Young children are growing up in a time when literacy practices and textual productions are in flux. Yet literacy curricula, particularly for those deemed "at risk," are tightly focused on the written language "basics." What are the potential consequences? In this article, the author considers this question, drawing on an ethnographic study of…

Suggests five principles that characterize written language development: the establishment of equivalences; exploration and orchestration of the system; reliance on shifting relationships of form and function; differentiation and integration of symbolic functions; and participation in social dialogue. Discusses implications of this viewpoint for…

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…

Reviews literature defining the characteristics of the complex puzzle children encounter moving from oral language to print. Illustrates that, by reading their own writing, children discover the precise connection between reading, writing, and language. (HTH)

A study was conducted to examine the interrelationships between drawing, early writing, and the context of talk in which both phenomena occur. Participant observation methodology was used in a self-contained public school kindergarten in order to gather daily data during a 3-month period. Specifically, children freely drew and wrote in an…

The art of spoken word has captured youthful spirits all over the country, especially in heterogeneous urban centers. In this essay, the author opens up for re-consideration a central issue in language arts education, one suggested by the very writing of spoken word: how educators think about the relationship between oral and written language and…

Examines kindergarten children's use of talk during writing to draw inferences regarding how children use speech to make sense of written language. (HOD)

Illustrates dimensions of variation in how young children orchestrate or manage the writing process, using data collected from a five-month study of primary grade writers. Finds children's composing behaviors consistent with their apparent intentions and with their styles as symbolizers and socializers in their classroom. (SKC)

The development of written language is intertwined with children's experiences with diverse symbolic media. During their second year of life, children begin to use symbolic tools to invest meaning in drawn marks. The evolution of drawing is linked in complex ways to dramatic gesture and speech, sometimes combined in social play. Exploratory play…

Building on the author's groundbreaking work in "Building Superheroes," this book traces the influence of a wide-ranging set of "textual toys" from children's lives--church and hip-hop songs, rap music, movies, TV, traditional jump-rope rhymes, the words of professional sports announcers and radio deejays--upon school learning…

Presents brief stories of two students that illustrate how children's symbolic interactions and social relationships (how they interact with materials and people) influence their ways of gaining control over the interrelated parts of written language, and how these "casts of mind" may eventually emerge more fully within their stories.…

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…