M11: Emergent Literacy

Emergent writing “means that children begin to understand that writing is a form of communication and their marks on paper convey a message” (Mayer, 2007, p. 35). Emergent writing progresses along a developmental continuum. Reading and writing develop simultaneously and are interrelated. The relationship between reading and writing is bidirectional (Mayer, 2007),  such that reading facilitates writing abilities and learning how to write in turn improves reading ability. Thus, progress in one fuels development of the other. Research suggests that letter-writing instruction and letter-writing activities may improve emerging literacy skills (Puranik, Lonigan, & Kim, 2011).

Check out this example of small group work with emerging writers: 

(You can follow along by enabling closed captioning or access the transcript by opening in YouTube and clicking the 3 dots at the bottom right corner).

In this video, teachers worked with children in small groups to guide them and scaffold them to successful writing.  Most of the examples were guided writing or cooperative writing.  Teachers and children wrote stories together.  Sometimes the teacher wrote the words and other times children added or shared the pen with them!