Hanna Nysoe

ECED&180
Dr. Cathy Meier
17 November, 2019

A9

Emergent writers

 Go online and find an article about young children and emergent writing. Share a short

synopsis of what you learned from the article. Be sure to cite your source so I can find your

article – include a link to the website please.

The article “The Comprehensive Emergent Literacy Model: Early Literacy in Context” by Leigh

Rohde explains the timeline of emergent literacy. The first reference of Emergent Literacy was

introduced by a woman named Marie Clay, who stated the comprehension of literacy typically begins

between birth and age five. It wasn’t until the nineteen eighties when the idea of chronological age

being the leading factor towards grasping the idea of literacy, but more so a learning rich environment

and experiences given to the individual child. Since then, Emergent Literacy has been a major

component in Preschools and Early learning centers and is now recognized as a “DAP” or

“developmentally appropriate practice”.

Emergent writing is founded on the theory that literacy emerges from children before they are formally

taught to read. Emergent writing or Emergent Literacy is the processes of reading, writing, but also
Hanna Nysoe
ECED&180
Dr. Cathy Meier
17 November, 2019

speaking and listening. The child’s point of view and active role with literacy are highlighted EL learning.

Emergent literacy is more likened to an interactive process, rather than the act of traditional reading or

writing. Teachers will be better able to facilitate all the components of EL if they have access to a model

that describes how Emergent writing works, and the importance of environmental factors in supporting

children. This article describes such a model.

 Describe two specific ways you could use Writing Workshops, interactive writing, or shared

writing with young children.

Some specific ways I can use interactive writing would be using literacy in dramatic play. For

instance, when children are playing “store” or “restaurant” as they often do, I could add the

literacy element by having a roll of receipt paper where the children can “write” prices of items

at the store. A notepad works as a tool when a child wants to take someone’s “order” and give

them their bill. This is a great way to add emergent writing into an interactive play scenario.

A way to use shared writing would be to make a book with the class where the children get

to tell a story and illustrate the scenes. As a teacher I would be able to help the children write

their page of the book by sharing the pencil with them and have them trace the letters of the

sentence or sentences on the page.

Hanna Nysoe
ECED&180
Dr. Cathy Meier
17 November, 2019

Citation(s):

Rohde, Leigh. “The Comprehensive Emergent Literacy Model: Early Literacy in Context.” SAGE

Open, Mar. 2015, doi:10.1177/2158244015577664.

PART 2:

HANDOUT 9_2

SCENE 1: The child writes with random letters to convey a message. The letters are formed

well, but have no relationship to sounds. The writer is aware that print and art convey meaning.

SCENE 2: Early Phonetic Writing

The child writes words using letters (mostly consonants) to represent words and sounds. The

writing shows individuality, focuses on a topic, and begins to make sense, Or can at least be related to

the subject.

SCENE 3: Phonetic Writing

Hanna Nysoe
ECED&180
Dr. Cathy Meier
17 November, 2019

The child writes words using letters to represent each sound that is heard. This suggests that

Bobby is on his way to conventional writing. The words make sense and may be used to make sentences.

REFLECTION:

Reflecting on these three scenes. It shows an example of scaffolding in terms of

emergent writing. The first child shows knowledge of letters and storytelling. This child is at the point of

emergent writing that is more advanced than imitative writing but does not yet have the ability to use

phonemic awareness to sound out the correct letters for what they are trying to depict. The second child

is at a level of emergent writing where they can use phonemic awareness to sound out the letters to

accurately write the correct letters to correlate with the sound of the subject they are trying to explain.

However, these letters aren’t formed to real words, just the correct sound. The third has the highest

degree of emergent writing understanding. They are able to use their ability to correctly spell out the

names of people he knows. This is in list form, so he has not yet scaffolded to the level of connecting

words into a functional sentence.