The Emergence of Writing

• Published in: How Children Learn pp. 85 - 110
• Main Author: Fayden, Terese
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2005
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Early Learning Years; Oral Utterances; Ow; Double Vowel; Read's Participants; Lax Vowels; Word Centers; Standard Spelling; Phonemic Awareness; Phonological Awareness Tasks; Phonics Lessons; Martin's Paper; Tense Vowels; Dear Mom; Preconsonantal Nasals; Child's Spelling; Kindergarten Group; Velar Nasals; Phonetic Words; Letter Correspondences; Git; Kindergarten Subjects; Word Hat; MAL; Phonetic Relationships
• ISBN: 9781594511059; 1594511055; 1594511047; 9781594511042
• DOI: 10.4324/9781315634111-9

This chapter describes the Kindergartners' emergence into writing. As will be demonstrated, it was accomplished through their involvement with a combination of various methods, using a functional approach combined with very distinct lessons on sound/letter correspondences. Saint-Laurent and Giasson also found that by combining features of emergent literacy with phonological awareness tasks, their "at-risk" (their word), French-speaking, low-SES Kindergartners increased their use of invented spelling (2001). This also held true for minority students in Australia who became engaged in the Schoolwide Early Language and Literacy (SWELL) program (Center, Freeman, and Robertson 1998), a combination of literature and phonics. These findings are important because they give credence to the idea that programs for young children don't have to follow an either/or curriculum. In whole-language programs, phonics is often neglected (Reyhner 2001). Conversely, those who hold dear to phonological agendas often skimp on authentic literature. By combining the two methods, we can allow the children to benefit from both worlds. Watt found that urban, public-school Kindergartners who were trained in invented spelling during writing time made substantially greater gains in letter identification, matching rhyme, blending sounds, and segmenting sounds than children who were not treated to the writing intervention (2001). These findings suggest that children focus on sounds in words when using invented spelling. When low-income inner-city Kindergartners were exposed to phoneme awareness intervention, their invented spellings were found to be developmentally superior to those of the control group who did not have phoneme intervention (Tangel and Blachman 1992). With regard to Kindergartners who live in poverty, Hecht and Close found that the relationship between phonemic awareness and spelling were bidirectional (2002): The act of spelling influenced growth in phonemic awareness and phonemic awareness contributed to growth in spelling.