Currents in Literacy

Exploring Written Language From A Kindergarten Perspective

By Mary McMackin

Most children come to school with a curiosity about writing and a wealth of experiences about which to write. Our challenge as teachers is to help all students become independent writers who take risks and see themselves as authors. Areglado and Dill, co-authors of Let's Write: A Practical Guide to Teaching Writing in the Early Grades (1997), believe that in order to build a community of writers, it is important to establish an environment where teachers write with the children, surround students with print, share children's writing, involve students in writing, make writing centers accessible, encourage discussion, set aside daily writing time, give choice in writing topics, model writing strategies, integrate writing throughout the curriculum, and publish students' writing (pp. 13-16). As a member of the Hood Children's Literacy Project, I was invited by Dottie Galluzzo, the kindergarten teacher at the Rodney J. Hardy Elementary School in Arlington, Massachusetts to participate in establishing this type of community with her two kindergarten classes during the 1997-1998 academic year.

Background

This kindergarten program consists of two half-day sessions. There are twenty-four students in the morning session, including two students with special needs who join this class for some activities. Five of the morning students are bilingual. Twenty monolingual children with no identified special needs participate in the afternoon session. The academic, cultural, and linguistic diversity of these two classes provides a rich environment for all children. In addition to the children and Dottie, it is not uncommon to see parent volunteers in this community of learners. Their help is always warmly welcomed and greatly appreciated.

Connecting Assessment With Curriculum and Instruction

In October, Dottie and I asked each student to write his/her name (first and last if possible) on a 4" x 6" index card. Through this assessment tool, we were able to identify whether or not students used upper and lower case letters appropriately, how students formed the various letters, which students could write both first and last names, and, equally important, the level of confidence that each student brought to this experience.

We also gathered more "formal" data on each child's knowledge of letters and letter/sound relationships by having individual children identify upper case letters, lower case letters, and letter/sound correspondences. It was interesting to note that several children provided specific cue words for individual sounds. For example, when asked what sound the "m" makes, one child responded "mom." Another gave her last name, which began with /m/. It was clear that these children had a scaffolding on which to build, but that they needed some additional support in letter/sound relationships.

Based on these assessment tools and the data that Dottie was able to collect through "kidwatching" (Goodman, 1978), we agreed that our goal for a comprehensive writing program was twofold. First, we wanted the children to understand that writing is a way to communicate one's ideas. People use many different forms of writing, depending on their purposes, and we hoped to provide a wide range of different writing experiences for the children. Secondly, we wanted the children to begin to understand that letters have corresponding sounds. As is the case in most kindergartens, the children in these two classes continue to display different developmental stages of spelling. Some are capable of writing complete sentences with conventional spelling, while others are at the precom-municative, semi-phonetic, and phonetic stages (Gentry, 1987). We encourage the use of invented spelling, believing that students need to be free to experiment as they begin to analyze speech sounds and convert them to conventional spelling. By providing opportunities for shared and independent writing, we hope that the children will make new discoveries about written language with each new writing experience.

Activities

Throughout each week, Dottie provides a wide range of activities that encourage all students to explore written language. Below are some of the activities that we used during the times I met with Dottie and her students this year.

Labeling Objects in the Room

Cherries and Cherry Pits (Williams, 1986) is the story of a little girl, Bidemmi, who talks aloud while drawing pictures. She identifies what she is drawing by repeatedly saying "This is..." After reading this book to the kindergarten children, we decided to make signs for some of the items around the room. I had the stem "This is a ___." prepared on sentence strips. I modeled several items. For example, we decided to make a sign for the door. The students read the words on the sentence strip and helped me stretch out the word "door" in order to hear its phonemes, "the smaller-than-syllable sounds that correspond roughly to individual letters" (Adams, 1990, p. 40). We made another sign for the table following this same procedure. I then explained that we were going to make a class book by having each child choose an object, (not necessarily limited to things around the room), draw a picture of the object, and complete the sentence stem. Each child received a plain sheet of paper with the sentence stem "This is a ___." written across the bottom. Before leaving the large group, each child chose one item to write about. The items included a TiGR (tiger), BLLOC (block), Dinosor (dinosaur), PTTN (pattern - this girl drew a pattern of different colored triangles across the page), puppy and mommy. Four children decided to draw snowmen. The spelling clearly depicted the different developmental stages of these four children: SAOA, SOMN, SNOMN, SNOWMAN.

Establishing a Writing Center

With the help of the custodian, a large fish tank was removed from the classroom, a table was rearranged, and the writing center was created. Dottie and I designed the writing center to be a place where the children can go to get ideas for writing, to explore their own writing, and to collaborate with other writers. We equipped the center with a white erase board; rubber stamps for "date," "first draft," and "complete;" different size paper in a variety of colors; pencils, markers, and crayons; and pictures (for story starters). We hope that through this center the children will continue to investigate the many communication functions of print.

Word Wall

The wall behind the writing center became the new Word Wall (Cunningham, 1995). Here we gradually add sight words and high interest words that are found within the context of the daily shared reading and shared writing activities. While we value the importance of invented spelling, we also want the kindergartners to begin to read/write some common sight words and high interest words. This ABC Wall has become a permanent resource for the children to use as they continue to develop literacy skills. We will use this wall in many ways during the remainder of the year (see Wagstaff, 1998 for ideas).

Question of the Week

Bobbie Fisher, a kindergarten teacher from Sudbury, Massachusetts, begins her kindergarten day by having the children sign in. Sometimes she has her students sign in by responding to a written question she poses (see Fisher, 1991). Dottie and I liked this idea and decided to convert a back section of the room to "The Question of the Week" corner. We thought it might be an interesting way for children to practice writing their names and to begin to learn some sight words. We hung a hand-written list of the children's names in each class near the Question of the Week corner. Students who are not yet using upper and lower case letters and/or students who are in the process of learning how to write their entire names are encouraged to look at the lists as they sign in under the most appropriate response. Some of our questions have included: Do you have a pet? (yes/no); What color eyes do you have? (brown, blue, green, hazel); How did you get to school today? (I rode./I walked.). In order to identify the children who had/had not responded to each Question of the Week, Dottie posted a class list near the question. When the children respond to the question, they check their names off the sheet. Dottie later integrated the eye color question into a math lesson in which the children tallied the results and made comparisons between the eye colors of the students in the morning class and those of the students in the afternoon class.

Morning Message

Many of the activities in which these kindergartners participate are designed to integrate reading, writing, listening, and speaking. One such activity is the Morning Message (Routman, 1991), a message that the teacher writes to the students about upcoming activities or past events. After the children read the morning message, we invite them to contribute an additional idea. Using shared writing, one sentence is added to the message. Cathie DeCola, a first grade teacher in Somerville, Massachusetts, introduced me to Hot Covers, fluorescent, self-adhesive paper that is sold primarily in the fall and used for covering school books. Amazingly, this contact paper is colorful yet transparent. Small strips can be cut and used to highlight specific letters, words, and phrases in the Morning Message. Better still, the contact paper can be removed easily from the message at the end of the lesson and reused several times. The children enjoy using this special paper.

Conventions of Print

One day Dottie and the children participated in a shared rereading of Red Rose (Cowley, 1983), a popular book in which dialogue is often used. In order to reinforce the use of quotation marks, we decided to read The Snowy Day (Keats, 1962), letting the children know that after the book was read they would be asked to share what they like to do on a snowy day. At the conclusion of the reading, we again posed the question,"What do you like to do on a snowy day?" As children responded, we had them come to the easel, write their names (reminding them of correct use of upper and lower case letters), print the word "said," and then as a shared writing activity, record their answers, pointing out the use and purpose of the quotation marks. Before each child sat down, he/she pointed to each word in the sentence while the other children read the sentence aloud. We were able to integrate the language arts within this mini lesson on quotation marks.

Conclusion

We have just passed the midpoint of the kindergarten academic year and are very pleased with the progress the children are making as they continue to explore written language. As emergent readers and writers, these children have made great strides in understanding that writing provides a means for communication. Many have also begun to recognize the connections between letters and sounds and are eager to share their writing.

Dottie and I continue to reflect about the needs of the children and collaborate in designing activities that will build on the knowledge and skills they bring to the literacy experiences. As the Word Wall continues to expand, the Questions of the Week pile up, and samples of student writing document growth over time, we are encouraged that all students are on the road to becoming confident, proficient writers who take risks and successfully construct meaning.

Bibliography

Adams, M.J. (1990). Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print - A Summary. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois.

Areglado, N., & Dill, M. (1997). Let's Write: A Practical Guide to Teaching Writing in the Early Grades. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Cowley, J. (1983). Red Rose. Bothell, WA: The Wright Group.

Cunningham, P. (1995). Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). New York: HarperCollins.

Fisher, B. (1991). Joyful Learning: A Whole Language Kindergarten. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Gentry, J.R. (1987). Spel...is a Four-Letter Word. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Goodman, Y. (1978). Kid-Watching: An Alternative to Testing. National Elementary Principal, 10, 41-45.

Keats, E.J. (1962). The Snowy Day. New York, NY: Viking Press.

Routman, R. (1991). Invitations: Changing as Teachers and Learners K-12. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Wagstaff, J. M. (1998). "Building Practical Knowledge of Letter-Sound Correspondences: A Beginner's Word Wall and Beyond." The Reading Teacher, 51(4), 298-304.

Williams, V.B. (1986). Cherries and Cherry Pits. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.

Mary C. McMackin, Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor at Lesley College, where she teaches graduate literacy courses.