Writing and Composition TE 301 1 How Children

Writing and Composition TE 301 1

How Children Learn to Write • Through discovery—creating their own strategies for writing • Moving developmentally from strategy to strategy • By others around them providing meaningful examples • From each other as they figure out how to write Temple, C. Nathan, R. , Temple F, & Burris, N. A. (1993). The beginnings of writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Writing Development • Writing develops over time • Six common stages to writing: – – Writing through drawing Writing through scribbling Writing through letterlike forms Writing through familiar units of letter strings – Writing through estimated spelling – Writing through conventional spelling

Writing Through Drawing • One of the first ways that children express their thoughts and ideas on paper

Writing Through Scribbling • Writing (squiggly lines) starts to differ from drawing (circles and scribbles) • Writing may follow a structure (looks like a letter, list or story)

Writing Through Letterlike Forms and Letter Strings • Letters and letterlike forms start to appear • Writing may include strings of letters put together (that don’t necessarily form words)

Writing Through Estimated Spelling • Writing includes more letters (more conventionally formed) • Use knowledge of sounds to help in writing

Writing Through Conventional Spelling • With time and exposure to print in books and in the environment, children will begin to spelling more conventionally • Not expected until formal school entry

Concepts in Emergent Writing • recurring principle: writing consists of the same moves repeated over and over again • generative principle: writing created by employing the same small set of letters combined in different ways • sign concept: a graphic display representing text • flexibility concept: letters can be varied to produce new letters • directionality: arrangement of print on a page • negative space: the space left between words Temple, C. Nathan, R. , Temple F, & Burris, N. A. (1993). The beginnings of writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Using Names to Learn to Write • First piece of writing for most children is their own names • Name teaches the child a repertory of letters – Generative principle allows the child to use a limited set of letters to fill a page – Flexibility principle allows the child to use a limited set of letters and embellish them to become new letters Temple, C. Nathan, R. , Temple F, & Burris, N. A. (1993). The beginnings of writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Strategies for Early Writing • Tracing-writing over the letters someone else has written • Copying-using the letters someone else has written as a prompt to write one’s own letters • Generating-creating one’s own letters without prompting • Inventory principle—tendency to make lists of letters or words kids can write Temple, C. Nathan, R. , Temple F, & Burris, N. A. (1993). The beginnings of writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon .

Concepts for more Practiced Writing • invented spelling: early spellings children produce on their own – Example: mskedas (mosquitos) • letter-name strategy: using a letter to spell a sound if the name of the letter closely resembles the sound – Example: lade (lady) • incorrect use of digraphs: using one letter to spell a digraph, or sound produced by two letters – Example: ihovr (each other) Temple, C. Nathan, R. , Temple F, & Burris, N. A. (1993). The beginnings of writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Concepts for more Practiced Writing, cont’d. • invented spelling of long vowels: lack markers to indicate longness – Example: nam (name) • invented spelling of short vowels: use of lettername strategy in place of short vowel – Example: veset (visit) or mod (mud) • vowel omissions: lack of vowels in syllables – Example: letl (little) or sopr (supper) • transitional spelling: words may look like English words but are spelled incorrectly – Example: dayses (daises) Temple, C. Nathan, R. , Temple F, & Burris, N. A. (1993). The beginnings of writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Strategies for Scaffolding Emergent and Early Writing • Ask the child what he would like to write • Repeat what the child says • Draw one line for each word using a highlighter or pen. Have the child write one “word” per line • Read and reread the message together as necessary, practicing one -to-one match

Examples of Some Spelling “Rules” • Vowel + consonant: when a vowel is followed by a consonant that vowel has a short pronunciation (e. g. , mat) • Vowel + consonant + e, i, or y: when a vowel is followed by a consonant, followed by any one of these three vowels, the vowel has a long pronunciation Temple, C. Nathan, R. , Temple F, & Burris, N. A. (1993). The beginnings of writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Stages of Spelling Development: • Prephonemic-stringing of letters together without attempting to represent speech sounds in any systematic way. • Early phonemic-spelling in which letters are used to represent sounds, but letters are often written for only one or two sounds in a word. Temple, C. Nathan, R. , Temple F, & Burris, N. A. (1993). The beginnings of writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Stages of Spelling Development, cont’d. • Letter-name-letters are chosen to represent phonemes based on the similarities between the sound of the letter-names and the respective phonemes. • Transitional-words look like English, yet are often spelled incorrectly. • Correct-majority of words are spelled correctly. Temple, C. Nathan, R. , Temple F, & Burris, N. A. (1993). The beginnings of writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Craft • Sense of who the audience is • Word choice • Mirroring mentor texts in format, which varies by genre • Creating more complex sentences • Rhythm and rhyme (especially in poetry) • Using metaphors, similes, foreshadowing, and other devices

Three Modes of Writing • Expressive mode: free flow of ideas and feelings, closest to self • Poetic mode: considered more of an art medium • Transactional mode: attempts to persuade or advise others Britton, J. (1970). Language and learning. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books.

Is Composition Different from Writing? • Children can compose before they write. They like to dictate their stories to others. • Children “plagiarize. ” That is, they often pull bits and pieces from the works of others into their own works. • A challenge for kids is to think about the interest of themselves as authors, their audience, their topic, and their purpose for writing.

Revising and Editing • Revising- changing the content of the piece (word choice, storyline, voice, etc. ) • Editing- fixing the mechanics of the piece (spelling, punctuation, etc. )