2nd Edition
Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8
Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8 provides practitioners with the knowledge and skills they need to support young children as they learn to write. This fully updated second edition offers new guidance on all aspects of writing, from building children’s vocabulary and creating multimodal texts to providing support for children who find writing particularly challenging. All chapters have been revised and updated with increased emphasis on engaging with families and catering for children from diverse communities. A new chapter focuses on the Draw, Talk, Write, Share (DTWS), pedagogical approach to teaching writing.
The book discusses the role of oral language in early mark-making and writing in detail and explores the key relationships between ‘drawing and talking’, ‘drawing and writing’ and ‘drawing, talking and writing’. Each chapter also features practical strategies and samples of writing and/or drawing to illustrate key points, as well as reflective questions to help the reader apply the ideas to their own setting. Further topics covered include:
- progressions in children’s writing
- writing in the pre-school years
- developing authorial skills
- developing phonological awareness, phonics and spelling
- handwriting and keyboarding skills
- teaching writing to plurilingual learners
- assessing writing
Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8 is a contemporary and unique resource that will help early childhood educators, early years school teachers, specialist practitioners working with very young children, and students enrolled in Early Childhood or Primary Studies courses to boost their confidence in teaching young learners as they become writers.
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 to 2
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 Spokes
Chapter 8: Assessing writing: practices to support young writers
Janet Scull
Chapter 9: Teaching writing strategies
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, Australia
‘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
