2nd Edition
Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8
Foreword
Adria Klein
Chapter 1: Introduction to Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8
Noella M. Mackenzie and Janet Scull
Chapter 2: Drawing and writing: Journeys, transitions, and milestones
Noella M. Mackenzie
Chapter 3: Discovering writing birth–2 years
Anne Keary and Laura McFarland
Chapter 4: Writing in the preschool years
Bridie Raban
Chapter 5: Developing authorial skills: Child language leading to text construction, sentence construction, and vocabulary development
Janet Scull and Noella M. Mackenzie
Chapter 6: Developing spelling skills
Tessa Daffern
Chapter 7: Handwriting, keyboarding, or both?
Noella M. Mackenzie and Rebecca Spokes
Chapter 8: Assessing writing: Practices to support young writers
Janet Scull
Chapter 9: Teaching writing
Marian Nicolazzo and Noella M. Mackenzie
Chapter 10: Draw, Talk, Write, and Share (DTWS)
Noella M. Mackenzie
Chapter 11: Young children creating multimodal stories in their home, school, and digital spaces
Lisa Kervin and Jessica Mantei
Chapter 12: Supporting plurilingualism in young writers
Paul Molyneux
Chapter 13: When learning to write isn’t easy
Natalie Thompson and Janet Scull
Biography
Noella M. Mackenzie is an Associate Professor (adjunct) at Charles Sturt University, Australia. She is an experienced literacy educator and researcher. Noella’s research, which is largely focused on the learning and teaching of writing, is informed by her ongoing work with classroom teachers and early childhood educators.
Janet Scull is an Associate Professor at Monash University, Australia. She is an experienced tertiary literacy educator with a rich background in practitioner research. Janet’s research explores language and literacy acquisition processes and practices that support the continuity of children’s learning across early childhood settings and the early years of schooling.
"The second edition of Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8 is a truly important contribution to our understanding of writing in early childhood. The chapter authors couple research-based insights about what young children are learning about writing with innovative ideas for supporting young children’s joyful participation as writers."
Deborah Wells-Rowe, Carolyn M. Evertson Professor in Teacher Education, Vanderbilt University, USA
"This book is a must-read for anyone interested in teaching writing. Grounded in deep and informed understanding of what it means to become a writer, this book situates writing within the context of diverse communities and diverse writing modes, and explores writing development from birth through to middle primary school."
Debra Myhill, Professor Emerita of Language and Literacy Education, University of Exeter, UK
"Specialists in early years literacy education bring extensive and varied knowledge and experience to the wide-ranging chapters in this new edition, successfully melding research and practice. The resource is both scholarly and accessible; it contains valuable insights for practitioners and others supporting the development in young writers of this most complex act."
Judy Parr, Professor Emerita, University of Auckland, New Zealand
"Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8 provides us with a comprehensive account of how to best foster children’s written expression, accompanied by sage advice to guide our efforts in doing so. I cannot recommend it too highly!"
Peter Afflerbach, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, USA
