picture it! publish it! read it! parents and children writing together
TRANSCRIPT
PICTURE IT! PUBLISH PICTURE IT! PUBLISH IT! READ IT!IT! READ IT!
PICTURE IT! PUBLISH PICTURE IT! PUBLISH IT! READ IT!IT! READ IT!
PARENTS AND CHILDREN PARENTS AND CHILDREN WRITING TOGETHERWRITING TOGETHER
Stages of Writing Development
How children learn to write
Children begin to write when they are ready
some at three years oldsome when they start school
Children learn about writing like they learn about everything else
by seeing printby watching other people
writeby trying to write
Name WritingLearning to write the way adults write takes time. Children start by using what they know. Nicholas used several different ways over the period of a year to write his name:
a picture of himself
scribble writing
Whenever children don’t know how to write something they may use both drawing and scribbling.
Six months later, Nicholas was writing his name using actual letters from his name, but not all of them.
Soon, Nicholas was writing his name like this:
Often children will make a mistake, recognize it, and start over.
Later, Nicholas wrote his name using all the letters placed in the correct order.
As Nicholas continued to write his name, he gained control over his letter forms. However…
…one day he said, “I’m going to write my name a different way.” He wrote his name like this
Like most young children, Nicholas didn’t know yet that the order of letters in a word make a difference.
Young children experiment with many ways of doing things.
By experimenting with writing, children discover how writing works.
At this stage, experimenting is more important than ‘correctness’.
Young children often write letters backwards or upside down.
They also think that you can write either from right to left or from left to right.
Gradually children learn:
• Letters in words go in a certain order.
• Letters aren’t written backwards or upside down.
• Writing in English goes from left to right.
Writing MessagesIn addition to writing their names, children like to write messages. Like name writing, children use what they know to produce a written message.
Sometimes children write a series of letters across a page.
When Nicholas was in preschool he wrote:
This is what he read: Dear Daddy, I found your sweater and I put it on the chair. Now you can wear it when you want.
Sometimes children notice something about how writing works and invent their own form until they learn how to do it correctly.
Nicholas uses lines to separate some letters. He knows words are set off from one another and he makes up a way to show this.
Sometimes children include drawings in their messages. This may be because they have a “big” story idea and don’t feel they can get it down fast enough. From this we know that they understand writing and drawing are different.
As children grow older, they become aware of different writing forms and may combine them.
At the end of Grade Primary, Nicholas used several writing forms to write a letter and envelope…
He wrote: Dear Mommy, I am not feeling well.
On the envelope Nicholas wrote Mommy and the address in a combination of scribbles and numbers and letters.
By grade one, most children enjoy writing stories and messages. They:
• are more skilled at forming letters• spell familiar words correctly• make up spelling for words they
don’t know how to spell
As children read books and see people writing, they gradually learn to follow correct rules of writing.
All of these examples tell us several things about how children learn to write…
Young children like to make written messages.
Young children can make written messages.
Young children write in their own way.
Young children make fewer mistakes as they
practice writing.
Gradually, with support and encouragement, children’s writing
develops closer and closer to standard.
For more information about PICTURE IT! PUBLISH IT!
READ IT! Contact
Dr. Jane Baskwill (902) 457-6189
Dr. Mary Jane Harkins(902) 457-6595
Faculty of EducationMount Saint Vincent University
166 Bedford Highway,Halifax, NS B3M 2J6
Produced with the support from the Canadian Council on
Learning, Knowledge Development Grant, 2007