Kid Writing-Adult Writing
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
After the first two steps of having the students draw their pictures and utilize explicit strategies and resources to compose, adults stepped back into Kid Writing to model correct spelling for the students and explain all the positive things the students have accomplished in their writing. An integral part of this third step is the type of notebook paper that is used.
In the early stages of implementing Kid Writing notebooks should be unlined blank pieces of paper stabled together to resemble a book and positioned horizontally to allow writers to have “more room to write their large letters before needing to make a return sweep.” (Feldgus, Cardonick, & Gentry, 2017p. 60). As the students develop their fine motor skills and request lines that match their handwriting lessons, lined paper is introduced.
Once the student has completed the composition, the teacher or volunteer talks with the student to offer positive praise on sounds that were spelled correctly, the use of descriptive words, the use of spelling conventions, and the like. Then the adult models the conventional spelling of the word underneath the invented spelling. As children make progress, their correct spelling is used and only some of the words are transcribed underneath the child’s attempt (In this image, you can see where the child has space to compose their text first, and the adult has space to model conventional spelling underneath). The teacher reads aloud the adult writing, pointing to each written word. Lastly, the teacher and the young writer reread the piece together. The transcript below illustrates a conversation that occurred in one of Selena’s small groups when the student was finished with her own writing and Selena went into add adult writing underneath.
SELENA: Okay, you wrote I, and you knew the word I already, so we don’t have to do anything with that. And in the word went, you actually heard almost all of the sounds. You the “wuh,” the “nuh,” and the “tee.” I went to. You knew the word to. And then we decided we didn’t actually want to use the word to, and so we crossed it out. I went trick-or-treating. That’s a tough word, and you heard so many sounds in there. Trick-or-treating (sounds out word while writing conventional spelling underneath). Let’s see what sounds you heard. I went trick, so you heard the “tuh” and the r and the k. The “kuh” sound at the end. Trick. Or. On or you heard the “Er.” I went trick-or-treating. For treating you heard the “tuh,” the “er,” and the “g.” Do you hear something at the end of this word? Do you hear ing? What could have helped you write that word? Do we have a Kid Crown, The King of ING? And you knew where to find the word on, on the word wall. And then Halloween, and we used Halloween from our vocabulary board. Do you know what goes at the end a sentence when we’re done?
STUDENT: A period.
SELENA: A period. Yeahhh.
STUDENT: I’m going to put a period right now.
Our participant teachers also date marked each day to monitor the writing progress of each child and serve as a both a running record and a resource to help where the student can refer back to previous writings to use the conventional spelling of words written by an adult. The notebooks should be kept in a central location in the classroom for easy reference. (This primary journal from Amazon is a perfect tool for kid writers who are ready to use lined paper. There is a space at the top to draw and colored lines below to serve as a guide for students who are learning to form letters.)
In addition to the lined notebooks, the classrooms we observed also included a variety of writing utensils, such as markers, pencils, and crayons. The teacher participants incorporated utilized poems, chants, and songs to remind students of traits they needed to use in their writing. One chant Jill used often was “Sen-ten-ces start with a cap-i-tal letter,” letter and, “Sen-ten-ces stop with punc-tu-ation.” (Grab my free TPT resource for the chant.)
The classrooms both included a meeting area for whole group instruction where students were close enough to the teacher to interact and engage with instruction. An easel with chart paper was centered in the meeting space where adult writing was modeled for children. The word wall is close in proximity and visible to students as they sat near the teacher and became a point of instruction during the mini-lessons. The combination of these tools provided a variety of ways for the teachers to model adult writing and also provided enjoyment for the children, while allowing them to hear the intricacies of how language works.
References
Feldgus, E. G., Cardonick, I., & Gentry, J. R. (2017). Kid writing in the 21st century: A systematic approach to phonics, spelling, and writing workshop. Los Angeles, CA: Hameray Publishing Group.
