Transcript Emergent Writing - Johns Hopkins University

Emergent Writing
“Writing is the shaping of letters to
represent spoken words which, in
turn, represent what is in the soul.”
The Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldûn – 14th Century
Emergent Writing
Definition: Emergent writing means that children
begin to understand that writing is a form of
communication, and their marks on paper begin
to convey a message.
Research Point: Children understand that
writing conveys meaning before school
entry
• Why might children have a better
(emergent) understanding of writing
processes than reading processes
before school entry?
Social - constructivist view of
early writing
1. How do the principles of socialconstructivism apply to writing?
2. What are some examples of functional
writing that most children will see at
home?
The Adult’s Essential Role
• Children’s earliest drawing/scribbling stages
represent discovery and are windows into their
literary awareness.
• Research (Dearden, 1984) shows that teachers
whose style promotes and rewards discovery
facilitate independent learners.
• Excessive structure impedes independent
learning and limits the early literacy concepts
that the child can perceive/take in.
The Adult’s Role (cont.)
• Promote DISCOVERY
• Offer GUIDANCE where needed (e.g.,
directionality)
• Teacher is CONSULTANT first; specific
rules come later.
First Relevant Writing:
Own Name
• Using what you know about young
children’s psychological development,
why would this be developmentally
appropriate?
Interesting Emergent Writing Fact:
• Initially, children don’t distinguish between
drawing and writing because both convey
meaning.
• How can we make use of this knowledge
in encouraging even the littlest ones to
“write”?
2 Broad Phases of
Writing Development
• What might you expect to see in birth – 3?
• In ages 3 – 6?
• How can your awareness of these phases
help you with young students’ learning
differences?
• For more detailed categories of writing development, see
Sulzby (1985) – summarized in Morrow text.
Details of Writing Stages:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Can YOU put these in order?
SCRIBBLING
DRAWING
LETTER-LIKE FORMS
INVENTED SPELLING
CONVENTIONAL SPELLING
WELL-LEARNED UNITS OR LETTER STRINGS
The “Pancake Effect” -a cause for concern?
• Marie Clay (1991) calls reversed writing
“the pancake effect” or “flipped
writing”.
• She notes that this is usually a
temporary variability, not a concern at
early stages of writing.
• If it persists, it may represent a
disturbance to the child’s directional
schema and is usually responsive to
teacher guidance for correction.
Helping Children Change
Their Directional Responses
• Adult modeling of movement pattern
• Promote consistent use of one hand*
• Provide books and models with messages
consistently starting in roughly same
place
• Provide a prop (e.g. green sticker) to
show starting position
*General directionality games – Hokey Pokey etc. – helpful at this
stage
“The Pebble in the Pond”
• When child runs
out of space,
he/she writes
around the edges
• Not a concern,
merely a
developmental
stage
Summary:
• Morrow text has practical suggestions
for all the ways to expose children to
writing, from early childhood at home,
into preschool
• Essential: writing centers, journals,
writer’s workshop, using literature etc.
• Chapter 8 has a good early writing
checklist PLUS excellent references,
particularly because author (Morrow)
has done a good deal of primary
research on this.