Current research has fragmented educators' vision of both written language and development. A more integrative vision, one that preserves the integrity of written language as a symbol system, is based on five principles that characterize written language development: (1) the establishment of equivalences; (2) exploration and orchestration of the…

Focusing on children's developmental use of written language in kindergarten and first grade, this report looks at connections between the social and academic dimensions of classroom life. The first section examines literacy as an aspect of growing up and becoming a member of society. By highlighting the social and academic divisiveness schooling…

Stressing the importance of understanding child development, this paper first describes the writing of several children in a kindergarten class who represent various levels of emerging literacy. Based on the descriptions of classroom activities, the paper argues that with a developmental perspective the teacher can build instruction on what the…