Teaching Young Writers

This week I read Kindergarten Writing Workshops by Angela Behymer.  This article attracted my attention because I currently teach three year olds but ideally would like to teach kindergarten.  I believe that the early years are when it is most important for schools to have a positive impact upon children.  Children need to learn that school is fun and know that they can make progress.  These first years are also extremely important in developing the basics.  

As a preschool teacher, I have used some of the beginning steps that Behymer uses.  Within my classroom each student has a journal and in these journals, drawing is very important.  Just like Behymer quoted “Many kids find drawing to be a safe way to create symbolic representations of what they want to say, what stories they want to tell.”  Because of this, students use one page to draw what they are thinking about and then a teacher writes what the student narrates on the opposite page.  My students are still working on letter recognition and formation, but that does not stop them from being creative in terms of language.

An interesting thing that Behymer points out is the idea to write “in” the lines not “on” the lines.  We all understand what it means to write on the line but what does that mean to a five or six year old?  Do you write so that the line is in the middle of the word?  That could be on the line.  If the child thinks of themselves standing on a line, how is it possible to draw a letter that way on a piece of paper?  In the lines makes much more sense because students understand the boundaries they are given.  While a simple concept for most adults, it is important as a teacher to try to think like your students to be able to understand their confusion.  

That being said, it is extremely important to model writing for students.  They have seen letters in books and around the classroom but, like my students, they do not understand how to form letters.  I have to sit down with them and show them how I hold a pencil and how I write letters.  When I am writing a letter I have to talk to them about what I am doing.  For example, many of my students write their A’s upside down.  I tell them to start by making a tent.  It is important to bring in outside connections so that students understand what they are learning whether it be in writing or science.  

I am a firm believer in incorporating as many types of teaching into the classroom because of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and my own experiences.  I am a visual and kinesthetic learner and because of this I did appreciate when teachers would show me what I was doing as well as physically hold my hand and help me form letters when I was first learning.  From this, I became familiar with how writing each letter should feel.  While this is what I needed to learn, I do know that other students need to hear verbal instructions and connections (ex. to write an A make a tent).  Although writing is typically an individual process, it also needs to be a very interactive learning experience.