Teacher Decision Making to Support Young Writers

Toddlers Through Grade 2 Developmental Moments: Teacher Decision Making to Support Young Writers Author(s): Lori Norton-Meier and Kathryn F. Whitmore Source: YC Young Children, Vol. 70, No. 4 (September 2015), pp. 76-83 Published by: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/ycyoungchildren.70.4.76 Accessed: 26-06-2017 15:29 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/ycyoungchildren.70.4.76?seq=1&cid=pdfreference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Toddlers Through Grade 2

Developmental Moments: Teacher Decision Making to Support Young Writers Lori Norton-Meier and Kathryn F. Whitmore

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moment like this, when a young child interacts with writing materials and a reason to write, is an opportunity to understand the child’s individual development and literacy development more generally. It’s in these developmental moments that we pause and ask three questions. What does Jillian already know about written language? Jillian is delighted that pens make marks on the page and that when she puts a mark on the page, someone can read it. It is almost like a game of . . . SURPRISE! Look what came out of the pen! Her expectation that she and her

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dad will read and talk about the marks she makes indicates that she has likely been read to and that the marks connect with oral language. In the interaction with her father, she reveals her understanding that literacy is meant to be shared. Through this playful “paying bills” experience, she is participating in what Wohlwend (2011) calls an early literacy apprenticeship—an experience in which play reading and play writing are joyful and legitimate activities during which children explore literacy knowledge and practices. What is Jillian currently learning about how written language works? Jillian’s language (“A-dah!”), exchanged in turns with her dad’s language, demonstrates Young Children


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© Ellen B. Senisi

Jillian is 13 months old when she waddles over to the kitchen table where her dad is paying bills and balancing the checkbook. She climbs onto a chair, sitting on her knees next to her father. With a huff that means, “Woo, I made it,” she wraps her fist around a pen. She marks on the page, smiles, and points at it, saying to her dad, “A-dah!” Her dad responds, “Yes, one.” Jillian makes another mark, points at it and says, “A-dah!” and her father responds, “Two.” They continue, Jillian writing and her dad counting, until there are many marks on the page.

Children’s work samples courtesy of the authors

engagement with puzzles and small things she can put together, stack, and pick up, like round cereal pieces. Such activities help Jillian develop more conventional control. Prominently displaying Jillian’s writing at her eye level helps her understand that the marks she puts on the page can be preserved, reread, and shared with other members of her family, and communicates that she is a bona fide member of a family and community that is literate.

A developmental moment is an opportunity to understand dynamic learning in a preservable anecdote, transcript, or writing sample. Developmental moments as instructional decision-making framework

Jillian's marks

that she understands that written language is used to communicate, and her physical behaviors (climbing on the chair and looking at her dad expectedly) demonstrate that she knows written language exchanges are part of building relationships with important people in her young life and experiencing pleasure; however, she still has a lot to learn. At 13 months, she is figuring out how to grip the pen. She is also making marks that are so early in the development of writing that they could represent just about anything— drawing or letters as well as numerals. Her dad intuitively responds to Jillian in ways that support her literacy development when he names her marks as numbers. What should Jillian’s dad do to best support her continued development? Jillian’s dad responds to her as though the marks she makes carry meaning, taking the position of a reader and a coconspirator in her play. The first and foremost action anyone could do for Jillian (and all children) is to ensure that she keeps writing. Providing access to writing tools, encouraging writing in play, and calling attention to writing in the natural course of daily family life are all ways to support Jillian’s ongoing learning. Although it would be tempting for many parents to try to fix Jillian’s immature grip on the pen, better support for her fine motor development will come through lively About the Authors Lori Norton-Meier, PhD, is professor of literacy education at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Lori and her coauthor, Kathryn Whitmore, have collaborated on early literacy development, family literacy, and teacher education issues for over 20 years. [email protected]

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For more than 20 years as kindergarten teachers and teacher educators we have used the instructional decision-making framework we describe in this article to understand children’s literacy development both in and out of school. We call this framework developmental moments. We think of development as a video or movie—shifting, full of action, and changing too fast to remember or analyze any single moment in real time. We conceptualize developmental moments as comparable to pushing the pause button on a TV remote, creating a still-frame image of movement and change. That image, which we call a developmental moment, is an opportunity to understand dynamic learning in a preservable anecdote, transcript, or writing sample. Young children’s development is active and complex, and is contextualized in the rich physical and social spaces of their homes, neighborhoods, and schools. Too often teachers’ unexamined deficit assumptions about children from low-income, multilingual, and ethnically and racially diverse communities influence their decision making in negative ways. Common assumptions (that variations on Standard English indicate less learning potential, that lowincome families don’t value reading and writing, that some parents don’t care about their children’s success at school) can lead teachers to lower their expectations for children’s learning potential. However, in the course of their lives all families are living, working, thinking, worrying, and caring. All children bring funds of knowledge to classrooms—areas of expertise and experience that enable them to survive in their communities. “We need to alter our

Kathryn F. Whitmore, PhD, is the Ashland/Nystrand Chair of Early Childhood Education Research and the director of the Early Childhood Research Center at the University of Louisville. [email protected]

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perceptions of working-class or poor communities and to view these households primarily in terms of their strengths and resources” (González, Moll, & Amanti 2005, x). Our developmental moments framework can help preservice and in-service teachers shift from a deficit discourse about children’s literacy development to a discourse of strength and possibility. Classroom teachers face data overload—piles of records about children that refer to information either too small (the phonemes a child was unable to say accurately in a limited time) or too standardized (the test score a child received) to be useful. Developmental moments, however, are data gathered through observing, collecting, and reflecting about real writing, reading, and oral language samples to reveal where a child is developmentally at a given point in time.

The developmental moments process: Three questions

Teachers can answer for themselves three developmental moments questions to analyze writing, visual art samples, and observations of children manipulating writing materials or engaged in play with written language. n What does the child already know about written

language?

n What is the child currently learning? (What

approximations of writing are evident in the moment?)

n What will best support the child’s continued

development?

(See “Developmental Moments Questions” for further details.)

What does the child already know about written language?

Our developmental moments analysis begins with the recognition that every child comes to school with initial and developing understandings about how language works (Ferreiro & Teberosky 1982). A language community surrounds and defines each child’s place, identities, and understandings about how, when, and why language works. Asking ourselves about children’s existing knowledge about literacy recognizes that literacy learning is a transactional process, meaning that there is an interactive relationship between the knower (the child) and what is to be known (the text being created) (Dewey 1938; Rosenblatt 1976; Whitmore et al. 2004), within rich sociocultural contexts. Beginning with a transactional perspective of early literacy explicitly reminds us to initiate our analysis of developmental moments with what children know, not what they don’t yet know.

What is the child currently learning? Or what writing approximations are evident in the moment?

Clay (1975) states that two features of the learning process deserve special attention in early writing development. The first is that children’s initial writing will be gross approximations of adult conventions that will continue to be refined with time. Clay’s point is that when children are learning they do not write the way adults do, and that it’s more productive to think about nonconventional elements of their early writing as developmental rather than mistakes. So loops and lines of print, letters that aren’t formed in a standard way or are reversed, and

Developmental Moments Questions How can the three developmental moments questions be useful and practical for practicing teachers? The first two developmental moments questions remind teachers to focus on strengths and see children in terms of what they know rather than what they need to know. n■ Anecdotal records created with

the developmental moments lens provide a rich trail of children’s learning over time. We find it helpful to immediately jot our interpretations of writing samples like those in this article on sticky notes or write them directly on the back of a sample. The date and a few words that answer

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questions one and two are sufficient until the end of the day or week. n■ The collection of anecdotal

records in the developmental moments framework comprises the ingredients for planning individual and group instruction when teachers turn to ponder question three: What will best support the child’s development (individually and collectively)? The answers may be as small as having a conversation or sharing a particular book or material with one child. Or they may be as large as developing a lengthy inquiry curriculum plan for a whole class.

n■ Many teachers collect

developmental moments daily on an ongoing basis to capture writing development when it happens during the class day. Sticky notes with a child’s name can then be transferred to a folder as evidence for looking at the child’s development over time. Teachers often also make note of their instructional decisions in this folder to document their plans to support each child’s continued development.

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other developmentally acceptable instances of not-yetconventional writing are called approximations. Second, individual knowledge is very specific. Children construct their own language and understandings about literacy processes for themselves. Although there are common patterns in early literacy development, “children assume agency for their learning and from birth are actively constructing knowledge about literacy; therefore, no two children’s paths to literacy look the same” (Whitmore et al. 2004, 298). Some children have a unique and voracious interest in bugs, others in superheroes. Some children move into conventional spelling at a young age, others take more time in invented spelling. Some children read independently before formal schooling, others not until well into elementary school. In regard to very young children’s writing development, Clay says the “characteristics of gross approximation and specificity demand that a teacher knows an individual child’s progress to date” (1975, 15).

specific age or grade because it is difficult to provide a definitive sequence or age-related timeline for language and literacy development—nor is it desirable. Children develop at their own rates and in their own directions within their sociocultural environments. More important than a set of incremental steps, the three questions that are the essence of the developmental moments framework are a catalyst for deeper thinking about instructional decision making. They are reminders to think deeply and theoretically about children’s individual development and sociocultural assets when assessing and planning early writing instruction. We provide just one of many potential interpretations of each moment; our intent is to challenge a common deficit view by shifting thinking and decision making toward a focus on strengths.

What will best support the child’s continued development?

The first two developmental moments questions guide teachers to validate children’s existing literacy knowledge and to identify the direction their learning is headed. The third question calls on teachers to consider what to do next. We frame instructional decision making as mediation, drawing on Vygotsky’s (1978) premise that children’s internal cognitive processes (their thinking, imagining, and learning) grow only when interacting with people in the environment and in cooperation with peers. Mediation is the action and effect of peers, adults, texts, or other social environmental factors in a child’s experiences that extend, challenge, and support learning. It occurs when teachers share and negotiate power and access with their students. Such teachers “support children in making connections between the known and new . . . for connecting print and meaning” (Whitmore et al. 2004, 318). Teachers who are mediators help children reach their individual academic literacy potentials at school while maintaining the richness of their sociocultural backgrounds, identities, languages, and community positions.

Putting the developmental moments framework into action

To further illustrate the developmental moment process, we describe three additional developmental moment examples that reflect the depth of young children’s thinking and represent common attributes of literacy development. These particular moments focus on children’s writing, but the developmental moments framework is applicable to math, reading, and other aspects of children’s learning. Our examples progress chronologically; however, it is not our goal to display a guide for what to expect at a September 2015

Monica's horse drawing and writing

Monica: Her horse and her developing language practices Three-year-old Monica lives on a ranch in the southwestern United States. She frequently rides with her father, a cowboy, on his horse named Miss Muffett. It is a developmental moment: Monica is at the kitchen table while her mother makes dinner. She has open access to a variety of writing materials. Monica draws and writes, then reads the message to her mother as she points to the looping lines she’s drawn. Across the top of the page, she reads, “Monica!” and down the right side of the page she traces with her finger, “Miss Muffett.”

What does Monica already know about written language? In this moment, Monica demonstrates her understanding of written language as two separate

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systems—drawing and writing. Monica’s drawing is conventional enough that it is generally recognizable as an animal. It could be a dog or a cow—it includes legs, a head, and spots. But when Monica reads the writing as “Monica” and “Miss Muffett,” the animal shape takes on the additional specific features of a horse, including a saddle, a mane, and a tail, as she explains. Monica’s writing is less developed (more approximate) than her drawing, but it shows that Monica already understands that print (in English) is linear and also has shape. Her invented writing marks are not random—they resemble the appearance of English cursive and are clearly comparable to the cursive she frequently observes around her as her parents write lists, sign checks, and leave each other notes. The combination of drawing and writing indicates Monica knows that pictures help a writer tell a story and words help readers read pictures. She understands that illustrated and written texts have a meaningful relationship. What is Monica currently learning about writing and drawing? Monica already knows a lot about written language, and the approximations in this developmental moment are indicators of her future learning. While her drawing is recognizable, her horse has five legs. And while she knows print is linear, she is comfortable writing vertically as well as horizontally. Moreover, though the form of her writing clearly reflects representations of cursive that she sees around her, she does not form conventional letters. In this moment, Monica reveals her theories and processes about making meaning—by creating squiggly lines of linear text to represent words, and an illustration that represents her favorite horse. What are good ways to support Monica’s continued development? This developmental moment often evokes recommendations from teachers to “get out some books about horses.” Interacting with high-quality literature about horses would fuel Monica’s interest in her horse and may provide motivation to continue ongoing demonstrations of letters and words organized in increasingly conventional ways. In addition, an authentic response to Monica’s writing and drawing, through conversation (“Monica, you’re a writer! Read to me what you wrote.”), will support her sense of herself as a writer. The key suggestion for mediation at this developmental moment is to encourage her to keep writing and sharing her stories without worry about accurate letter formation.

Cameron: A kindergarten scientist documents his thinking The children in Cameron’s classroom were involved in a study about the five senses, and on this particular day they examined the question “Why do scientists need to use their senses?” In conjunction with their active manipulation of various materials, including

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Cameron’s science notebook

magnifying glasses, and their interactive conversation with classmates, the children accomplish the work of scientists by making a scientific claim. Cameron writes in his notebook, “It is upotin to fell becuse woduf sumfen hrt.” [“It is important to feel because what if something hurt.”]

What does Cameron already know about written language? Cameron knows many of the conventions that scientists use when writing down their observations. He dates the page and uses multimodal references (i.e., sequential illustrations and words) to illustrate what he observes. His illustration shows the action he took during his investigation—a drawing of himself holding a magnifying glass up to his eye—which clearly shows his developing identity as a scientist who uses a magnifying glass to investigate the world. He uses the “It is” statement to make his claim. The sentence shows his developing understanding of sentence structure, including the use of punctuation in the form of a period to end the sentence. Cameron’s writing demonstrates that in the context of science inquiry he expresses important knowledge about how language and literacy work, and he reminds us of Whitin’s statement that “curiosity, sense-making, and social purposes are the ties that bind literacy growth” (2007, 30). What inventions are evident in Cameron’s writing and drawing? This developmental moment is a delightful documentation of Cameron’s growing understanding of the graphophonic cueing system—in other words, the relationship between how language sounds and how written language symbols look (Goodman & Goodman Young Children


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2011). A careful look at his invented spellings shows that Cameron selects letters according to the way he hears and pronounces the words he wants to represent (e.g., important as upotin; what if as woduf; something as sumfen). It might appear that his illustration and words are not connected, but as Cameron explains, “I had to investigate like a scientist to know what’s important!” What are good ways to support Cameron’s continued development? Cameron demonstrates learning in action, which Norton-Meier and colleagues (2008) describe as a complex relationship among activities, communication, and the immediate social context. In this particular developmental moment, Cameron’s teacher asks him to join the discussion circle and share his thinking. The other kindergartners ask Cameron to explain how he set up his experiment and what he means by the words feel and hurt. By “going public” with his writing, Cameron is able to see that his words create an important memory of how he conducted his experiment and his developing thinking about this science topic so that he can return to his thinking in the future. Cameron’s teacher’s invitation to engage in thinking and behaving like scientists, who regularly present their work to peers for the purposes of developing an argument that explains their science knowledge, serves as a mediator that extends Cameron’s identity as a science writer and language user.

Johan: A second-grade dual language learner’s early writing in English Johan is a second-grader and recent immigrant from Colombia. He is a student in an English language learners’ classroom for part of his day, and he continues to use Spanish as his home language. Johan’s teacher invites him to write a “where I’m from” poem to express his identities (see Lyon [1999] for further direction). Johan’s family has moved to the United States in search of safety and education, and lives in a trailer court community of predominately Latino families. Johan writes, “I am from fishing, I am from playing baseball, I am from playing tag, I am from Colombia.” Johan’s drawings accompany his poem.

What does Johan already know about written language? Owocki and Goodman (2002) say kidwatching should be a discovery of what students know, who they are, and how they construct and express knowledge. Writing and identity go hand in hand, and Johan’s writing reveals who he is—a fisherman with his father, who knows a great deal about fish species, bait, and fishing equipment; a child who loves the games of baseball and tag; and a proud citizen of Colombia, with all the identity that accompanies his nationality. Regardless of the approximations in 82

Johan’s poem and drawings

Johan’s English spelling, his writing conveys a powerful, understandable, and meaning-rich message. What approximations are evident in Johan’s poem? Johan realizes he is writing for an English-speaking audience at school, so he chooses to convey his meaning in English. He draws on his knowledge of written English and Spanish, however, to invent spellings, and his letter choices make a lot of sense. For example, he represents the nasal /m/ in am with an n and the /a/ in baseball with an e, the vowel that is pronounced as /a/ in Spanish. Johan’s English spelling is approximating convention, as is his use of capitalization. What would best support Johan’s continued development? Given that “all learning pivots on who we think we are, and who we see ourselves as capable of becoming” (Smith 1998, 11), Johan’s teacher first considers Johan’s identity in and out of school as she plans for him instructionally. She wants Johan to improve his written language development in English, but not at the expense of his willingness to take a risk as a writer. Nor does she want him to think that his English development is more valuable than his Spanish. When Johan’s teacher perceptively studies his poem for direction for her teaching, she shifts from her previous plan to teach a vocabulary lesson related to a recently read book to a plan that accommodates the content that Johan knows and cares about. She brings fishing magazines and baseball cards into the classroom and invites Johan to bring his cherished tackle box to share with his classmates. These instructional decisions validate Johan’s funds of knowledge and expertise and provide the mediation he needs to connect new English vocabulary to his existing concept knowledge and identities. Young Children


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Instructional decision making based on developmental moments

References

Literacy development, like development across domains, is fluid and dynamic. It occurs as a complex continuum of individual shifts and changes along varied paths, according to personal experiences. Although literacy development is ongoing, developmental moments provide teachers opportunities to figuratively push the pause button and think about an individual child’s knowledge and growth to make appropriate decisions about instruction. Rather than basing instruction on a mountain of abstract standardized screening outcomes or determining teaching plans solely on a set of standards or guidelines that have no connection to a particular classroom or child, the developmental moments framework identifies teaching directions that matter in the real learning life of each specific child. Teachers and caregivers might choose from several instructional approaches to support the children whose developmental moments we shared in this article. Some might take the pen away from Jillian until she is old enough to hold it conventionally. Others might insist that Cameron copy his science writing with correct spelling before presenting it to his peers. But these actions would focus on the writing approximations the children demonstrate as deficits—as indicators of what they don’t yet know. The developmental moments framework highlights children’s approximations as indicators of their development—ever changing, always evolving, and continuing to grow.

Clay, M.M. 1975. What Did I Write? Beginning Writing Behavior. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Conclusion

Whitmore, K.F., P. Martens, Y.M. Goodman, & G. Owocki. 2004. “Critical Lessons From the Transactional Perspective on Early Literacy Research.” Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 4 (3): 291–325.

Using the developmental moments process helps teachers think deeply about a child’s development, learning, and background. In addition to shaping instructional approaches to fit individual children, it highlights the positive aspects of culture, community, and family that all children bring to school. As a result, families are thrilled to see that teachers know who their children are, what they know, and what they need to know. A child’s file of developmental moments along with teacher analyses, even if jotted on sticky notes, demonstrates to family members that their child is valued and known. A developmental moments discussion between teacher and family helps the family see their child’s strengths and opens the door for important questions and conversation. The developmental moments framework helps teachers see learners differently, so they can say, “This is what I know and here is why.”

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Dewey, J. 1938. Experience and Education. New York: Collier MacMillan. Ferreiro, E., & A. Teberosky. 1982. Literacy Before Schooling. New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. González, N., L.C. Moll, & C. Amanti, eds. 2005. Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Goodman, K.S., & Y.M. Goodman. 2011. “Learning to Read: A Comprehensive Model.” Chap. 2 in Reclaiming Reading: Teachers, Students, and Researchers Regaining Spaces for Thinking and Action, eds. R.J. Meyer & K.F. Whitmore, 19–41. New York: Taylor and Francis. Lyon, G.E. 1999. Where I’m From: Where Poems Come From. Spring, TX: Absey & Co. Norton-Meier, L., B. Hand, L. Hockenberry, & K. Wise. 2008. Questions, Claims, and Evidence: The Important Place of Argument in Children’s Science Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Owocki, G., & Y. Goodman. 2002. Kidwatching: Documenting Children’s Literacy Development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Rosenblatt, L.M. 1976. Literature as Exploration. New York: Modern Language Association. Smith, F. 1998. The Book of Learning and Forgetting. New York: Teachers College Press. Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Ed. and trans. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Whitin, P. 2007. “The Ties That Bind: Emergent Literacy and Scientific Inquiry.” Language Arts 85 (1): 20–30.

Wohlwend, K.E. 2011. Playing Their Way Into Literacies: Reading, Writing, and Belonging in the Early Childhood Classroom. Language and Literacy series. New York: Teachers College Press.

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