Activities for Emergent Writers

The following resources can be used by parents, teachers, or students as they begin teaching writing, or learning how to write. Through these resources we hope your child can become an enthusiastic and successful writer!

1.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/More+than+just+storybooks:+promoting+emergent+literacy+skills+in+the...-a0198931268

This article focuses mainly on how the parents can aid their child at a young age at home, and also outside of the school setting. It emphasizes the parents not acting like teachers, rather being an aid who scaffolds the child. The parent is encouraged to take the child above and beyond their original literacy understanding, and move towards new levels. The article shows how important joint writing is, and is often underestimated and worked on less than joint emergent reading practices with parents. The page did a good job of showing how a parent could use a storybook to encourage the child to read more, but also become interested in the story. The dialogue that is on the site demonstrates the interactions between parent and child while discussing a page from a book. The parent is asking about what is in the pictures, and asking the child to connect the pictures to the storyline. After the reading section, the author focuses on emergent writing practices. The parent is made aware of different reading opportunities are in the usual child’s environment, and shows suggestions on how to take advantage of the opportunities. A strength I found of this emergent writing section is how the author uses specific items such as cookie dough, letter blocks, and spaghetti to help the child write or draw different symbols, letters, and words. Although the article is fairly good with giving examples and ideas on how to aid a child’s emergent writing, there are a few limitations. The article didn’t show which practices would be more age appropriate, or skill appropriate. There was just a listing or short description, nothing that really went into why the child should do the activity, or what their prior knowledge needs to be. This resource can be used in class for homework assignments by having all the children read the same book outside of class at home with their parent or guardian, and have them be responsible for answering a series of questions. The questions can all be fairly easy at the beginning and the last couple can be more open ended, where parents are encouraged to aid and scaffold their children to a form of higher level thinking. The accountability testing can be having the child write a story in class in a way that applied the original book to their own lives. This page doesn’t really take into account muliliteracy settings, just mainly parents scaffolding their own child’s reading, and not having to adapt to other levels than their own kin’s. This can illustrate a good level of principle of teaching because it encourages a good relationship between the parents and the classroom teacher. It is always important to have a good connection with the parents, seeing that they have such a large influence on the child in general. There are a few questions I have concerning this article, one including; How can the teacher get the parents influenced in aiding their own kids outside of school? How can the teacher be able to entice the parents to go above and beyond for their kids? Other than that, I think the article was fairly solid on emergent writing practices and reading practices as well.

Evaluated by Jordan Farmer

2.

http://www.bankstreet.edu/literacyguide/write.html

This article discusses a variety of writing activities to do with children who are learning to write. Also, different teaching methods are discussed that should be used when evaluating the writing of the learner. Writing activities for emergent writers can be modified for children at any age and writing level. According to the article, writing activities should be “enjoyable”, a “way to express thoughts and feelings”, and a “way to communicate with others” (Writing Activities).

The activities given are for children who already know how to write words and a few of these activities were modified for children who do not know how to write words. For example, for more advanced students, inviting the student to draw a picture and then write about it will help them engage in writing, but also will allow them to use their imagination. A limitation to this activity is that students who are not comfortable with writing may spend all their time drawing the picture; setting a time limit may encourage the student to equally divide his/her time between drawing and writing the story. A good way to modify this activity for a beginning writer would be to have them draw a picture, but instead of writing a whole story about it, allow them to write one or two letters that may represent the picture. If the picture is of a dog, the student may write the letter “d” under the picture to represent the word dog. This is just one example of the many great activities provided in this resource. The activities are great references for all teachers because it provides activities for most ages and writing levels.

Although the article did give modifications to some of the activities, they were only to make the activity easier. Ideas to make the activities more challenging for advanced writers would have been helpful in this article. All of the activities given would be great for in class or for homework assignments. They are not too challenging and may be completed in a reasonable amount of time. The activities would also be expectable for multiliteracy classrooms because they allow the individual to use their imagination. Most of the students should be able to participate in each activity no matter how developed their language skills are, but the performance of the students may vary on different levels. This article provides a lot of helpful hints and strategies to keep children motivated while learning to write. When teachers show interest in their student’s work instead of only correcting their errors, this encourages the writer to continue writing and learn from their mistakes over time. The strategies listed in the article illustrate great teaching methods to use with emergent writers in all levels of writing. Overall this article is a great resource for teachers to use who need activities and advice for teaching emergent writers.

“Guide to Literacy for Volunteers and Tutors: Writing Activities.” Bank Street College. August 2001. Web. 22 March 2010.

Evaluated by Jeana Sorrels

3.

http://www.lessonsense.com

The website LessonSense.com is a fantastic tool for parents and teachers to use as they help teach their children and students learn how to read and write. Lesson Sense, explains the importance of reading and writing and provides fun and easy ways to teach children how to read and write. Through free and easy to follow lessons provided by Lesson Sense, teaching your child or student to read and write can be fun and enjoyable. By providing lesson ideas and materials on a daily basis, Lesson Sense is a one-stop site that any teach or parent can use. With the planning already completed, all a parent or teacher needs to do is focus on teaching their children or students which is one of the most important aspects of learning. Lesson Sense also provides a list of sites for lesson planning for ELL students.

One great aspect of Lesson Sense is that it explains situations in which emergent literacy is learned and how it can be aided through parents and teachers. This way parents and teachers understand the importance of teaching reading and writing as well as ways to teach them. Lesson Sense focuses on the relationship between reading and writing, and how both are critical for becoming both avid readers and writers. They do this through specifically formed lessons such as preparing flash cards with pictures and words. For example, a teacher can show a flash card with a picture on it, and ask the students to write the word of the picture they see. This way they are relating meaning to their writing. Lesson Sense provides these types of activities and flashcards.

Within the Lesson Sense website, you can choose lessons that are based around certain themes. For example, if your students or children are learning about animals, you can click on the theme tab and scroll down to the “animals” tab and up pops a ton of worksheets and lesson ideas for reading and writing about animals! What a great tool to use for incorporating content with reading and writing. There is also a fun and educational game section within Lesson Sense. You can choose a game from the list provided, download the necessary documents and you are ready to go.

Although Lesson Sense is a great tool for lesson planning, it does not provide specific lessons for very early writing. For example, activities for children who are just beginning to write can be difficult to come up with and it would be beneficial if Lesson Sense would add them to their website. Activities such as having children write their name and the names of their friends on a poster board, or writing the names of their family members on paper with pictures of their family.

Overall, Lesson Sense is a great and easy tool parents and teachers can use at home or in the classroom. Full lesson plans are just a click away!

Evaluated by Brooke Ellis

4.

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse/club.html

The above website is based on The Magic Tree House book series which has been a popular instructional tool for developing the reading skills of young students. However, this great web resource not only promotes reading, but also encourages elementary level children to strengthen and improve their writing skills through The Magic Tree House stories. Foremost, the home page, entitled “Readers and Writers Club,” defines writing in terms of the excitement involved in play and make-believe. It also provides a list of five writing lessons. Each lesson is designed to encourage a component of writing such as character or setting development, and by selecting one of the various items the student is redirected to a new page that is dedicated to the chosen element. The page provides a definition of the term, in reference to both reading and writing, and also offers a detailed example of its use in one of The Magic Tree House selections. Furthermore, Character’s from the series suggest tips, games and role-taking activities that support the learner’s involvement in developing an understanding of the topic.

By connecting writing to reading, this resource helps learners to recognize the inter-relationship between the two modes of literacy, which are frequently taught in isolation. Therefore, the classroom teacher could have students read a selection from the book series and then use this Internet site to facilitate and expand the construction of writing skills. However, because the lessons are structured around specific readings, one limitation of this web resource is that a teacher may not be able to use the page, if he or she has the class read an alternative piece of literature. In addition, the learner’s practice of reading and then answering online activity questions implies that the student may be acting as the exclusive builder of their own knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary that the classroom teacher utilize the “Readers and Writers club” to not only promote independent work but also guided student practice along with social collaboration and exploration.

Evaluated by Kathleen Armitage

Have fun writing!!!