Offers four ideas for students to share their writing. Suggests that providing time and ways for children to share gives their writing purpose and direction. (MG)

Examines collaborative writing and the importance of children's talk as they write. Provides several examples of children's dialogues during collaborative writing and role-playing sessions. (MM)

Considers awareness, form, and use of notation by normally achieving and school-identified learning-disabled first-grade students. Finds that young normally achieving children spontaneously recorded and organized information, whereas learning-disabled children were more tentative in the use of notation. Suggests that the performance of…

Explores the understandings, performances and perceptions young writers have about writing. Suggests that young writers are capable of understanding and using complex aspects of the writing process often associated with more experienced writers, and are influenced by what teachers' writing instruction emphasizes. (SG)

This study examined student perspectives about writing by interviewing both typically developing and struggling writers in Grades 2 through 8. The findings revealed a progressive developmental pattern of writing knowledge in which novice writers place more emphasis on the physical product and local meaning, while more experienced writers focus on…

A longitudinal study examined the developmental spelling level of primary-age children. Eight subjects completed 10 separate cloze sentences in their kindergarten, first, and second grade. Subjects were read each of the sentences and then given time to write the word in the corresponding box. The test was introduced as a detective game to…

An informal field study to design a system of beginning writing for the prefirst-grade child is presented in this paper, following a review of the literature. A series of questions are then raised regarding what letter form should be taught first, how letters should be grouped for instruction, and what verbal references should be used for…

Investigates the role of social interaction in the literacy learning of three- and four-year-olds. Finds that children's self-selected literacy activities are rich contexts for literacy learning, and that social interaction provides context and motivation for literacy learning, and influences the kinds of literacy strategies children internalize…

Suggests the use of a taped dictation program to allow children to fully express ideas without initial concern for the mechanical tasks of spelling and handwriting. Offers steps to carry out a writing program with taped dictation. (MG)

Examines children's story-writing processes as they develop over a two-year period, from kindergarten through second grade. Observes that children reflect multiple worlds in their writing, including their ongoing social world, the imaginary world of their story, and the wider, experienced world of people, places, and events. (MM)

Analyzed drawing and writing of 60 Chinese boys and girls of 2 to 6 years. Children drew self-portraits and wrote their own name. There was an age effect in both tasks. Children as young as three years could differentiate drawing from writing. (MM)

Describes how one kindergarten teacher integrates beginning writing into dramatic play by including writing ideas and tools within varying themes in the housekeeping corner. Writing activities in the play corner, which has a new theme each month, are described, and examples of children's writing are provided. (SM)

Examines the relationship between stages of orthographic development and writing fluency. Finds that the graphemic output lexicon of beginning readers and writers is not sufficiently detailed to allow a fluent output. (PRA)

Examines the need for a new perspective in research on young children's writing development, one which identifies writing as a language process in which children construct meaning. Presents an example of a linguistic analysis of a child's writing. Discusses the implications for early-childhood educators of a text-focused approach to studying…

Describes how interactive writing is used in one primary classroom, and shows how it provides a means for teachers to engage in effective literacy instruction within the framework of constructing texts filled with personal and collective meaning. Discusses the roots of interactive writing, interactive writing in practice, what interactive writing…