3. Tonight’s Objective Through a presentation of developmental information , performance standards, and hands-on activities, participants will identify the writing process of a preschool child and will be able to develop an appropriate writing program into their daily classroom.
4. Sylvia Ashton Warner taught for 24 years in a Maori school in New Zealand. This quote explains her philosophy on how children begin to develop a sight reading vocabulary: “First words must mean something to a child. They must be part of his being. They must be words organically tied up, organically born from the dynamic life itself. They must be words that are already part of his being. First words, first books must be made out of the child itself. I reach into the mind of the child, bring out a handful of the stuff I find there and use that as our first working material. This is their key vocabulary. (Sylvia Ashton Warner, 1963) *Source: Beyond Centers &Circle Time: Scaffolding and Assessing the Play of Young Children
5. Teachers encourage the reading and writing of young children by surrounding them with an environment that is full of meaningful print.
7. Vocabulary Writing Centers: specific areas within the classroom that encourage writing by providing interesting writing materials and appropriate models. Just tracing letters is not appropriate. Focus on free-form writing. *review make-shift writing center
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9. Class Books: allow each child to contribute an individual page to a group book. Sometimes the basic text is predictable but allow children to make small changes.
10. Journal Writing: is common in many kindergartens. Journals allow teachers and children to track writing progress over an extended period of time. This is a great way to begin a child’s portfolio. Pocket Stories: encourage children to explore word boundaries and the relationship between spoken and written language. Children dictate a sentence to go with a picture they create. Duplicate words can be matched to the words in their sentence and stored in the pocket at the bottom of the page. Sentence Fill-Ins: allow children to experiment with writing by adding a word or phrase to a predictable text. Children can observe how writing alters the meaning of the original text.
11. Writing on Interactive Charts: enable children to experiment with the way writing conveys meaning. Children can write a word or phrase to add to the interactive part of the chart. Literacy Suitcases: extend the literacy curriculum from school to home. Literacy suitcases are take-home version of classroom writing materials. *the ones here are for classroom purposes.
12. Writing Portfolios Writing portfolios are a great way to track the writing progression of a child. They give the child focused experience with writing. They can add illustrations to their writing. You can dictate a child-drawn picture when they first begin writing. Children at this stage are developing object to word meaning. There should be time set aside each week for portfolio writing. BP
13. Big Books Benefits Big books are enlarged-print versions of predictable books, poems, or songs. The words are printed with large letters for easy child-viewing. Big books are an important component of early childhood reading and writing because they facilitate children's construction of important concepts about written language, such as: Sound symbol relationships Voice –print pairing Boundaries of words Left-to-write and top-to-bottom progression Use of upper and lowercase letters
14. Make sure that the length and the content of big books are appropriate for your classroom age children. Teachers can make their own big books by using poster board folded in half. You can then illustrate the book yourself, or let the children illustrate the book. You can then write the words underneath the pictures to tell the story. Making a big book for each month in your class will be a great way for the children to experience writing and you will end up with a collection of great big books!
15. What is a good source of materials for your big books? Predictable books, songs and poems that are of high interest to your children. Making a big book for each of your themes is a great idea. Books that have a repeating line of text, with one or two word changes per page, are good choices. Example: The chicken ran down the hill The chicken ran back up the hill The chicken was surely out of breath But the chicken said, “Oh my, what a thrill”
16. As children transition into reading, they must construct the _________________________ between the sounds, or phonemes. (phonemic awareness) They must also learn to pair each spoken word with a written counterpart (_________________). When teachers carefully point to each word in a big book as they read it, children begin to form these important relationships. They also begin to discern the __________________ and the significance of the space between two words. When pointed to the text as you read, children gradually realize that the text is always read from __________ and from _____________. They learn to distinguish __________________________and may begin to understand how upper-case letters are used. Example: Children begin to realize that their name begins with an uppercase letter. sound-symbol relationship voice-print pairing boundaries of words left to right top to bottom upper-and lowercase letters
17. What is a Philosophy? Goals are based on environmental, maturational, and interactional assumptions about how children might learn. You will set goals for yourself and how your classroom will function based on the needs of the children at any given time. Goals have a broad range. A philosophystatement is established at the onset of the program and creates a foundation for how the school overall will operate as a learning facility.
18. Example At ABC Preschool, we value the natural process of learning and ensure that our program will enhance the children’s learning process. We will provide developmentally appropriate learning experiences that will engage and encourage the natural learning process. Teachers and staff will be of the highest quality and will be hired with the intent that they will adhere to the teaching strategies of the school. Hands-on learning experiences and learning centers will be present indoors and outdoors to encourage independent learning as well as parallel learning with peers. The implemented curriculum will be open-ended and will provide sufficient and appropriate learning experiences. At ABC Preschool our doors are open and we encourage families to be a part of the children’s education and learning experiences. Parents/guardians are encouraged to attend quality meetings to ensure the success of the whole child.
19. My Writing Philosophy Writing is an fundamental component of the learning process. It coincides with reading and every other part of the developmental progression. Children will be exposed to writing in the dailyclassroom through various use of materials and experiences. Their writing occurrences will be open-ended with plentiful room for creativity and imagination. There will be opportunities for them to share their ideas and stories. The environment will be print-rich with ample writing opportunities and appropriate materials to encourage free-formation of symbols.
21. Feedback Time Let’s talk about what you can do tomorrow to implement a quality writing center into your program or extend on what you have now… Do you think you will look at writing in a different way in your classroom after this workshop? Why? Do you see that by recycling materials, you can create a quality writing center into your classroom that feeds the imagination of children and keeps them interacting with you and their peers? Let’s talk materials!
22. Thank you for coming!Some of the information in this presentation was provided by More Than Letters written by, Sally Moomaw and Brenda Hieronymus
