Emergent Writing

1
Emergent Writing
2

• 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

3
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.

4
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?

5
Social - constructivist view of early writing

• 1. How do the principles of social-constructivism
  apply to writing?
• 2. What are some examples of functional writing
  that most children will see at home?

6
The Adults Essential Role

• Childrens 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.

7
The Adults Role (cont.)

• Promote DISCOVERY
• Offer GUIDANCE where needed (e.g.,
  directionality)
• Teacher is CONSULTANT first specific rules come
  later.

8
First Relevant Writing Own Name

• Using what you know about young childrens
  psychological development, why would this be
  developmentally appropriate?

9
Interesting Emergent Writing Fact

• Initially, children dont 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?

10
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.

11
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

12
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 childs directional schema and is usually
  responsive to teacher guidance for correction.

13
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

14
The Pebble in the Pond

• When child runs out of space, he/she writes
  around the edges
• Not a concern, merely a developmental stage

15
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, writers
  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.