children reading and writing || what every reading teacher should know about emergent literacy

What Every Reading Teacher Should Know about Emergent LiteracyAuthor(s): Nancy A. MavrogenesSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 40, No. 2, Children Reading and Writing (Nov., 1986), pp.174-178Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20199341 .

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What every reading teacher should know about

emergent literacy Recent research has shown that creative composition should start in kindergarten. Some of this research and practical teach

ing ideas are discussed here.

Nancy A. Mavrogenes

The reading-writing connection has been much stressed recently. As the Commission on Reading's report stated,

It cannot be emphasized too strongly that reading is one of the language arts.

All of the uses of language?listening, speaking, reading, and writing?are in

terrelated and mutually supportive. It

follows, therefore, that school activities

that foster one of the language arts inevi

tably will benefit the others as well.

Writing activities, in particular, should

be integrated into the reading period (Anderson et al., 1985, p. 79).

Furthermore, the evidence suggests that reading and writing should be

taught simultaneously (Gambrell, 1985) and that such learning should

begin early (Friedman, 1985). There

fore, it makes sense that reading teach

ers, as well as kindergarten teachers, should be aware of the latest research on emergent literacy. This article sum

marizes such research and presents practical ways in which teachers can

help 5 year olds learn to write and thus to read. I will use "writing" here to

mean composition, not handwriting.

Recent research

Although discovering what 3,4, and 5

year olds know about writing is not

easy, researchers in emergent literacy have found out a lot in the past 10

years. They have observed children as

they actually write and have inferred from what children actually do. They have interviewed children and their

parents and presented them with care

fully constructed tasks and tests. They have looked at children from the inside

174 The Reading Teacher November 1986



out rather than the outside in. Here are some things researchers now know that

kindergartners know.

Young children use their envi ronment to make sense of writing, to

understand that a "McDonald's" sign identifies its premises (Hiebert, 1978).

They understand purposes of

print and expect it to be meaningful, realizing that writing is functional and

purposeful and that it communicates ideas and feelings (Klein and Schick

edanz, 1980; Wiseman and Watson,

1980). They have some knowledge of

what reading and writing involve: line

arity, directionality, spacing, sequenc

ing, patterns, forms, repetitions,

uniformity of size and shape (Clay, 1982; DeFord, 1980; Wiseman and

Watson, 1980). They have some proficiency in

letter naming, visual and auditory dis

crimination, and word to word corre

spondence between writing and speech (Hiebert, 1978, 1981; Mason, 1980;

Wiseman and Watson, 1980).

They are aware of print, associ

ating letters with things and people (Hiebert, 1981).

As they write or draw, they use

talking as a way of planning: It elabo rates meaning, generates ideas, seeks

assistance, relieves tension, evaluates

(Smith, 1981). They are eager to write (Ward,

1985). Furthermore, developmental stages

have been observed in the writing of 3 to 5 year olds. At first, they just scrib

ble, but this is not "simply scribbling" because it incorporates intention and

meaning. The next stage is when print equals drawing, single letters repre

senting people or things. Then some

letters are formed, with the message decided on later. Soon there might be some sensible beginning consonants and some spacing between words.

Eventually letters are related to sound and children invent their own spelling,

which has its own logic and rules.

Then, as they continue to write pur

posefully and to receive written mes

sages, they gradually internalize the conventionalities of adult writing (De Ford, 1980; Dyson, 1981, 1985; Hip pie, 1985).

An important finding is that there are substantial individual differences in developmental stage and style (Hiebert, 1981). Just as no two people look exactly alike, so do no two people

write, think, or learn exactly alike. One child might be creative and meta

phorical, dealing more with feelings than thoughts; another might be

strictly logical and move forward in a

straight line instead of in circles with occasional regressions (Donnelly and

Stevens, 1980). Finally ?and this is

important?these steps in emergent lit

eracy seem to apply to all children re

gardless of race or socioeconomic

status. Differences between children are quantitative, not qualitative?that

is, disadvantaged children behave in the same way as middleclass children but move forward at a slower pace

(Clay, 1982; Harste and Burke, 1980; Hiebert, 1978).

Traditional classroom writing instruction

As any practicing teacher knows, real

writing ?

creative composition?is sel

dom practiced in the schools, espe

cially in kindergarten. "Writing" instruction there consists of workbook

exercises on visual and auditory dis

crimination, filling in blanks, circling words or letters, practicing individual

letters, underwriting, overwriting,

and, especially, copying. The latter,

frequently called the "Morning Story," is for many children, particularly those at a lower developmental level, a

mere mechanical task with no personal meaning, useful at best for examining and producing single letters only.

What is rewarded is neat penmanship,

What every reading teacher should know 175



correctness, complete quiet, and com

pletion of the assignment (Dyson, 1984, 1985; Harste and Burke, 1980).

However, recent research has shown

that learning to write is like learning to

talk. Children observe others writing, try it out themselves, practice, experi

ment, take chances, and gradually learn conventional rules. As hypothe ses are generated and tested, mistakes are made and must be accepted, as in the case of children learning to talk

(Rhodes, 1981). Writing is a complex task. It involves pragmatics (the rules of language relative to a particular context), semantics (saying what is

meant), syntax (the smooth flow of the

message), and graphics (representing the message). Letter naming is only one of the many skills of reading and

writing which young children need to

acquire. The broader tasks are select

ing an idea to put in print and a strat

egy for making the idea visible and

understanding how written language functions as a symbol system.

The traditional classroom writing activities are unnatural; they make

children doubt their abilities and dis like writing (Dyson, 1984; Ferreiro, 1978; Harste and Burke, 1980;

Hiebert, 1981; Smith, 1981). In order to learn this complex skill, children

must write messages to others and read

messages from others; they must make their own decisions about things that

matter to them in order to learn. This does not mean that the usual handwrit

ing and reading readiness skills should not be taught, but that composition skills, too, must become a vital part of

the school curriculum.

New ideas on teaching kindergartners to write

Therefore, in view of recent research and the weakness of traditional class room instruction, the important ques tion is how teachers can help kindergartners learn to really write, to

put their thoughts on paper and com

pose messages meaningful to themsel ves and to others. First of all, children need a rich and purposeful print envi ronment (DeFord, 1980). Labels, li

brary books, and child-authored books should be around the classroom; chil dren's stories should be displayed and letters written to and by the teacher.

Pens, pencils, felt tip markers, cray ons, and paper should be readily avail able at all times ?not only for the official "writing period" but also for children who are finished with as

signed activities. Adults in the class room take dictation, spell words if they are asked, show how to form letters, read and listen to messages, and write

messages back. Teachers write and learn with the children. As the adults follow individual children's leads, they become patient and flexible and con centrate on meaning, not spelling and

mechanics (Hippie, 1985; Klein and

Schickedanz, 1980; Wiseman and

Watson, 1980).

Open-ended writing tasks permit in dividual exploration so that children learn to plan and encode messages and

produce appropriate graphics, thus

discovering the relationship of written and oral language (DeFord, 1980; Dy son, 1985). Children can write letters to authors, teachers, fellow students,

and parents and place them in mail boxes around the room. They can

write stories, tell of their experiences and class activities, make lists, dictate

language experience stories, caption pictures, record events on a calendar,

write messages on brown paper on the wall. They can summarize and com

pare stories and continue books after their endings. Daily writing in per sonal journals has worked well in kin

dergarten. Children's names and date

(copied from the chalk board) should be on each page. Topics should not be

assigned, and quiet talk while writing should be encouraged. Dictation might be taken from one table each day so that children have models from which




Samples of writing*

First efforts may look like these examples:

o^Wft|(,

But samples from the end of the year might look like these:

* Alel? a

a 'ho w OUT

l?y

^5h?)

"Taken from Language Arts (Klein and Schickendanz, 1980, pp. 742, 743, 747). Copyright ? 1980 by the

National Council of Teachers of English. Reprinted by permission of the publishers.

to internalize conventionalities (Clay, 1982; Hippie, 1985; Milz, 1980;

Rhodes, 1981). All writing should be shared with a

willing supportive audience, either the

teacher, the whole group, or parents

(DeFord, 1980). If the teacher cannot understand a piece of writing, the child can "read" it first and then the teacher can read it back. Even at the scribbling stage, children can read what they have written because it has meaning to

them. As they advance to higher devel

opmental levels, the matching of let ters and sounds becomes full-blown

reading. By sharing messages proudly and concentrating on

meaning rather

than on spelling, mechanics, and neat

ness, children come to see the relation

ship between print and reading, and the concept of audience is made con crete. As samples of writing are col

lected, children, teachers, and parents can proudly see progress. First efforts

What every reading teacher should know 177



may look like the examples accompa

nying this article. If writing papers are not sent home to parents but held to

gether to show them at conference

time, the teacher can explain at that

time the rationale of the writing pro

gram and provide a concrete record of

progress (Ward, 1985). With such writing activities?includ

ing a rich and meaningful print envi

ronment, varied opportunities for

individual exploration, and a willing supportive audience, children can

learn to write at least as well as they talk. Writing becomes as natural an ac

tivity as art. By avoiding traditional

"writing" instruction, teachers can help children use all their cognitive and lin

guistic capabilities. "In order to under stand the writing system which society has forged for them children must

reinvent writing and thereby make it their own" (Ferreiro, 1978, p. 39). As that happens, children learn to like

writing and to consider it an everyday activity. All their language skills im

prove. Encoding helps decoding as

well as oral language, listening, and

questioning (Clay, 1982; Dinan and

Dyson, 1980). One recent experimen tal group of urban kindergartners who had been exposed to an encoding or

writing approach to reading scored 20

percentile points higher than the con

trol group on a standardized reading test (Martin, 1984). Self concepts are

helped too. But best of all, perhaps, is

the exhilarating effect on the teacher, who watches children refine their bud

ding language skills, become increas

ingly sensitive to language, and make

writing and reading regular and essen

tial parts of their lives.

Mavrogenes is a writer who is also an

evaluator in the Department of Research and Evaluation of the Chicago Board of

Education in Chicago, Illinois.

References Anderson, Richard C, Elfrieda H. Hiebert, Judith A. Scott,

and Ian A.G. Wilkinson. Becoming a Nation of Read ers: The Report of the Commission on Reading. Wash ington, D.C National Institute of Education, the

National Academy of Education, 1985.

Clay, Marie M. "Learning and Teaching Writing: A Devel

opmental Perspective." Language Arts, vol. 59 (Janu ary 1982), pp. 65-70.

DeFord, Diane ?. "Young Children and Their Writing." Theory into Practice, vol. 19 (Summer 1980), pp. 157 62.

Dinan, Linda L., and Anne Haas Dyson. "Viewpoints: Writ

ing." Language Arts, vol. 57 (October 1980), pp. 723 26.

Donnelly, Carol, and Giselle Stevens. "Streams and Pud dles: A Comparison of Two Young Writers." Language Arts, vol. 57 (October 1980), pp. 735-41.

Dyson, Anne Haas. "Oral Language: The Rooting System for Learning to Write." Language Arts, vol. 58 (October 1981), pp. 776-84.

Dyson, Anne Haas. "Emerging Alphabetic Literacy in School Contexts." Written Communication, vol. 1 (Jan uary 1984), pp. 5-55.

Dyson, Anne Haas. "Three Emergent Writers and the School Curriculum: Copying and Other Myths." The El ementary School Journal, vol. 85 (March 1985), pp. 497-512.

Ferreiro, Emilia. "What Is Written in a Written Sentence? A

Developmental Answer." Journal of Education, vol. 160

(Fall 1978), pp. 25-39. Friedman, Sheila.

" 'If You Don't Know How to Write, You

Try': Techniques that Work in First Grade." The Read

ing Teacher, vol. 38 (February 1985), pp. 516-21. Gambrell, Linda B. "Dialogue Journals: Reading-Writing

Interaction." The Reading Teacher, vol. 38 (February 1985), pp. 512-15.

Harste, Jerome O, and Carolyn L. Burke. "Examining In structional Assumptions: The Child as Informant." The ory into Practice, vol. 19 (Summer 1980), pp. 170-78.

Hiebert, Elfrieda H. "Preschool Children's Understanding of Written Language." Child Development, vol. 49 (De cember 1978), pp. 1231-34.

Hiebert, Elfrieda H. "Developmental Patterns and Interre lationships of Preschool Children's Print Awareness."

Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 2 (1981), pp. 236-60.

Hippie, Marjorie L. "Journal Writing in Kindergarten." Lan guage Arts, vol. 62 (March 1985), pp. 255-61.

Klein, Amelia, and Judith Schickedanz. "Preschoolers Write Messages and Receive Their Favorite Books." Language Arts, vol. 57 (October 1980), pp. 742-49.

Martin, John Henry. "Less Incidence of Dyslexia When Children Write Before They Read?" Early Years, vol. 15

(November 1984), pp. 30, 33. Mason, Jana M. "When Do Children Begin to Read: An

Exploration of Four Year Old Children's Letter and Word Reading Competencies." Reading Research

Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 2 (1980), pp. 203-27. Milz, Vera. "First Graders Can Write: Focus on Communi

cation." Theory into Practice, vol. 19 (Summer 1980), pp. 179-85.

Rhodes, Lynn K. "Making Connections." Language Arts, vol. 58 (October 1981), pp. 772-74.

Smith, Frank. "Myths of Writing." Language Arts, vol. 58

(October 1981), pp. 792-98. Wiseman, Donna, and Dorothy Watson. "The Good News

about Becoming a Writer." Language Arts, vol. 57 (Oc tober 1980), pp. 750-55.

Ward, Sharon. Interview, December 4, 1985.




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