Phonemic Awareness and Emergent Writing
One of the big literacy focuses in the preschool class is phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the understanding of sounds in words. This includes being able to identify beginning, middle and ending sounds, rhyming, and segmenting words for example c-a-t. As the children become more familiar with the sounds in words, their writing skills will begin to develop. Emergent writing progresses along a developmental continuum. The stages a young child moves through begins with random marks and ends with conventional spelling (Examples of the different stages of writing above). You will see your child bringing home writing that they have been working on in class. During our writing time together, we encourage the children to say words slowly and write whatever sounds they hear. If they hear only one sound, that is perfectly fine. They may hear two or three sounds and that is great too! Just keep in mind that at this stage it is very important to praise whatever efforts they make so that the child can feel successful and feel excited about becoming a writer! We never correct their spelling because developmentally the children aren’t ready for conventional spelling. This will come in time, don’t worry! The main thing is that the children are practicing sounding out words and doing their best.
Let your child see you reading and writing! Write your grocery list in front of your child and have him/her help you by sounding out the items on the list. Give your child lots of opportunities to write and draw. When your child asks you how to spell something ask them to help you figure it out and sound it out together.
Make sure to offer lots of praise and encouragement as your child begins to show interest in phonemic awareness. Always make it a pleasurable experience for your blooming reader/writer!
Writing in Preschool
Emergent writers are children whose writing ranges from random scribbling to letter strings. They communicate mainly through drawings, and cannot read their writing the following day. These writers need instruction in:
- Message principle - what we say can be written down
- Print principles - spacing, directionality, text wrapping
- Letter formation
- Letter/sound relationships
Stage 1
Children draw randomly and may or may not be able to tell about their drawings. To take them to the next stage, these children need:
- Lots of exposure to print
- Tracking and text wrapping modeled with large text
- Opportunities to explore with writing tools
Stage 2
Children begin to notice symbols and to make mock letters. In the beginning of this stage, the young writer still may not have a message, but later begins to attach a message to the print. To take them to the next stage, these children need:
- To learn to write their names
- To learn to write the word "I"
- To learn that what we say is made of words that are separated by spaces.
Stage 3
Children write letter strings using familiar letters, usually from their own names. To take them to the next stage, these children need:
- To know a few sight words
- To learn some letter/sound relationships based on their names or names of friends
Developing writers are young writers who have broken the sound/symbol code. They are beginning to decode their own writing and read it the following day.
Stage 4
Children write using initial sounds. These children need:
- Coaching for spacing
- Additional sight words
Stage 5
Children are beginning to hear and use ending sounds. These children need:
- Practice in sound stretching to hear medial sounds
- Begin with long vowel first
- Continue adding sight words
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