Read My Story.

Drawing upon the emergent literacy concept, Beth began to visualize her preschoolers as authors in process.

Beth is a preschool teacher who is very knowledgeable about child development and about helping children learn through play. She prides herself on rejecting worksheet activities in favor of print-rich experiences that help prepare children for learning to read and write. Until recently, however, she did not actually consider preschool age children as writers.

Beth had assumed, as do many teachers and parents, that children begin "real" reading and writing in kindergarten or 1st grade (Gibson, 1989). The children in her preschool had many stories read to them; they were exposed to environmental print, such as that used for cupboard labels and other signs; and they also watched their teacher write for practical purposes, such as making field trip lists. These preschoolers were encouraged to write their names on their work, and were even helped to incorporate pretend writing into their pretend play. However, they weren't encouraged to consider themselves as story authors.

Once Beth was exposed to readings in the field of emergent literacy (for example, Dyson, 1997; Ferreiro, 1991; Fields, 1998; Goodman, 1990; Sulzby, 1990), her expectations for preschoolers began-to change. Beth realized that although the print experiences she was providing were helpful, many of her preschoolers were capable of more in-depth literacy explorations. Drawing upon the emergent literacy concept that both oral and written language learning begin at birth, Beth began to visualize her preschoolers as authors in process.

A New Attitude

Beth's new attitude about her preschoolers led her to introduce several new activities into her program. She suggested that children write stories at school, offered "story starter" prompts, posted an invitation for children to share their stories, and also sent blank writing journals home with the children. Beth hoped that by sharing their stories during group time, the preschoolers would view themselves and one another as authors.

Budding authors in this preschool had two options: They could draw and/or write their own stories and then read or tell them to an adult, or they could dictate their stories to an adult. Most of these preschoolers used pictures to represent their stories, sometimes adding a few letters or letter-like forms. Beth's new understanding of emergent writing helped her to recognize drawing as a valid form of representing ideas or events (Oken-Wright, 1998; Snow & Ninio, 1986). She also realized that children must fully explore the belief that only pictures can tell stories before they can move on to exploring the ways to communicate with print (Ferreiro, 1990).

With these new perspectives, Beth responded differently to children's picture stories. She now viewed these stories as an essential link between children's current understandings of literacy and their future ability to read and write printed stories. She also valued oral narrations as opportunities for preschoolers to explore their ideas of what constitutes a story. Oral stories also allowed children to explore the structure and meaning of their own experiences (Wells, 1986) and to display their oral language capabilities. Thus, the children use what they know to assist them in learning what they do not yet know. Beth's students knew a lot: they demonstrated an ability to use representational forms, they drew upon a small store of life experiences, and they possessed oral language skills. They used all of this prior learning as they worked at making sense of print. Stories by Ashley and Cory illustrate the preschoolers' literacy-related knowledge.

Ashley's story reviews an experience with her family, which she represents through stick figures (see Figure 1). The main focus of the story, the butterfly, is drawn with more detail. Her oral story shows familiarity with story structure as it includes a title and a typical story opening line: "One summer day ..." Ashley also demonstrates the ability to communicate using language.

Figure 1

Me and My Family

One summer day we were walking along the beach. We started to talk and play and run and Daddy fugured out something we could do. We could do some things at the beach. Butterflies started flying around and then I catched two of them and put them in a bug thing and Daddy let me keep them a while.

--Ashley, 5

Cory's topic of a dragon and a knight (see Figure 2) shows the influence of other stories. He demonstrates some notion of a plot, including the eternal theme of good vs. evil. His representation of characters is detailed, and his ability to write his name displays fine-motor control.

[Figure 2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

As Beth thought about Snow and Ninio's (1986) assertion that children construct understanding of literacy as a result of having stories read to them, she reasoned that children form these same "contracts of literacy" as they write their own stories. Beth came to believe that young children explore the nature of story as they use pictures to represent events and to create fictional worlds. Cory's dragon and knight story appears to demonstrate this principle.

The Children's Responses

Most of the preschoolers accepted the invitation to share their stories at group time. Some were eager for the audience and the attention, while others did not seem to care about that aspect. Beth noticed a correlation between temperament and interest in sharing stories. The more extroverted children were most comfortable having the attention of the group focused on their writing. Paige, however, was an exception. A self-sufficient and introverted child, Paige's frequent appearances as a featured author seemed a factor of her strong interest in writing. She was an avid story writer who also used writing in her pretend play, to make lists, and even on field trips (i.e., bringing a clipboard for note-taking). Some children wrote frequently, but chose to share their work only occasionally. Mary, Ellie, and Adam each seemed to write out of personal motivation, rather than for the approval of an audience at school. These students most valued taking their completed work home immediately.

Whether they were in the limelight as authors or part of the audience, all the children in the group seemed to benefit from the shared stories. They were able to experience different forms of children's writing and to consider how their peers treated print and story. Yetta Goodman (1986) validates this view, asserting that when children are involved in writing and can see others producing writing, they become more confident in their ability to participate in reading and writing events. Goodman and others (e.g., Ferreiro, 1991; Neuman & Roskos, 1997) also confirm that children's exploration of writing expands their knowledge of the conventions and functions that define reading and writing.

Home Influence

Originally, Beth had planned for children to share the stories that they had developed during free-choice time. She expanded that vision, however, as children began bringing in stories completed at home. Obviously proud of their work, the children wanted to share it with others. Some emergent literacy researchers have pointed out that literacy events at home are quite different from those at school (Sulzby, Teale, & Kamberelis, 1989; Teale, 1986). Although teachers may try to guarantee a long uninterrupted block of work and play time, interruptions or distractions are frequent. Some preschoolers, surrounded by other children, are unable to screen out the events and activities around them in order to focus on writing.

Through children's writing and drawing produced at home, Beth was better able to examine children's capabilities as authors. Furthermore, the products from home broadened the number of examples and ideas available to other preschoolers. Beth also appreciated the opportunity to demonstrate that she valued the writing and drawing experiences provided by parents. She wanted to emphasize that school is not the only learning environment. Thus, when children arrived at school proudly clutching a story created at home, it was a natural and positive step to invite them to share it at the group meeting.

To encourage more writing and other emergent literacy behaviors at home, Beth sent her preschoolers home with writing journals. These journals were inexpensive--construction paper-bound assortments of lined and unlined paper that Beth had stapled together. Beth was careful to explain to parents that writing and drawing were optional activities, but that she would be eager to see what children chose to do with the journals. Prior to Beth's initiative with the journals, only a few of the children had brought writing from home to share at school. After the journals were given out, over half of the preschoolers chose to bring writing from home to share with their teachers and school friends. Beth was thrilled with this evidence of increased literacy activity at home.

Although some of the children's journals displayed evidence of being used by parents to teach the letters of the alphabet, many children used the journals to demonstrate a previously unrevealed writing ability and understanding. Clara, for example, drew highly detailed pictures, for which she dictated words that her older sister wrote down (see Figure 3). The result shows a strong sense of story and plot. Brett drew and wrote about A-T walkers in his journal and explained, "It's in Star Wars" (see Figure 4). His writing displayed the letters A and T twice--presumably once for each of the two A-T walkers drawn. He also attempted to write the word "walker": First he tried the letter Y, which sounded to him like the beginning of the word. Then, he tried the letter W, which he had seen at the start of the word. Clearly, Brett was seriously working on his theories about print.

Figure 3

"The dragon killed a person, ate his meat. Then he was going to eat another person but he said `Stop.' Then he tickled the person's armpits. The person ran away."

--Clara, 5

Figure 4

Brett used this page of his "journal" to draw and write about "A-T walkers. It's in Star Wars."

New Confidence

After several weeks of encouraging writing as a choice at preschool and at home, Beth asked all of her students to write a story. She said, "I'd like each of you to write a story. Let's all think for a few minutes about what we might want to write about. When you have your idea, take some paper and a pencil and begin to write." She followed the advice from Sulzby (1992) by reassuring the children, "It doesn't have to be like grown-up writing. Just do it your own way."

All of the children went to work without hesitation. Most of their writing was in pictures and letter-like forms (see Figure 5), rather than conventional print. Nevertheless, they were eager to read their stories to an adult. The teacher and a parent helper were available to hear the stories and transcribe them into conventional print if children desired. Beth's definition of a story was quite broad, in keeping with her students' development and with her own knowledge of emergent writing (e.g., Sulzby, Barnhart, & Hieshima, 1989; Thornley, 1988). Young children often believe that their drawings tell the story and that words are useful only as labels for the pictures (Ferreiro, 1990). Therefore, in order to elicit more of a story, Beth followed Oken-Wright's example (1998) and asked, "What's happening in your picture?"

Figure 5

"That's me in the boat with a balloon, and we're sinking in the water.

"The tornado is twirling us and a big storm is coming to blow us around!"

Each of the different ways of encouraging children's writing had varying levels of appeal to different individuals. Some responded best during free-choice time, some wrote best at home, and some were motivated by the sharing time. Some wrote spontaneously and some were more apt to write in response to requests. All of the writing activities had a unifying thread in drawing attention to the efforts and ideas of active writers, and in validating child writing as authentic and interesting. Beth believed that promoting the notion of children as writers would strengthen the efforts of those already attempting to write, and would inspire the others to begin.

Beth's theory seems to have been proven correct. Her preschoolers became comfortable with writing stories and with using whatever forms of writing came to mind. They were writing more than any of Beth's previous groups of preschoolers; and they truly considered themselves as authors. They greeted a blank sheet of paper, a blank whiteboard, an easel, a clipboard, or a notebook as invitations to write.

References

Dyson, A. H. (1997). Writing superheroes: Contemporary childhood, popular culture, and classroom literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.

Ferreiro, E. (1990). Literacy development: Psychogenesis. In Y. Goodman (Ed.), How children construct literacy (pp. 1225). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Ferreiro, E. (1991). Literacy acquisition. In C. Kamii, M. Manning, & G. Manning (Eds.), Early literacy: A constructivist foundation for whole language (pp. 31-56). Washington, DC: National Education Association.

Fields, M. (1998). Your child learns to read and write. Olney, MD: Association for Childhood Education International.

Gibson, L. (1989). Through children's eyes: Literacy learning in the early years. New York: Teachers College Press.

Goodman, K.S. (1986). What's whole in whole language? Richmond Hill, Ontario: Scholastic-TAB Publications.

Goodman, Y. M. (1990). How children construct literacy: Piagetian perspectives. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Neuman, S., & Roskos, K. (1997). Literacy knowledge in practice: Contexts of participation for young writers and readers. Reading Research Quarterly, 32(1), 10-32.

Oken-Wright, P. (1998). Transition to writing: Drawing as a scaffold for emergent writers. Young Children, 53(2), 76-81.

Snow, C., & Ninio, A. (1986). The contracts of literacy. In W. Teale & E. Sulzby (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. 116-138). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Sulzby, E. (1990). Assessment of writing and of children's language while writing. In L. Morrow & J. Smith (Eds.), Assessment for instruction in early literacy (pp. 83-109). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Sulzby, E. (1992). Research directions: Transitions from emergent to conventional writing. Language Arts, 69(4), 290-423.

Sulzby, E., Barnhart, J., & Hieshima, J. (1989). Forms of writing and rereading from writing: A preliminary report (Technical report no. 20). In J. Mason (Ed.), Reading and writing connections (p. 218). Newton, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Sulzby, E., Teale, W., & Kamberelis, G. (1989). Emergent writing in the classroom: Home and school connections. In D. Strickland & L. Morrow (Eds.), Emerging literacy: Young children learn to read and write (pp. 63-79). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Teale, W. (1986). Home background and young children's literacy development. In W. Teale & E. Sulzby (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. 173-206). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Thornley, K. B. (1988). The writing table: The young child as emergent writer/editor. In E. Jones (Ed.), Reading, writing and talking with four, five and six year-olds (pp. 39-56). Pasadena, CA: Pacific Oaks Press.

Wells, G. (1986). The meaning makers: Children learning language and using language to learn. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Marjorie V. Fields is a Professor, Early Childhood Education, University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau. At the time of this writing, Beth DeGayner was a preschool teacher, Petersburg, Alaska. She now teaches reading and math in grades 1-3.