writing into dramatic play, for example, taking orders in a restaurant. Centers give children the chance to experiment with writing at their own level in playful, authentic contexts.

Each prescription Marvin writes includes his name, which he writes as MAV, along with a few other characters that look like letters or numbers. As is often the case for young writers, Marvin's name writing is more advanced than his other writings. He remembers what his name looks like from memory rather than writing letters based on the sounds he hears; he doesn't yet understand that Marvin starts with the /m/ sound. Over the course of the week, Marvin has written several journal entries using a combination of M, A, V, and other characters that resemble letters and numbers, as is typical for children at this second level of writing development.

Judging by the letter-like forms he includes in his writing, Marvin does understand that he should be writing more than three letters, but he isn't sure what to add. Because Marvin's writing does not have any connection to the sounds in the words, the goals for his instruction should push him toward making that connection and developing the alphabetic principle. As indicated by the Table, Marvin needs to make connections between print and sound and use that knowledge to begin to represent beginning or salient sounds in his writing.

When Mrs. Jackson stops by the play center, she praises Marvin: "I like how you wrote your name! Let's write your friends' names on their prescriptions, too!" She then talks to Marvin about the letter M - it is the first letter in his name, and the first sound in his name is /m/. They practice saying "/m/, /m/, Marvin" together while pointing to the letter M. Then Mrs. Jackson asks Marvin which of his "patients" in the dramatic play center have names that start with /m/. With her support, Marvin identifies Maria and Meredith and writes their names down as M's combined with scribbles. With Mrs. Jackson's direction and support, Marvin is also able to identify the /s/ at the beginning of Sam and /l/ at the beginning of Liz. In each case, Mrs. Jackson identifies the letter that makes the target sound and helps Marvin write the letter on the prescription.

Marvin is developing an understanding of how letters represent sounds at the beginning of words, a first step toward grasping the alphabetic principle. Going forward, Mrs. Jackson will encourage Marvin to identify beginning and salient sounds and to match those to letters in his writing in play centers and in his journal, embedding this systematic connection in his mind.

Salient and Beginning Sounds: Carmen

"How do I write snake?" asks Carmen. Carmen is working on a draw-and-label activity in the science center. Because centers allow each child to work at his or her own level, Carmen has labeled a picture of a tiger with T, an elephant with L, and a snake with S. Her ability to identify a salient sound in each word and match it to a letter indicates that she has begun to sound out the words she writes phonetically, and this pattern holds throughout her other class writings this week.

Carmen has an initial understanding of the alphabetic principle and understands that speech is systematically connected to print in a left-to-right fashion. Like most children in this level of writing development, she often uses only one letter to represent syllables or entire words, rather than representing each individual sound.

Her writing skill reflects her other literacy skills; Carmen knows all the letter names and letter sounds and has excellent awareness of the beginning sounds in words. However, when finger-pointing to a known text, such as a nursery rhyme, she often gets off track when she encounters two-syllable words. She generally cannot distinguish between written words that begin with the same sound. For example, she may identify the same word as mom or mother.

As indicated by Table 1, the key goal for Carmen is beginning to hear and represent additional sounds in words in her writing, in particular identifying both initial and final sounds in words. Mrs. Jackson looks at the S on Carmen's paper. "I like the way you wrote down the first sound you heard in the word snake. S-s-s-nake. Great job! Do you hear any other sounds in snake? Let's say the word together and stretch it out."

As they stretch out the word, Mrs. Jackson emphasizes the final /k/ sound, which Carmen identifies. Mrs. Jackson follows up by asking, "How do you write [the sound] /k/?" Carmen might choose the letter C, because that letter represents the /k/ at the beginning of her own name. Carmen settles on the spelling SC, and Mrs. Jackson praises her effort, because Carmen is using the letter-sound correspondences she knows to write based on the sounds she hears within words. During both center and journal time, Mrs. Jackson will encourage Carmen to listen for the final sound in the word and represent that sound in her writing as well as the initial sound. Carmen is spelling!

Beginning and Ending Sounds: Jayden

Jayden is working in the story-writing center, recounting and illustrating the class's recent field trip to a farm. He has written his own name and the names of his friends accurately and has begun to list some animals they saw on the trip, for example, DG for dog, GT for goat, and PG for pig.

Jayden is a diligent writer of words, working very slowly and carefully sounding out words. He has memorized a few simple words that he always writes accurately, such as his friends' names. His other writings this week show that he is primarily writing with beginning and ending sounds in words. He represents most consonant sounds correctly in writing but may still exhibit some confusion with letter names, such as writing YN for when because the pronunciation of the letter-name Y ("why") makes the /w/ sound.

Jayden knows virtually all letter names and letter sounds. In terms of vowels, he is most familiar with the long sounds, which match the names of those letters. For example, he writes snow as SO. He is also able to track a memorized rhyme, self-correcting as he attempts to make the speech-to-print match. He is also actively using his knowledge of letter names and letter sounds to help him sound out words, but this process is slow and labor-intensive for him. He has trouble distinguishing between similar words such as bed and bad, as he does not always attend to vowel sounds in words. When reading, he relies heavily on contextual clues and picture supports to guess the right word when he is unsure.

Because Jayden is working at the fourth level of writing development, two goals are appropriate for him: consistently representing middle vowel sounds in his writing, and writing some simple, complete words. Achieving these goals will also support his reading development by helping him sound out words more accurately.

Mrs. Jackson tries to draw Jayden's attention to the vowel sound in simple words. To build on Jayden's spelling of the word goat ( GT), Mrs. Jackson draws a rectangle with three sections, or boxes, on a piece of paper. She writes the letters G and T in the first and last boxes, respectively. "You wrote two sounds, but there are three. G is at the beginning of goat; T is at the end of goat. What do you hear in the middle?" Mrs. Jackson emphasizes the long /o/ sound. Jayden identifies the sound and writes an O in the middle box, spelling GOT. This spelling represents a step forward in that Jayden is focusing on the medial vowel sound. Moving forward, Mrs. Jackson will support Jayden by continuing to work on both long and short vowel sounds in other simple words.

Putting it all together

As demonstrated by Mrs. Jackson's classroom, preschool children vary widely in their ability to write, and individual instruction is key to scaffolding each child's development. Teachers can also support children of all levels of writing ability within one activity, however, by strategically individualizing how they involve each child.

The morning message is one activity Mrs. Jackson uses to engage children in the process of writing by cocreating a meaningful message for the class. Although this activity is teacher directed, Mrs. Jackson creates an interactive writing environment by modeling the writing process for all children and engaging some children each day in writing as they share the pen.

Mrs. Jackson begins, "Children, we are going to write the words to our message so we can read them." This statement reminds children such as Katrina that we read the words we write. She says and writes, "This week we are studying transportation. Mrs. Jackson peddled her bicycle to school today." When she comes to the word bicycle, she asks, "Who can help me begin the word bicycle? Marvin, what sound do you hear at the beginning of b-b-bicycle?" Mrs. Jackson calls on Marvin because she knows he needs practice making connections between letters and their sounds. Marvin responds, "b-b-bicycle." "Great, Marvin, bicycle does begin with /b/. Does anyone know what letter makes the /b/ sound?" Carmen exclaims, " B!" "Yes, B!" Mrs. Jackson offers Marvin the marker so he can write the B.

Next she asks the children, "How did you get to school today?" Both Katrina and Carmen rode the bus, so Mrs. Jackson brings them up together. She reads aloud as she writes, "____ and ____ rode the____." She invites Katrina and Carmen to write their names in the blanks. Katrina scribbles from left-to-right, and Carmen writes all the letters in her name. Pointing to each word, Mrs. Jackson reads, " Katrina and Carmen rode the... What word is next, Katrina? What type of transportation did you and Carmen take to school?" Katrina says, " Bus."

Mrs. Jackson draws three small boxes in the last blank, one to represent each letter in the word. She says to the class, "Let's write the word bus together. Bus has three letters, 1, 2, 3 [points to the three boxes]. Let's think about the first sound in the word bus. Bus and bicycle begin with the same sound! What letter should I write? ...Great, bus begins with B. Carmen, what other sounds do you hear in bus?" She emphasizes the /s/ at the end of bus. Carmen replies, " S," and Mrs. Jackson directs her to write the S in the last box. "Great you heard /b/ for B and /s/ for S. Listen closely because there is another sound in the middle of the word. Buuuuuus. Jayden, what do you hear?" Jayden says, " U" and adds the U into BUS. At the end of their writing, Mrs. Jackson reads the entire message, pointing to each word and asking children to read along with her.

Conclusion

In this article, we have provided a framework for teachers to understand the goals and types of activities for supporting children at each level of early writing development (see Table 1). How can teachers use this framework to help children move forward in their writing development? The first step is to determine each child's current level of development through observing children's writing. A thoughtful, ongoing examination of children's early writing can provide teachers with a window into children's knowledge of print and sound that can inform productive instruction.

Although writing progresses in a developmental order, it is not necessarily the case that children master one level before moving to the next. Many children move back and forth between levels of difficulty, particularly across writing tasks (e.g., name writing vs. story writing), sometimes exhibiting different levels on the same day! Because children show this flexibility in their writing, it would be helpful for teachers to evaluate three or more writing samples taken over the course of a few days across different classroom contexts. Only one of these samples should be name writing, as children tend to write their names at a more sophisticated level than they do other words (Levin, Both-de Vries, Aram, & Bus, 2005).

From these writings, a teacher can identify the highest level at which children are consistently writing (apart from their name-writing representation). There is one key question to consider when determining writing level: Are children representing any sounds in their writing? The answer to this question tells teachers whether children are beginning to grasp the alphabetic principle (i.e., salient and beginning sounds; beginning and ending sounds). After determining each child's level, teachers can use Table 1 to readily identify the appropriate goals and teaching strategies for each level across common classroom writing contexts.

Effectively incorporating support for children's varying writing skills provides a gateway to developing other critical literacy skills and significantly contributes to later reading achievement (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). The knowledge teachers gain from assessing children's writing samples can be used to select appropriate, individualized strategies for scaffolding and expanding children's writing efforts. Individualizing writing instruction provides meaningful and approachable writing experiences for all children, setting the stage for reading and writing success for years to come.

Note

The preparation of this article was supported in part by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through grant R305A060021 to the University of Virginia-funding the National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education (NCRECE). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the U.S. Department of Education.

Biographies

Sonia Q. Cabell is a research scientist at the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. e-mail [email protected]

Laura S. Tortorelli is a graduate student at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

Hope K. Gerde is an assistant professor at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.

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How Do I Write...? Scaffolding Preschoolers' Early Writing Skills

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During free-choice time, Mrs. Jackson (all names are pseudonyms and vignettes fictional) moves around her preschool classroom. Her students are busy in centers - some engaging in dramatic play, some working in journals, and some drawing animals at the science center. Carmen looks up to Mrs.

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Common Problems in Elementary School Writings

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Common Problems in Elementary School Writings

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Learning to write is uniquely challenging. Writing requires the mastery and concurrent use of a complex array of language skills, from vocabulary and spelling to the ability to organize and convey ideas. Indeed, the intricacies of writing make it one of the highest forms of human expression. Is it any wonder that many elementary school students need extra support along the way to becoming writers?

Elementary Writing Hurdles
In elementary school, children are encountering the elements of writing for the first time, from the formation of letters, to organizing their ideas, to using correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Elementary school students are expected to advance from learning the rules of writing to automatically applying those rules beginning in grade four. By the end of elementary school, your child should be writing independently and producing multiple-paragraph essays that contain formal introductions, supporting evidence, and conclusions.

How to Spot Common Writing Problems
As a parent of an elementary school student, you shouldn't be overly concerned if your child's writing is not perfect. Writing ability improves in stages, as children build upon the skills learned in prior grades. However, you should keep an eye out for repetitious errors and habits, such as in incorrect grammar and spelling, poorly structured essays, and unsupported ideas. Frustration is also a red flag. Writing is hard work and can be a chore, but excessive complaining and procrastination may indicate a bigger problem with writing. If not addressed, eventually writing problems can lead to problems in other subjects and affect overall academic success.

Overcoming Writing Problems
If your child isn't making progress in writing, take action early. As a first step, make time to meet with your child's teacher. Come prepared with your concerns and observations. Does your child seem to have trouble in one aspect of writing, such as grammar or getting started, or does the problem seem to stem from a larger issue. Writing problems can be an indication of other learning problems, so consider consulting the appropriate professionals if those are your concerns. The good news is that with patience, understanding, and targeted help, writing problems can be overcome.

Does your child's writing look like this?
The errors and awkward phrasing in their children's essays often surprise parents of elementary school students. Usually children exhibit a stronger command of language in conversation than on paper and don't begin to write at a level equivalent to their own speech until grades four to seven. Here are some common errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics that will help you identify the trouble spots in your child's writing.

How Parents Can Help
There are many ways you can help your children enjoy and improve their writing.

Give positive feedback. When reviewing your child's essays, give positive feedback along with talking about what needs improvement. Engage your child in the revision process by discussing the mechanics of writing without disapproval of their ideas. Students should understand that writing is a process and all writers revise their work. Remember, children need encouragement as much as correction. Also, speak in private to avoid possible embarrassment.

Incorporate writing into family activities. There are lots of ways to bring writing into daily family life. Ask your children to help you make lists and record messages. Have your children write poems or skits for family events, or movie reviews to share at the dinner table. Journals and pen pals are also great writing outlets. Encourage your children to write about what interests them-even if it's just a paragraph.

Don't rush writing. Make sure your child has a quiet place to write and help them gauge how long it will take to complete a writing assignment. Writing usually takes longer than we think. If the assignment is rushed, students may feel they can't write, when they really just needed more time to revise.

Get extra help. Recognize when extra help is needed, either from the school or outside professionals. Often children respond well to having a personal writing tutor. Ask if your school has after school programs that target writing. Most importantly, don't ignore writing problems-working with teachers and utilizing available resources can make a big difference.

Time4Writing Tackles Elementary Writing Problems
Time4Writing currently offers three writing courses designed especially for elementary school students.
Our online writing courses provide highly effective writing instruction and skills reinforcement. Elementary school students work one-on-one with an experienced, certified teacher with the goal of mastering the fundamentals of writing, step-by-step.

In the Grammar Rocks course, students are introduced to the parts of speech, correct punctuation and capitalization, and proofreading strategies.

The Sensational Sentences course tutors students in writing complete sentences, while teaching about types of sentences and key concepts such as subject-verb agreement.

Perfect Paragraphs teaches students to how to write different types of paragraphs, including narrative, expository, descriptive, and persuasive.

An Excellent Essays course is under development. Courses can be taken individually or in succession to build skills from the ground up.

With over 1,000 students served, Time4Writing has ample proof that writing problems can be overcome. One parent of a Time4Writing elementary school student wrote, "My son is happily writing for the first time ever. He really enjoys the feedback and finally believes that he is a good writer. Thanks to Time4Writing for unlocking his potential."

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Common Problems in Elementary School Writing

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Learning to write is uniquely challenging. Writing requires the mastery and concurrent use of a complex array of language skills, from vocabulary and spelling to the ability to organize and convey ideas. Indeed, the intricacies of writing make it one of the highest forms of human expression.

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Every Child is a Writer : Psychology behind early writing skills. 

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Every Child is a Writer : Psychology behind early writing skills. 

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Publication Type:

Policy Area: Building Stronger Early Childhood Systems Featured

Summary:

Guest author and Clemson University Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education, Anna H. Hall illustrates in "Every Child is a Writer: Understanding the Importance of Writing in Early Childhood," how toddlers and preschoolers express their feelings and communicate with a writing instrument and paper, and informs adults how to encourage such activity.

This brief addresses the importance of fostering early writing skills in early childhood; research-based barriers and opportunities for writing in early childhood environments; and the policy considerations related to early writing development. The primary audience is early childhood teachers and administrators; recommendations are also made for families and community stakeholders.

Excerpt: Children as young as two years of age make marks on paper to express their feelings and communicate with others.[i] Although toddlers and preschoolers may not write conventionally, they demonstrate their writing abilities in a variety of ways such as scribbling, drawing, and making letter-like forms. The ways in which adults respond to children's first writing attempts can nurture or extinguish children's natural desire to write; therefore, it is critical for parents, teachers, administrators, and community stakeholders to understand the important stages of writing development and to encourage positive attitudes toward writing.

Accompanying document, " How Adults can Foster Writing Readiness."

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Every Child is a Writer - Understanding the Importance of Writing in Early Childhood

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Publication Type: Policy Area: Building Stronger Early Childhood Systems Featured Guest author and Clemson University Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education, Anna H. Hall illustrates in "Every Child is a Writer: Understanding the Importance of Writing in Early Childhood," how toddlers and preschoolers express their feelings and communicate with a writing instrument and paper, and informs adults how to encourage such activity.

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Kameenui, E. J., & Simmons, D. C. (May, 1997). Read*Write*Now! Activities for Reading and Writing Fun. A Joint Project of the U.S. Department of Education, the American Library Association, Pizza Hut, Inc., Scholastic, Inc., Reading Is Fundamental, Inc.

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25 Activities for Reading and Writing Fun

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Doing activities with your children allows you to promote their reading and writing skills while having fun at the same time. These activities for pre-readers, beginning readers, and older readers includes what you need and what to do for each one.

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Stage 1 - 6 of Lesson Plans for Early Writers

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Stage 1 - 6 of Lesson Plans for Early Writers

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Lessons

Emergent Writing Lessons are offered at six stages of writing development. Lesson plans provide teachers with detailed overviews that outline expectations at each stage. They also include step-by-step instructions, objectives, templates for student writing exercises, and checklists for students to self-evaluate whether they meet the goals of each lesson.

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Lesson Plans to Teach Early Writers - Writing A-Z

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Emergent Writing Lessons are offered at six stages of writing development. Lesson plans provide teachers with detailed overviews that outline expectations at each stage. They also include step-by-step instructions, objectives, templates for student writing exercises, and checklists for students to self-evaluate whether they meet the goals of each lesson.