This study of the influence of social context on children's learning investigated the functions of literacy-based verbal exchanges of 37 preschoolers in a print-enriched play environment. Play settings in two preschool classrooms were enriched with print materials and literacy-related props. Four play settings were created: post office, library,…

This book concerns the growth of a single child, as reported by her mother, from her first encounters with books and print to the beginnings of independent reading and writing. The study took place mainly between the child's third and fourth birthdays, during which period weekly tape recordings were made of story-reading sessions with one or both…

Describes a program used in three Texas schools in which kindergarten children spend a part of each day writing. (FL)

Argues that James Moffett's influential model of a young writer's development is flawed, because it depicts beginning writers as being far more limited than they are. (HTH)

Explores the patterns in children's talk about their writing, by means of transcribed conversations during daily writing/sharing sessions in a first grade classroom. Discusses the importance of this kind of talk. (HTH)

Lists 12 parallel skills in drawing and writing, including the fact that drawing can reproduce aesthetic forms while writing can copy letters and letter groups. (DF)

Argues that children want to write and enjoy writing and that teachers need to provide them with suitable opportunities for doing so. Discusses different kinds of writing that allow children's voices to come through. (FL)

Describes how kindergarten children use invented spelling to rewrite Mother Goose nursery rhymes, indicating the phoneme grapheme system the children perceived from spoken language. (HTH)

Describes in diary form the process of reviewing new composition and grammar texts and noting their deficiencies and compares the offered material to what students actually need in composition instruction. (CRH)

Reports on a recent study of first grade writing efforts that confirms the importance of scribble in the writing process when it is an accepted language behavior in the classroom. (FL)

Reports on the work being done by Martha King with the writing of primary grade children. (FL)

Analyzes the composing processes of three children, aged two to four, as they composed with a responsible adult in a group setting. (HOD)

Observes that children are ready to write when they understand what writing does, when they are interested in writing, when they want to communicate through writing, and when they understand that written symbols represent meaning. (RL)

Offers guidelines on helping young children develop into independent writers. Explains what to expect at different stages, such as semiphonetic and phonetic stages, drawing as a prewriting activity, and writing and revising once drawing no longer dictates writing. Offers suggestions for providing an environment that supports the writing process.…

The representational abilities of 24 preschool children were investigated in relation to their ability to use their knowledge of graphic notation. Although the children came from similar backgrounds, their responses showed varying constructs about the appropriate graphic notation to use in referential tasks. (SLD)