Writing

Writing
Danielle Roller
Eileen Sisk
Averi Smith
Courtnie Schwartz


McGee, L, & Richgels, D. (1990).  Literacy beginnings: supporting young readers and writers.  

Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.

Definition of process:
Writing is intentionally conveying a message through written symbols.   According to McGee and Richgels (1990) these written symbols may be conventional or rely on context to derive meaning.

Developmental information of process:
In the article by McGee and Richgels (1990), it was explained  that there are various stages of novice or beginning writers.  The authors stated that children become novice writers when they write or draw some form of symbols with an intention or in an effort to communicate a message to others.  McGee and Richgels (1990) also noted that novice writers recognize that logos and symbols (such as the McDonald’s logo) represent more than the place or logo, but novice writers understand that the words mean something even outside of the context of the restaurant.  The authors additionally stated that novice writers go through stages to learn to write.  In the beginning, a child may merely scribble and draw lines, but intend for those lines to represent a message (they used the example of happy birthday). Later on, a novice writer may understand that a letters represent words and use one or more letters to communicate a message, even though there are components missing (such as a child writing the first letter of their name and saying it spelled out their name).  This step would be before they actually understand that the letters and sounds correspondence to form words.  This demonstrates what the authors meant when they stated that written language is a step by step process, and that children initially believe that scribbles and lines represent a written message, but then, change their perspective to include some letters, and then begin being able to sound out and write simple words.   McGee and Richgels (1990) finally noted that “children form new hypotheses in response to the discovered inadequacies of past strategies” (McGee & Richgels, 1990, p. 156).  Children will make assumptions initially about writing and will develop and change those beliefs based on their exposure to literacy.  Children aged three to five are the typical age for novice writers.  


Stage of reading impacted:
The article describes preschool age children as “novice readers and writers” and discusses the two skills  going hand-in-hand in the early development of literacy skills. Preschool age children begin to learn a lot about both reading and writing. They begin to recognize familiar signs and logos and use shapes/lines to display meaning to the adults around them. Learning about written language is a step-by-step process. Children learn about written languages from the experiences around them. They want to participate in reading and writing activities because they see their parents writing letters or a sibling doing homework. Children use their written symbols to communicate a message and they also know that a message can be conveyed using written symbols. This is an important stage of literacy that is being developed at this point, forming meaning links. A child will first believe that both  a picture and print can be “read”  and after that will begin to realize that it is the actual print that you read and stop relying fully on context.  All of these steps later lead to using a link between the letter and sound to become an “expert reader”. When children begin to play with writing they learn the features of texts and learn more about the content, language, and organization of stories. The beginning steps are essential for a children to develop further in the reading stages.


Connections to oral language:
Oral language and writing are tightly interwoven in terms of development.  According to McGee and Richgels (1990), “[during the writing process] children form new hypotheses in response to the discovered inadequacies of past strategies.”  Immediately this conjures up ideas about oral language acquisition.  Children begin practicing sounds, playing with their oral cavity and speech production at a very young age.  When certain sounds blend together creating a word and the child is reinforced by either recognition of needs or smiling parents, the child learns that these sounds symbolize something.  This is no different than the acquisition of writing, for example, when a child recognizes that symbols (letters) represent a meaning they begin to learn that words communicate meaning. The novice reader is exploring how written forms have attached meaning in the same way that a child attaches meaning to a sequence of sounds.  


Connections to bilingual or culturally/linguistically diverse:
Non-phonetically based languages may have different writing acquisition patterns. Children who speak languages based in pictorial representations may have difficulty acquiring written language in the traditional form expressed in the McGee and Richgels 1990 article where each letter symbol represents a sound.  
Children who are bilingual may experience a delay in writing in English if they have a writing system that does not correspond to letters and sounds – they may be initially confused about how to form words through letters and sounds in English or may try to mix the two language and writing systems initially.  


Video examples:
This first video shows a child who is three and is writing words that his mom tells him.  His writing is fairly legible and evenly lined up, but he uses only uppercase letters when he writes. It is hard to tell from this video how much meaningful this writing is until he writes a sentence.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryXuvIfwHTw

This second video is part of a lecture series that discusses the idea of imitation in writing. It also illustrates the importance of modeling, literate reading (i.e. intonation indicated by punctuation) and affirmation of expressive language for the child’s acquisition of writing.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FTTEKWmeac