Writing

VERTICAL ALIGNMENT-WHAT I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN:

“Oral Language Connections: Written language, at every level, goes through the oral language system. Developing a solid foundation in oral language is essential for learning to read and write.”

LETRS for Early Childhood, pg. 27

While we won’t dig deep into the science of teaching writing in the LETRS PD until unit 10, we all understand that dictation, pictures, and attempts at print are considered appropriate writing tasks for our age students. (TSG Obj 19) Not only are students expected to write their name clearly in Kindergarten, they are guided through the writing process. Students must understand the foundation of that process so they can be successful writers in the future. A simple anchor chart showcases that foundation nicely for us and validates the idea that all children have a story to tell.

VERTICAL ALIGNMENT-WHAT I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN: 

Narrative writing is a focus of instruction in Kindergarten. The more experiences PreK students have with telling their stories, drawing representation of their stories, and labeling/writing their own narratives the more ready they will be to do the work that is expected of them in Kindergarten. 

I encourage you to take a moment during your choice time to step off to the side and look around your classroom. Notice your students writing behaviors.

1. Are students currently engaging in writing activities in the interest areas?

2. What types of writing activities are they engaging in?

3. Are students using the materials provided (clipboards, paper, writing utensils) in the interest areas?

4. Are the students using their phonological awareness skills (phoneme isolation, phoneme segmentation) to label their work?

VERTICAL ALIGNMENT-WHAT I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN: Pre-K students need experiences with writing for a purpose BEFORE they enter Kindergarten. There are MANY suggestions in this article, Promoting Preschoolers' Emergent Writing (NAEYC) that you may have tried, and some that may be new to you.

You’ve prepared your students for the next stage of their writing development by exposing and explaining the writing process to them while facilitating shared writing experiences. You’ve provided opportunities for them to develop their fine motor skills, they know the names of most letters and many of the letter sounds, they are beginning to isolate sounds in words and they are matching the sounds they hear to a letter they know (recognition and identification stage). You’ve also:

• provided one sheet of paper to write (draw) their stories

• created class books during small group lessons

• introduced and posted the writing rubric/anchor chart

How might I further encourage students to engage in authentic writing experiences during Choice Time?

Your students are now ready to move to the production and application stage where they will add print to their stories. This week I will highlight a strategy many of us talked about as we reflected on the PAST & TSG data that addresses this reflection question. 

Anchor Charts