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W riting development: A longitudinal study of m ultiple continua of conceptual understandings w ith in the w riting process as displayed by first-grade w riters

Eitelgeorge, Janice Witchey, Ph.D.

The Ohio State University, 1994

U M I300 N. Zeeb RA Ann Arbor, MI 48106

WRITING DEVELOPMENT: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF MULTIPLE

CONTINUUA OF CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDINGS WITHIN THE WRITING

PROCESS AS DISPLAYED BY FIRST GRADE WRITERS

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the

Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By

Janice Witchey Eitelgeorge, B.M.Ed., M.A.

* * * * *

The Ohio State University

1994

Dissertation Committee:

Dr. Barbara Lehman

Dr. Robert J. Tierney

Dr. Robert Donmoyer

Dr. Becky M. Kirschner

Approved by:

College of Education

4 . - TCollege of Education

Copyright by

Janice Witchey Eitelgeorge

1994

To My Family, John, Leslie, and Derrick

n

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank my committee members for their confidence in my abilities and

encouragement Their expertise and wisdom guided me through the difficult task of a

longitudinal study as a PhD. candidate. They were an ever present strength in my times of

need.

Gratitude also goes to Antonia Gale Moss for her computer expertise in formatting.

I especially wish to acknowledge my husband, John, and children, Leslie and

Derrick, for their love and support despite the hardships imposed upon them by my

commitment to this study. A special thanks to my mother who came to my rescue to drive

children to appointments and to take them to dinner.

Finally, a praise and thanks for all the prayers that were offered in my behalf by

friends and relatives throughout this project.

m

VTTA

October 9 ,1944............................. Bom, Dallas, Texas

Summer......................................... Headstart Teacher1966 Mansfield, OH

1966-73......................................... Elementary Vocal MusicTeacher, Grades K-8Madison & Ontario Schools, Mansfield, OH

1968-73......................................... High School Choral DirectorOntario High School, Mansfield, OH

1985-8 6......................................... Graduate Teaching AssistantEarly & Middle CMdhood EdThe Ohio State University, Mansfield, OH

1986-8 7......................................... Coordinator, MatsushitaLiteracy Research GrantThe Oluo State University, Mansfield, OH

1986-91......................................... Coordinator, Preservice Teacher Internship,Academic Challenge Development Grant The Ohio State University, Mansfield, OH

1991-9 2 ......................................... Graduate Teaching Assistant, ReadingThe Ohio State University Psycho-Educational Clinic

1992-9 3......................................... Instructor, ED; T&P467Intro to Children's LiteratureThe Ohio State University, Newark, OH

1993............................................... Instructor, ED: 480Reading I^acticumOtterbein College, Westerville, OH

IV

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field of Study Education

Studies in Children's Literature Professor Barbara Lehman

Studies in Reading and Research Methods Professor Robert J. Tierney

Studies in Qualitative Research Professor Robert Donmoyer

Studies in Emergent Literacy Professor Becky M. Kirschner

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION................................................................................................................... ü

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................... iü

VITA.................................................................................................................................. iv

FIELDS OF STUDY................................................................................................. v

UST OF TABLES............................................................................................................ ix

LISTOFHGURES......................................................................................................... xi

CHAPTER I ..................................................................................................................... 1INTRODUCTION

Emergent Literacy Learning.................................................................................. 2Writing Development........................................................................................... 3Peer and Adult Interaction Within the Develomental Process............................... 4Developmental Patterns in Emergent Writing....................................................... 5Need for Research......................................................................................... 6Purpose of the Inquiry.......................................................................................... 8Overview of the Chapters..................................................................................... 10

CHAPTER I I .................................................................................................................... 11REVIEW OF THE UTERATURE

Introduction.......................................................................................................... 11Child Development.............................................................................................. 12Social Interaction and Collaboration..................................................................... 20The Contribution of Children's Literature to Early Literacy........................... 23Oral Language Acquistion..................................................................................... 30Emergent Literacy................................................................................................. 36Conceptual Understandings Within the Writing Process..................................... 38Text....................................................................................................................... 46Summary.............................................................................................................. 57

CHAPTER III ........................................................................................................... 58METHODOLOGY

A Priori Theory Based on Earlier Pilot Studies.................................................... 63Pilot Study I (1985-86)............................................................................. 63Pilot Study II (1989)................................................................................. 66

vi

Pilot study III (1991)................................................................................ 67Research Site.................................................................................................... 68

Access to the Site...................................................................................... 68Administration.............................................................................. 68Co-investigators............................................................................ 69School Population......................................................................... 70Classroom Participants and Case Study Participants................ 70

Data Sources......................................................................................................... 73Introduction............................................................................................... 73Time Frame............................................................................................... 75Participant Observation............................................................................. 76Field Notes................................................................................................ 77Forums..................................................................................................... 77Case Studies............................................................................................. 78Documents................................................................................................ 80Audio Tapes......................................................................................... 81

Ethical Principles................................................................................................... 82Analysis of Data.................................................................................................... 83Trustworthiness of Data........................................................................................ 94

Triangulation............................................................................................. 94Validity..................................................................................................... 95

Summary............................................................................................................... 97

CHAPTER IV ............................................................................................................ 98ANALYSIS AT MACRO LEVEL- THE CLASSROOM CONTEXT

A Teacher's Approach to Literacy......................................................................... 98The Physical Setting of the Classroom.................................................................. 105The Daily Classroom Schedule.............................................................................. 109Climate of the Writing Workshop................ 124Children's Behavioral Problems Can Effect the Classroom Culture..................... 128Literacy Growth and Development of the Class Collective............................. 130Summary................................................................................................................140

CHAPTER V ......................................................................................................................141ANALYSIS AT THE MICRO LEVEL: THREE CASE STUDIES

Introduction............................................................................................................141Jeffrey.................................................................................................................... 145

Autumn Quarter.................................................................................... 145Autumn Quarter (Qualitative Analysis Along................................. 164the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understantings

Winter Quarter............................................................................................173Winter (Quarter Qualitative Analysis Along.................................... 192the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understantings

Spring Quarter........................................................................................... 201Spring (Quarter Qualitative Analysis Along....................................214the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understantings

Ashley...................................................... 223Autumn Quarter....................................................................................223

Autumn Quarter (Qualitative Analysis Along.................................248the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understantings

Winter Quarter........................................................................................... 256vii

Winter Quarter Qualitative Analysis Along....................................276the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understantings

Spring Quarter...........................................................................................283Spring Quarter Qualitative Analysis Along....................................300the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understantings

M ichelle............................................................................................................... 309Autumn Quarter................................................................................... 309

Autumn Quarter Qualitative Analysis Along.................................342the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understantings

Winter Quarter...........................................................................................350Winter Quarter Qualitative Analysis Along....................................371the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understantings

Spring Q u a ^ r ...........................................................................................377Spring Quarter Qualitative Analysis Along....................................400the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understantings

CHAPTER V I................................................................................................................... 408SIGNIGICANT HNDINGS

Introduction........................................................................................................... 408Research Questions...............................................................................................409

Patterns......................................................................................................410Hierarchical...................................................................................410Recursive.......................................................................................412Static............................................................................................. 413Individualistic................................................................................416

Multiple Continua of Development............................................................417Alphabetic Principle...................................................................... 419Word Knowledge through Invented Spelling............................... 421Concept of Word or Voice to Print Match.....................................422Fluency through Rereading of Texts in the ComposingProcess......................................................................................... 423Awareness of Conventions: Conventions of Books,Mechanics, and Storybook Language.....................................425Collaboration in the Process: Assistance and Interactionwith Adults and Peers............................................................426Sense of Story and Textual Development.....................................428

Varied Concepts Are Reflected in the Process and Texts..........................432Collaboration and Interaction................................................................................436Summary............................................................................................................... 436

CHAPTER V II..................................................................................................................438IMPUCATIONS OF THE STUDY

A Summary of the Intent of the Study.................................................................. 438Overview of the Implications................................................................................441

Implications for Writing Development and Related PedagogicalIssues........................................................................................................ 441Implications for General Pedagogy.......................................................... 446Implications for Collaborative Action Research....................................... 447

Some Boundaries of the Study.............................................................................448Questions for Further Research....................................................................449Summary................... 450

viii

BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................... 452

IX

UST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

1. Multiple Continua of Conceptual Undestandings in Writing Development 87

2 . Classroom Schedule 110

3. Teacher Descriptors of Reading Development 131

4. Teacher Descriptors of Writing Development 132

5. Reading, Writing, and Spelling Rankings for Autumn Quarter 1991 137

6 . Reading, Writing, and Spelling Rankings for Winter Quarter 1992 138

7. Reading, Writing, and Spelling Rankings for Spring Quarter 1992 139

8. Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write 165

9. Word Knowledge Through Invented Spelling Development 166

10. Concept of Word or Voice-to-Print Match 167

11. Fluency Through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process 168

12. Awareness of Conventions of Print 169

13. Collaboration in the Process (from Adult to Peer) 170

14. Sense of Story and Textual Development 171

15. Autumn Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts (Content, Length, and Number of Words)

172




19. Fluency Through Rereading of Text in the Composing ProcessX

196




23. Winter Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts(Content, Length, and Number of Words) 201



26. Concept of Word or Voice-to-Piint Match 217




3 0. Sense of Story and Textual Development 221

31. Spring Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts(Content, Length, and Number of Words) 222

3 2. Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write 248







39. Autumn Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts(Content, Length, and Number of Words) 255




43. Fluency Through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process 279xi




47. Winter Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts (Content, Length, and Number of Words) 282








55. Spring Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts (Content, Length, and Number of Words) 308








63. Autumn Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts (Content, Length, and Number of Words) 349




67. Fluency Through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process 374Xll




71. Winter Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts(Content, Length, and Number of Words) 377




75 Fluency Through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process 403

76 Awareness of Conventions of Print 403



79. Spring Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts(Content, Length, and Number of Words) 407

xiu

LISTOFHGURES

HGURE PAGE

1. Classroom Diagram 106

2. Sample of Anecdotal Notes 118

3. Reading Record Analysis 123

4. Sample Teacher's Ranking Chart 124

5. Jeffrey's Drawing of Submarine 146

6. Jeffrey's Drawing for First Dictated Book / Fish 148

7. Jeffrey's Text for First Dictated Book I Fish 149

8. Jeffrey's Helicopter Battle Picture 150

9. Jeffrey's Text for Adult Assisted Story Helicopter 151

10. Jeffrey's Text for This is Bad Pumpkin Story 152

11. Jeffrey's Bad Pumpkin Picture 153

12. Jeffrey's Burning House Picture 155

13. Jeffrey's Text for Brown Bear, Brown Bear Story 157

14. Jeffrey's Text for Friend Story 159

15. Jeffrey's Text for Guinea Pig Story 160

16. Jeffrey's Pepper Picture 162

17. Jeffrey's Text for Ho, Ho, Ho Story 163

18. Jeffrey's Text for Football Story 177

19. Jeffrey's Playhouse Picture 180

20. Jeffrey's Text for Rabbit Foo Foo Story 183

21. Jeffrey's Second Text for Rabbit Foo Foo Story 184

XIV

22. Jeffrey's Text for Playhouse Story 187

23. Jeffrey's Rainbow Picture 189

24. Jeffrey's Text for Rainbow Story 190

25. Jeffrey's Text for The Karate Story 202

26. Jeffrey's Troll Picture 203

27. Jeffrey's Text for Trolls Story 204

28. Jeffrey's Text for The Turtles Story 205

29. Jeffrey's Text for The Three Trolls Story 206

30. Jeffrey's Text for At Work Story 207

31. Jeffrey's Text for Easter Eggs Story 208

32. Jeffrey's Text ior Baseball Story 209

33. Jeffrey's Plane Picture 210

34. Jeffrey's Text for The Plane Story 211

35. Jeffrey's The Haunted House Story 212

36. Jeffrey's Haunted House Picture 213

37. Ashley's Text for Colors Story 223

38. Ashley's Colors Picture 225

39. Ashley's I Used Be A Baby Pictures 227

40. Ashley's Text for I Used Be A Baby Story 228

41. Ashley's Text for The Wolf Book 228

42. Ashley's Text for TftePw/npfo'/z Book 230

43. Ashley's Text for I like Water Balloons Story 230

44. Ashley's Text for The Pumpkin Book 232

45. Ashley's Text ïoxThe Ashley Book 234

46. AsYley'sCupcake Story 237

47. Ashley's Text for Clifford's Halloween 238

48. Ashley's Text for The Baby Book 240

XV

49. Ashley's Text for The Shannon Book 244

50. Ashley's Text for Frere Jacques 245

51. Ashley's Text for 7%e 5/iovvy A/ 246

52. Ashley's Text fo ri Like My Cat Story 258

53. Ashley's Text for Vafe/ift'ne'j Story 260

54. Ashley's Text for Tom and Jerry Story 262

55. Ashley's Tom and Jerry Picture 264



58. Ashley's Picture 266

59. Ashley's Text for Sam's Teddy Bear Story 269

60. Ashley's Mermaid Picture 270

61. Ashley's Mermaid and Fish Picture 271

62. Ashley's Text for The Day I Went to the Dentist Story 272

63. Ashley's Text for Wizard o f Oz Story 273

64. Ashley's Text for Clifford's First Exister Story 275

65. Ashley's Text for Today is 5/. PatricA'j Day Story 284

66. Ashley's Text for The Big Egg Story 287

67. Ashley's Text for Squib Story 288

68. Ashley's Text for My Valentine Story 289

69. Ashley's Valentine Pictures 290

70. Ashley's Text for My Dog Story 291

71. Ashley's Text for The Big Egg Story 292

72. Ashley's Text for Squib and Jenny Au Story 294

73. Ashley's Squib and Jenny Picture 295

74. Ashley's Squib and Jeimy Picture 296

75. Ashley's Text for My Kitten Story 298

XVI

76. Ashley's Text for Squib Goes to the Airport with Jenny Story 299

77. Michelle's Fish Picture 310

78. Michelle's Fish and Turtle Picture 310

79. Michelle's Text for The Cat and Dog Story 311

80. Michelle's Cat and Dog Picture 312

81. Michelle's Dog Picture 313

82. Michelle's Knight Picture 318

83. Michelle's Knight and Dragon Picture 319

84. Michelle's Text fox Knight and Dragon Story 320

85. Michelle's Friend Picture 321

86. Michelle's Text for The Happy Knight and the Happy Dragon Story 324

87. Michelle's Text for Scary Halloween Story 325

88. Michelle's Max Costume Picture 326

89. Michelle's Costume Picture 328

90. Michelle's Text for Dinosaur Bones Story 329

91. Michelle's Dinosaur Bone Display Picture 330

92. Michelle's Natural History Museum Picture 331

93. Michelle's Text for Thanksgiving Day Story 332

94. Michelle's Spot's First Christmas Picture 335

95. Michelle's Text for Spot's First Christinas Story 335

96. Michelle's Text for Santa and His Reindeer Story 337

97. Michelle's Santa Picture 338

98. Michelle's Text for All Different Colors o f Christmas Trees Story 340

99. Michelle's Owl Picture 352

100. Michelle's Text for Squib's Valentine Story 353

101. Michelle's Text for The Tiger's Adventure 356

102. Michelle's Tiger Picture 357

xvu

103. Michelle's Text for Nancy is a Flamingo Story 358

104. Michelle's Hamingo Picture 360

105. Michelle's Fainting Monkey Picture 362

106. Michelle's Text for The Feather Story 363

107. Michelle's Text for Mystery Mouse's Valentines Story 364

108. Michelle's Mystery Mouse Picture 366

109. Michelle's Text for The Chapter Book 368

110. Michelle's Text for Goes to r/ie Pork Story 369

111. Michelle's Giant Picture 379

112. Michelle's Text for Candy Mountain Story 380

113. Michelle's Text for Story 383

114. Michelle's Text for Aferwoids Story 385

115. Michelle's Mermaid Picture 386

116. Michelle's Text for PMWitoJ Story 387

117. Michelle's Bunnies Picture 389

118. Michelle's Text for W olfs Chicken Stew Story 391

119. Michelle's Text for The One Famous Bear Story 396

120. Michelle's Text for TTtoMfl ic Cat Story 399

xviu

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Literacy is the inextricable union of writing to reading. The dialogic relationship is

inseparable. As a literate adult writes, he/she reads the text while composing, frequently

rereads the text over and over to link thought to thought, and then rereads again for revising

purposes. The reading-writing relationship is a continuous reciprocity. Even for the

young child, the picture and scrawls and scribbles accompanying the illustrations are

recognizable and readable to him or her as written language. The early forms of

symbolizing whether drawings or letter-like scribbles are discrete and purposeful texts.

Through the artwork and markings representing written language, the child shares his/her

personal experience and world knowledge (Langer, 1986; Strickland, 1991).

Accompanying these purposeful beginnings of literacy is the cognitive processing of

emerging conceptual understandings which lay the foimdation for literacy.

Sulzby (1991) in her review of literature regarding literacy development notes that

there is a "dearth of information about the reading and writing of young children from birth

through kindergarten age" (p. 273). Thus emergent literacy has arisen as a solid area of

investigation. However, few studies have focused on the shift from emergent literacy to

conventional patterns of reading and writing. Research that attends to the grapplings of the

young writer as he tries to understand and internalize the multiple and varied concepts

involved in composing a text are needed. Teachers who have an understanding of this

process could better assist children in their literacy journey.

Emergent Literacy Learning

The developmental process of language learning and emergent literacy has been

well documented in the last fifteen years. This research has built upon earlier language

studies particularly fiom two primary areas of inquiry.

The first area of inquiry focused on young children's natural acquisition of oral

language (Brown & Bellugi, 1964; Britton, 1970; Halliday, 1973). Continuing research

based on seminal studies began to compare the cognitive processing involved with oracy to

that of literacy (Applebee, 1979; Au & Jordan, 1981; Heath, 1983; Michaels, 1986; Harste,

Woodward, & Burke, 1984). Also, the relevant home environments with naturally

occurring, real-life experiences which supported oral language acquisition Heath, 1983;

Taylor, 1983; Wells, 1986) have been studied and inq}lications drawn to suggest the

offering of a similar climate for classrooms to enhance literacy development

The second area of inquiry which has contributed to studies of emergent literacy is

that of children who read at an early age. These studies carefully documented the

contribution of the literate family environments (Durkin, 1966; Chomsky, 1972). The

researchers found that the parents of these children took them to the library, fiequently read

quality children's literature to them, encouraged pretend reading (memorization) and

approximations of their favorite books, and interacted with them to predict and discuss the

action in the the texts (Chomsky, 1972; Holdaway, 1979; Heath, 1983; Taylor, 1983;

Sulzby & Teale, 1987; Strickland & Taylor, 1989). Many of these children came to school

already reading books.

This body of research noting the naturally occurring acquisition of oral language

and literacy in the home has purred researchers to study primary classrooms using

children's literature and responses to these texts, rather than the hierarchical skill-based

approach of a basal reading program (McKenzie, 1986; Harste, Woodward, & Burke,

1984; Glazer, 1989; Bridge, Winograd, & Haley, 1983).

Writing Development

Many naturalistic studies observed and traced children's writing development from

their initial scribbles to their beginning understandings of orthography through invented

spelling. These studies have discerned various patterns of progression dependent upon the

focus of their inquiry.

Some researchers have perceived the progression of writing development through a

more linear lens due to tiieir focus on specific patterns of writing, such as applying

Piagetian principles of development ro relationships between language and literacy

acquisition (Ferreiro & Teberosky, 1982; Goodman, 1984; Kamberelis & Sulzby, 1988).

Others have observed and noted the linear progression of development detected

through stages of invented spelling (Read, 1975; Ghlet & Ternple, 1982; Henderson,

1990), and some have noted the development of a sense of story (Applebee, 1976), while

other researchers have noted through dictations and early writing the use of cohesion (King

& Rentel, 1981). Yet, others, such as, Qay (1979) have examined underlying principles

of linearity and recurrence rather than focusing only on the forms of writing to indicate

development

Within each of these areas of study, patterns of writing development have emerged.

However, Dyson (1991) believes that each learner comes to writing with clumps of

knowledge which caimot be neatly and sequentially ordered if one views the child as a

whole. She states that writing involves a "complex of interconnecting systems" which

should encourage researchers to broaden their scrutiny to encompass all the above aspects

of writing and to include the context of the situation to incorporate social interaction.

other researchers concur with her stance (Temple, Nathan, & Burris, 1982;

Graves, 1983; Harste, Woodward, & Burke, 1984; Newkirk, 1989) and view writing

through a more holistic lens to ascertain the evolution of writing through broader patterns

of cognitive, linguistic, and social development Some researchers also have studied the

relationships between the reading and writing process (Tierney & Pearson, 1983;

Shanahan, 1988; Shanahan & Lomax, 1988). Others, viewing literacy in relation to the

context have included descriptions of social interactif and how it contributes to the writing

processes (Graves, 1983; Calkins, 1986; Dyson, 1989; Harste, Woodward, & Burke,

1984).

Peer and Adult Interaction Within the Developmental Process

Incorporated into the holistic view of the writing process is social interaction with

adults and peers. Entrenched in a Piagetian perspective, the early research tended to

describe writing development as related to Piaget's view of a naturally unfolding process.

The assumption was that a rich literate environment of good children's literature, relevant

and excellent models of writing, and many opportunities for writing, would permit the

natural development of writing skills.

However, the trend in current studies has been to broaden this perspective to

consider the Vygotskian notions regarding teacher-student interactions in language

development. Vygotsky (1978) noted that the "zones of proximal development" are those

states of development wherein a learner can conq>lete more difficult tasks with the

assistance of an adult or more capable peer. At first the child is supported in the task, and

then gradually he/she takes full control. This theory of shared and supported experience

"allows the child to construct some inner generating system, which will initiate and manage

learning of this kind independently on future occasions" (Clay, 1991, p. 42). Thus

another inqportant aspect of writing development has emerged regarding the assistance a

teacher, adult, or more capable peer can oKo in the learning process.

Developmental Patterns in Emergent Writing

Theoreticians have offered descriptions, charts, and children's writing samples to

document the evolution or development of writing. The following is a composite chart

adapted from the studies of DeFord (1980), King and Rentel (1980), and Sulzby, Teale,

and Kamberelis (1989) which offers a general age span (DeFord, 1980) to frame

descriptive patterns and forms of early writing:

. 0 - 2 yrs. — Scribbles, gradually differentiating between drawing and

writing.

. 2 - 3 yrs. — Letter-like features, diagonal marks, and curves shaped like

letters, using a left-to-right directionality.

. 3 - 4 yrs. — Conventional letters appearing in the scribbles and drawings.

Then letter-strings emerging. The text is frequently similar

to the oral "holophiase."

. 4 - 5 yrs. — Beginning letter-sound correspondence visible in isolated

words, moving into use of phonetic or invented spelling.

Children enter kindergarten at various levels of the aforementioned developmental

progression. Children from cultures that are primarily oral and which place little emphasis

on writing may have had few opportunities, modeling, or encouragement to develop their

writing skills (Heath, 1983). In contrast, other mcne mainstream children may have

progressed through most of these levels before entering school (Harste, Woodward, &

Burke, 1984).

Not only do children come to school at varying writing levels of development, but

also children can revert to earlier forms of writing dependent upon the context and the genre

of the writing task (Strickland & Feeley, 1991; Dyson, 1989; Harste, Woodward, &

Burke, 1984; Sulzby, 1991). Sulzby et al (1989) have noted firom their research that the

above outlined developmental progressions appear somewhat transient Children often

move back and forth in a recursive fashion across the forms of writing. For instance,

Sulzby, et al. (1989) found that a child composing a complicated piece of writing will

revert to lower forms of scribbling or drawing. Dyson (1989) also found that children

reverted to earlier forms when confronted with a new topic in which they couldn't draw

from their repetitive patterns of vocabulary and syntax developed through stories based on

the same theme.

Although, the children may revert to lower levels of writing, their drawings and

scribbles carry meaning. For example, frequently children can finger point along a line of

scribbles or letter strings to reread a meaningful text (Sulzby, 1991). Harste, et al. (1984)

shared that a certain child, Alison, could reread a story she had written comprised of the

reshuffled letters of her name. Her text was about her daddy coming home and taking her

to McDonald's for a Fun Meal. Even months later with only minor variations, she reread

the same version from the jumbled letters of her name.

Need for Research

The recent research of emergent literacy has offered many understanding of early

writing development However, once the alphabetic principle is in place, studies to further

the knowledge base of writing development from the shift of emergent literacy to

conventional patterns of reading and writing have been minimal. Tierney and Shanahan

(1990) found in their review of reading-writing relationships that very few studies have

pursued developmental issues beyond the age of five. They call for research in reading-

writing relationships to explore the larger picture of "either individual differences or

developmental issues" (p. 274).

Rather than predictive or retrospective designs, longitudinal studies are needed to

observe children's writing development across time. Tierney (1990) found that much of

longitudinal literacy research was cross-sectional studies comparing students at different

ages rather than studies of the same student across time. Newkirk (1987) notes that these

cross-sectional studies "could distort any developmental trends" (p. 123).

Some studies of writing development, Newkirk (1987) contends, have used a

"'deficit' model which views children's writing as deficient adult writing, as writing that

suffers from various cognitive overloads or breakdowns" (p. 142). And yet other studies,

as Tiemey (1990) found repeatedly substantiated in his review of longitudinal literacy

research, pose the "child as an active meaning maker constructing his or her own

hypothesis in the context of daily negotiations with print and others..." (p. 180). A

research model which values what children can do and describes what concepts children are

cognitively processing in their negotiations with meaiting-making in their literacy

development would further expand the body of knowledge.

Studies should address a more global and expansive view of literacy to incoiporate

the complex variables and patterns of individual development across time (Sulzby, 1991;

Calkins, 1991). Along with this need for developmental understandings, studies are

needed which describe supportive environments and the social interaction which enhances

development (Genishi & Dyson, 1984). Both of these issues would also address

pedagogical questions. Descriptive studies which illuminate the child's perspective and

take into consideration the underlying constructs would be helpful to teachers. As Clay

8

(1991) states, "education is not about putting in the outcomes, it is about knowing what

inputs, in what contexts, give rise to the desired achievement outcomes" (p. 43).

Much of writing research has focused on very narrow aspects of the process instead

of considering the complexity, recursiveness, and interrelatedness of the language and

literacy processes. Inquiry is needed which includes the effect of oral language

development and social interaction on the text, the reading and rereading while composing,

the link between the cognitive to the affective domain in revealing self or voice in texts, the

development of sense of story and cohesion in texts, as well as numerous and varied

concepts, such as, the alphabet principle and concept of word, which are involved within

the writing process.

Researchers need to broaden their vision to address the complex variables which

constitute literacy and draw connections for pedagogical rqrplications. Little is known

about the struggles in conceptual development as children cognitively and affectively

interact with the writing process.

Purpose of the Inquiry

The purpose of this research was to identify the multiple and diverse conceptual

understandings involved within the writing process, to observe the interplay among the

concepts, to note patterns of development, and to investigate how these understandings

contributed to the type of texts children composed. Also, while attending to the evolution

of literacy, the co-investigators, Robin Bacquet (first grade teacher) and I, hoped to

ascertain the types of supportive interaction, whether adult or peer, as well as the climate

which contributed to progress as children grappled with the many conceptual

understandings.

Because of the need for in-depth observation to provide detailed and descriptive

information about the development of phenomena, a qualitative fiame of reference was

used for the research.

A first grade classroom which employed a whole language approach with a daily

period of time set aside for a writing workshop was selected as the research site.

The teacher of this classroom, Robin Bacquet, used children's literature for the foundation

of her curriculum, offered many opportunities for children to respond to literature, and

valued children's individual expression. The large block of time that she daUy set aside for

writing and the aforementioned strengths of the site made possible the gathering of

abundant and rich data.

Robin became a willing collaborator and confidant who used our discussions and

analysis of data for actitm research purposes to accommodate her curricular choices to meet

the needs of individual children. Throughout this collaborative action research,

documentation was kept of our affiliation through the audio taped forums, field notes, and

reflexive journal.

Although the emergent nature of qualitative research precludes the positing of

hypotheses to be supported or refuted, the following questions guided our inquiry:

1. What patterns emerge as first-grade children progress in their writing development over the period of a school year? \ ^ a t are the varied dimensions which interact in the orchestration of writing? How are the understandings of the varied concepts and dimensions r5lected in the composing process and their texts?

2. What types of interaction are involved in the process and what kinds of collaboration or interaction support progress over time?

The results of this study are intended to support, add more depth, and challenge

existing theories regarding the ctmceptual understandings of literacy acquisition and

development as well as understandings of adult and peer support in the writing process.

10

Overview of Chapters

Chapter I has provided an overview and introduction to the inquiry. Chapter II

includes a review of pertinent literature which laid the foundation for the study, guided the

study, and upon further analysis refined and narrowed the study. Chapter III offers more

specifically the rationale and descripticm of the research methodology.

Chapter IV describes the classroom context at the macro level to frame the

microanalysis of the case studies. Chapter V provides a descriptive analysis at the micro

level for three case studies of varying levels in writing development to note conceptual

understandings within the process, types of interaction, and the progression of texts. The

findings of the inquiry are offered in Chapter VI. In closing. Chapter V n summarizes the

intent of the study, the limitations of the study, implications of the research for other

researchers and teachers, and need for further research.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Children enter first grade with great understandings and knowledge about language

and its use. They have a vocabulary of several thousand words and have internalized many

aspects of phonology and linguistic structures of language (Strickland, 1991; Cullinan,

1989).

A review of the literature for a study of first grade children's writing development

must be broad-based to approach the varied complexities which come into play. Each

child's socio-cultural heritage and acquaintance with literacy, his/her cognitive structures

developed from oral language acquisition and home and preschool literacy events, the

understandings and the orchestration of semantic, syntactic, graphophonic, and pragmatic

systems within the writing process, and the context of the learning event, including the

classroom environment as well as peer and adult interactions must be taken into account.

This review of the literature will focus first on theories of child development as

postulated by developmental psychologists and learning theorists, particularly in regard to

language and learning. Second, the impact of social interaction and collaboration on

learning in the construction of texts will be offered. Third, the role that children's literature

plays in literacy will be considered. Fourth, parallels will be drawn between oral language

acquisition and literacy development. Rfth, the recently developed field of emergent

literacy will offer insights for first grade development in writing. Sixth, the review will

11

12

move to conceptual understandings that children grapple with in their literacy progression,

such as the alphabetic principle, invented spelling, and concepts of print and word. Last,

the limited understandings of differentiating and noting development of text will be

considered.

Child Development

Piaget and Vygotsky have influenced our understandings of the development of

cognitive processing in children. Both researchers describe children as actively

constructing their learning in meaningful ways.

Piaget (1955) found that children build cognitive structures as they manipulate,

explore, experiment, invent, and discover their environment He stressed the importance

of offering a rich and stimulating environment which permits children to access areas of

interest in learning and encourages a natural unfolding of intelligence.

According to a Piagetian view, many of the children in a first grade classroom could

be categorized as preoperational in their cognitive development. In this stage, a child's

thinking is considered prelogical due to his/her inability to solve conservation and

reversibility problems. Piaget (1952) believed that the preoperational child's judgments

were based on perception, rather than logic. Therefore a young child perceives something

in a particular way, and then is unable to attend to it from a different perspective. A

preoperational child cannot entertain the idea that an element of a task can belong at the

same time to two or more categories.

Although Piaget offered a biological timetable for his stages of development for

example, preoperational, occurring from 2-7 years of age and concrete operational

thinking, occurring during the 7-11 age range, these stages were never considered fixed

13

times. "Ages indicated in this book are always average and approximate" (Piaget &

Inhelder, 1969, p. 3).

Individual differences must be considered, since there may be within a first grade

classroom some children in the preoperational stage and some children who have moved

beyond into concrete operations. By the time a child has reached the concrete operational

stage, he/she has constructed much of the schemata to solve conservation problems and can

see the correspondences between transformed states to understand reversibility. Concrete

operational children's thinking is considered more logical (Piaget, 1955), but this logic can

only be applied to concrete problems. Thus concrete operational thought is still bound to

concrete manipulations, but the child is able to decenter and perceive a task from more than

one point of view. Wood (1990) comments that teachers must be aware that children in

this phase of development, may not be able to concentrate on tasks of reading and writing if

they are not provided concrete, perceptual support.

Regarding the categorizing of children's mental operations based on the Piagetian

tasks, some researchers (Donaldson, 1978; Walkerdine & Lucey, 1989) have argued that

the Piagetian tasks can be taught using more familiar objects and language to scaffold

children's thinking to make the tasks less abstract, and that the children can successfully

solve the problems. However other, more firmly entrenched Piagetians (Ferreiro &

Teberosky, 1982; Goodman and Goodman, 1989) argue that the children have simply

memorized some portions of the tasks through repeated practice to achieve success. They

believe these empty procedures do not foster development, nor that there is transfer of the

logic to other activities in their life.

Wood (1990) stresses that while there are no definite answers at this time, but the

one task which preoperational children have not been able to solve under instruction has

been reversibility. He proposes that this task does require deeper and simply more

14

cognitive structures than most children in the preoperational ages have developed. He calls

our attention to the obvious that most 10 year olds can do more than 2 year olds because of

the development of cognitive structures acquired through many life experiences. Clay

(1991) claims that the Piagetian tasks look at what children cannot do, whereas educators

should focus on what they can do and how instruction can fertilize each individual's

potential.

Piaget and Vygotsky (1978) share a similar view of the relation between action and

thought. Children need to be active and constructive with their environment in order to

develop their understandings of the world. In Piaget's (1952) discussion of assimilation

and accommodation, he commented on the importance of the environment: "The organism

and the environment form an indissoluble entity, that is to say... there are adaptational

variations simultaneously involving a structuring of the organism and an action of the

environment, the two being inseparable from each other" (p. 16).

Vygotsky searched further in this area of study and proposed that the mutuality of

the individual and his environment occur on four embedded levels of development (1)

ontogenetic, thinking and behavior from the history of individuals; (2) phylogenetic,

species history in the form of genes; (3) socio-cultural, cultural history that leaves a legacy

in technology which the individual uses; and (4) microgenetic, the moment to moment

learning in problem contexts based on the individuals genetic and socio-cultural

background (Wertsch, 1985).

However, even though there are some commonalties in Piaget's and Vygotsky's

understandings of the individual and his environment, they differ greatly in the importance

of social interaction to facilitate cognitive growth.

15

Piaget did not consider the social context as a central tenet of his theory. However,

he did acknowledge that "social life is a necessary condition for the development of logic.

We thus believe that social life transforms the individual's very nature" (Rogoff, 1990, p.

33 translated from French, Piaget, 1928/1977, p. 239). Vygotsky (1987), on the other

hand, believed that social interaction was a key factor to individual intellectual

development Rather than simply offering a rich environment for the child to construct his

cognitive structures in a natural unfolding process, Vygotsky believed that social roots are

the tools for thinking which children use and that the social interactions are guided which

contribute to cognitive development.

For Piaget (1952), social facilitation of development is appropriate, only when a

child is in a state of readiness for change (Wood, 1990), such as in disequilibrium. In

disequilibrium, the child comes to realize that his/her conception is no longer adequate in

some sense and is internally motivated to seek equilibrium by assimilating or

accommodating the new concept. Piaget proposed three conditions where equilibrium can

be achieved through intellectual exchange: (1) if the partners have a common scale of

intellectual values to understand in the same sense; (2) if the partners can conserve their

own perspective and not contradict and if they search for agreement to justify their peints of

view; and (3) if there is reciprocity between the partners to work out differences equally

(Rogoff, 1990, p. 141 translated from French, Piaget 1928/1977, pp. 160-162).

Piaget (1969) mainly viewed individual's independent work, but he did note the

value of paer interaction . However, he qualified the levels of expertise of the individuals

in the interaction to explore cognitive conflict He believed the interactions should be

between children of equal status rather than interaction with adults who could create

unequal power relations. Adults with their supjeriority, Piaget believed, would dominate

the discussion, minimalize cooperation, and not p)ermit true reciprocity which is a necessary

16

element to lead to cognitive restructuring. Rogoff (1990) believes that some Piagetians

describe the term "cognitive conflict" in the sense of arguing, but she believes that cognitive

conflict occurs in a true Piagetian sense in intersubjectivity when two minds meet and

consider each other's ideas in a back-and-forth discussion.

Sharing an emphasis on interactions and of partners understanding one another,

Vygotsky (1978) would be in agreement with Piaget. However, the agreement on

intersubjectivity would end there. For Vygotsky, ideal partners are not equal and power

isn't a key factor but rather understanding. He believed that cognitive growth would occur

through interactions with a more capable peer or adult in children's zones o f proximal

development. These zones are the "distance between the actual developmental level as

determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as

determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more

capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86).

Vygotsky's model for social interaction to facilitate cognitive development is similar

to an apprenticeship which has been the main vehicle for cultural transmission of

knowledge through the ages. The novice (a child) deals with concepts beyond those that

he/she is independently capable of handling with the able assistance of an expert

(grandparents, parent, teacher, or more knowledgeable sibling or peer) to jointly solve

problems in his/her zone o f proximal development. Wertsch (1985) suggests that the more

knowledgeable expert problem-solves with the novice by orienting the child to the overall

goal and then focuses the child's attention and actions on steps to handle subgoals.

Rogoff (1990) stresses the mutuality of the learning and the socio-cultural activities.

She believes that children are active in their learning and active in managing their social

partners. In agreement with this notion of learners or novices controlling the involvement

of the experts. Wood (1990) argues that in noncontrived environments children initiate their

17

involvement with adults and that adults support children's learning through "leading by

following."

However, Goodman and Goodman (1989) argue that only certain kinds of teaching

support the zone of proximal development. For example, teachers or adults can have a

disruptive effect on the zone of proximal development if they act as behavioristic experts

who impart knowledge and discipline to control what and how much is learned within a

specified period of time. This fear is justifiable in that many schools still haven't moved

away from the behavioristic tendencies instituted in the classroom learning of the '50's and

'60 's.

Accompanying behavioral learning theories is the problem critically termed by

Piagetians as the "American Question — Is faster better?" Hurrying children to exhibit

superficial gains may hinder the development of deeper understandings (Rogoff, 1990;

Elkind, 1982).

Within this topic of the role of intersubjectivity in child development, another area

of difference surfaces between Vygotsky and Piaget in regard to their understandings of

language and learning. Piaget's position considered action and the mental operations that

are constructed rather than language as central to development. Wood (1990) and Clay

1991) note that Piaget's biological maturationist theory purports that language exerts no

formative effects on the structure of thinking.

Piaget believed that young children's language was egocentric, reflecting the child's

thinking, activity, and point of view based on his/her ability to decenter and consider

another perspective. In the preoperational stage, children try to assimilate an expert's point

of view into their perspective but often distort the meaning because they lack the necessary

cognitive structures to make sense of what is meant (Piaget, 1969b). Gradually the

egocentrism disappears as children interact with peers during the preoperational years. At

18

the age of seven or eight as a child moves into concrete mental operations, he/she becomes

more systematic and accurate in perceptual judgments and can decenter to view another

perspective. During the concrete operational stage of development, Piaget believed the

social aspects of language become more useful to the child for collaborative exchanges with

equal peers.

Vygotsky (1978) applauded Piaget's view, which differed from his predecessors

and contemporaries, that children do not think like adults and in his discoveries of how

they thought. However, Vygotsky, didn't view a young child's speech as egocentric, but

rather social and communicative in its origin and intent. Regarding the audible egocentric

speech which accompanies a young child in his exploratory activities, Vygotsky disputed

with Piaget its function and fate (Wertsch, 1985; Britton,1970). Vygotsky believed that

beginning speech served a regulative function. His research (Wertsch, 1985, p. 116

translated from Russian, Vygotsky, 1934) found that egocentric speech increased with

task difficulty and supported planning and regulating action. Considering the fate of

egocentric speech, Piaget believed it gradually disappeared with progressive socialization.

However, Vygotsky proposed that the speech for oneself moved from the audible plane to

become internalized as inner speech or speech for oneself.

Clay (1991) also disputes with Piaget the role language plays in cognitive

development. Commenting on oral language acquisition, she notes that young children are

using a logical system of mental operations (not prelogical, as Piaget purported) to

categorize and effectively reason in their talk. Parents assist their children in learning to

speak by helping them decide what to attend to and in problem-solving to perceive

regularities and structures in their experience (Wood, 1990). More on this topic of oral

language acquisition and its relation to literacy acquisition will follow, in a later section of

this review.

19

Wood, a learning theorist and student of Bruner combines the knowledge of the

theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. He believes that six and seven year olds don't lack logic

to do some tasks nor can they not decenter to handle other points of view, but rather they

lack relevant experience and expertise. Adults or more capable peers can augment

children's expertise through helping them solve problems and serve as external aids or

"reminders" (Wood, 1990) to move conceptual \cecmmg\o automaticity (Clay, 1991a &

1991b). However, Wood (1990) warns that children can appear inattentive, bored, or

willfully distracted if the gap between the child's current level of understanding and that of

the task is too great. Then, as Piaget found cognitive overload can occur, and in

Vygotskian terms, the expert had moved beyond the child's zone of proximal development.

In her 1980 research. Clay found parallel progress for all children after eighteen

months in school. The lowest group of students had only reached the entry level of the

highest group of students. Therefore, Clay (1991b) commented that with her experience

working with this lowest group of "at risk" students in Reading Recovery, she believes

they cannot be left alone to "naturally unfold." Rather, teacher intervention is needed to

assist them in knowing what to attend to and to help them maintain their place in an activity.

Wood (1990) argues that the ability to keep on task and to ignore distractions is related to

intellectual development in the areas of perception, attention, and memory.

Clay (1991a; 1991b) agrees that development occurs, not from overloading the

mental capacities, but from stretching the capacity to move older concepts to automaticity

and new ones to the forefront to develop a "self-improving" and "self-extending" system.

Bruner's (1986) excellent metaphorical model of cognitive development as an ever-

broadening spiral describes very aptly this idea of a self-extending and self-improving

progression. To nurture development, many theorists (Clay 1991b; Wood 1990; Wertsch,

20

1985; Rogoff, 1990) today endorse the approach of adults and more capable peers assisting

children in the zone o f proximal development.

Social Interaction and Collaboration

Incorporated into a holistic view of the writing process is social interaction and

collaboration with adults and peers. Being entrenched in a Piagetian perspective, the earlier

research literature tended to describe writing development as related to Piaget's view of a

natural unfolding process. Based on that assumption, teacher educators encouraged

teachers to provide a rich literate environment for children comprised of good children's

literature, relevant and excellent models of writing, and many opportunities for writing.

However, the trend in current studies has been to broaden this perspective to

consider Vygotskian notions regarding peer and teacher interactions to assist development

in the zone o f proximal development, which was described in the previous section.

Assistance in the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978) requires both

social interaction and collaboration. Donald Murray (1982) is one of the first writing

theorists to emphasize the importance of interaction in developing a text. Considering the

process of writing, Murray acknowledges the first reader, self, and the kinds of interaction

or conversation which occur when "the self speaks, the other self listens and responds."

"The two selves collaborate; a problem is spotted, discussed, defined; solutions are

proposed, rejected, suggested, attempted, tested, discarded, accepted" (p. 140). Murray

also acknowledges the importance of interaction with others through conferencing. In a

teacher/student conference, the teacher responds by answering questions and directing the

discussion to teach the student's other, evaluative self. Murray (1982) also notes that a

teacher soon learns in conferencing that "the affective usually controls the cognitive" (p.

141).

21

Donald Graves ( 1983) has looked even more closely at the need for conferencing

with young writers in his process writing model. First, there must be a sense of trust for

the child to willingly share his/her text Next, a teacher must attend carefully to what the

child says to note the potential in developing and revising a text To facilitate the

discussion, the teacher should use questioning strategies to elicit potential, rather than

focusing on preconceived notions, such as a final product. The interactive conferencing

process allows a child to think aloud while evaluating and revising his thoughts and to

receive feedback from a more capable adult or peer.

Peer conferencing is another valuable aspect of a writing process approach (Graves,

1983; Calkins, 1986; Temple, Nathan, & Burris, 1988; Harste, Woodward, & Burke,

1984; Pappas, Levstik, Kiefer, 1990). In his earlier research. Graves (1983) found that

peer conferences were a disaster because children tended to offer only negative comments

to tear down an author's text rather than asking if their reception was accurate, and then go

on to question in a helpful manner. Thereafter, Graves (1983) instituted large and small

group conferences led by the teacher with appropriate modeling to pave the way for

profitable peer conferencing.

Building upon the value of peer interaction. Graves and Hansen (1983) found that

children needed opportimities to share with an audience their texts. They proposed the

idea of daily closing the writing workshop with an "author's chair" where children could

read and discuss their beginning drafts or final texts with peers. The peer discussion

developed awareness for what their audience understood and needed to know.

Further development in this idea of an author's chair is proposed by Harste et al.

(1984) with their authoring cycle. Their process ^proach demonstrates the importance of

the writer cycling in and out of the author's chair for peer discussions from the beginnings

of selecting a topic to the final draft Throughout the peer conferences, children are

22

developing metalinguistic knowledge about language and how to use it to discuss texts

(Harste et al., 1984).

Dyson (1989) found that many of the gains achieved through formal conferencing

were occurring naturally through the social interaction of children. In her research setting,

children could freely move about the room, act out their texts or drawings, ask each other

for spelling help, and share portions of their texts. This freedom to move about a

classroom and interact with other authors is an important element in development. Morrow

(1989) notes that "children learn about writing by observing more skilled others and by

participating with them in literacy events" (p. 145).

Dyson (1989) categorized topically children's talk during composing events. These

categories described what the children talked about and which of their multiple worlds they

focused on. The first category, the imaginary world, was task oriented and focused on the

author's talk about his/her drawing or text The second category entitled, ongoing social

world, demonstrated the gradual overlapping of the worlds with children becoming

involved in discussing each others' tasks. The third category involved the wider

experienced world o f people, places, objects, and events. The children's talk in this wider

experienced world was embedded within the other previously noted worlds which led to

wrestling with personal opinions and ideas about what is true or imaginary.

Early in the school year, Dyson (1989) noted that children's imaginary worlds were

more increasingly embedded in the social and wider experienced world. Throughout her

study, she found that the "children's growth as literate people was linked to the social

practices that surrounded them, that is, to their discovery of literacy's rich relevance to their

present interactions with friends and to their reflections on their experiences" (p. 276).

23

The social aspects of language are relevant to writing research. Harste et al. ( 1984)

have noted that literacy is not only a psycholinguistic process but a socio-psycholinguistic

process. "Language is, by its very nature, social" (Harste et al., 1984, p. 145). Speakers

must have listeners, and writers must have readers. Perhaps the way one learns oral

language is not unlike how one learns written language. If so, then, social interaction

within the writing process is vitally important

The Contribution of Children's Literature to Early Literacy

Many studies (Strickland & Taylor, 1989; Sulzby & Teale, 1987; Wells, 1986;

Durkin, 1966; Chomsky,1972) have highlighted the importance of reading to children and

that storybook reading creates a well-developed knowledge base for emergent reading and

writing.

Doake (1985) and Holdaway (1979a, 1979b) discuss the interaction and

participation that occurs when a parent and a child share a book. From being read to

regularly, children begin to demonstrate an enjoyment of literature and beg people to read

over and over again their favorite books until they are committed to memory. Holdaway

(1982) borrows Bill Martin's phrase describing children's delight in "pretend reading" their

favorite books which they "zoom through with joyous familiarity" (p. 292). In a favorable

learning environment, children can "master literacy skills in a way very similar to that in

which they master other developmental tasks, especially those of spoken language"

(Holdaway, 1979a, p. 294).

Teale (1978) in a review of early reading studies discovered four repeatedly

identified environmental factors which were associated with early readers. The first factor

was an availability and wide range of printed materials, including books of all kinds and

environmental print Second, was the importance of frequently reading and rereading texts

24

to children. In this area, he also found that their parents were avid readers who acted as

models for reading behavior. A third factor accompanying early reading abilities was the

value placed upon writing. The families of early readers offered many examples and kinds

of writing in their home,and they encouraged their children to scribble, copy, and attempt

writing, especially their names. The fourth environmental factor was the quality of the

interactions the child had with parents in regard to reading activities. The parents in these

studies allowed the children to ask questions about the text and participated in discussions

to assist their children on the meaning level.

Taylor (1983) found that "literacy is a part of the very fabric of family life" in the

families participating in her field research (p. 87). All children, regardless of ethnicity and

socioeconomic background, were included in literacy events, although these events were

functional in nature and embedded in the social processes of life, not didactic.

Nonetheless, as Heath (1983) has noted, many of the naturally occurring literacy events are

not similar in domain to those found in schools and thus lack transfer for children who

frequently come from a lower socio-economic strata. Therefore, discontinuities are created

for many children of nonliterate cultures in our schools today. "Somehow we need to

bridge the gap between home and school so that reading in one is reading in the other"

(Taylor, 1983, p. 95).

Chomsky (1972) in her study of language acquisition found a strong correlation

between exposure to the more complex language of books, whether reading or hearing

books read, to the five linguistic stages of development she identified. Neither IQ, socio

economic status, nor parent's education were variables which tended to contribute to the

child's linguistic level, but rather whether children were exposed to books. The amount of

books read and the complexity of the language correlated positively to the child's stage of

linguistic development

25

Thus sharing books with young children has long been recognized as an invaluable

aid in literacy development. Parents who read books to children play a special role in

emergent literacy (Taylor & Strickland,1986; Taylor, 1983). As parents hold a child on

their lap and read a new book, together they predict what will happen and discuss the

"why's."

With rereadings of children's favorite and familiar books, parents support the

understanding that print carries the message, a sense of story, and the beginnings of

reading. David Doake (1985) studied the rereadings of familiar storybooks with children

and found that parents used four participatory strategies. The first strategy is "mumble

reading" whereby a child mumbles along with the story, and after a few readings, certain

key words (usually nouns and verbs) are audible among the mumblings.

Another strategy which evolves from "mumble reading" and repeated hearings of the

same story is "cooperative reading," in which the child gains more control over the

reproduction and reads along with the adult by constructing the text in his or her mind.

Often the text is altered slightly, as the child uses differing vocabulary. The miscues do not

alter the meaning of the text but offer a slightly different version which emanates from the

child's oral vocabulary.

A third strategy and the one most frequently used is "completion reading." When

adults intuitively pause at various points in a text and look expectantly to the child, the child

eagerly completes the phrase or sentence. This strategy never fails to bring smiles and

pride in a child's new-found competence of reading-like behavior.

"Echo reading" is the fourth strategy children spontaneously use. Often adults have

noticed that children enjoy repeating a phrase or sentence immediately after it has been read

to them. Therefore, adults slow their pace and pause at shorter intervals to accommodate

the "echo."

26

Through repetitive strategies of reiteration and retelling, children gain equilibration

(Piaget, 1969) and mastery over the experience. They begin to internalize the

decontextualized language of books in which the language is divorced from the immediate

situation, differing from the contextualized language of oracy (McKenzie, 1986). Children

are developing a "literacy set" (Holdaway, 1979)--noting the range of language (differences

and similarities between spoken language and that of books), developing a sense of story

through form and structure in retellings, understanding the function of books, and

cultivating an enjoyment for literature.

Clay (1991) found that most young children who "talk like a book" by memorizing a

text, inventing a similar version, or a combination of the two, realize that they can't quite

read. They offered explanations to her, such as, "I wish I could really truly read this," and

"I can't read all the words but I know what they say" (p. 77). Knowing what they say is

the key factor. In these reading-like behaviors, children are constructing meaning and

building the conceptual understandings for reading.

In her early research. Clay (1979) drew our attention to the need of children to

understand concepts of print before they can attain success with reading. They must have

acquired book handling skills to know the front from the back, directionality of the print

(how the eyes sweep from left to right and down and to the left again), how a word is

surrounded by space, recognition and use of punctuation, along with semantic, syntactic

and graphophonic cues. With repeated interactions with the same text and a caring adult,

children will develop their understandings of concepts and initial reading strategies.

Looking at rereadings of familiar storybooks, Sulzby (1985) found developmental

trends in two-to-five year olds. The same stories were read frequently to the children and

they were encouraged to follow along. Once a child was familiar with the story, he/she

was encouraged to read the book. It was found that the child's first attempt to read the

27

story was by looking at the pictures and "telling" the story while paying no attention to the

print. However, after more rereadings, in later attempts to read the same book, the child

began to pay more attention to the print, the story became better formed, and conventional

storybook language began to emerge.

Wells (1986) focused on the semantic aspect of reading. He called our attention to

the fact that children are inherently "meaning makers" and that stories contribute to the

literacy process. "Why should listening to stories be so much more beneficial as a

preparation for literacy than looking at books and magazines and talking about the picture,

or attempting to represent ideas graphically through drawing and coloring-worthwhile

though these activities are for their own sake?" (p. 151) He offers three reasons:

— gain experience of meaning-building organization of written language and its

characteristic rhythm and structures for future familiarity when children come

to read;

— vicariously extend the range of their experience beyond the limits of their own

surroundings, especially noted from his research in the increased size of their

vocabulary;

— provide an excellent starting point for collaborative talk to provide a validation

for the child's own inner storying, the internal mode of meaning making "which

is probably deeply rooted in human nature as is language itself" (p. 152).

Morrow (1989) noted that reading aloud stories to a child encourages interactive

behavior that leads to more complex questions and comments over time. "Eventually

children's remarks about story content reflect interests in narration, evaluation,

interpretation, association, prediction, information and elaboration" (p. 79). These

interactions reconstruct the meaning and personal interpretation of the text.

28

Referring to the vicarious experiences that literature offers, Huck et al. (1992) and

Hickman and Cullinan (1989) comment on the inherent values of literature to widen

horizons with new experiences, new people, new places, and new things to see. Literature

offers bridges across time and culture and develops the imagination. All of these insights

on the value of literature have a positive impact on writing and transfer to understanding

texts and their structure as children begin to read. Tway (1991) states that many studies of

children's literature address the importance of using children's literature as a "literacy

teaching tool" (p. 434).

As children pretend-read and memorize the rich contextual stories they love, they

begin to learn their first sight words, initial and ending phonemes, and the structure of

language. Controlled vocabulary basal readers don't offer a similarly rich context. The

basal texts have little story-like structure, are less predictable, and the language is

frequently contrived and does not match children's language. The accompanying reading

workbooks are even further removed from the context of real reading and writing with their

busywork approach to skills.

In Chomsky's (1972) study of children with high linguistic abilities which correlated

to the amount of books read by themselves or read to them, she noted that the results of this

study had implications for wider reading in the curriculum. A child should be "permitted

access to books well 'above his level' to get out of them whatever he may" (p. 33). Rather

than restricting choice and using only programmed materials, children should be permitted

to read from a wider and richer range of literature. Similarly Durkin's ( 1966) landmark

study found that help given at home through reading and discussing literature with children

contributed to early reading capabilities.

29

Eckoff (1983) and DeFord (1980) found that a basal reading series influenced

children's writing style. Children who were involved with a controlled vocabulary basal

reading series, tended to write with a similar "sentence-per-line" style and limited

vocabulary while those children who used a different basal series with text "more closely

matching the style and complexity of literary prose" (p. 608), wrote more elaborated

sentences and with a style reflecting the linguistic structures of their readers.

In a study with no influence from basal controlled readers, Mikkelsen (1984) studied

the effect of literature in providing models for children's writing. The children in her

research were exposed to folklore and fantasy and asked to write their own stories. She

found in analyzing their stories that she could categorize them as retellings, borrowings,

recreations, blendings, and transformations. The children's writing was deeply influenced

by what they read and what was read to them. She believes that the development of these

children's texts were similar to those of professional writers who adapt and reshape folk

literature.

Applebee (1979) discussed the importance of good literature to lead children in

developing a set of conventions or expectations for their concept of story. "Stories

progress from collections of observations linked by loose associations in the child's mind

to structured narratives with a clear beginning and end, and some sort of center around a

problem or theme" (p. 642). Gradually children assimilate the structures to recount familiar

stories and to assist them in dealing with more complex stories and also in gaining mastery

over these structures to employ them in their own writing.

Considering the changing and developing nature of a child's concept of story,

Cullinan (1989) recommends providing literature that builds upon and expands that concept

through books that clarify and reconcile the complexities of the world and stretch their

minds. She notes that children like well-crafted books, which build suspense, avoid

30

anticlimaxes, and have memorable themes. In the early grades, children tend to like

fantasy; in the middle grades, realistic books and mysteries; and in the junior high and high

school, both realism and fantasy (Cullinan, 1989).

Good children's literature is a key factor in emergent literacy. "As children hear

stories and poems read aloud, they build a linguistic storehouse of story patterns and

language possibilities that contribute toward a framework of meanings, patterns, and

sounds" (Cullinan, 1989, p. 97). Thus children's literature contributes to the beginning of

a successful journey into literacy.

Oral Language Acquisition

During their beginning years of life, children listen carefully to language, analyze

the utterances into smaller units and respond with tentative offerings of their

understandings of language. Wells (1986) found that children "store the small units,

together with information about how they think they are combined, so that the units can be

used on future occasions to produce or comprehend new utterances that contain them" (p.

43).

Ervin (1964) suggested that children use "successive grammars" or a series of

changing systems that leads them finally to the system of adult speech. For instance, a

young child might cry the holophrase, "Up" (with an accompanying gesture). Several

months later, "Baby, up." Then, after months more of internalization of language and

hypothesis testing, "Derrick, wants up." Finally, reaching a more conventional rendering

of, "Please, Momma, will you hold me?" This ability of cognitive processing "whereby

acts are organized into higher-order ensembles, making possible the use of larger and larger

units of information for the solution of particular problems" is known as integration

31

(Bruner, 1986, p. 325). Thus children develop schema to internalize patterns and integrate

them as they construct their language.

For a child's language to develop from holophrases to grammatically complete

sentences, a key contributing factor is a supportive, positive familial environment. Brown

and Bellugi (1964), in their study of young children's speech, termed children's

reductionist speech as "telegraphic," in that the essential elements as in a telegram are

evidenced. When children used telegraphic speech, they found that the parents responded

by expanding the child's discourse. For example, "Sit wall" might be elaborated by the

parent saying, "Yes, the kitty is sitting on the wall, sleeping in the sun." Parental

elaborations assist in extending a child's growing vocabulary and understanding of

sentence structure. Throughout the development of oral language, a child is surrounded by

adults who interact with him or her to create an atmosphere of success and child-

centeredness.

In all the research on oral language acquisition, children were not found to be faulty

imitators of adults, but rather constructive learners who actively hypothesize about how

language works and test these hypotheses in the context of their worlds (Sulzby, 1991;

Clay, 1991; Applebee, 1986; Wells, 1986). The context appears to be a key factor in

children's meaning-making. Rather than an isolated skill to be taught, oral language occurs

in holistic settings, within meaningful activities. In real-life interactions, adults support the

meaningful endeavor, using language with children, rather than at them (McKenzie, 1986).

Vygotsky (1978) looked more closely at the role of adults in children's language

development. He called our attention to the zone o f proximal development. The zones are

the "buds" or "flowers" of development rather than the fruit In these zones or states of

formative development, adults can assist the process.. . "that is what a child can do with

32

assistance today she will be able to do by herself tomorrow" (p. 87). The language

between children and adults is an important factor in the creation of thought.

Strickland and Taylor (1989) in their study confirmed Vygotsky's notions about the

critical role of adults in the development of children's language and thought After audio

recording parents as they shared books with their children, they interviewed the parents,

had them listen to the tape, and together reflected on the experience. They found that the

parents intuitively furthered the understandings of the text for their children by expanding

vocabulary through the use of synonyms or explanations, making connections to the

child's prior knowledge, and responding to the children's questions and comments about

the plot, characters, pictures, and words.

The interactive language contributed to the child's language and literacy

development Also contributing to the child's development was an atmosphere of success

that was inherent within all the interactions. Parents delight in their children's responses,

even their miscues which often are so charming that they are treasured as family memories

(Goodmans, 1989; Harste, Woodward, & Burke,1984).

Wells (1986) noted that children are "predisposed" as meaning-makers to develop

their language and cognitive abilities hand in hand. In cognition the brain performs

continuously and efficiently in whatever meaningful activities it is engaged. Activities are

only meaningful if there is an inner self-direction (Smith, 1987). For the learning process

to be a meaningful activity. Smith (1987) theorizes that the learner must bring to the

occasion three essential elements: prior knowledge, personal disposition, and authority.

Britton (1970) defines prior knowledge as one's "world representation"— all of the

schema from the cognitive and affective domains which a learner has developed during his

life experiences, not only real-life but vicarious experiences of friends or characters in a text

or even fantasized.

33

The second element of the learning process, "personal disposition," refers to the

learner's innate interests and affinities (Smith, 1987). Within the curriculum, there must be

offerings of choice so that individual learners may begin their study and search for new

knowledge with an innate spark or ignition of interest.

And the third element, "authority" over comprehension and meaning-making, needs

to reside in the hands of the learner, rather than being imposed upon him by outside forces

(Smith, 1987). Ultimately, the learner is the final decision-maker as to whether or not he

will engage in the learning process.

Looking beyond psycholinguistic processes to consider the contribution of socio-

linguistic processes, one finds that oral language takes on various forms dependent upon

children's sex, age, and ethnicity as well as the socioeconomic class, status, customs and

values of the adults with whom they interact (Glazer, 1989). Cross-cultural studies, such

as those of Heath (1983) and Taylor (1983) found that all children regardless of

socioeconomic background were included in some kinds of literacy events, and these

events were functional in nature and related to their world. Also the events were recurring,

although differing across families.

In the varying socio-economic backgrounds, all the children were adept in language

usage and functional literacy, as was appropriate to their culture. However, the language

differences in the varying cultures were considered deficiencies in the school environments

when they spoke a dialect with different grammatical structures and meanings from the

mainstream children and teachers.

Heath's study (1983) focused on helping teachers to adjust their learning

environments to accommodate the cultural differences in language from the home to school.

Different cultures and their accompanying dialects should not interfere with language

learning in the schools. Rather, the differences should be used to enhance the process, as

34

teachers capitalize on the strengths of each child. Schools should build bridges between the

classroom and communities to create a climate that is comfortable and conducive to

continued oral language development (Tway, 1991).

Nonetheless, children who grow up in literate, mainstream environments have a

distinct advantage in the formal years of schooling. Heath (1983) contends, from her study

in the Piedmont region of the Carolinas, that it is the kind of talk, not the quantity of talk

that sets the mainstream townspeople's children apart from the children of the working-

class communities of Trackton and Roadville. The children from the town came to school

with language skills for labeling, naming features, and providing narratives on items out of

their contexts. Also they had extensive exposure to stories and situations in which they and

adults manipulated the environment imaginatively.

Wells' findings (1986) were similar. He discovered that children who are

surrounded with naturally occurring, daily activities of reading and writing, especially the

sharing of stories and books, were the children who enjoyed success in school. Those

children who were successful with oral language, but who had little contact with the literate

forms of language, that is the "linguistic representation of ideas that are disembedded from

a context of specific personal experience," progressively became less able to meet the

demands of the academic curriculum in school and thus were judged to be intellectually

deficient (Wells, 1986, p. 193).

In response to the disadvantages children encounter whose oral language form and

culture are different, the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) of Hawaii sought

to find cultural congruence in classroom practices for native Hawaiian children. Au and

Jordan ( 1981) of the KEEP project found that the students' reading scores increased by the

end of the three years in the KEEP school and remained significantly better due to the

integration of culturally appropriate interactions in the reading lessons.

35

Hawaiian teachers permitted the children to use the full range of their cognitive and

linguistic abilities in the reading lessons by incorporating "talk story" which is a major

speech event in Hawaiian culture. Children used their familiar storytelling style, and

teachers encouraged the cultural norm of overlapping speech in participation structures,

rather than traditional school participant style of turn-taking.

Michaels ( 1986) in her research of analyzing first grade classroom discourse during

a sharing time found a mismatch between black children's discourse style and the teacher's

implicit model. The teacher's model was shaped by her training and culture to expect a

prose-like oral style. Black children who came from a rich oral narrative tradition used a

style which Michaels entitled "topic associating." In a "topic associating" style, children

had a central topic as the centerpiece, and in a circular fashion they offered many

descriptive facets, skirting around the theme.

Also, in their speaking, she found that the intonation of their voices gave a melodic

contour to their telling with pauses, accents, and stresses on words and phrases very unlike

their white peers. When the black children paused or dropped the pitch of their voice, they

were not indicating as the white children did that it was the end of a thought Therefore,

the teacher's interruption to scaffold and assist them in their response was frequently

inappropriate and confused the children.

Thus children in their preschool years develop very sophisticated cognitive

processing skills for oral language acquisition which are contextually bound to their

culture.

All of the previous discussion of oral language acquisition, theories, research, and

resultant understandings, frame and outline emergent literacy. The elements of the

learning process are inherent in the acquisition of oral language and parallels can be drawn

to inform us in the acquisition of literacy.

36

Emergent Literacy

Sulzby (1991) defines emergent literacy as the "reading and writing behaviors of

young children that precede and develop into conventional literacy" (p. 273). Literacy

knowledge of five year olds entering kindergarten varies greatly, from some who have

taught themselves to read to others who have explored writing, some with great storytelling

abilities, and yet others who have clusters of skills such as writing the letters of the

alphabet Each child is gradually adding to his previous learning as literacy emerges.

Harste, Woodward, and Burke (1984) demonstrated that preschool children had an

awareness of print in their environment Many children in their studies gave semantically

appropriate responses to complex parts of common household and restaurant products.

Children transacted with print in their environment in meaningful experiences which

assisted their understandings in beginning writing and reading.

Regarding knowledge of the writing task. Graves (1983) asked children beginning

first grade if they knew how to read or write. Only 15% believed they could read, but

amazingly 85% believed they could write. The beginning squiggles and illustrations that

children initiate carry meaning and communicate language for them. Chomsky (1979)

noted that there are accoimts of children who began to write before they could read, and she

suggested that, developmentally, children have the ability to write, representing words

according to the way they sound, before the ability to read.

Clay (1979) also found an awareness of the writing process assisting phonological

understandings which would transfer to one facet of the cueing system in reading. She

states that "fluent oral language may permit the young reader to depend almost entirely on

meaning rather than discriminating details of letters and words. Creative writing demands

that the child pay attention to the details of print" (p. 2). In developing their writing

37

abilities, children are constantly reconstructing their knowledge about language as they go

back and forth from writing to reading and writing and rereading. Creating a text integrates

knowledge of reading and knowledge of writing.

Along with the ability to write letter and squiggles that carry meaning, some children

enter kindergarten and first grade with the ability to read. In her 1966 study of children

entering school already reading, Durkin found that IQ and socioeconomic factors were not

predictors of their success. Rather she discovered the following contributing factors:

whether parents read to their children, spent time answering their questions and requests

for help, and demonstrated the interest and value of reading and writing in their own lives.

As shared in the introductory chapter, naturalistic studies, which consider writing

as an emergent phenomenon, have traced children's writing development from their initial

scribbles to their use of conventional orthography. These studies have discerned various

patterns of progression dependent upon the focus of their inquiry which will be reiterated in

this context of the importance of emergent literacy to ground this research.

Some researchers have perceived the progression of writing development through a

more linear lens due to their focus on specific patterns of writing, such as applying

Piagetian principles of development to relationships between language and literacy

acquisition (Ferreiro & Teberosky, 1982; Goodman, 1984; Kamberelis & Sulzby, 1988).

Others have observed and noted the linear progression of invented spelling (Read,

1975; Henderson, 1990; Temple, Nathan, & Burris, 1982) and also the development of

semantic and syntactic knowledge for cohesion in texts (King & Rentel, 1981). Yet others

have focused on children's explorations of the visual features of print regarding

directionality and concept of word (Clay, 1979).

38

Within each of these areas of study, patterns of writing development have emerged.

However, Dyson (1991) believes that each learner comes to writing with clumps of

knowledge which cannot be neatly and sequentially ordered, if one views the child as a

whole. She states that writing involves a "complex of interconnecting systems" which

should encourage researchers to broaden their scrutiny to encompass all the above aspects

of writing and to include the context of the situation as well as the social interaction.

Other researchers concur with her stance and view writing through a more holistic

lens to ascertain how the development of multiple concepts occur simultaneously and are

integrated into the writing process. Some researchers have studied the relationships

between the reading and writing process (Tierney & Pearson, 1983; Shanahan, 1988;

Shanahan & Lomax, 1988). Others, viewing literacy in relation to the context, have

included descriptions of social interaction in the writing process (Dyson, 1989; Harste,

Woodward, & Burke, 1984). Clay (1991a; 1991b) believes that writing must be

considered in a broader perspective to note progression of conceptual understandings along

multiple continua, which can only be ascertained from frequent observation across time.

Conceptual Understandings Within the Writing Process

For many children conceptual understandings of written language are well

established before they enter school due to their rich literate home environments.

However, other children may have a rich oral language heritage but may never have

encountered the kinds of literacy experiences which facilitate understandings and progress

in the educational system (Barnes, 1976; Heath, 1983; Wells, 1986). Clay (1991) states,

"What used to be regarded as due to individual differences in intelligence turns out to have

a great deal to do with opportunities to learn about books and writing" (p. 10).

39

Some children come to first grade with strategies already developed, such as

knowledge of print directionality, abilities for self-correction and monitoring, access to a

writing vocabulary, understandings of sound-to-letter correspondence for attempting new

words, and many cognitive processes in place to learn more about reading and writing

(Genishi & Dyson, 1984; Harste, Woodward, & Burke, 1984; Calkins, 1986; Clay,

1991). However, some children come with knowledge of none of the above and soon

encounter difficulties.

In her early research. Clay (1991) found that some first grade children began to

establish less productive strategies which allowed them to fall further behind in their

schoolwork. Stanovitch's study (1986) discovered "the Matthew effect" which

demonstrated that at the age of eight years old children could be divided into two groups —

those who improve and learn more as they read and those who fall further and further

behind. The following information will highlight some of the initial conceptual

understandings that lay the foundation for further cognitive growth and development in

literacy.

In dealing with texts, children need to understand serial order which in the English

language has a left to right progression. Clay (1991) believes that children who have

difficulties with directional learning can be divided into two groups: (a) those who have

general immaturity in motor behavior which affects the learning of movement patterns and

(b) those who are unfamiliar with books and do not understand the voice to print match.

Clay (1990) also noted that directionality problems, even thought previously

established, may surface when children encounter a new context or concept. For example,

children may display correct directional writing and then suddenly switch and use the

"pancake effect'" whereby the writing is completely reversed or flipped over. With the

"pancake effect," the text is written from right to left with the letters printed backwards.

40

Another directionality problem that Clay has noted is the "pebble in the pond" effect. In

this instance, "a new feature may capture the child's attention for the moment and send

ripples of disturbance through the old habits," for example, wrapping a text around the next

page or omitting spaces between words to save room on the paper (1991, p. 130).

Grappling with a new concept can cause progress to regress temporarily in an area,

demonstrating the recursive nature of learning.

Another concept needed for reading and creating texts is an understanding of

hierarchical order in regards to sentences, phrases, words, letter clusters, and phonemes.

Clay (1985) has researched these conceptual understandings and has developed an

assessment known as "Concepts About Print" to discover what children know. She

cautions that these concepts should not be verbally taught but rather should be acquired

through the child's experience with print in contributing to metacognitive awareness.

However, the child does need adult support to know what to attend to as he/she gains

control over the features of print and learns the rules of order and sequence. As children

progress in their understandings of serial and hierarchical order, they are constantly

integrating this information in the forward progression of meaning making (Wells, 1986).

Closer examination of a hierarchical order in regard to concepts of print reveals that

, a child must discover that his oral communication which runs together in undifferentiated

strings (Temple et al., 1982) can be broken down into word units. Then he must

understand that in written texts (Clay, 1991) the word units are surrounded by space and

follow a left to right progression, and next that these words are connected by meaning into

phrases and resultant sentences.

As the child is developing a knowledge of print and tries to write a message, he/she

must not only deal with the concept of word but also "phonemic segmentation" (Temple et

al., 1982; Gillet & Temple, 1986). While holding a sentence or phrase still in his/her

41

mind, the child examines a word to attempt to spell it. He/she must try to segment the

word into its smallest unit, a phoneme, to hear the individual sound and then match each to

an appropriate letter of the alphabet Once the child has drawn a relationship from sound

to letter, next he/she must employ the motor activity to construct the written letter. Finally

the process begins again as the child must recall his/her place in the spelling of the word

and continue on. Stretching a word to segment phonemes is a complex process and even

more so if a child does not have a stable concept of word (Gillet & Temple, 1986).

In attempting the written production of letters of the alphabet, children must develop

the visual perception to differentiate and then produce the individual letters. If one

considers the "flexibility principle" (Clay, 1975) regarding different shapes of the letter a,

whether cursive, printed scripts, lower case or upper case, and different fonts, there is

great variation. Even further variation is realized if one considers that a letter can be

reversed or inverted, such as b, d, and p to create different letters, opened at the top to

create y, or changed slightly by adding a curved tail to make g. The learning task is

substantial. In applying the knowledge of alphabetic letters, children must exercise even

greater cognitive control to recognize these letters when embedded in print for reading or

when producing them in clusters for writing.

When children can recognize and produce some letters of the alphabet, then they

begin to draw a sound-to-letter correspondence to comprehend the "alphabetic principle"

(Henderson, 1990). For many children, mastery of the "alphabetic principle" is a difficult

task. Gillet and Temple (1986) note in the English language that forty-four speech sounds

are represented by twenty-six letters of the alphabet (three of which, y, y, and x stand for

sounds already represented by other letters). There are many variations between the letter

names and speech sounds; for instance, long vowels say their names. Short vowels have

42

vowels have other letters that represent them. Some consonant sounds need two letters to

represent them, such as digraphs.

Other letters are silent, and some have no function but are retained due to their Old

English pronunciations. And some letters are changed due to scribal traditions before the

invention of the printing press. Because of these aforementioned traditions in spelling,

there is not a true relationship between letters and sounds in English. Nonetheless,

children begin producing letters by drawing relationships between letters and sounds. The

discriminations, visual, alphabetic, and phonemic, are acquired slowly and gradually

during the first two years of instruction (Clay, 1991).

After children have acquired the "alphabetic principle," then they must progress to

understand the "pattern principle" (Henderson, 1990) which takes into account not only

the letter-to-sound symbols but combinations of letters for consistent patterns. In the

"pattern principle," children consider the relationships between certain consonants and

vowels, vowel digraphs, and diphthongs which effect the accepted patterns of spelling

(Henderson, 1990; Temple, Nathan, & Burris, 1982). Progressing from the "pattern

principle," children come to realize that the meaning of the word must be taken into account

for further understanding of the "pattern by meaning principle" (Henderson, 1990) in

polysyllabic words. These principles are evidenced within the stages of spelling

development which theorists (Henderson, 1990; Gillet & Temple; Temple, Nathan, &

Burris, 1982; Read, 1975) have postulated.

Harste et al. (1984) challenge this stage-like progression based only upon the

alphabetic principle. Rather, they believe that young writers are also making judgments

about the "meaning principle," even in the earliest conceptual levels. These researchers

sight as examples the following meaning units that young writers use, such as LOVE A

BAL ("loveable") and WASAPANATAEM ("Once upon a time"). In these examples.

43

children are making decisions regarding syllables and morphemes while also employing

letter -to-sound correspondences and sight vocabulary.

Consideration of a child's sight vocabulary or evidence that encounters with print

that have influenced a student's spelling are often not considered in spelling development.

However, Harste et al. (1984) call attention to the correct spellings of young writers as well

as the words which contain reversals of letters. Children who spell words such as train as

trian and for as fro are using visual memory to make connections between reading and

writing. Harste, Woodward, and Burke (1984) believe that spelling cannot be tidily

arranged in stages of development but rather involve an "orchestration" across systems.

However, the understandings of children's spelling approximations as a

developmental process has become an extensive area of study known as "invented spelling"

(Read, 1975), or as Clay (1991b) has coined, "temporary spelling." Clay notes that "it's

not sheer invention" but rather careful, considered thinking as children relate the sounds

they hear to their prior knowledge base to draw complex relationships and correspondences

in creating meaningful text For those words which are not a part of their memorized

spelling vocabulary, spelling progress tends to follow a developmental pattern which has

been separated into stages (Temple, Nathan, & Burris, 1982; Gillet & Temple, 1986;

Henderson, 1990).

Researchers have identified the earliest stage as "preliterate" (Henderson,1990) or

"prephonemic" (Gillet & Temple,1986). Children in this stage of spelling use squiggles

and scribbles that resemble letter forms. Occasionally, random letters, mainly from their

names, appear in their strings of diagonal marks and curves.

44

The second stage of developmental spelling has been titled early phonemic (Gillet &

Temple, 1986). In this stage children begin to realize the alphabetic principle and can draw

relationship between phonemes and letters to include a few correct letters to represent the

words they write. However, usually less than one-half of the letters are represented, and

the words may be strung together, for example: "RCRBKDN = Our car broke down"

(Strickland & Feeley, 1990, p. 291).

Temple et al. (1982) propose that the next stage of development occurs due to the

stabilization of the concept of word. The third stage involves breaking a word into its

phonemes and representing each with the closest match to the name of a letter in the

alphabet Thus this stage has come to be called letter-name spelling (Henderson, 1990;

Gillet & Temple, 1986; Temple et al., 1982). The resultant spelling is very different from

standard spelling, but when one checks the placement of a sound in the mouth, along with

the accompanying air pressure, then this thoughtful, kinesthetic approach is

understandable.

Since the short or lax vowels have no letter-name match, children choose the

nearest fit which has the same tongue position, such as a for short a as well as short e, e for

short f, / for short o, o for short « (Read, 1975). Long vowels are distinct and thus are

correctly matched to their alphabetic name, but marker letters are usually absent, such as the

silent c in DAM (dame). Because letter-name spellers use a one-to-one match, consonant

digraphs, such as ch, sk, th, ph, are usually represented by only one letter, such as h.

45

The nasal consonants m and n are omitted when they come before a final

consonant for example, STAP (stamp) due to the "consonants being swallowed into the

vowel itself" (Henderson, 1990, p.53). The consonant blends tr and dr are not

pronounced as they appear. The beginning sound of truck sounds like ch and the

beginning sound of rfrago/i sounds like gr or jr (Gillet & Temple, 1986). Therefore,

letter-name speller may "write JRAGN OR GAGN for dragon and CHRUK or even

HRUK for truck" (Gillet & Temple, 1986).

The fourth stage of spelling development has been entitled transitional spelling

(Gillet & Temple, 1986; Temple et al., 1982; Read, 1975). Transitional spellers have gone

beyond the one-to-one correspondence and are beginning to examine and use patterns in

spelling. However, they tend to overgeneralize and have limited understandings.

Consequently, words may contain all the correct letters but in the wrong order, the use of

silent e is overgeneralized, and every consonant in the middle of words is doubled.

Henderson (1990) has subdivided the fourth stage of transitional spelling into two

subcategories due to his theory of the "pattern principle" and the "pattern by meaning

principle" [noted earlier]. Henderson believes the first subdivision, entitled within-word

pattern, involves thinking which corresponds to Piaget's stage of concrete operational

thinking. "No longer is it sufficient to think of words as letters matching sounds one at a

time, but patterns of letters must be seen in relation to elements of sounds" (Henderson,

1990). During this stage, children can discriminate sounds more easily and can separate

the initial consonant from the vowel pattern which follows and begin to internalize vowel

patterns, including short, long, and diphthongs.

46

Once the vowels patterns are mastered, Henderson (1990) believes the stage of

syllable juncture occurs. At this point, children begin to recognize and use the doubling

principle in which the ending consonant is doubled when adding ing or ed. Henderson

notes that children are not only dealing with pattern when they understand this principle but

are also taking into consideration the meaning of the word when adding these suffixes.

The fifth stage of spelling development is entitled derivational spelling (Henderson,

1990; Gillet & Temple, 1986). As the "pattem-by-meaning" (Henderson, 1990) principle

evolves, children begin to examine polysyllabic words and consider the root of the word

when spelling a new word, for example explaination (explanation) and judgement

(judgment). Children reach the final stage entitled "conventional" spelling when correct

spellings are used.

Text

In analyzing and examining written texts, researchers have used varied approaches

and methodology. Halliday and Hazan (1976) have noted that a comparison of oral and

written texts makes us aware of some implicit devices used in writing.

The communicative process of speaking involves a social context and collaborative

understandings which frequently, if overheard, make no sense to the listener because of the

use of indefinite pronouns to refer to earlier statements. However, upon examination some

written texts, such as telephone messages bear a similar resemblance (Pappas et al., 1990)

by assuming the recipient already knows the points of reference in the message. These

referents outside the immediate text have been entitled "exophoric implicit devices"

(Halliday & Hazan, 1976).

47

Even though some written texts use exophoric devices, the majority of written

texts, because of the desire to communicate to an audience across time and space, use more

explicit language and thus must disembed from the immediate context of the writing

process (Pappas et al., 1990). However, young children's writing tends to use more

exophoric implicit devices which could be attributed to their egocentric perspective and lack

of awareness of audience.

To shed some light on this idea, a review of Britton's (1970) writings is helpful. In

describing different acts of speech and writing, and while taking into consideration the

individual's self, audience, purpose, and form of the text, Britton devised a system with

three major categories - expressive, transactional, and poetic writing.

The expressive mode tends to disregard the audience and places the author at center

stage to reveal his innermost thoughts. Britton notes that the egocentrism of young

children makes it difficult for them to escape from their own point of view. Consequently,

the beginnings of writing tend to display "self." "In terms of child development as writers,

it appears that most children write first, and continue to write most easily in the expressive

mode (Temple et al., 1988, p. 131)." Perhaps, this expressive mode is not only related to

child development but to all beginning writers for as Britton noted "writing begins as

speech written down" (Britton, 1970, p. 165).

From the beginnings in the expressive mode, writing develops into abilities to write

either in the transactional ox poetic modes. In the transactional mode, language is used "to

get something done in the world" (Britton, 1970, p. 165). Other researchers have further

subdivided this mode into specific types of writing, such as expository, persuasive or

argumentative, and descriptive prose (Temple et al., 1988).

48

In the poetic mode, writing is meant "to stand as a verbal object -- something to be

admired as a whole," such as stories, plays, songs (Temple et al., 1988). However,

Britton cautions that the move from expressive writing is gradual and goes through a

transitional period where individuals may try to write in transactional or poetic modes but

features of expressive writing are interspersed.

Pappas et al. (1991) address the different registers or modes of writing in two basic

genres, storybook and information book, which have fixed elements and patterns. Story

grammars as noted by Hasan (1984) include identifiable elements which are needed to build

a story. The requisite elements are chunks of text which include an initiating event, sequent

event, and final event. The optional elements are placement, finale, and moral. Mandler

and Johnson developed a story grammar which was simplified for children's writing by

Temple et al. (1988) with the following elements: a setting, an initiating event, an internal

response, an attempt, an outcome, a consequence, and a reaction.

Pappas et al. (1990) have developed a scheme for identifying fixed and variable

elements of an information book. The topic presentation is the first element, but the next

three elements — description o f attributes, characteristic events, and category comparison -

- can be variable in their order. The optional elements are a summary statement and the

afterword. The descriptive elements of typical texts for these broad genres of storybooks

and information books can be useful when considering children's writing in the

transactional or poetic modes. Some of the above mentioned conventions or elements of

storybooks and information books begin to sporadically appear in children's transitional

writing, as they move to the poetic or transactional modes (Temple et al., 1988).

49

Other researchers have noted commonalties in the forms of young children's

writing, although they haven't categorized them tidily into genres or a developmental

sequence. Calkins (1986) found that kindergarten drawings held the world still and offered

a scene frozen in time. When text was added, it was frequently a label or brief sentences

alongside the picture. Much of the meaning was embedded in the drawing rather than the

text These types of texts continued during first grade along with the development of "all-

about" (Sowers, 1985) or attribute books which list what children know or feel about a

topic. Calkins (1986) believes these inventories are "an extension of children's early

propensity to make collections, and they are the seeds of both content area reports and

expository writing" (p. 59), As children write these books the organization follows a

stream of consciousness.

Texts tended to change from "all-about" to "narratives," as Sowers (1985) labeled

those texts with chronologically ordered events, when children began to add action to their

stories, usually near the end of first grade. In the beginning of the first grade. Sowers

found only 16% wrote "narratives," but by May the percentage had reached 78%. Calkins

(1986) found that drawings with figures in profile also signaled a change in the writing to

include sequence and action.

During second grade, Calkins (1986) noted that the lilt of oral language began to

develop a sense of voice and that the children wrote "bed-to-bed" stories which were

lengthier, chronologically ordered stories, for example of the day's events or of a shopping

trip. To connect the events, the young authors tended to use and or then. Second graders,

she also noted, wrote stories with patterns which offered rhythm and cadence, such a s . . .

is crazy,. . .is crazy, and . . .is crazy. At this point of development, the students were

aware of and used many conventions, for example, dedications, chapters, and table of

contents.

50

For third grade children, Calkins (1986) found that the texts were focused, personal

narratives using a chaining of events, but they couldn't decide when to use detailed

information or dialogue to expand the text. Instead, they would persist with one mode and

overuse dialogue, descriptions, or sound effects in large chunks of text They couldn't

make the transition back to narrative.

In the upper elementary years, Calkins (1986) believes that children have

internalized the writing process and then have the ability to move "easily between the

vertical and the horizontal dimensions of the story" to elaborate on a chain of events, shift

from one time frame to another, weave dialogue into the text, and to shift perspectives (p.

97).

Clay (1990) noted a development similar to that which Sowers (1985) found in first

grade children. They use the inventory principle in generating lists of what they know as

in "all about or attribute" books. She also found the propensity to use a pattern when

writing. This pattern-making involves the use of two principles which Clay (1990) has

identified as the recurring and flexibility principles. The child can flexibly generate new

statements in an inventive way by substituting words within recurring grammatical

structures, such as This is . . . or I like___

Along with patterned stories, many children wanted to recopy stories. Clay

believes that copied and repetitive stories offer practice in use of the concepts of print and

limited thought to the creative aspects of the text Clay theorizes that children can give

attention "either to the visual and spatial aspects of the product or to the language aspects

but not to both" at this point in their development (1990, p. 54).

When children progress from the repetitive patterned texts, they encounter more

risks of errors in grammar, meaning, and spacing (Clay, 1990). Clay notes that errors are

interesting because they signal a forward movement to gain control of a new facet of

51

writing and that help is needed, perhaps as Vygotsky (1978) has noted in the zone o f

proximal development.

Dyson (1989) discusses the developmental aspects of text but never in isolation

from the classroom community and social interaction. She notes the multiple worlds

children negotiate and how they inter-weave their drawing, talk, and writing. Insightfully,

she acknowledges the distinctive personality of each child which effects the composing

process and interaction with others. However, she offers no obvious sequence of

development of text In trying to glean a sequence, one can lift some information by noting

the changes across time of the individual case studies.

While sifting through information on the textual level only, one discovers that some

of her case studies could not write and dictation was taken for them, but at the same time

they could purposely and creatively express themselves through drawing and talk about the

events occurring in the drawing. She also shared the development of drawing in the area of

detail and sequential events which expressed the beginnings of the concept of story.

Comparing the dictated text to the talk, physical movement, and gestures which

accompanied the comp>osing process, she found that the actual text was not as rich. The

early dictations tended to be present tense descriptions of the illustrations. Interestingly,

the case studies at this level never discussed their texts with others, nor did they seek

approval from their friends. Some even covered their journals with their arms.

When a child no longer viewed picture descriptions as stories, "planning these

stories became problematic" (Dyson, 1989, p. 84). Somewhere in this time frame,

children desired to write their own texts rather than permitting an adult to take dictation.

Then the chore of encoding became the focus, rather than the message (Dyson, 1989;

Graves, 1982). The composing process tended to be audible mumbling with phonological

analysis and a solo event. Interaction with adults about the text was generally only solicited

52

for assistance with spelling. The interactions with peers dealt only with the content of their

drawings and related topics. Dyson believes this occurrence is due to the meaning of the

drawing being more accessible to peers than the text

Dyson also noted that some children used repetitive patterns "to ease the writing

task" (1989, p. 103) but did not place this phenomenon in any sequence of development

(1989, p. 103), except to comment that "repetition also made drawing before writing

unnecessary.. . " (p. 157). However, she does state that the most dramatic changes as

composers occurred in the nature of their talk during composing. She found over time that

they began to negotiate the boundaries between the symbolic and social worlds to embed

the "text worlds more firmly within their experienced worlds.. . " (Dyson, 1989, p. 104).

When this change occurred, the authors began to employ dialogue and past tense in their

texts, and some even used a future time frame.

Dyson reported three major changes within one case study after the boy was able to

compose his own text The first change was when the text began to take dominance over

the illustrations. Later, a change occurred when the boy began to incorporate bits of his

rich oral narratives, which earlier had accompanied his drawings, into the text. Lastly, by

the end of second grade, he had developed a global plan for a brief adventure story and a

"sense of moving through narrative time" (1989, p. 170),

Another case study went through a period of development where all texts drew

from personal experience and relationships and were mainly describing the drawings with a

few affective comments, such as "sometimes I love him [my baby brother] but not always"

(Dyson, 1989, p. 247).

Yet another case study whose texts were more advanced used much dialogue and

gave insights into the characters personalities and thoughts. His texts also had a strong

sense of story, seemingly influenced by the fairy tales read by the teacher.

53

Applebee's (1976) research offers many insights in the development of a sense or

concept of story. He notes that the details of a story must relate to the topic. The details

must be chained (relating one to another) and centered (relating to the same character,

problem, or issue). Gaining mastery over the use of these is a gradual process for

children. His research identified a six-step phase of development.

Drawing parallels to the studies of Vygotsky (1962) in concept development,

Applebee (1976) used some of the same terms to describe what children do when orally

telling a story. Vygotsky labeled the first stage as heaps when children heaped up blocks to

demonstrate groupings. Applebee found that the earliest story structure, heaps, used a

free-association list with no links from one sentence to another or centering, almost a

stream of conscious writing. These stories labeled heaps were similar to what Calkins

noted in the "all about" books which were list-like and shared a common attribute.

The next phase, based on Vygotsky's second major phase of concept development

of complexes, Applebee en\x\ltà sequences. He found that these stories told by children

had a nucleirs to which statements were linked by a shared attribute and were also linked by

a superficial sequence in time. These stories labeled sequences were similar to what

Calkins noted in the all about books which were list-like and shared a common attribute,

except no superficial sequence was evidenced.

Next the primitive narrative appeared in which the parts of the story were

developed from the initial situation and the bonds were complementary, centering on a

character or event

Then the unfocused chain narrative evolved in which more events were added and

the "incidents lead from one to another, but the attributes which link(ed) them continue(d)

to shift" causing the story to lose its point and direction (Applebee, 1976, p. 64).

54

By age five, over half of the stories told in Applebee's research used focused

chains, similar to Calkins bed-to-bed\xxks. Vygotsky (1962) noted that pseudoconcepts

are used prior to the final development of a concept Applebee drew a parallel to what he

found in a pseudoconcept of story through which children could use chaining and centering

of a continuing adventure similar to a soap opera in the phase of focused chains prior to

their ability to use true narrative elements.

Finally, children achieved the level of a true concept of story in the form of a

narrative. He found there was "an expansion of the centering of the focused chain to

include links based on complementary attributes" (p. 65). This final phase of narrative

Applebee believed was the foundation which permitted complex structures of writing to

develop.

Applebee's framework for identifying the concept of story may tend to carry a

literate bias, in that his literature review and subjects take into account the development of

story from a white Euro-American culture. Sarah Michaels (1986) found in her research in

a culturally diverse classroom that black children's oral storytelling tradition takes on a

different form. Rather than chaining their stories in a sequential style, black children used a

topic-associating form which carefully skirted around the topic.

With topic-associating, black children told stories in which series of segments or

episodes were implicitly linked to a topic or person, but there were no explicit lexical or

syntactic markers to indicate when they would shift topics or even relate two topics.

Instead, the shifts were made with various intonations and pauses different from those used

by white Euro-American children in phrasing. Frequently, these children were

misunderstood and interrupted because the teacher misinterpreted the pitch and intonation

of their voice or pauses as signals for ending. Therefore the concept of story must take into

account children's cultural traditions of oral language.

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Even though children may demonstrate in their writing an understanding of

narrative, they can revert to earlier forms of writing, dependent upon the context and the

genre of the writing task (Strickland & Feeley, 1991; Dyson, 1989; Harste et al., 1984).

Sulzby et al. (1989) have noted from their research that developmental progressions appear

to be somewhat transient Children often move back and forth in a recursive fashion across

the forms of writing. For instance, Sulzby et al. (1989) found that a child composing a

complicated piece of writing will revert to lower forms of scribbling or drawing. Dyson

(1989) also found that children reverted to earlier forms when confronted with a new topic

in which they couldn't draw from their repetitive patterns of vocabulary and syntax

developed through stories based on the same theme.

Although children may revert to more primitive levels of writing, their drawings

and scribbles carry meaning. For example, frequently children can finger point along a line

of scribbles or letter strings to reread a meaningful text (Sulzby, 1991). Harste et al.

(1984) shared that Alison could reread the story she wrote comprised of reshuffled letters

of her name. The story was about her daddy coming home and taking her to McDonald's

for a Fun Meal. Even months later with only minor variations, she reread the same basic

text from the jumbled letters of her name.

Another aspect of rereading meaningful texts from scribbles, drawings, and letter

strings is the function of the language being used. King (1980) found that the rereading of

early forms of writing were dialogic and later the rereading moved to a more prose-like,

textual form.

The dialogic form of language has been categorized by Halliday (1973) as

interpersonal language. He identified three major functions of children's early language

use - interpersonal, relating to communicating with others; ideational, allowing the speaker

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to embody his world experiences and internal consciousness in language; and textual,

referring to the resources of language to create cohesive texts.

Young writers begin with interpersonal language using a conversational style of

writing and rereading. Gradually, after internalizing concepts of story structures (syntax

and semantics) and story-book language, children progress in their retellings of stories,

their dictated stories, and their own texts to "ideational” language (King, 1980). King and

Rentel (1981) found that "textual" language was used to develop cohesive texts, for the

most part, by the beginning of second grade.

King and Rentel (1981) studied cohesion in children's writing using categories

developed by Halliday and Hasan (1976). The five categories they found in the writings of

the first and second grade children they observed were: the use of "reference,"

"substitution," "ellipsis, " "conjunction," and "lexical patterning." Within the area of

"reference" (items which refer to something mentioned elsewhere in the text), there are

three general types: personal reference (various forms of personal pronouns and their

possessives), demonstrative reference (demonstrative pronouns and the), and comparative

reference (comparative adjectives and quantifiers, such as more, bigger,eic.).

"Substitution," which allows an item to stand for an omitted phrase or clause, was so

rarely used that they omitted it from their statistical analysis. "Ellipsis," which omits

elements from a sentence requiring the reader to recall previous statements, rarely occurred

except in the dialogue of dictated stories. The fourth aspect of cohesion they identified,

"conjunction," which specifies the ways things are connected, was subdivided further

into: additive (and, thus, etc.), adversative (but, yet, however, etc.), causal (so, then,

therefore, etc.); and temporal (then, next, soon, etc.). The final category was "lexis or

lexical renaming and patterning," where the choice of vocabulary brings cohesion through

reiteration and collocation

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Researchers have looked at many aspects of children's texts to ascertain the

conceptual grapplings along the way and to understand the evolving changes which

demonstrate further understandings and produce better texts.

Summary

The purpose of this chapter is to bring into focus relevant literature which grounded

the inquiry. Each of the seven areas of research offers a foundational structure to inform

and guide the co-investigators in understanding writing development.

The first body of literature, child development theories, is pertinent to the research

in regards to the learning environment which the teacher/researcher, Robin, created to

permit children to actively construct their knowledge in the writing process. This literature

also informs the study in regards to the cognitive processing involved in understanding

concepts, consolidation of knowledge, and internalization of a concept for automatic use.

The tenets of Vygotsky's theories are important to highlight the social facilitation of

development in conceptual understandings with assistance from an adult or more capable

peer.

The second body of literature, social interaction and collaboration within the writing

process, further informs the inquiry with relevant information other researchers have

offered regarding the value of peer and adult interaction for all phases of the writing

process, prewriting through publication. Peers and adults play an important role in

children's understandings of the use of written language and in understanding the concepts

within the writing process. Also, freedom of movement and interaction with other authors

as described by the researchers appears to facilitate progress.

The third body of literature notes the important role children's literature plays in

linguistic and literacy development Hearing quality books read and interacting with an

58

adult about the text enhances linguistic development and knowledge of written language

registers. Other researchers note that reading aloud quality books to children helps develop

a knowledge base for emergent literacy in the areas of vocabulary, book handling skills,

thinking skills for interacting about a story, concepts about print, a sense of story, a

beginning sight vocabulary, and beginning sound-to-symbol correspondences.

The fourth body of literature draws from studies of oral language acquisition and

informs the co-investigators of the parallels which can be drawn to literacy acquisition.

Researchers found that children are predisposed as meaning-makers to develop their

language and cognitive abilities simultaneously. This literature also brings an awareness of

the varying levels of language development that children bring to the classroom and how

this development can be correlated to literacy development

The fifth body of literature incorporates many studies of emergent literacy which

trace children's reading and writing behaviors from their earliest attempts to beginning

understandings of sound-to-symbol correspondences. Many children enter first grade at

early levels of emergent literacy. Understandings of these early behaviors assisted the co

investigators in bridging the gap in research between emergent literacy and conventional

reading and writing.

The sixth body of literature informs the study for isolating the varied conceptual

understandings involved within the process of creating a text. As the literature discloses,

children come to first grade with a wide range of understandings in reading and writing.

This knowledge base helped to identify the continua and shape the incremental

progressions in the areas of alphabetic principle, concept of word, and invented spelling.

The seventh body of literature highlights research which examines and analyzes

textual development Taking into consideration the many different aspects of texts

examined by the researchers, such as, cohesion, focus, chaining, and different genres with

59

their respective structural elements, allowed the co-investigators to organize the interplay of

the numerous elements into incremental progressions along a continuum.

These readings offer many insights to guide the larger study, but they also raise

many questions which pique the co-investigators' curiosity. Thus, the analysis of the data

will involve the pursuit of extending knowledge within domains where other studies

stopped or where further research could perhaps fill in the "holes" of existing theories.

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this study was to explore patterns in children's writing development

over a yearlong inquiry in a first grade classroom which offered rich literacy experiences.

The co-investigators hoped to provide through the study understandings which would

prove to be useful for classroom teachers in discerning multiple and diverse conceptual

understandings that children must grapple with and internalize in writing development. The

delineation of multiple continua to convey progress in conceptual understandings for

mapping development and for drawing relationships among the various concepts was

helpful to us as researchers and hopefully for teachers. Not only were we interested in

understanding the progression of various conceptual understandings and their

interconnections, but also, how teachers could support and meet the needs of children to

assist them in their literacy journey.

The research questions lent themselves to an investigation of a more naturalistic

inquiry where there was no fixed treatment/outcome emphasis, but rather an emphasis on

process (Patton, 1990). In the day-to-day complexities of the classroom, the inquiry was

able to accommodate change and to note important individual differences and needs.

To capture the essence of the needs and thereby support the process, we were not

simply observers but participants who actively tried to meet the needs of children in the

developmental process of writing. Because of the desire to understand and to participate,

we as teacher-researchers had difficulty in grounding the inquiry in a particular paradigm -

60

61

the paradigmatic waters were muddied. But as Miles and Huberman (1984) note,

"epistemological purity doesn't get the research done" (p. 188).

Thus, in a postpositivist fashion, we employed a paradigmatic blend which drew

from two disparate research/knowledge traditions. In identifying the major

research/knowledge traditions, Habermas (1970) reviewed the various cognitive interests

which generate research goals and found three major categories ~ to predict and control, to

understand, and to emancipate. Taking these research goals into consideration, we chose

the goals "to understand" and "to emancipate."

From the epistemological stance "to understand," we grounded ourselves in the

ethnographic paradigm to understand what occurs and the meanings people make of

phenomena through dialogic relationships (McCutcheon, 1990). The conversations and

interactions of children with each other and with adults, as well as the continuous

discussions of the co-researchers assisted understandings. Bakhtin (1953) states that

"language lies on the borderline between oneself and the other," so that words are always,

"half someone else's" (p. 376).

From the epistemological stance "to emancipate," we grounded ourselves in the

collaborative and action research paradigms through which teachers (both university and

public school) collaborate to uncover restricting limits of the status quo (curriculum) and

arm themselves with that knowledge to implement change. Oldroyd and Tiller ( 1987)

believe that "collaborative action research offers peer and outside support for a more

systematic approach to these goals and more importantly a way of collectively surmounting

the institutional barriers which inhibit change" (p. 25). The re-orientation focus of this type

of research has the power through the process to transform curriculum and participants,

both students and investigators (Lather, 1986b; McCutcheon, 1990; Nielsen, 1990).

62

Searching for a research framework which blended these paradigms and fit our

needs, the research studies of Kelly (1985) in simultaneous-integrated action research

(SIAR) were found to be a helpful model. SIAR has been used extensively in

organizational research and was refined by Huit and Lennung (1980) to include the

following components:

( 1.) simultaneously assists in practical problem solving and expands scientific knowledge;

(2.) as well as enhances the competencies of the respective actors;

(3.) being performed collaboratively;

(4.) in an immediate situation;

(5.) using data feedback in a cyclical process;

(6.) aimed at increased understanding of a given social situation;

(7.) primarily applicable for the understanding of change processes in social systems;

(8.) and undertaken within a mutually acceptable ethical framework.

All of the components of simultaneous-integrated action research permit the

weaving of the action and the research with respect to the collaboration of the investigators

as well as the students. Retrospectively, we find that this model which assisted our ingress

to the research process is still pertinent and viable.

First, the collaborative action research process did assist us in practical problem

solving as we daily made hypotheses and drew conclusions for the action we needed to

implement and support children's progress. Likewise, the process assisted the acquisition

of scientific knowledge as we daily gained new insights into the writing process and began

to identify the diverse continua of conceptual development. The second, third, fourth, and

fifth components can be quickly confirmed and summed up in this statement — as

respective actors, gaining in competencies of teaching and gaining new theoretical insights.

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we needed to discuss continuously and collaboratively what we had observed and in a

cyclical fashion go back to test our hypotheses and then reconvene. The sixth component

of understanding the social situation occurred through observations and interactions with

children during the writing process within the context of a social writing workshop

environment. Accompanying these understandings was the desire to meet the needs of the

children through individual or group conferences which fulfilled the seventh component of

changing the social system. Lastly, the research was undertaken within a mutually

acceptable ethical framework in that the dissertation researcher was the outsider who

desired to assist but not disrupt or interfere with normal classroom procedures. This goal

was achieved and as co-researchers, we are still actively engaged in discussions about

writing development and intend to collaborate in future writings of articles for publication.

Throughout the discussion of this inquiry, the dissertation researcher will carefully

identify in this text which aspects of the research were jointly accomplished by using the

"we" voice and which aspects were solely the responsibility of the dissertation researcher

or teacher by using the "I" voice or the name Robin, respectively.

A Priori Theory Based on Earlier Pilot Studies

Pilot Study I (1986-871

The groundwork for formulating the research questions of this study was laid

during an earlier study in which the primary investigator was employed as a coordinator.

In 1985, two professors. Dr. Allan Dittmer and Dr. Lynn Johnson, from The Ohio

State University at Mansfield received research funding from the National Council of

Teachers of English and the Matsushita Foundation. They investigated the effectiveness of

using school-based and home-based computers with selected software in language arts

64

activities, specifically the writing process. The subjects were third grade students from six

low SES classrooms where traditionally a great many students had scored in the lower

percentiles of the reading sections on the Stanford Achievements Tests.

Two control groups in one elementary school were asked to save one writing

sample per month for each child but received no computers or assistance from graduate

teaching assistants.

Two experimental groups in another elementary school, each with two computers

per room and one-half day assistance of a graduate research assistant, selected one writing

sample each month for each child.

Two other experimental groups in a third elementary building, each with two

computers per room and one-half day assistance of a graduate research assistant, selected

one writing sample per month. One other variable was added to the second set of

experimental groups. The children in these classrooms who scored in the 36% and below,

and who had not been retained the previous year were given Apple lie computers and

software (word processing and problem solving) to use in their homes for seven months.

The design was experimental and quantifiable measures were used. However, the

qualitative data of the study were not analyzed by the researchers.

The two graduate research assistants, who worked with the children at two

computers in a comer of the classroom, kept reflective journals with nightly entries. As the

coordinator, I supervised the GRA'S work and assisted them in decisions regarding

curriculum and also made home visits to discuss the program and assist the twenty children

and their families who had computers in their homes.

Each time 1 visited the classrooms, I took observational field notes regarding the

interactions of the children with the GRA'S and retrospective notes of our meetings and

discussions. After two months, we found many of the children needed more sophisticated

65

word processing software, that the types of interactions with the GRA'S and their peers

were changing, and that different strategies were needed for spelling and mechanics. These

third grade children had never written before except for basal workbooks and handwriting

tasks; consequently, the metamorphosis we observed in the writing products was

considerable.

After a few months, the GRA'S and I began to note the developmental nature of

writing. We saw distinct groups of children with similar cognitive and affective traits who

required particular kinds of interaction and specific curricular needs.

Throughout the remainder of the year, the GRA'S and I discussed the progress of

the children in regard to their developmental writing needs, both cognitive and affective.

Whenever something confirmed our beliefs or shed new light on the process, I

encouraged the GRA'S to reflect on this in their journals.

After the research project was completed and statistical analysis drawn from Fall

and Spring Stanford Achievement Test scores, as well as holistic scoring of the monthly

subjects' writing samples, I began analyzing the GRA's journals and mine. During the

second reading, I jotted on 3 x 5 note cards the important occurrences, noting the date,

page number, and the author. Next I tried placing the cards in groups by time frames

where changes in progress occurred in children's writing. This grouping held true for

some groups of children, but far too many individuals didn't fit the designated categories in

any meaningful way.

Beginning the third reading with a new hypothesis, I decided to follow specific

children's progress through our field notes and their writing portfolios. Patterns began to

emerge (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982) based on curricular needs, which generated my first

tentative coding categories. During this stage, I reread the journals many times and added

more cards which began to shape the emergent theory (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

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After more months of reading portfolios and journals and playing with categories,

four children with varying levels of development were selected and studied in-depth.

Finally, five distinct stages of development emerged from this yearlong study of third grade

low SES children.

Each stage was given a title which characterized the students' focus at that point in

time. Then the stages were further subdivided into three subcategories which offered

descriptions of the children's writing, the type of interaction and social structure required,

and the curricular needs.

Pilot Study II (1989)

During the summer of 1989, two professors from The Ohio State University at

Mansfield were granted funding for research in conjunction with the Mansfield City

Schools to work with adult illiterates in a program using computers. The program was

very similar to the previous third grade Matsushita Literacy Grant, except for the additional

attempt to use adult easy-readers which were used in the City Schools' on-going adult

program. The adults were very frustrated with the controlled-vocabulary readers and made

much more progress through the language experience activity of rereading what they had

dictated to a teacher, and later their own typed texts.

Even though the duration of the program was only eight weeks, I found through

my observations and field notes that adults were going through similar stages of

development which I had witnessed with third graders. In discussions with the teachers at

this center, they confirmed my observations and beliefs.

This experience further confirmed my emergent theory that beginning writers

struggled with common conceptual understandings and that the progress seemed to be

somewhat linear. This brief study of writing development sparked my interest to look

67

more closely at writing development to assist teachers in understandings to support

children's and adults' progress.

Pilot Study III (1991)

During Winter Quarter of 1991,1 conducted another pilot study to ascertain what

methodology would illicit the most informed data.

As coordinator of a teacher internship at OSU, Mansfield, entry into a first grade

classroom was easily gained. An intern had been placed in the teacher's classroom for the

past two years, and from the Internship seminars the teacher was informed of current

theories regarding the writing process. She welcomed my research interests, collaborated

fully, and offered her classroom for future research.

Throughout the seven week study, I visited the classroom twice a week and tested

various techniques of data collection, including a grounded survey of teacher beliefs. Each

subsequent visit refined the process and also confirmed my desire to understand better the

process of writing development.

During the first pilot study as noted earlier, I speculated about writing development

and tentatively noted five stages with three very broad categories. However, in this third

pilot study, some disconfirming evidence (Lather, 1986; Erickson, 1986) surfaced which

made me aware that stages would be much too broad to demonstrate the varying abilities of

children's progress within differing areas of conceptual understanding. I was perplexed as

to how I could ever organize such a vast undertaking to offer evidence to a reader of the

varying levels of progress of individuals and also the recursiveness of the process which

kept surfacing. The disconfirming evidence spurred me to read more research articles in

search of a more appropriate format of displaying evidence.

6 8

During this period of time, I reread my notes from a doctoral class the previous

quarter to recall comments made by the distinguished visiting/teaching professor. Dr. Marie

Clay (Autumn Quarter class notes 1991) from New Zealand. She stated that teachers need

to be aware that children's learning is a self-extending and self-correcting system as they

strive to gain inner control. Also, she commented on the fallacy of stage theories which

engender sudden shifts and leaps while in fact learning should be viewed from multiple

perspectives of continua of development. The idea of multiple continua of learning was the

seed for fertile ground for this dissertation study. I began to nurture ideas for displaying

conceptual understandings and noting progress in writing development.

Research Sites

Access to the Sites

Adm inistration

"Walking into a community cold can have a chilling effect on ethnographic

research" (Fetterman, 1989, p. 43). This was not the case when I requested permission to

do my dissertation research in the Lexington School District. In 1962, after 12 years of

schooling, I received my high school diploma from this school system. Also, for the past

five years I had placed nine interns with master teachers in three elementary buildings

within the district.

In discussing with the elementary principal my research interests to collaborate with

one of their teachers, he said, "Sure. Whatever you want to do." Then I explained the type

of research, the length of my stay, and the involvement of his teacher. He responded,

"Sounds good. What do we need to do? Do we need permission slips?" From years of

69

collaboration and mutual trust, gaining entree from the official gatekeepers (Lincoln &

Guba, 1985) was easily procured.

Next a letter of official entry was written by the superintendent and consent forms

were sent home with the children. All parents agreed to their children's inclusion in the

research project and for selected case studies.

Co-investigators

The classroom teacher I selected to be my co-investigator was Robin Bacquet. The

same person who had allowed me to test Pilot Study III. Robin is a continuous learner and

a reflective practitioner who was eager to investigate her students' learning and her own

practice (Erickson, 1985). During the previous two years, 1989-91, Robin had accepted

OSU interns in her first grade classroom. Due to her participation in the Internship

program. Internship seminars, and graduate classes at OSU, she was familiar with current

research and theoretical applications of the writing process.

Robin used a whole language approach to literacy with many sources of good

children's literature and many occasions for children to write. She was enrolled in the

graduate school of The Ohio State University pursuing a Master's degree in education with

a focus on reading. A lengthier discussion of her educational philosophy and the

environment she created is included in Chapter Four, "Analysis at the Macro Level: The

Classroom Context."

During our years of involvement in the Internship as I supervised interns, we had

developed a warm collaborative relationship and a mutual trust. From reflecting on practice

with the interns, taking graduate classes together, observing her teaching, sharing insights

of pedagogy, and brainstorming ways to help children, I had gained a "sense of the

perspective of the informant" (Erickson, 1985, p. 142)). In our discussions of the research

70

process, I shared my intent that this would be a team research effort whereby co

investigators jointly frame research questions, collect data, and confirm and disconfirm the

emerging theories (Erickson, 1985).

School Population

Lexington Local Schools have a rich socioeconomic cross-section of students from

suburban Mansfield to the small farms in the rolling hills. The students come from

professional, wealthy developments to countryside trailer parks to small farms. Due to this

broad cross-section, the students have had diverse home backgrounds in relation to their

literacy foundation. The enrollment for grades K -12 is 2,743. Approximately 98% of the

children are Caucasian with the remaining 2% coming from the professional community

which comprise diverse ethnic groups of African-American, Japanese, Indian, Egyptian,

and Iranian. In the elementary years, children in this district are heterogeneously grouped.

Classroom Participants and Case Study Participants

I entered the classroom to observe the students on September 26,1991 during the

writing workshop and until the net was closed for the selection of the case studies on

October 24,1 collected data on all the students in Robin's first grade classroom. During the

preliminary month, I felt that I gained the trust of the students and that they welcomed my

pulling up a chair alongside their desks to observe and interact with them. In this time

frame, I began to notice and record student's strengths and weaknesses in the writing

process.

On October 24, after six weeks of school, Robin felt she could come to a final

decision regarding which six students would be most appropriate for the categories I had

identified for "purposeful sampling" (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982) as two struggling writers.

71

two average writers, and two advanced writers. In September, she identified fifteen

students, five per category, and then eventually narrowed the field through her anecdotal

notes and observations. Fetterman (1989) notes that an initial "big net" approach is needed

to insure that the researchers don't close the net "prematurely, thus eliminating perhaps the

very people or subjects relevant to the study" (p. 43).

However, by midway in the year, Robin wished she had included a particular girl,

Jessica, whose texts, as well as those of the case studies, displayed development which

greatly assisted us in categorizing a sense of story and textual development. Throughout

the year, Robin continued collecting anecdotal information regarding this girl's writing

development, and shared her findings in our meetings.

Also, another child, Matthew, who desperately wanted to be a case study, and who

never knew he wasn't, made sure that 1 saw every text he wrote. Throughout the research

project, 1 was available to all the children for spelling assistance, praise, and a listening ear.

Robin and 1 didn't want any child to feel as though he was slighted simply because of our

research agenda for observing six case studies. Consequently, my observations and field

notes were constantly interrupted, but tlie exchanges with the student body kept me

grounded in a more global perspective of writing development which 1 recorded in my field

notes. Due to the many interactions with children other than the case studies, 1 needed

more time in the field and averaged four days a week of observation rather than my original

plan of two or three days in the field for the yearlong study.

The six case study participants whom Robin selected are listed with their age as of

September 1991 and a brief description which she supplied of each child upon entering her

classroom in the Autumn:

72

(1.) Jeffrey (6.3 yrs.) — He is a developmentally young child who was recommended for kindergarten retention, but the parents wouldn't consent His oral language is similar to Üiat of a four year old, and he has difficulties with the r sound in his speech which becomes aw sound somewhat like "baby talk." He's a very happy, busy child who needs lots of special attention. He's enrolled in Chapter I reading. I ranked him 21 out of the 23 children in reading abilities and 19 out of 23 in writing abilities during Autumn Quarter.

(2.) Bart (6.4 yrs.) — He is another developmentally young child who can't sit in his seat. He is generally on the floor or playing in his desk with a toy. He has attention problems and needs constant reminders to stay on task. He is somewhat withdrawn and doesn't interact much with other children. He's enrolled in Chapter I reading. I ranked him 22 out of the 23 children in reading abilities and 22 out of 23 in writing abilities during Autumn Quarter.

(3.) Jay (6.9 yrs.) — He is an average child who is very capable if he isn't distracted by friends. He is a happy boy who loves to tease the girls.I ranked him 10 out of the 23 children in reading abilities and 11 out of 23 in writing abilities during Autumn Quarter.

(4.) Ashley (6.1 yrs.) -- She is an average child who is your typical hearts, flowers, and rainbows girl. She is a social butterfly and very curious about other children's thoughts and reactions. I ranked her 7 out of the 23 children in reading abilities and 9 out of 23 in writing abilities during Autumn Quarter.

(5.) Stephanie (6.3 yrs.) — She is a very capable child but young in her demeanor, still sucks her thumb. All the girls are attracted to her and want to be her friend. She is rather quiet but giggles a lot with her friends. I ranked her 2 out of 23 children in reading abilities and 3 out of 23 in writing abilities during Autumn Quarter.

(6.) Michelle (7.3 yrs.)- -She is an extremely capable child. She is shy and very quiet but friendly and enjoys watching other children but doesn't care to get involved in their activities. She is always on task and often continues on a project for days. I ranked her 6 out of the 23 children in reading and first out of 23 in writing during Autumn Quarter.

More information regarding Robin's assessment of the children in their reading,

writing, and spelling abilities and their respective rankings will be shared in Chapter IV,

"Analysis at the Macro Level; The Classroom Context."

73

All of the data for the six case studies along with Robin's data collected for Jessica

was analyzed and contributed to the development of the multiple continua of writing

development that emerged from this study. However, only three case studies were selected

for the discussion purposes of this dissertation. Due to the length of the data collection

period, a yearlong longitudinal study, and the depth of description, three case studies, one

from each level identified was judged adequate. The final decision to select which three for

the write-up was a difficult decision. Each child had a unique story which begged to be

told. However, in the final decision Jeffrey was selected as a case study representing a low

level of writing development because Bart had been identified during Spring Quarter as a

learning disabled child with a short attention span and was undergoing treatment with

Ritalin. For a child of average writing abilities, Ashely was selected since she remained in

the average range throughout the year while Jay dropped to a moderately low range.

Michelle was selected over Stephanie because she remained the child who wrote at the

highest levels.

Data Sources

The research methods were selected for two major purposes in eliciting data. First,

using Bogdan’s and Biklen's (1985) modified version of analytic induction, our methods

were used to confirm and disconfirm the rough and inadequate definitions and explanations

of the a priori theory gained through the previous pilot studies. Secondly, our methods

elicited an awareness or a "conscientization, knowing reality in order to better transform it"

(Lather, 1986a, p. 67) of what curricular choices are appropriate to meet individual needs

and assist development.

74

As Robin and I gathered data and discussed our findings, we disregarded the a

priori theory. We had decided in advance not to allow the earlier framework that I had

developed to influence or color our appreciation and understandings of individual progress

in writing development. My knowledge base from research articles, pedagogical books,

and graduate class discussions of pertinent writing theory had played an important role in

developing the a priori theory and continued to do so. My knowledge base as well as

Robin's, continued to influence us throughout the research. As we encountered a fresh

incident we applied current writing theories and discussed whether our findings confirmed

or disconfirmed what other researchers had found. Likewise the a priori theory influenced

us in the same way as we confirmed or disconfirmed what we recalled. However, never

did we or have we yet looked at the earlier organizational chart of writing development

which was generated from the pilot studies. The earlier research was simply a stepping

stone which assisted in grounding our theory.

Theories began to emerge which were far different from the a priori theory and

which took into account multiple realities (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) of various conceptual

understandings in writing development. These theories were continuously modified to fit

all new facts and, also, the breadth of the theories had to be limited and restricted to narrow

the scope of the study.

Approaching research as praxis (Lather, 1988), we observed carefully children's

needs in regards to their conceptual understanding in writing, changed the curriculum to

meet the needs, and offered assistance to encourage children's progress in writing

development. Throughout the process, we took care to document all the changes,

assistance, and evidence through our varied, multiple, and over-lapping data sources to

ground our theory (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

75

We functioned as "human data-gathering instruments" for "tacit (intuitive, felt)

knowledge in addition to propositional knowledge (knowledge expressible in language

form)" through collaborative forums and reflexive journals (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 40).

We were aware of the strengths of the human instrument to process tacit knowledge

through our lens but also aware of weaknesses. To strengthen the trustworthiness we were

engaged in prolonged engagement of a full year, persistent daily observation, triangulation,

member checks in our forums, a reflexive journal, and peer debriefing.

Time Frame

Data collection for Robin began the first day of school, September 3,1991 and for

me, September 26 and concluded for both of us on the last day of the school year, June 6,

1992. The final net was closed for selection of the case study participants on October 24

when Robin announced the list.

Data collection was divided into quarterly time frames concurrent during 1991-92

with my Ohio State University graduate teaching assignment in the OSU Psycho-

educational Reading Clinic which was useful for my scheduling purposes. However, the

public school year is considerably longer and with the constraints imposed by my time

frame, rather than the use of public school nine-week assessment periods, I inadvertently

created an imbalance in the quarterly amounts of data collected. Autumn Quarter spanned a

thirteen week period which produced considerably more data than the ten weeks of Winter

Quarter, and Spring Quarter with the many interruptions of assemblies, field trips, and

sports days actually generated the least amount of data.

After data collection in June 1992 a greater review of the literature was undertaken

and a preliminary review of the literature was written by February 1992. Analysis of the

data was ongoing during this time period with continuous member checks by Robin. From

76

March of 1993 until the final documentation of this project, I continued studying pertinent

literature as further coding occurred. The final write-up began in March of 1993 and

ended in September of 1993. The entire research project from the entry into the classroom

until the printing of the final document spanned two years.

Each data source which follows includes a consideration of usefulness, description,

and the frequency of occurrence.

Participant Observation

Participant observers "write culture" (Denzin, 1989). "They do not simply record

an objective reality that is 'out there.' They create, through their ethnographic practices, the

worlds that they study and then write about" (Denzin, 1989, p. 156). Denzin's comments

summarized our desire as researchers.

With a praxis of research intent, the co-investigators recorded as best they could

their observations, their interactions with students, and their pedagogical decisions in

meeting the needs of the students as they progressed in their writing development.

As interactive participant observers, we developed "relationships with the subjects

such that they served as both respondents and informants" (Denzin, 1989, p. 162). During

the first month, my observations involved minimal participation and interaction to permit

investigation at the macro level of the full range of instructional settings which fostered

writing as well as the context and types of social interaction. Several times during the

months of Autumn Quarter, I observed the entire school day to get a feel and appreciation

of the full integration of language arts across the curriculum.

At the same time observing at the micro level, I began studying individual students

whom Robin noted as possible case study participants. After narrowing the possibilities

and the final closing of the net, I began active participant observation. Simon and Dippo

77

(1986) discuss the idea that ethnographic data is not "found" but "produced" through the

social and collaborative interactions of the researcher and the researched. Considerable

interaction and collaboration among the co-investigators and the children occurred within

the scope of this study.

Field Notes

Recording the ongoing experiences was accomplished through field notes for me

and for Robin through her anecdotal records on 3 x 5 cards during the workshop and

through what she recalled after the workshop and shared with me. Three out of four days,

the children went to recess or out of the classroom to specials after the writing workshop so

that Robin and I could immediately share on an informal basis what we had observed. On

these occasions, I took notes of what Robin and I discussed and included them in my

nightly transcriptions of my field notes. The nightly transcriptions became more of a

reflexive journal. The field notes remained in tact, but also included in my transcriptions

were further analysis as I reflected on the observations and our discussions (See Appendix

A).

Also included in my transcriptions were notes from the monthly forums which were

audio taped.

Forums

Monthly forums for the co-investigators were scheduled throughout the school

year. Weekly, informal discussions were ongoing, and those concerns and thoughts which

were of primary interest at the time were either placed on the agenda for the next monthly

forum or if the concern was urgent and required immediate discussion, I would remain in

the building through the lunch hour so we could talk or later in the evening a lengthy phone

78

conversation might take place. Throughout our discussions and forums we desired and

advocated an openness to new and unexpected phenomena (Fetterman, 1989).

As the we become more steeped in data collection and theories emerged, the forums

were facilitated through the use of focus group interviews (OCES, 1987) in which

information was gathered to discern developing patterns and trends. Throughout the

process I encouraged a genuine partnership to collect and discuss data, analyze jointly,

confirm or disconfirm a priori theories Jointly, and nurture emergent theories jointly

(Erickson, 1986). Throughout the venture we advocated reciprocal respect.

These forums, by their very open nature, systematically helped to identify the

dissertation investigator's subjectivity.

Case Studies

The use of case studies was intended to evoke substantive as well as theoretical

conclusions. The substantive focus offered understandings of the classroom dynamics, the

interactions and interpersonal relations of the student and the teacher, the social interaction

of the student with his peers while sharing in the learning process, and the particular

aspects of the curriculum which contributed to writing development. Theoretical

conclusions emerged regarding writing development which continued to confirm and

disconfirm earlier evidence throughout the varied engagements and analyses of the case

studies.

The prolonged engagement and many interactions with case study participants

evoked the "thick description necessary for judgments of transferability" (Lincoln & Cuba,

1985, p. 359). The learning that developed from the relationships and interactions of

teacher/researchers with students offered the experiential data that can assist other teachers

in relating to and identifying with a case study and the context Teachers are practitioners

79

who are "concerned with individuals not aggregates, and for them questions about meaning

and perspective are central and ongoing" (Donmoyer, 1990, p. 32). Case studies can offer

the vicarious experience of an insider's perspective that might be unavailable to a busy

teacher. Through the reading of descriptive data which details student interactions and

discussion/interviews with a researcher, revealing both cognitive as A ell as affective

information, the reader/teacher can view the situation through the lens of the researcher and

sees things he/she may not otherwise have seen. Many insights may be gained which are

useful to his/her practice.

Donmoyer (1990) discusses the belief that case studies are generalizable and

appropriate to education because teachers are interested in and concerned with individual

students.

. . . it no longer makes sense to think of generalizability as synonymous with the use of large samples and statistical procedures designed to insure that the large samples accurately represent the population. In applied fields, such as, education, counseling, and social work — fields concerned with individuals not just aggregates — social science can never provide the sort of certainty envisioned by Thorndike. Even statistically significant findings from studies with huge randomly selected samples can not be applied directly to particular individuals in particular situations; skilled clinicians will always be required to determine whether a research generalization applies to a particular individual, whether the generalization needs to be adjusted to accommodate individual idiosyncrasy, or whether it needs to be abandoned entirely with certain individuals in certain situations (Donmoyer, 1990, p. 9).

Rich, in-depth narratives communicate the contextual information of a

particular setting; develop an understanding of the trustworthiness of the data;

demonstrate the interplay between the investigator and the student to foreground

any biases; and offer real-life, holistic descriptions that build on the reader's tacit

knowledge for a vicarious experience (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 359).

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Documents

Writing portfolios were kept for each student as well as the case study participants

on a quarterly basis. All the children were asked to date and save everything they wrote

and drew, including pieces which were aborted. The first piece of writing for each child

was noted as a benchmark and used for purposes of comparison and contrast for

subsequent samples.

Each weekend two case study folders were taken home, and I typed every text the

subjects had written thus far in two cells, one with the child's invented spelling and along

side in another cell a duplication of the text with conventional spelling. Not only were the

case studies' texts analyzed, but frequently in discussion forums, Robin would note a

similar occurrence with another child she had observed. Then I would take the child's texts

which Robin had shared to analyze and compare with the case study documentation which

assisted in confirmation or disconfirmation of the emerging theories.

Many of the children's texts with the aforementioned format were later moved into

the dissertation and shared in the descriptive analysis of the data. Examples of this format

can be seen throughout Chapter V in the discussion of the case studies. Examining and

analyzing children's written products and art work provided concrete evidence of individual

progress, as well as developmental patterns.

Documentation of a quantitative nature was also kept on a quarterly basis by Robin.

At my request, Robin ranked the children according to their abilities from the highest to the

lowest in the following subject areas: reading, writing, and spelling. Further information

regarding these assessments, rankings, and progress by quarter can be found with greater

explanation in Chapter IV.

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Other documentation was obtained from emergent theories through analysis of the

observational field notes for noting patterns of conceptual understandings, use of cohesive

devices, interactions with adults and peers, and descriptions of the writing process which

accompanied the products or writing samples.

Audio Tapes

The dissertation researcher found in Pilot Study III that field notes were insufficient

when interacting with a case study participant identified as an early developmental writer.

Too much of the researcher's attention had to be devoted to assisting the child in the writing

process, and consequently some of the rich dialogue was lost in retrospective field notes.

Therefore, I decided to audio tape many of the interactions. The tapes did assist at times

with filling in the gaps. However, I discovered that the noise of the writing workshop

made hearing the tapes to transcribe very difficult As I gained in my ability to take better

shorthand records in my field notes, I needed to rely less and less upon listening carefully

to decipher our conversation in the midst of other classroom noise recorded in the tape.

Most of the field audio tapes after the first few months were not transcribed but were used

instead for ongoing analysis and reflection on field notes.

Audio tapes were also made of each co-researcher monthly forum. Pertinent

information from these tapes was lifted and inserted in related portions of ongoing reflexive

typed fields. The field audio tapes proved to be a rich resource for grounding the emergent

theory in dialogic vignettes of the student/teacher and co-researchers for the findings.

82

Ethical Principles

Throughout this methodology chapter, the dissertation researcher has emphasized

the careful consideration of the co-investigator's opinions and feelings. Throughout the

many informal and formal, collaborative forums and sharing of my reflexive journal, Robin

frankly offered her opinions and input. On a monthly basis Robin gave me her 3 x 5

anecdotal records of children's progress and needs which she had documented. I carefully

inserted her comments about each case study and also comments about other children's

creations of texts within the sections of the field notes that discussed a similar textual

development which assisted with confirming or disconfirming evidence. Throughout the

collection of data, the analysis, and write-up, Robin has continued to voice her opinions,

writing in the margins or attaching sheets of paper with her insights into particular

developments that occurred or more rich descriptions from her memories in field and

reflexive notes. Also, she has proofread and offered comments and revisions of rough

drafts for each chapter. Due to her active involvement as a key collaborator, she desires to

have her name used in the dissertation and to remain named in any further published

accounts.

However, regarding identification of the students, pseudonyms were used for each

individual in all reporting. The issue of anonymity was conveyed to the administration, as

well as the parents in the consent form.

Ethical principles were also considered in the choice of teacher/researcher action

research. The incorporation of simultaneous-integrated action research (Kelly, 1985) in its

basic liberatory intent is less "exploitive of the informants" (Spradley, 1979) than some

types of research. Simultaneous-integrated action research involves the informants/co

investigators in each decision-making step of the inquiry process which reduces the

83

communication gap and mistrust which has often developed between teachers and

university researchers (Kelly, 1985).

Analysis of Data

Throughout the yearlong inquiry, analysis was continuous in the field to help focus

and narrow the study, to consider our foundational understandings of the a priori theory

through confirmation and disconfirmation, and to generate formal grounded theory

(Bogdan & Biklen, 1982).

Modified analytic induction (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982) was the approach used for

collecting and analyzing the data for developing theory and testing it As earlier mentioned,

the coinvestigators were interested in both substantive and theoretical conclusions. With a

theoretical focus, we desired to collect data which would permit theory to emerge regarding

how writing understandings develop and at which points in development children deal with

specific conceptual understandings to move them to internalization. With a substantive

focus, we hoped the inquiry would assist in making informed choices in curricular

decisions to assist writing development as well as noting the appropriate and requisite

interactions between the teacher and student or between peers in assisting progress.

The dissertation researcher nightly typed the field notes and reviewed data to

analyze for tentative coding categories to shape the study. The information and knowledge

gained was shared daily with Robin at informal and formal forums and rough explanations

were formulated based on our foundational knowledge of the a priori theory. In these

discussion, Robin offered evidence from her discoveries and learnings which confirmed

and also disconfirmed our emerging theories. Continuously we modified our explanations

with each successive encounter as we actively were seeking discontinuities. Considering

the cases that didn't fit, we redefined the phenomena and reformulated our earlier

84

explanations (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982). Moving "back and forth between the discovery

mode and the verification mode like a 'wave'" (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 266), we

addressed content analysis as the data were collected.

Quantitative evaluative measures were used to keep us grounded in a more global

view of the progress of the class composite. Robin quarterly ranked the children from

high to low in regard to their reading and writing abilities. Then, using the Gillet and

Temple (1982) beginner's features list spelling assessment each quarter and the advanced

feature's list as well for Spring Quarter, the co-investigators ranked the children from high

to low according to their numerical assessment and further subdivided according to their

developmental spelling stages. An in-depth explanation of these assessments and rankings

appears in Chapter IV, "Analysis at the Macro Level: The Classroom Context."

Coding began with simply highlighting in boldface print those key words and

phrases which Robin and I used consistently to describe phenomena. Rereading over and

over the field notes and adding reflexive comments during the first three months revealed

that over thirty categories were identified. Then I had to determine which were most salient

and also which actually were varying levels of the same conceptual understanding. Over

Christmas vacation while prioritizing and sorting out meaningful features, initial data

categories emerged. Throughout the Autumn quarter, data and interpretation of the data

evolved simultaneously, with each informing the other (Wolcott, 1987).

These tentative categories assisted greatly in dealing with the huge quantity of data.

Each case study was kept separate and the field and reflexive typed notes were ordered in a

chronological sequence. If other children were involved in the prewriting or actual

composing process, the interactions were documented if significant and also added to the

cataloging and coding. If another child at a similar developmental level was writing similar

or dissimilar texts or struggled with similar or dissimilar conceptual understandings during

85

the writing process, this information was noted and entered in the same chronological time

frame as the case study which resembled it to tentatively develop patterns.

In sorting the data, the initial categories were very broad. As Robin and I discussed

the observational data, we began to narrow the categories to approximately sixteen with

some subdivisions emerging which noted progress along conceptual continuums to

encompass all aspects of the writing process. Then we realized that our focus for this

study must be limited to offer the depth we wished to describe so further narrowing of the

study to limit the scope of the theory occurred in late spring. Refinement of coding

categories evolved throughout the data collection period. One of the distinct advantages of

qualitative research is "that it can change direction easily and refocus data collection" (Miles

& Huberman, 1984, p. 29).

Axial coding for relationships (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) was used in the post-site

analysis. First, 1 reconsidered the phenomena which had been bold-faced in the field notes

and reread the causal relationships which had been drawn and noted in the reflexive notes.

Also, the contextual data had been included regarding what might have influenced the text

— a read-aloud book, peer discussion about a popular doll, such as, trolls or a movie, such

as, "The Wizard of Oz," as well as any peer interactions which might have assisted the

composing process. All these phenomena, causal relationships, and contextual data were

reconsidered and reanalyzed as categories were verified and levels of development within

the conceptual categories began to emerge as the data as coding was refined. In the final

descriptive analysis for the documentation, interaction of the conceptual processes and how

one concept influenced another's development was considered in the offering of the levels

in the multiple continua of writing development.

Throughout the inquiry the co-investigators checked key linkages for patterns of

generalization which led to the positing of assertions (Erickson, 1985) which we offer in

86

the following Multiple Continua of Writing Development. Through the broad and varied

data sources, the assertions were tested and retested for "evidentiary warrant" (Erickson,

1985, p. 146).

The following are the final coding categories reflecting the multiple

conceptual understandings on continua we discovered in the writing process with

levels of development identified:

87

Table 1Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development

(NUMBERS REPRESENT POINTS ALONG EACH CONTINUUM)

A lp h a b e tic P r in c ip le (H enderson, 1990) & Ability to W rite L etters o f A lp h ab et

(1) Can Imitate an adult stretching words to hear sounds but doesn't know the correspondingletter-name of the sound nor can he/sh e identify the letter of the alphabet on an alphabet strip. Also n eed s practice to simply draw the letter of the alphabet if given.

(2) Can imitate an adult stretching a word and can give an approxim ate sound-to-sym bolcorrespondence but can only identify correctly a few letters on the alphabet strip. Has beginning knowledge of writing letters.

(3) Can stretch words by him/herself when prompted and make an approximate sound-to- sym bol correspondence. Now can recognize and nam e m ost letters of the alphabet and write them.

(4) Can stretch w ords without prompting and m ake an approxim ate soun d-to-sym bol correspondence. Can recognize all alphabetical letters and form both lower or upper c a se letters a s needed.

W ord K n o w led g e th ro u g h Inven ted S p ellin g D evelop m en t (R ead, 1975; H enderson, 1990)

(1) P reohonetic: Understands that letters on the page and the sounds and m eanings h e /sh ehears others read to him/her are closely related but little understanding of concepts of printor sound-to-sym bol correspon dences. Usually random strings of letters. Example, SDSRUSAML (CHIEF).

(2) Earlv P honetic: Beginning understanding of sound-to-sym bol corresp on d en ces through writing his/her nam e and rereading a memorized, familiar story or rhyme. No longer strings of letters but m akes a match with the initial and som etim es ending sounds, using on e or two letters per word. Cccasional long vowels appear but no short vowels. Examples, F (FENCE) and TF (CHIEF)

(3) Letter-Nam e: Understanding of concept of word d evelop s with ability to match or nearly match ea ch phonem e in seq uence. Attempts to match letters to sou n d s are m ade by the letter-name strategy. Due to the u se of this strategy, long vow els are matched correctly, short vow els are incorrect, and no vowels are included in unaccented syllables. Very logical spellings but incorrect. Exam ples, HRAK (TRUCK), ACRE (ANGRY), and FLEPR (FLIPPER).

(4) Within Word: Understanding that simple words have patterns of an initial consonant, digraph, or blend followed by a vowel, and ending. A wareness of short vowels, and that long vow els require a marker of silent "e." Examples, DRIEV (DRIVE), BETIR (BETTER), RANE (RAIN), and PICKID (PICKED).

(5) Svilable Juncture: Understanding that words are com p osed of sy llab les and variable meaning units that are joined in different, complex, and system atic w ays. Beginning to understand the meaning and roots of words to add suffixes and prefixes. Exam ples, ROBBIN (ROBIN), INOCENT (INNOCENT), FINANSHALLY (FINANCIALLY), a n d ORGANAZATION (ORGANIZATION).

8 8

Table 1 (continued)M ultiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in W riting Development

(6) Derivational Constancy: Understanding that morphem es in words control spelling pattem s within and across related words. Consideration of the root of the word a ss is ts know ledge of prefixes, suffixes, and vowel constan cies and alternation in various m eaning forms of words. Examples, CONFIDE and CONFIDENTIAL, LOCAL and LOCALITY

(7) Conventional Spelling: Correct spelling generally achieved.

Concept of Word or Voice to Print Match (Downing & Oliver, 1973; Morris, 1980)

(1 ) No voice to print match in reading; runs letters together in writing.

(2) Budding understanding of concept of word. Can point and match with so m e teacher assistan ce when reading own text and occasionally sp a ces betw een words in writing.

(3) Voice to print match with one syllable words only when rereading own text; more frequently sp a c e s betw een words in writing.

(4) Voice to print match accom plished with sp a ces betw een words in writing. N eed s no adult a ssistan ce to read the text.

Fluency through Rereading of Text In the Composing P rocess

(1) W hen dictating his/her own text, tends to sa y quickly and cannot sa y slowly to hold m e ssa g e in mind to repeat for dictation. With requests to repeat, child offers differing m essa g e each time. N eeds assistan ce with rereading.

(2) W hen dictating can hold m essa g e in mind, slowly offers dictation, and repeats a c lo se approximation if requested. N eeds assistan ce with rereading.

(3) W hen com posing own text, cannot sustain more than on e or two words (label) and no rereading established to hold sen ten ce or thoughts in his/her mind. Adult needed to request that the child state his/her thoughts first and for repetitive prompts to reread the text after writing ea ch word that must be stretched (exception sight words) to hold textual ideas in mind. N eeds assistan ce with rereading (modeling and choral reading), frequently related to lack of concept of word.

(4) W hen com posing own text, can sustain thoughts for brief labels and telegraphic m e ssa g e s but still n eed s prompt to reread for fluency in writing or will end text abruptly. Can reread for the m ost part without a ssistan ce when prompted, yet still appreciates choral reading for confidence on the first time through the text.

(5) When com posing own text, can reread from the beginning of his/her text to sustain fluency for a connected, lengthier text, but occasionally still n eed s prompting to do so .

(6) W hen confused in the meaning-making process of com posing a text, can now reread from the beginning of a thought to continue composing, rather than going all the way back to the beginning of the text. Adult assistan ce rarely needed.

(7) Fluency established in the com posing process.

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Table 1 (continued)Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in W riting Development

A w areness of Conventions: Conventions of Books, M echanics, and Story B o o kLanguage (This Is rather a lo se progression which may vary due to em p h asis m ade in teacher conferences with children and textual development.)

(1 ) T h e end"

(2) Titles for books

(3) Author's nam e given

(4) Periods

(5) Capital letters for beginning sen ten ces

(6) illustrator's name

(7) Chapters with titles

(8) Exclamation mark and question mark

(9) Story book language - "once upon a time," "long ago," and "they lived happily ever after"

(10) Dialogue bubbles

(11) Quotation marks (this convention and the next varied in seq u en ce of acquisition)

(12) "said John

(13) Ellipses marks

(14) Book dedications

(15) Apostrophe denoting p ossession and for contraction

(16) Lower and upper ca se letters u sed correctly

(17) Title page

(18) Notation that text is a retelling

(19) Booklist of past or future books

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C ollab ora tion in th e P r o c e s s : A s s is ta n c e an d In teraction w ith A d u lts a n d P e e r s

(1) N eed s adult to brainstorm for ttie prewriting phase. Also, n eed s adult to take dictation ora ss ist in writing his/her own text to keep fluency moving by repeating sen ten ce for him/her, stretching words for spelling, and helping him/her to recognize the correct letter of the alphabet In writing the text.

(2) Still n eed s adult to prompt to reread and add onto the text for developing fluency. Also, an adult is n eed ed to a ss ist with stretching words for spelling, and to a le sser extent in recognizing the appropriate letter of the alphabet. S om e prewriting id eas com e from observing and interacting with peers.

(3) G ets prewriting Ideas from observing peers' texts. N eeds adult to a ss ist occasionally with stretching som e words and with prompting to reread for continued developm ent in fluency to produce a connected text. Can som etim es reread, without a prompt, from the inception of a previous thought rather than going completely back to the beginning of the text.

(4) B egins to d iscuss with peers what he/sh e might write about (even includes their nam es). Now turns to peers for help with spelling or stretching words. Still n eed s adult input and discussion to sustain a text for more than a few pages.

(5) Can brainstorm with tablem ates to a ss ist others and se lf with prewriting ideas. Adult isn eeded for moving texts from "all about books" to developing seq u en ce and for assistan ce in working with dialogue.

(6) Seldom n eed s ass istan ce with brainstorming for prewriting from anyone, instead h as a wealth of ideas just waiting for enough time to put on paper. Can d iscuss his/her text during the p rocess with peers and even accept their input. Enjoys adult a ssistan ce for editing to make the text's appearance more like the books he/she reads.

S e n s e o f S tory (A pplebee, 1976) an d T extual D eve lop m en t

(1) Frozen-in-time (Calkins, 1986) illustrations only, supportive scaffolding for future text and rehearsal for writing. Orally can describe the event and offer information for dictation. The child's dictation em ploys cohesion (Halliday & Hasan, 1976) through the u se of exophoric reference (outside the text to the drawing) and the u se of personal reference with personal pronouns and their p o sse ss iv e s and demonstrative reference with this,Ahese, that Ahose, hereAhere.

(2) Illustrations with label for identifying who characters are and what they are doing. Most meaning is em bedded In the drawing, but the child can orally offer details. Dictations mainly describe the Illustrations, such as, this Is. . which employ coh esion through the u se of exophoric reference (outside the text to the drawing) and the u se of personal reference with personal pronouns and their p o sse ss iv e forms and dem onstrative reference with thIs.Ahese, that Ahose, and hereAhere. Also at this level, many children enjoyed copying charts [such a s the rhymes used for the volce-polnting charts to develop concept of word in opening activities]. Copying permits u se of conven tions and an authentic textual appearance.

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Table 1 (continued)M ultiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in W riting Development

(3) Telegraphic" m essa g e (Brown & Bellugi, 1964) topically centered on ea ch illustration. Text is impersonal Identification and description of an Illustration. Staccato style of writing might be due to Interruptions of thought p rocesses for stretching and spelling words or d u e to an early level of oral sp eech developm ent a s identified by Brown and Bellugi (1964). The latter is a possible explanation, a s Britton (1970) believed that "writing begins a s written speech" (p. 165). More meaning is em bedded in the drawing with action beginning to appear in the drawings, even using dotted and wavy lines to denote movement.

(4) Approximation to sen ten ces with a little more detail topically centered on ea ch illustration. Style of writing is terse, staccato-like clauses. Beginning se n s e of voice with u se of friends nam es and "I lik e ..." Writer em ploys cohesion with exophoric reference (outside the text to the drawing), using personal reference with pronouns (he, she, or it) and their p o sse ss iv e adjectives. Labeling and naming produces clause-like structures with u se of demonstrative references (this,Ahese, that Ahose, and the). The illustrations are more detailed and help to extend and enrich the minimal text.

(5) Retellings of portions of favorite texts appear. Som e com plete phrases from the original text are rem em bered and written. Other tim es, specific characters, textual id eas , a n d conventions of print specific to that text are Included (dedications, author and illustrator nam es). C ohesive d ev ices appear with anaphoric reference (within the text), su ch a s, personal reference using pronouns (/, he, she), pronomial adjectives (his, her, its), and p o s s e s s iv e pronouns (mine, his, hers, ours) and the occasional u s e of the additive conjunction and. Som etim es the text p recedes the illustrations. Writing is beginning to outstrip drawing a s a m eans of representing information (Newkirk, 1987). The illustrations tend to support the text rather than extend it a s in earlier levels of texts. Two a sp ec ts of a story grammar, the characters and the initiating event, are som etim es briefly included.

(6) Patterned texts are written which u se repeated subject/verb pattems, such a s Bart Simpson ca n .. . , This i s . . . , or Whales a re .. . . T h ese pattem s are b ased on the recurring and fiexibiiify principles identified by Clay (1975). Knowledge of the sen ten ce a s a unit is signaled by the u se of ending marks, primarily periods. At this level of developm ent the pattemed statem ents are randomly linked and appear to have no attributes which could be organized into categories. Limited coh esion occurs through the u s e of personal and demonstrative reference and occasional additive conjunctions. Usually, the text flows so rapidly that the writer may u se only on e p iece of paper and illustrations are an afterthought. Dyson (1989) com m ents on the u se of repetitive pattem s "made drawing before writing u n n ecessa ry .. . " (p. 157).

(7) "All about" or attribute books (Sowers, 1985) which consist of list-like collection of facts, features, and attributes of a subject. Newkitic (1987) notes th ese lists are frequently not random, but the attributes can be organized into several categories, for exam ple, color and size . Differing from the previous level when the verbs were repeated, this form of text brings variability to the verbs. Som etim es, the construction of illustrations precede the text, but they do not extend the text. C ohesive ties u sed are generally personal and demonstrative reference with occasional u se of the additive conjunction, and.

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(8) Limited se q u e n c e in chaining events. Most linking of the ev en ts is b ased on a shared attribute rather than an actual causal link, similar to sequences identified in oral storytelling by A pplebee (1976). Applebee found that the sen ten ces could b e reordered without losing any m eaning. S om e cohesion can b e attributed to the newly acquired u se of coh esive d ev ices with anaphoric reference, such as, both additive (and), ca u sa l (because), and tem poral (th en ) conjunctions, along with the previously m entioned personal and demonstrative reference. The text is frequently personalized and has a beginning s e n s e of voice. Illustrations are usually created after the text is written, ex cep t for the cover illustration which is frequently created during the prewriting (thinking about the text) stage. Figures now depict action through drawing profiles of the body or fa ce (Calkins, 1986). S om e elem ents of a story grammar are incorporated, such as. the placem ent with a setting and/or characters and an initiating event.

(9) S eq u en ce and chaining dominates thinking to the point that everything that happened in an event must b e remembered and written chronologically. Thus "bed-to-bed stories" (Calkins, 1986) are com p osed which lack focus or centering, essen tia l e lem en ts of a narrative (A pplebee, 1976). However, som e elem ents of a story grammar are included which are focused and center on the topic, such as, the placem ent and/or initiating event. C ohesive ties are more numerous with conjunctive relations using additive (and), adversative (but), causal (so, then), and temporal (then, next). Cohesion through personal and demonstrative reference continues to be used. Also, the lilt of oral language is heard in the large chunks of dialogue which appear in the text, and development of a stronger s e n s e of voice is apparent. C onventions of story book language, such a s once upon a time, are noticeable, a s well a s textual ideas which are borrowed from favorite children's literature. For exam ple, the child might borrow som e portion of the plot but change the setting and characters, or borrow the characters and the setting and create a new episode. Illustrations extend or repeat the text with action and conversation via dialogue bubbles. Also, texts m ove beyond the sp a ce and time constraints of the illustrations to incorporate the past ten se in dialogue, rather than the present ten se (Dyson, 1989).

(10) F ocused chaining of even ts occurs with more details and elaboration on important elem ents of the story. T he child appears to be able to hold the them e or crux of the text in mind to eliminate superficial elem ents (different from the bed-to-bed texts) and to concentrate on elaborating the elem ents that contribute to the plot, rather like a detailed slice of a "bed-to- bed" story. Often there are large chunks of dialogue which add to the seq u en ce and link elem ents of the story. However, the sequent even ts or middle of the text lacks logical developm ent to build to a climax. Nonetheless, the opening elem ents of the story grammar, placem ent and initiating event are stronger and more prose-like in texture and description. Also, the final event is better developed with detail and elaboration and som etim es a finale is added. T he text h as becom e lengthier and still includes illustrations which support and enhance the textual ideas, similar to a picture book. S om e textual ideas are borrowed from favorite children's literature. For example, the child might borrow som e portion of the plot but change the setting and characters or bon'ow the characters and setting and offer another episode. If an informational book is attempted, global elem ents of stmcture (Pappas et al., 1990) appear with so m e categorizing evidenced with a topic presentation, description of attributes, and som etim es characteristic events. However, the categories are brief and offer little in the w ay of linking or chaining. C ohesive d evices are numerous with the usual personal and demonstrative reference and conjunctions of additive, adversative, causal, and temporal relations. Other more unusual co h esiv e ties are em ployed, su ch as, substitution and lexical renaming.

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(11) Primitive narratives are rudimentarily offered with all the elem ents of story grammar in place, such a s , the placem ent with the setting and characters introduced, an initiating event, seq u en t even ts leading to a climax, final event, and optional e lem ents of a finale and/or moral tag (Hasan, 1984). Each elem ent continues to be better developed through the u se of elaboration, description and cohesive ties. The middle of the narrative or seq u en t ev en ts are more coherent due to the u se of the dialogic form of writing. A narrative sta n ce is frequently used in the placement but the child sw itches to the first person to u se dialogue in the initiating and sequent even ts to logically link the text in a sequential fashion. Large chunks of dialogue occur in developing the plot. The texts are lengthy and som etim es sec tio n s of the text which correspond to elem ents of a story grammar are labeled a s ch ap ters a s the child attem pts to imitate books the teacher h as read to him/her. Illustrations are more thoughtful in enhancing the text and frequently lend coh esion by leading the reader to the next event. If an informational book is attempted, global elem ents of structure (Pappas et al., 1990) appear with better organization evidenced with a topic presentation, description of attributes, characteristic even ts , and occasionally a final summary or afterward. Linking betw een categories and chaining of sen ten ces is better developed but the text remains brief. C ohesive d ev ices are num erous with th e usual personal and demonstrative reference and conjunctions of additive, adversative, causal, and temporal relations. Other more unusuai co h esiv e ties are em ployed, su ch a s , substitution, lexical renaming, and ellipsis.

(12) Primitive narratives are written with all the elem ents of story grammar in place, such a s, the placem ent with the setting and characters introduced, an initiating event, seq u en t even ts leading to a climax, final event, and optional elem ents of a finale and/or moral (Hasan, 1984). Each elem ent continues to be better developed through the u se of elaboration, description and coh esive ties. The middle of the narrative or sequent events can now be told from the third person perspective and dialogue can be w oven throughout. T he chaining of the seq u en t ev en ts to the climax are more skillfully suspensefu l. Illustrations are m ore thoughtful in enhancing the text and frequently lend cohesion by leading the reader to the next event. C ohesive devices are numerous with the usual personal and dem onstrative reference and conjunctions of additive, adversative, causal, and temporal relations. Other more unusual coh esive ties are em ployed, such a s, substitution, lexical renaming, and ellipsis.

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Trustworthiness of Data

Trustworthiness of the data was inherent in the design of this inquiry. Validity and

credibility checks were constant, consistent, and cross-checked throughout the data

collection. 1 took a self-critical stance to foreground my views and opinions in the a priori

theory.

At the same time the dissertation researcher's subjectivity and biases were counter

balanced in the collaboration with teacher/researcher, Robin, who questioned, confirmed,

disconfirmed, and brought her practical views to the inquiry.

Recognizing that research is not value neutral nor is education, this study from the

onset was committed to learning more about writing development to hopefully assist

teachers in making informed curricular decisions. Through understandings of the multiple

concepts involved in writing at various levels of development and how levels of conceptual

development impact other understandings, we desired to support teachers to better discern

individual needs in assisting children's progress in writing development. Therefore, the

following data credibility checks which are appropriate to research openly committed to

change (Lather, 1986a) were built into the design.

Triangulation

Triangulation included multiple data sources, methods, and theoretical schemes

which went "beyond the psychometric definition of multiple measures" (Lather, 1986a, p.

67).

Triangulation of methods and data sources occurred through the participant

observer's field notes of case study participants and their interactions with others, teacher

anecdotal records, co-investigator forums, reflexive comments, documents (students'

writing portfolios), and audio tapes.

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Triangulation of theories was the essence of this study. The literature review

offered an overview of current theories regarding writing development while the pilot

studies informed data collection methods and confirmation and disconfirmations of current

theories. Thus the a priori theories generated from the literature review and pilot studies

offered a foimdational understanding in grounding theoretical schemes in this inquiry.

Again I reiterate that the a priori theory with the earlier formalized listing of stages was used

strictly for a foundational understanding to inform and assist data collection and was never

used during the data collection or analysis for convergence or even counterpattems.

Instead, the newly acquired data was solely used for developing emergent theories of

conceptual pattems and understandings of writing development.

Validity

In dealing with theory construction, the dissertation researcher acknowledges "the

impositions of the researcher's vision" (Miles & Huberman, 1984, p. 21) and has

developed systematized reflexivity through the use of a reflexive journal, Robin's anecdotal

records and recollections, and biweekly forums of the co-investigators.

With the checks and balances of two collaborative researchers, we constantly

monitored any biases of one or the other and allowed the logic of the data (Lather, 1986) to

drive our inquiry. In this monitoring process, the co-investigators were aware of "how

their subjectivity may be shaping their inquiry" (Peshkin, 1988, p. 17).

Another strong feature of validity in the design of this research project was the

prolonged and persistent investigation (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Prolonged engagement of

a year-long investigation added breadth to the study and demonstrated the multiple

cognitive and affective influences in writing development Persistent engagement in the

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interactive participant observation offered the detailed depth of description for

understanding development and determining curricular needs.

Rigor is also demonstrated in the cyclical process of member checks (Lincoln and

Guba, 1985). Member checks occurred in weekly informal interactions of the co

investigators along with scheduled monthly forums. The emergent theory was scrutinized

throughout the discussions as well as the coding categories. The member checks helped to

refocus research questions and direct the inquiry.

Peer debriefing also served as a credibility check. Arrangements were made with

another doctoral student, who was analyzing her data of children's responses to

informational books, to meet on a monthly basis during the data collection phase

(September 1991 to June 1992) to serve as a disinterested sounding board. During these

debriefings, we discussed our hypotheses and emerging theories, questioned each other as

protagonists, offered suggestions to one another, and acted as a catharsis for each other "to

clear out emotions and feelings that may be clouding good judgment.." (Lincoln & Guba,

1985, p. 308).

During the next year of analysis and writing of the dissertation (September 1992 to

July 1993), I met with another doctoral student for debriefing purposes, who was

analyzing children's artwork in response to children's literature. Similar discussions

ensued as those previously noted, but beyond this, we also shared pertinent literature we

had encountered that was helpful for each other's inquiry.

Catalytic validity is a very important aspect of simultaneous-integrated action

research. The process of this inquiry "assist[ed] in practical problem solving" and

"enhanc[ed] the competencies of the respective actors" (Kelly, 1985, p. 3) for self-

understanding. The research process can "re-orient, focus, and energize the participants in

what Freire (1973) terms 'conscientization,' knowing reality in order to better transform it"

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(Lather, 1986a, p. 67). As we came to better understand the conceptual grapplings that

children were trying to cognitively process in the writing process at different points of

development, we made better decisions regarding curricular assistance to enhance their

progress, and in that way we transformed the realities of the classroom.

Robin consented to collaborate in this action research team because of the

possibilities in gaining understandings about the developmental aspects of the writing

process, in transforming her writing curriculum to meet the needs of her students, in

having a support system which fostered innovation, and in enhancing her professional

development.

Summary

This inquiry of multiple continua of writing development was a naturalistic study

with action research goals assisting the process in generating formal grounded theory.

Modified analytic induction (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982) was used for collecting and

analyzing the case study data in developing substantive and theoretical conclusions and in

testing them. The teacher and dissertation researcher collaborated as co-investigators

throughout the inquiry in collecting and analyzing data and in the writing of the results.

Qualitative methodology was used to investigate the questions. Data was collected over the

period of a school year through participant observation of case studies, field notes,

reflexive journal, informal and formal forums, and audio tapes. Modified inductive

analysis was ongoing in the field and refinement of conceptual categories and progress

along continua emerged in the post-site analysis.

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS AT THE MACRO LEVEL; THE CLASSROOM CONTEXT

The purpose of this chapter is to frame the microanalysis of the case studies in the

subsequent chapter. Examining the classroom context at the macro level will lay a

foundational framework for understanding the individual case studies. The researcher will

offer descriptive data regarding the teacher/co-researcher’s philosophical approach to

literacy, peer and adminstrative conflicts encountered by the teacher, the physical

environment, the daily schedule, the teacher's role, the complexity of the classroom, and

the climate of the writing workshop.

Lastly, a global view of the class collective will be given to note longitudinal

growth and development of individuals in reading, writing, and spelling over the period of

a complete school year. Quarterly rankings assigned by the teacher/co-researcher for each

student in reading and writing and quarterly ranked scores gathered from an informal

spelling assessment will be listed.

A Teacher's Approach to Literacy

Robin Bacquet completed her undergraduate coursework at Ohio Wesleyan

University in 1983. Then she returned to the grade school she attended as a child for her

first position as a teacher. During the first 3 years, she taught remedial reading, second

grade, and then third grade. In her fourth year of teaching, a position opened for the first

grade. At last, she was able to teach the level that was her first choice.

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Robin came to the position with great enthusiasm. She desired to create a

stimulating environment which would entice children to want to learn. "Children don't

learn from being handed information from adults, but rather they need to construct their

own knowledge," she said. She wanted the classroom to look like a six year old child's

room with toys, many picture books, and colorful materials and manipulatives. "I want a

child to feel as though he can say. This is my room. You have fim here, and I want to

stay. I can be myself. 1 can be happy,'" she added.

Her ideas for an inviting classroom environment were based upon her educational

philosophy. 1 include below portions of a letter she wrote to the parents of her children and

was handed out at open house in September. The following excerpts frame her beliefs

concerning early childhood education;

I base my philosophy of teaching on the theories of Jean Piaget, a genetic epistemologist or developmental psychologist Piaget felt that children were active constructors of knowledge, not passive learners. Children are constantly adding new information to tfieir schemas or mental structures.Children add knowledge to their schemas through two processes; assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process of fitting new ideas into the existing schema. When your child was very young, she/he might have had a schema for dogs, "an animal with four legs." When your child encountered a cow for the first time she/he might have pointed to the cow and said "dog." The second process, accommodation, helped your child deal with disequilibrium and changed her schema for animals with four legs by adapting to the new knowlege of an animal called cow. When children are using assimilation and accommodation, they are using a process Piaget termed equilibration to maintain a balance between their schema and new information encountered in the world.[Between this para^ph and the next was an explanation of preoperational and concrete operational stages of cognitive development.]

Piaget's theories are very important to early childhood education.Teachers and parents need to know the different cognitive stages so that children can be helped along in their development Expectations for achievement should be made according to the child's cognitive stage.Realistic expectations that provide for some disequilibrium in the child's schema will enhance learning. Knowledge that children are active learners should guide a curriculum. Young children should not be made to sit still for long periods of time completing worksheets. Children actively involved in meaningful activities throughout the schoolday will be motivated to learn. Classrooms for young children should not be silent places! Children need

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to test their hypotheses and will do so with their peers. As children exchange throu^ts new ideas may emerge which can be assimlilated or accommodated into the child's schema. Appropriate materials in all areas of the curriculum should be provided with instructions of Do Touch!Various genres of children's literature, blocks and other building materials, writing materials, objects collected from nature and small animals are just some materials that should be available to children in the classroom.

With this philosophy of teaching, Robin created a child-centered classroom where

children actively interacted with their environment through learning or interest centers.

These centers cut across all subjects of the curriculum with attractive groupings of books

on a topic with educational games to extend learning, with objects to examine, or

manipulatives to reinforce practice of a concept For example, one such interest center

was based on the theme "nocturnal animals and insects." During the three week

integrated curricular study on this topic, children brought in books from their homes or the

library, moths in jars, and stuffed animals to name a few of the objects daily added to the

center.

Also based upon a Hagetian philosophy, Robin believed in an individualized

approach to language arts. In the first weeks of school, from observing the children and

prior experience with this age group, she quickly and intuitively assessed the children's

conceptual knowledge. This knowledge directed her planning for assisting children in

language and literacy development For example in writing workshop, for those children

with little understanding of the alphabetic principle who could not identify nor write letters

of the alphabet, she and other adults took down their dictated texts. Other children with

more advanced writing skills were assisted in one-on-one conferences with prewriting for

textual ideas, establishing rereading for fluency, and questioned to extend textual ideas.

During this same period of time, each morning in the opening activities, she read

children's literature books based on concepts such as alphabet, number, and color to

enhance conceptual understandings. Also, during the opening activities she made large

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charts comprised of poems which used rhythm, rhyme, and repetition for voice pointing to

enhance development of concepts of print and concept of word.

Rather than using the basal readers purchased for her classroom, Robin began

building a classroom library of quality children's literature for reading aloud to her children

and for the children's individual reading. Noting the different children's reading abilities,

she organized pattemed language books and picture books graded by difficulty in specific

baskets. Children were then directed to select from the baskets which were appropriate to

their development. All of the aforementioned curricular decisions were based upon

individual needs of children as well as more global planning. For example in the area of

global planning, she offered more advanced models through reading and discussing chapter

books to challenge their thinking and engender oral response of higher levels of thinking

than the books they were capable of reading could offer. More information on this topic

will be offered later under the daily classroom schedule and in the case study analyses.

The preceding discussion of Robin's curricular choices based upon her

understandings of theories of Piaget were in place when I began collecting data in

September of 1991. However, to reach this level of implementation of theoretical

understandings tooks many years of further study, struggles to implement her beliefs, and

discouraging encounters with her administration.

First, to strengthen the depth of her theoretical understandings and to develop

teaching strategies to confidently implement the theoiy, she began taking graduate classes at

The Ohio State University at Mansfield during her fifth year of teaching. For the first two

years of teaching first grade, she used the basal reading system with the accompanying

workbooks and skill sheets. Along with trying to fulfill all the requirements of a basal

management system, she squeezed in time for reading aloud quality children's literature and

some writing in response to prompts. But as she became more knowledgeable from her

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graduate classes about a literature-based reading program and a whole language approach,

she wanted to change her implementation of the curriculum. She decided to gradually

move from the basal series to a literature-based reading program, and she decided to

implement a language arts program which would emphasize keeping language whole,

rather than a segmented approach with skill-based workbooks and basais. Whole language

to her meant reading good literature and discussing skills within the context of a text, such

as using the book The Cat Sat on the Mat by Brian Wildsmith to discuss the at ending and

for generating other words with that same pattern. Whole language to her meant reading

aloud good literature to develop a sense of story with books that have include the global

elements of a story grammar, such as a The Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, or

The Three Little Pigs retold by Paul Galdone and creating a chart size story map with her

class. Whole language to her meant developing a writing workshop with large blocks of

time daily to allow children to display and use the skills and conceptual literary

understandings they had acquired through reading, being read to, and interacting with and

discussing texts.

Second to implement her approach to learning from a literature-based whole

language perspective, she had struggles. Many of the teachers in her building were still

using the basal reading series and teaching the way Robin had been taught when she was a

student in the building twenty years earlier. Her childhood recollections of math

workbooks, spelling workbooks, language arts workbooks, and basal readers were still a

reality in the contemporary curriculum of her district. She was determined to change her

classroom environment to include less busy work with workbooks and dittos. For

example, Robin explained, a workbook sheet might include a question regarding character

analysis asking the child to underline the correct answer. But a classroom discussion led

by the teacher could elicit not only what the character did, but why he did it and how he

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felt. Also, the teacher could use an extension activity on the topic of character analysis and

involve the child in a creative art and writing activity. For example, on one occasion Robin

asked the children to draw a character from a text to make a "pillow person" (stuffed with

paper) to which strings were attached. Dangling from the strings were 3 x 5 cards printed

with words the child felt described the character or their interpretation of how the character

felt.

Another struggle for Robin was the lack of whole language resources available in

her building. She began purchasing from her own funds big books for discussing skills

and for pointing to words in large group settings to develop concept of word. Also, she

hauled huge baskets of books from the local library for classroom use and began

purchasing many children's literature books. She shared that her first acquisitions were

her favorite books by Tomi de Paola and then Leo Lionni. Unfortunately, her school

library contained many books from the *60's and 70's but few current texts displaying rich

colorful illustrations that current printing capabilities had produced. The few more current

trade books were generally readers with a controlled vocabulary. Two other struggles

occurred due to administrative demands. One was the difficulty of finding large blocks of

time for reading and responding to literature, and the second was also tied to the problem of

overall times constraints of having to continue using spelling and reading workbooks

purchased by parents.

Thus the third area of difficulty in making changes to implement her philosophy

was the discouraging encounters with the administration. She inquired of her principal if

she could discontinue use of the spelling and reading workbooks and use the cash

allowance from school fees to purchase more big books and trade books. But the response

was, "No," along with an additional comment that the majority of the workbook pages

should be used or parents would be upset with the waste of money. Consequently, in

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complying with the requests to use all the workbooks, she had less time to devote to whole

languge activities.

Each year in graduate school, Robin became stronger in her belief in the validity of

her pedagogical decisions and also stronger in articulating her rationale for these decisions.

So she went back to her principal the next year and convinced him to drop the spelling

workbook, and the following year, the reading workbook. However, the principal did

require her to meet with him on a monthly basis for accountability that all the skills were

being covered.

In her sixth year of teaching, OSU students were placed in Robin's classroom for

their language arts block. She loved having the students for the positive reinforcement of a

common educational philosophy and the camaraderie that developed through reflecting and

discussing their teaching.

During the seventh and eighth years of her teaching career, Robin was selected as a

master teacher for yearlong placements of interns from OSU, Mansfield. One of the goals

of the Internship Development Grant was to create a classroom environment which

accommodated the OSU philosophical approach to teaching through a literature-based

integrated curriculum. Many OSU graduates found that implementation of the methods

they had been taught was very difficult Most of the local school districts still used basal

reading programs and did not have classroom or school libraries to offer resources to

support teachers in using a literature-based approach. Also with many school districts

adopting math, social studies, and science textbooks and companion workbooks, the

students found integration of subjects to cut across the curriculum very difficult The

purpose of the Internship grant was to support the novice teacher with the team-teaching

efforts of a master teacher to try to accomplish an integration of subjects through

developing thematic units based on quality children's literature as a resource.

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The master teachers, like Robin, and their interns met on a biweekly basis for

seminars to gain further knowledge and support from lectures by experts, discussion of

current research articles, and hands-on workshops for math and science. Also within these

seminars the teachers exchanged ideas about setting goals, shared problems they faced with

implementation of new methodology, and recounted their success stories. Robin with the

support of interns, fellow master teachers from other school districts, and the University

supervisor [the co-researcher] began to confidently implement and verbalize her research

based knowledge in curricular choices focusing on whole language and an integrated

approach.

The Physical Setting of the Classroom

The elementary building was constructed in the 1950's. This first grade classroom

was rather small and appeared somewhat cluttered with all the materials Robin had

purchased for her students. There was an unusable bathroom in the rear comer where

supplies were stored and a sink with a broken drinking fountain nearby.

Because there was very little storage space or book shelves, Robin had book cases

built and purchased racks and stands for mailboxes, book displays, and learning centers.

To develop more space, she asked the janitor to remove her desk.

In this limited space, Robin had divided the room into areas with little cubbyholes

where students could work quietly and comfortably. The classroom map (see figure

below) displays her arrangement with purposeful, planned groupings for quiet and

conversational settings.

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Figure 1Classroom Diagram

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The first grade shared-computer was kept by the door where it could be

conveniently wheeled in for classroom use every three weeks. Nearby the listening center

was tucked away by the door and mailboxes for a quiet spot.

The class guinea pig. Pepper, was located in an active and busy area by the sink,

the art easel, paint supples, puppet theater, and craft table. During writing workshop, the

craft table became a bustling spot for detailing illustrations in books with stencils or gluing

bits of yam, fabric, wallpaper, stickers, and construction paper. In front of the craft table

was a mobile bulletin board where children could write the correct spellings of frequently

requested words, the "Quick Word Chart."

A kidney-shaped reading table was located in the rear comer. The teacher used this

area for shared readings of big books and predictable language books with samll groups of

children. Also stored on this table were teacher-made math sheets and manipulatives.

Beside the table were low shelves with teacher resources, college textbooks, ditto book,

and teacher manuals..

On the heaters below the windows were displays of books, usually on topics

related to an integrated unit of study, seasonal books, or informational books on a science

topic. Accompanying the books were informational signs regarding topics for the children

to read such as, "Plants need these things: sun, water, soil, care." "Author of the week,

Eric Carle." At the end of the heaters was the bulletin board for opening activities with the

calendar and weather signs. Around the room were environmental labels for the children to

read and use in their writing, such as lunch tickets, pencil sharpener, bulletin board,

alphabet, window, flag, clock, curtain, this is a closet, number chart, map, complaints

bucket,etc.

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Across the room on the doors of the cloak closet were signs with color words.

Near the end of the closets was a writing supply table with paper, markers, staples, and

other supplies which also doubled for a peer conferencing table later in the year.

At the front of the room above the blackboard were upper and lower case letters of

the alphabet. Each child also had a laminated alphabet strip on his desk. Taped to the

board were the different class jobs to which the children attached their names each day for

chores. The other section of the board usually displayed a whole language response

activity [more details of these activities appear in the daily classroom schedule] which the

class had created in shared writing or small groups. Since so many of these response

activities occurred, most were displayed on the walls outside the classroom.

Under the blackboard, was a large piece of carpet to accommodate all the children.

Book shelves were on either side of the carpet along with a large frame for holding the

"voice-pointing charts." These charts were nursery rhymes, short songs, or poems which

contained rhythm, rhyme, repetition, and natural children's language. These will be

discussed later.

Beside the charts was a large wooden rocking chair where Robin sat when reading

aloud and where the children sat for the "author's chair." Under the blackboard on the

carpet were plastic baskets of books leveled for the children from which they selected for

sustained silent reading, buddy reading, or reading aloud to a parent or the teacher.

The center of the room was reserved for groupings of desks. These arrangements

varied throughout the year from groups of three to six. At least every two weeks, Robin

moved the children to facilitate their learning. She took into consideration whether a child

needed assistance from a more capable peer, for example with prewriting ideas or with

spelling. Then she would try to place a child who enjoyed helping others and one who

could work more independently in his own writing. On one occasion, LaMarr and Jordan

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wrote only Ninja turtle books so she moved Eric into their grouping of seats. Eric was

making great progress and had ventured into many diverse topics, writing books about

animals and trucks. Soon LaMarr and Jordan were drawings all different kinds of trucks in

their books.

Even students who were advanced in their writing development like Jessica were

moved to facilitate progress. In the spring, Jessica seemed to hit a plateau. She had been

sitting near a girl who paid close attention to conventions, neatness of her writing, and

creating colorful illustrations so Jessica followed suit. Robin knew Jessica was capable of

doing better work and believed that her progress in her writing development was hampered

by this affiliation. So Robin moved Jessica beside Lindsay who had advanced in her

writing to the point that her texts included all the elements of a story grammar and who

wasn't worried about neatness. She hoped that Lindsay would "rub off" on Jessica.

Also, she took into consideration whether the children socialized too much and distracted

each other from concentrating on their writing.

The Daily Classroom Schedule

The classroom schedule follows in Table 2 with an explanation of each component

of the day. Although the schedule, on paper, appears segmented to accommodate state

standards of that time. In actuality, the schedule was quite different. Robin's integrated

curricular approach, permitted subject areas and time schedules to blur and blend into a

continous flow of activities except for the occasional interruptions for activities outside the

classroom such as art, music, library, gym, and recess.

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Table 2Classroom Schedule

8:53 - Opening Activities

9:00 - Warm-ups with Mini Phonics L essons

9:10 - Read Aloud / Discussion for Extensions / Shared Writing

9:30 - Writing Workshop

10:15 - R ecess / Writing, Extension / Author's Chair

10:30 - R esponse Activities (Language Arts) / Math / Gym

11:45 -- Lunch & R ecess

12:35 - Art / Library / Reading

1 :45 - R e c e ss

2 :00 -- S cience / Social Studies / Health / Music

3:30 - Dismissal

\ The opening activities signaled the bringing together of the classroom community

and set the tone for the day. Each child throughout the week was given a job such as

putting papers in the mailboxes, picking up paper, cleaning the paint brushes, feeding the

guinea pig, leading the pledge, and other such classroom duties. These tasks were

represented by figures displaying the work and a child's name was placed next to it. Daily

a child would read the names to remind everyone of his/her job. Every child shared in the

classroom responsibilities. Robin offered in writing her description of all the daily

activities which are quoted and are included within each segment of the daily calendar of

events as follows:

I l l

Opening:

In the opening activities, we worked to begin the day. A morning song was sung, emphasizing the names of the days of the week. The month on the calendar was noted; the new date added. Then the weather was reported along with the temperature. A child wrote the temperature and showed the corresponding tens/ones. These activities reinforced number sense, sequence, number formation, and reading of numbers. The lunch menu was read and the pledge of allegiance was recited. The activities were lead by different children each week.

Warm-ups:

These were chart songs sung to familiar tunes, selected topically to enhance the current unit of study. They reinforce concept of word, directionality, letter-sound relationships, sight word knowledge, and context clues.

These charts are commonly referred to as "voice-pointing charts." The procedure

which accompanies the charts was developed by Darrell Morris (1980) to enhance

children's development in concept of word. The teacher selects a nursery rhyme, song, or

poem which contains rhythm, rhyme, repetition, and natural-occurring children's language

and writes it on chart paper. Step one, the teacher uses a pointer to point to each word as

she/he reads or sings each word at a nonnal pace. Step two, she/he requests that the

children join in when they are able and the verse is recited numerous times. After the

teacher believes the text is fairly well memorized, she/he asks a child whom she/he knows

has a fairly stable concept of word to come up and point to the words while the class recites

along. Then the next day, the first 2 steps are repeated and other children who have a less

stable concept of word are asked to try the task of pointing and saying the words while the

class recites with them. Step three, the teacher points to words within the text and asks the

class what the word is. At this point, the teacher often observes the children audibly

reciting the verse until they reach the desired word, then in their excitement they shout out

the word. However, there are always some children who can already read, have a strong

concept of word, and awareness of context clues. In these cases the teacher may signal to

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those children to simply wait and not say the word until the others have. Next, the teacher

points to other words and asks the children to identify them or reverse the process by

naming the word first and asking the children to find each occurence of the word.

Frequently, the teacher takes this opportunity for a mini phonics lesson to call attention to

the beginning letters and sounds of the words, working on the alphabetic principle and

letter-to-sound correspondences. Steps one, two, and three are repeated for several days

imtil the teacher believes the majority of children are ready to recognize the words out of

context. Step four, the teacher reviews by repeating steps one, two, and three and then

flips the chart to a new page and writes a key word from the preceding verse out of context

and asks the children if they know the word. The method is repeated for several other key

words. Robin used the "voice-pointing procedure every day throughout the year with a

new chart each week.

Read Aloud. Old and New Books:

These were both big books for shared reading and trade books.The read aloud time was mainly to get the children into books. I wanted them to hear the rich language found in the stories. I also knew these books would be a springboard for the writing process.At the very beginning of the year, I chose more predictable books with rhythm and rhyme. The books had to be fun for the children.They should be books they would want to read and reread. These reading sessions made stronger connections between oral and written language. They helped children to think about the meaning the words give the stories.

The time set aside for reading aloud of children's literature appeared to be the

favorite time of day for many of the children. When Robin moved to her rocking chair

with books in hand, the smiles appeared and children quietly took their places in eager

anticipation of the books she would read. Each morning she read two or three books

which at the beginning of the year were selected for the concepts they reinforced and then

later in the year for thematic units, such as nocturnal animals, spring gardening, snowy

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days, holidays, folk tales or author studies like Carolyn Loesser, Larry Shies, Eric Carle,

Tomi dePaola, or Lois Ehlert.

Frequently, she reread books so children could begin to remember the book and

build story frames and develop a sense of story (Applebee, 1976). Sometimes, for shared

writing, she would lead the class in writing a story map of a book she had read several

times. A story map included the essential elements of a story grammar (Hasan, 1984),

listing the title, author, setting, characters, initiating event, sequent events, and final event.

Many response activities extended the reading of book. Sometimes the activities moved

into the writing workshop, for instance with the class creating a "circle story" of Rosie's

Walk by Pat Hutchins. Robin had read the big book with the children several times. Then

she asked the class to retell the story in their own words while she wrote their dictation in

large print on strips of tagboard. Next she paired up the children and gave each team one

strip of the story and a large sheet of paper of one section of a circle for constructing a

drawing a scene to depict their portion of the text Later in the day, when all the scenes

were completed, she had the children retell the story again and bring their scene to place the

story in sequential order, noting that the circle was completed when Rosie returned home.

Extension activities of this nature occurred at least two to three times per week.

Sometimes the extensions did not continue into the writing workshop but were done after

writing workshop with other seatwork. Frequently, the children during individual reading

time would select a book that Robin had recently read. As Robin mentioned in her account,

in the beginning of the year, she selected book that were easy for beginning readers which

used repetitive patterns and naturally-occurring children's language. Since the books were

easy and they had heard them several times, many of the children could read or make

approximations for understandings the text

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Writing Process:

We moved directly to the writing process because I feel that if children have the fresh sounds of rich book language in their heads, they may be able to write more meaningful texts. Sometimes the writing workshop was used for projects centered on a particular book (wall stories, class books, retellings, story maps, etc.).

In the opening of the workshop, different children were assigned each day to pass

out the writing folders in which children stored everything they wrote during a quarter.

The writing workshop was a very purposeful time of day. Children knew exactly what to

do in workshop. If they were working on a continued text, they would open their folders,

take out their book, and begin writing. Others who had completed a book would go to the

round table for materials to make a new book. In the beginning of the year, the round

table contained prestapled books of four or five 81/2x11 sheets of paper. As the year

progressed, prestapled books were still available, but also, children could select the size of

paper they desired, 81/2x11 sheets of paper cut in halves or quarters to form smaller

books, and staple together as many sheets as they preferred. During the months of

November and December when children were creating their so-called "chapter" books, a

great deal of paper was wasted as each tried to out-do the other with the length of their

books. Many books displayed pages with only one or two words, scribbled drawings to

simply fill pages, or many blank pages. Robin had to lecture them about conserving paper.

At the rear of the room was the crafts' table which was used sporadically for

ornamenting their books. If one child decided to use Robin attractive collection of rubber

stamps or stencils to illustrate his/her texts, then a rash of children would rush to the table

to do the same. However, those who followed suit would frequently get carried away with

a great variety of stamps and create illustrations first which would be difficult to correspond

with a text. Then they would abandon or destroy their books.

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However, for the most part the children were actively involved throughout the

workshop creating texts. In September the workshop lasted approximately twenty to

twenty-five minutes. By April, the children were begging for more time than the scheduled

forty-five minutes so Robin allowed them on many days up to an hour and fifteen minutes.

Robin intuitively was able to realize when a workshop was not productive, and on those

occasions, she would close early. If the lack of production occurred due too much social

rather than on-task chatter, she would ring a bell, raise her arm in the air as a signal, or

shout above the din, to remind them that their noise was bothering children who were

trying to think and write.

Four years earlier Robin had attempted her first writing workshop which she said,

"... was a disaster. " In that year the county board of education had adopted a new course of

study which required first grade classrooms to offer time for children to write. Robin had

attended a two hour workshop that gave an overview of the writing process. She

purchased the book Writing: Teachers and Children at Work by Donald Graves and

decided to try the writing workshop. Her fellow, experienced teachers in the building told

her not to attempt writing until the spring of the year because, "First graders simply cannot

write until spring when they know enough phonics." Consequently, Robin waited until

spring and then set aside twenty minutes several afternoons a week for writing. To help

the children begin to write, she assigned a topic or story starter each time and required

correct spelling. "The children disliked writing workshop and complained that they didn't

know what to say, and they drove me crazy asking me to spell everything. Our first stories

soimded very much like basal readers," she stated.

Over the summer months, she began reading books by Lucy Calkins, Marie Clay,

and Andrea Butler & Jan Turbill. Then she began to realize the hindrances she had created

with her demands in the writing workshop. "The topics 1 assigned weren't of interest to

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the children and sometimes they knew nothing about the subject so how could they say

something in writing. And my enforcement of correct spelling which I thought would help

them with learning phonics simply squelched their creativity. They only used words they

could spell correctly, and that's why they sounded like basal texts. Besides in reading

groups at that time, I was still using the basal readers. It was a disaster. Just look at what

my kids can do now!" she explained.

Throughout the writing workshop, Robin circulated with her little basket of 3 x 5

cards and a pen. In the beginning of the year, she frequently took dictation for beginning

writers who were struggling with knowledge of the alphabetic principle and letter-to-sound

correspondences. These dictations appeared to help the children to realize that they had

many good ideas and would soon be capable of putting those thoughts on paper. With

other children, she might conference on the pre-writing levels to assist them with

brainstorming a possible topic for developing a text. For some children who had already

created an illustrated book, she would ask them questions to explain their illustrations to

draw forth from them the story behind the pictures.

These discussions often assisted a child to formulate a text, or if a child was still

reluctant to begin writing some kind of text below his illustrations, she might repeat a

statement he had made and ask if he would like to write those words. Then she would

assist the child by restating the words while he/she began to stretch the words to make a

sound-to-symbol correspondence. For a more advanced student, she might pause by

his/her desk, draw up a chair, and ask him/her to read what was written so far. Sometimes

a discussion would ensue which would cause the child to add on to his text or perhaps the

conference dealt with the mechanics of the text, and the child would go back through the

text to add capital letters and periods. Always her comments included compliments. She

looked specifically for something that demonstrated growth or in which the child had taken

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a risk with a new understanding to compliment and encourage further development. These

are just a few of the examples of the type of teacher/student interactions. More are offered

later in the case studies.

Midway in the year when children were writing lengthier texts, Robin realized that

the children needed a warning that the workshop would be ending so they could finish

what they were working on and mentally prepare where they might begin the next time.

Thus she began announcing that there were ten more minutes in the workshop and then the

final warning of five more minutes. In closing the writing time, children took their folders

to the front of the room and placed them in one of two baskets.

In evaluating children's growth and needs Robin kept anecdotal notes on 3 x 5

cards. Samples follow:

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A shley

9 /12 I am Fishing Today with mv Mom - Story has title and 2 p a g es of pictures. Good in ven ted spelling in the title. Story has title and 2 p ages of pictures. Too much scribbling for pictures. Journal writing also too simplistic.

REMEDY: N eeds dictation taken. One-on-one conference. Demonstrate writing.

10/3 Pumpkin Book - Chelsi is doing much better, her books show thought and u se of ideas taught in mini lessons. N eeds punctuation.

11/15 (R) Pepper Book - conferenced with her on adding s_to plural nouns. S h e is now adding d to the past tense._____________________________________________________________

Michelle

9/17 The Cat and Doa - Michelle Is a great worker. S h e works on a story for days until it is com plété. Very mature in work habits. Moved se a t next to Shelby to encourage story form.

10/21 Scary Halloween & Monsters Like Halloween - Top-notch stuff. Using transtitional phrases. Wrote the dialogue backwards from the character's mouth - the way it would be spoken.

11 /22 "Spot's First Easter" of Scot's First Chapter Book - S h e 's working on chapt. 1. Marvelous idea. Ch u sed correctly but still u ses it for try. N eeds to learn fr and dr._______

Figure 2Sample of Anecdotal Notes

For further evaluation and assessment purposes, Robin selected one writing sample

per month from each child's folder. She chose the piece she considered to be their best

one. Each of these were kept in a writing portfolio for each child with anecdotal notes of

strenghts and weakness in writing development. With the use of a portfolio, Robin could

go back and look at earlier pieces to compare writings and note longitudinal growth. From

going through a child's folder each month, she could see what areas of conferencing had

produced the desired results. Also, she could note what areas could be enhanced with a

large class conference for example on the use of capital letters and periods, where a more

capable peer could assist, or where the teacher was needed for a one-on-one conference.

The writing grades she assigned were aveaged in with assessment for other language arts

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activities. The school districts grade card did not have a separate category for writing, just

handwriting.

Parent volunteers, usually three, came once a week to assist in the writing

workshop. In the beginning of the year, they frequently took dictation for those children

who had not developed a sound-to-symbol correspondence. Later in November, Robin

explained to them a little about invented spelling and encouraged them to assist the children

in stretching words and locating letters on their alphabet strips. However, one parent

simply continued spelling the words for them. She seemed to desire a perfect copy.

Overall, the children appreciated the parents and their willingness to talk about possible

stories, to listen to them read their text, and especially to offer compliments. However, by

March only one volunteer came on a regular basis.

Reading Program:

It seems like we read all day long. Shared reading is done in the 8:53 - 9:30 spot with the charts and big boofe. Much of the skills and reading strategies are taught at this time and reinforced throughtout the day.

There are two sections of reading time each day where we work on the developing reading process. I group the children by ability, but this grouping is "loose." Children can move from group to group depending on the story or topic of study. I do use heterogeneous groupings, for example with readers' dieater, but for first graders, especially at the beginning of the year, it is easier to divide by abilities. I work with the reading groups, reading trade books, Storybox books, and sometimes stories from a basal anthology. The reading groups do not have "names," and I don't really think any child feels he/she is in a high group or low group. The children work on a variety of things at their seats while other are in a reading group such as, literature extension, math/science projects, art projects, writing, reading, and skills.

The other reading time in the afternoon, we term "Personal Reading." This is when the child chooses a book and reads to himself, teacher, parent, or peer. This time is a cross between sustained silent reading and individualized reading. This program is made possible by my many parent volunteers. Each child has an opportunity to read to an adult each week.The children must choose one Ixiok from an assigned basket. These baskets are ability grouped, and this way 1 know each child has read one book on his/her level. Then the child is allowed to choose a book from

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anywhere in the room. No book is off limits. Adults and children keep track of all books read on a form entitled:

Books I Have Read Date / Title / Comments

The adult uses the comment section to write any strategies used, etc. 1 also do running records on each child (See Hgure 3), about two per month. It is interesting to see, with complete freedom of choice, the children are able to pick books they can read independently. I think this shows that the children know books are fun, and they get great satisfaction from actually reading a book. 1 also know that children will select a book that I have read aloud. That is why I display so many books around the room. This reading time is enjoyable with most children reading for almost 30 minutes.If children tire of reding, they often work on their writing. Once a week a child must choose a book for a project. The project can be a story map, pillow person, puppet show, or anything else to show story comprehension.

To further expand and perhaps enhance understanding of the reading program, 1

offer the following information. Reading occured in four different blocks of time daily

except when "specials" such as physical education, music, or art interrupt the schedule.

First, as Robin mentioned reading occurs with the "warm-ups or voice pointing charts"

which I described in detail earlier in the daily schedule. Second, a foundation for reading is

offered in the literature that Robin reads aloud in the morning. Through hearing rich

storybook language and the vocabulary of informational books and by building story

frames from hearing many stories read and reread coupled with discussion of the texts,

children are developing conceptual knowledge which will assist the development of their

cueing system, semantic, syntactic, and orthographic, in their own reading.

Third, reading, along with seatwork and math, followed the writing workshop.

During this block of time, Robin taught a math lesson with a demonstration, passed out

manipulatives such as, teddy bears or unifix cubes, and observed practice. Then the

children were given the teacher-prepared worksheets to reinforce understanding of the

concepts of simple addition and subtraction. Also, for their seatwork during this block of

time, she developed her own skill sheets which reinforced beginning and ending sounds or

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word patterns based on the words used in the voice-pointing charts. Another activity was

to retell one of the stories read aloud earlier in the morning by drawing sequential

illustrations and later in the year to add their own retelling-text below each illustration.

Sometimes she printed a retelling or a poem from the chart for the children to copy for

practice of handwriting.

Meanwhile, Robin would call a small group of children to the kidney-shaped table

at the back of the room. As she explained, in the first few months of school, the children

were homogeneously grouped by reading ability into four groups. For instance, those

children who had little understanding of the concepts of print and concept of word, she

used patterned language big books and employed strategies similar to those of the voice-

pointing procedure. For more advanced children, who understood the aforementioned

concepts but needed to develop bettter strategies through integration of their cueing system,

she used multiple copies of patterned language books and the children took turns reading.

For children who had some word attack skills and had developed strategies for skipping the

word, going back to reread, and some ability to look at the beginning letters of the

unknown word, she used more difficult books with less pattern and naturally-occurring

children's language. For the highest level, she used multiple copies of paperback editions

of children literature and continued working on the integration of their cueing system and

also did some word study by noting patterns in words. As the children progressed,

likewise the difficuly of texts increased. Tables developed by Robin with descriptions of

children's rankings by reading abilities and the type of texts they read follows in the section

entitled "Literacy Growth and Development of the Class Collective" (See Tables 3 and 4,

pp. 127-129). Another assessment which assisted Robin in determining children's

progress was the use of running records (See Figure 3). On a biweekly basis during this

122

block of time, she listened and evaluated each child's oral reading progress to note

strategies employed and areas where teacher instruction was needed.

Fourth, "personal" reading occurred in the afternoon. Sometimes a reading group

was sandwiched into this time block if "specials" had interfered earlier. As Robin

described, each child read one book from his assigned basket and another book which

could be selected from any place in the classroom. Robin had book displays on every

available surface. On the heaters were books related to the current thematic study and

beside them was a basket of books from the previous study. On top of the books shelves

and mailboxes were books that she had recently read aloud. Her concern was making

books accessible to children. Robin had a collection of about 800 trade books and around

30 big books which were displayed with clothespins on racks or on easels about the room.

Children could read the book to themselves first, and then they needed to find a buddy or

an adult volunteer and read the book to them. After reading, the child would write the date

and title on the sheet If an adult had listened the adult was asked by Robin to write the

types of strategies the child used when he came to an unknown word — did he stare at the

walls, ask the adult, look at the illustrations for clues, skip the word and go on, go back

and reread the sentence, make a close approximation using a word with the same beginning

letter or ending — to name a few comments.

To keep track of children's progress, Robin entered her anecdotal records and

running records, weekly on a spreadsheet she had developed on her computer (See Figure

4). The spreadsheet was a checklist which she had developed to demonstrate progress

based on phonics skills. Her principal required her to demonstrate proof that she was

covering phonics skills within her whole language approach. She used this checklist to

note wheter children demonstrated knowledge of these skills in their reading as well as

writing.

123

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124

GradeOne

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Figure 4Sample Teacher's Ranking Chart

The remainder of the school day from 2:00PM - 3:30PM dismissal was devoted

alternately to science, social studies, health, music, and "free choice" on Fridays. "Free

choice" involved a variety of activities such as educational games, sciences activities,

painting, silent or "buddy" reading, using a big books as the teacher, book extensions,

math games on the computer, or writing.

Climate of the Writing Workshop

The climate of the workshop reflected Robin's overall philosophy of education.

She wanted children to have the fredom to take risks, work at their own pace, and to talk in

teacher led discussion groups and throughout the day with peers in social and collaborative

interactions. Also, Robin wanted to meet the needs of her children in their writing

development to enhance their progess.

To create the freedoms that allow children to take risks, Robin allowed children to

choose their own topics for writing. Also, she did not ask that their style conform to that

of others. They knew that all their writing was acceptable, that she loved to hear them read

their books to her, and that she always complimented them about something in their

writing. Another area in which she permitted them to take risks was in spelling. The

125

children knew that their teacher felt that getting their thoughts down on paper was far more

important than correct spelling. She encouraged them to use invented spelling. She took

into consideration the child's developmental spelling level and in conferences assisted the

children in furthering their understandings of spelling patterns. For children in the

prephonemic and early letter name stages of developmental spelling, she assisted them with

stretching words and ascertaining the corresponding letter. Also, she encouraged

neighboring peers who were more advanced in their spelling development to not simply

spell the words for their friends but to assist them just as she had modeled. With more

advanced spellers, she would say, "Spell it the best you can and that will be fine."

Examples of teacher modeling and peer assistance will follow in the case studies.

Another freedom she permitted was in not pressuring children to produce a piece of

writing each day. They could experiment with a textual idea and if they didn't like it, quit

and start another. Or if they had an idea which took many days to write, they could take all

the time they needed. She didn't want to hurry children. She wanted to allow them plenty

of time to develop their ideas through thinking and talking with friends or exploring ideas

in a book they read. Often, you could look around the room during workshop and find as

many as four children reading a trade book or looking at it while they wrote. Most children

during the writing workshop were generally on task and took their writing very seriously.

But there were about six who consistently would begin pieces, throw them away, start

another, wander around the room and look at their peers' work, stop to discuss and offer

compliments on the drawings, but who had difficulty sustaining a piece of writing and

bringing anything to completion. Therefore, Robin decided that one story must be

completed by the end of each week. However, an exception was made for Lindsay who

wrote very lengthy and complex texts which spanned up seven or eight days. The majority

126

of children generally completed one story per day until around January when slightly

longer texts began to appear.

Along with valuing freedom for children to take risks and to work at their own

pace, she rated children's talk as a prized commodity. She wanted to allow her children the

freedom to move about the room and talk to their peers about their writing. From graduate

classes at OSU, Robin had learned about oral language acquistion and realized the diverse

levels of language development within her classroom. Some children like the case study

Brandon, who was one of the lowest in writing development, used very immature language

reminiscent of a four year old with phrase-like structures and brief messages. He could not

retell a story and logically sequence the events nor explain with any details. Children like

Brandon needed many opportunities to talk. So Robin encouraged discussion of the books

she read in class by asking questions that made children think about the characters, the

setting, the plot, and the illustrations that added details or extended the text. Another

example which engendered dialogue was comparing and contrasting two versions of a folk

tale she had read to the children. After the large group discussion, children were paired

with each other to write or draw an illustration of their response. Working with peers, the

children had to brainstorm ideas, discuss which ideas were better and why, and then decide

what to write or draw. Robin valued their discussion and believed there was a correlation

between children's ability to speak with elaborative language and their ability to write.

During the writing workshop some children moved about the room to work at the

large tables to write beside their friends or gathered at the craft table to ornament their

books and chatted. Others worked quietly at their seats when composing. But when these

solitary workers were stymied as to what to say next or when they needed a new topic for a

book, they would circulate around the room to talk to friends and read other's writings.

There was a constant buzz of dialogue in the workshop.

127

One problem did occur due to all the talk and movement in the workshop. After the

first month of school, Robin and I realized that some children could quickly pick-up where

they had left off the previous day or even came to class with a story already developed in

their heads. These students could immediately move into the writing process and could

even chat with neighbors about their story or walk over to a friend to show an illlustration

while working on a text. On the other hand, there were less mature writers whose thoughts

were interrupted by the action and talk of their more capable peers. The less mature writers

were unable to pull together their thoughts to commence writing. They needed a period of

quiet time to browse through their folders to see if they wanted to complete the previous

day's writing or if they wanted to think of a new topic for another book. Consequently,

we required that the first 5 minutes of the workshop would be silent.

Another area in which Robin's educational philosophy effected the climate of the

writing workshop was her desire to meet children's needs in their writing development.

After writing workshop, during recess, while the children were at phsysical education, in

the teacher's lunchroom, on the phone in the evening, and at scheduled occasions with a

planned agenda, we discussed all the children and what their needs were at that particular

time. We would brainstorm ideas and then go back to the workshop with ideas to share

with the children to help them with writing. For example, at one point many children were

incorrectly using ellipsis marks and quotation marks which they had noticed in the books

read aloud. Robin decided to have a mini lesson for the entire class on some of the

conventions of print with which they were experimenting. On another occasion, she

noticed that many children were beginning to use sequence in their texts so she read aloud

from trade books obvious examples of sequence and transitional phrases. Robin valued

my input and daily questioned me regarding what I had observed as I worked with various

128

children. All of the children would ask for my help, and I didn't want them to think I had

favorites by only observing or working with the case studies.

The Effect of Children's Behaviorial Problems On the Classroom Culture

Entering Robin's classroom after the first week of school, she warned me that this

was an unusual class, nothing like the previous years when I had visited her classroom

weekly for the Internship. She was correct. On the first day, a little girl who couldn't have

what she wanted, roughly pushed another child and grabbed the desired item. Kindly

Robin, in her soft-spoken manner, explained that her actions were hurtful and that the item

did not belong to her. The child began screaming, crying, and yelling to get her demands.

Robin began to take her out in the hall to try to calm her. She resisted and threw herself on

the floor, kicking and flailing her arms and legs.

The response of the other children on the occasions of her temper tantrums varied.

The majority were very frightened, became quite subdued, and even cried. However, three

boys behaved quite differently. One little fellow would take the opportunity, while

everyone was distracted, to walk around the room and do what he pleased, such as digging

in his backpack to find a toy or playing with the hampster. Another boy, with dark

flashing eyes would grin as he began to tease and pester a neighboring girl. A third boy

would become mean and angry throwing items or even yelling and imitating the girl.

The school psychologist met with the child and the parent, the child was referred to

a psychiatrist, her mother attended two sessions, and then declined to return. The principal

directed Robin not to remove the child from the classroom to the hall because the screaming

disrupted other classes which had their doors open. Together we worked to handle the

daily morning incidents. Sometimes I continued reading a book for Robin or quit my field

notes to supervise the writing workshop for Robin while she took the child aside and tried

129

to calm her. Within the first hour of at least three mornings per week, this child was angry

and screaming about some supposed injustice provoked by another child.

Her outbursts interrupted children's writing and caused a disruption of thought

processes. Many children would take ten or fifteen minutes to be able to return to their

writing and some would simply quit the previous text and start a new one. For the first

few months of school, the distraction and emotional upheaval frequently destroyed the

climate Robin worked so hard to create.

However, Robin's patience was exceptional as she worked out a system with the

child to first move her desk away from her seatmates if she became angry. With a second

incident in the day, she was relegated to a non-observational post behind a mobile learning

center wall. And a third occurence warranted removal from the classroom to the hall

(despite the principal's demand). Finally with the assistance of the school psychologist,

the third step became a move to the principal's office with some schoolwork.

This child created many difficulties throughout the year. Since children had

freedom to move and talk in the writing workshop, this child would often complain that

someone was in her way or bothering her. Also, she tended to annoy other children.

However, by midpoint in the year, most of the children had learned to ignore her.

Overall, the remainder of the children worked well together in discussing their

drawings and writings, responded helpfully to other's requests for help with spelling, and

willingly shared writing materials such as staplers, markers, crayons, and other art

materials.

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Literacy Growth and Development

A global view of the class collective is offered to note longitudinal growth and

development of individuals in reading, writing, and spelling over the period of an entire

school year. Throughout the quarter in informal and formal discussions, Robin would

update me with her views on literacy progress of the six case studies specifically but would

also share any dramatic changes or even small increments of gain by those children at risk

who worried us so much. At the end of each quarter as Robin and I would meet to debrief

and plan for the next quarter, she shared literacy progress using a ranking system.

Quarterly, Robin ranked the children from the strongest reader to the weakest

Then I asked her to break down the listing further into five groups labeled high, moderately

high, average, moderately low, and low based on her observations and informal

assessments in comparing children's progress. The following are descriptors Robin and I

generated each quarter after we discussed each child's reading abilities and why she placed

the child in a particular ranking;

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Table 3Teacher Descriptors of Reading Development

Reading Autumn Quarter

can read primer and first grade level texts and picture books,

can read simple patterned language texts after preview and teacher modeling,

can point to a rhyming chart word by word after memorizing the text,

beginning concept of word, som e initial sounds, and a few sight words.

High:

Moderately high:

Average:

Moderately low:

Low: no concept of word, little knowledge of the alphabetic principle, or sound-to-symbol correspondence.

Reading Winter Quarter

High: can read first grade level texts, picture books, and simple chapter books, forinstance Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant.

Moderately high: can read primer level texts and picture books.

Average: can read simple patterned language texts after preview and teacher modeling.

Moderately low: can point and read rhyming chart word by word with som e memorization of the text.

Low: beginning concept of word, som e initial sounds, and a few sight words.

Reading Soring Quarter

High: can read many children's literature books at early second grade level and lengthierchapter books.

Moderately high: can read first grade level texts and simple chapter books.

Average: can read primer level texts.

Moderately low: can read simple patterned langauge texts after preview and teacher modeling.

Low: can point and read rhyming chart word by word with som e memorization of the text.

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Table 4Teacher Descriptors of W riting Development

The following are descriptors whichwere developed each quarter after examining Robin's rankings of the children and discussing the attributes of the children's texts at the various levels of writing developm ent;

Writing Autumn Quarter

High: h as a basic them e that the text carries, is self-motivated, h as a strong sound-to- symbol correspondence, many correct sight words, and writes more than four sen te n c e s .

H^oderately high: has a topic in mind, adds text to illustrations for additional information, u se s com plete sen ten ces with choppy, stiff language, invented spelling with so m e vowel p lace holders, and com pletes the text.

Average: tells the story through illustrations, labels pictures som etim es with brief c ia u ses or otherwise phrases, u s e s invented spelling with most beginning and ending sounds, and en d s text when tired from drawing and writes Ih e end."

Moderately low: can produce a few illustrations, labels illustrations with minimal words, topicallydisjointed, u se s invented spelling with mainly consonants, and begins new book each workshop or som etim es twice per session .

Low: has difficulty finding a topic of interest, illustrates with minimal detail, n eed s assistance to m ake letter to sound correspondences, and infrequently com pletes tex ts .

Writing Winter Quarter

High: has a basic them e that the text carries with sequence, is self-motivated, u s e s solid invented spelling which permits fluency in composing a preconceived text, sp ells many correct sight words, includes dialogue and action in text, and can com plete an entire story over a period of several days.

Moderately high: has a them e that the text carries, u s e s com plete sen tences, u s e s solid invented spelling which permits fluency in com posing a text, and usually com pletes a story during a workshop.

Average: has a topic in mind, adds som e texts to the illustrations for additional information, u ses complete sen ten ces with choppy, stiff language, u se s invented spelling with som e vowels, and com pletes the text.

Moderately low: tells the story through illustrations with a topic in mind, writes labels for pictures whichare som etim es c lau ses and otherwise phrases, u se s invented spelling with most beginning and ending sounds, and ends text when tired of drawing and writes "the end."

Low: can produce a few iilustrations, u se s labels with minimal words, topically disjointed text, invented spelling with mainly consonants and many times n eed s a ss ista n ce in stretching words, and begins new book each workshop or even twice per sess io n .

133

Table 4 (continued)Teacher Descriptors of W riting Development

Wrillng Spring Quarter

High:

Moderately high:

h as a basic them e that the text carries with seq u en ce , is self-motivated, u se s solid letter nam e spelling which pennits fluency in com posing a preconceived text, has creative topical ideas, many correct sight words, u s e s dialogue and action in the text, along with elaboration and more description, and com pletes an entire story over a period of several days. Influence of children's literature is noted.

h a s a them e that the text carries with seq u en ce, u s e s com plete sen ten ces, u se s solid invented spelling which permits fluency in com posing a text a s hefehe writes, u s e s som e dialogue, and can continue a text over several days to bring to completion.

Average: h as a them e that carries the text, u se s com plete sen ten ces, u se s solid invented spelling which permits fluency in com posing the text, com pletes a story during workshop and som etim es can now sustain a text over several days.

Moderately Low: h as a topic in mind, writes text that adds to the illustrations , u se s com pletesen ten ces with choppy, stiff language, u s e s invented spelling with many long vow els, and com pletes the text.

Low: tells the story through illustrations, writes labels for pictures which are som etim es c la u ses and othenwise phrases, u se s invented spelling with most beginning and ending sound s and mostly letter-name vowels, and en d s text anywhere when tiring from stretching and spelling words.

134

To rank the children in spelling abilities and to minimize instrusions on Robin's

time, I administered and scored the Gillet and Temple (1982) spelling assessment. Having

previously used this assessment as well as the McGuffey Reading Center Qualitative

Inventory of Word Knowledge and the Schlagel Qualildtative Inventory of Word

Knowledge, I believed the Gillet and Temple assessement would offer adequate insights

into spelling development for first graders. Along with the Gillet and Temple assessment, I

did an indepth analyses of spelling development for each case study.

However, for the purpose of a global perspective of the range of spelling

development within the class, the Gillet and Temple assessment offered sufficient insight.

The beginners'features list was administered all three quarters. Autumn, Winter, and

Spring Quarters. After scoring the Spring quarter assessment, I realized that many of the

children were advanced enough in their spelling development that I needed to offer the

advanced features list which is generally used for children in grades three through five

because it offers more words in the transitional category. The words included in both

features lists are given below.

Beginners' Features List:

late wind shed geese jumped yell

chirped once learned shove trained year

shock stained chick drive

Advanced Features List

setter shove grocery button sailor prison

nature peeked special preacher slowed sail

feature batter

135

Each word is scored using the following criteria to attain numerical scores. After

analyzing each word and assigning a numerical score, the number of words in each stage

are given to note where the greatest number occurs, and lastly those categories are tallied

for a composite score. For example, examine the Spring Quarter spelling scores for Jeffrey

(# 21), one of the case studies. He had 1 correctly spelled word (5 points), 2 in the

transitional stage (8 points), 10 using letter name strategies (30 points), 3 in the early

phonemic stage (6 points), and 0 in the prephonemic stage for a composite score of 49

points which ranked him # 21 out of 23 students or third from the last in a solid letter name

stage of development

Correct spelling = 5 points

Transitional spelling = 4 points

Letter Name spelling = 3 points

Early Phonemic spelling = 2 points

Prephonemic spelling = 1 point

In the spelling assessment tables (See Tables 5,6, and 7, pp. 133-135), the

numbers cited note the strategies employed for each stage of spelling from correct to

prephonemic with a corresponding assessment score derived from the aforementioned

scoring system. Each word is assigned a numerical score identifying the strategies of that

particular stage of spelling. Then the score is multiplied by the number of words

employing the same strategies. The final number denotes the composite score used for

ranking the students in the class.At the end of Spring Quarter, as discussed earlier, both the beginners' and

advanced features lists (Gillet & Temple, 1982) were administed, and they were each scored with the same numerical code given above. However, each word that received four points for the transitional stage of development was analyzed further using the more refined developmental levels of Henderson (1990). Henderson has identified subcategories for the

136

transitional stage as within word, syllable juncture, and derivational principles. The ranking for spelling development during Spring Quarter reflected this more detailed analysis of children whose spelling development fell in the transitional stage. I further defined their progress under the labels early syllable juncture, late within-word, within-word, and early within-word. For information regarding the various developmental stages of spelling, see the literature review in the section topically identified as "Conceptual Understandings within the Writing Process."

The assessment rankings for all the children are listed for each quarter.

Table 5Reading, Writing, and Spelling Rankings for Autumn Q uarter 1991

137

R E A D I N Gfchild #1

W R IT IN G S P E L L I N G

H IG H(1) J e ss ica(2) Stephanie(3) Theresa

HIG H(6) Michelie (4) B ecca (2) Stephanie

HIGH f t r a n s i t io n a l l(1 ) J ess ica 6 ,9 ,1 ,0 ,0= 68 (6) Michelle 4 ,8 ,4 ,0 ,0=64

( ll)S h a n n o n 3 ,10 ,3 ,0 ,0=64 (4) B ecca 3 ,10 ,3 ,0 ,0= 64

MODERATELY HIGH MODERATELY HIGH MODERATELY HIGH(4) B ecca (1) J e ss ica (m o v in g t o tr a n s it io n a l)(5) Shelby (3) Theresa (3) T heresa 4 ,6 ,6 ,0 ,0=62(6) Michelie (5) Shelby 3 ,8 ,5 ,0 ,0=62(7) Ashley (2) Stephanie 4,5,7,0,0=61(8) Matthew (7) Ashley 2,9,5,0,0=61

(15) Jordan 1,10,5,0 ,0=60 (18) Stephen 3 ,6 ,7 ,0 .0=60 (12) Kyle 3 ,6 ,7 ,0 ,0 ,= 60

A V E R A G E A V E R A G E A V E R A G E(9) Chris (5) Sheiby ( s o l id le t te r -n a m e )

(10) Jay (8) Matthew (8) Matthew 2 ,4 ,9 ,1 ,0=55(11) Shannon (11) Shannon (10) Jay 1,5 ,10 ,0 ,0=55(12) Kyle (7) Ashley (17) Elizabeth 7 ,8 ,1 ,0 ,0= 54

(9) Chris(10) Jay

(9) Chris 1 ,3 ,12,0 ,0=53

MODERATELY LOW MODERATELY LOW MODERATELY LOW(13) C asey (12) Kyle (b e g in n in g le t te r -n a m e )(14) Erik (14) Erik (19) Ryan 0 ,2 ,10 ,4 ,0=46(15) Jordan (13) C asey (13) C asey 0 ,0 ,13 ,3 ,0= 45

(15) Jordan (14) Erik 1 ,1 ,9 ,3 ,2=44

LOW LOW LOW (ea r ly p h o n em ic )(16) Jaman" (17) Elizabeth (16) Jaman- 0 ,0 ,8 ,7 ,1=39(17) Elizabeth (18) Stephen (22) Bart 0 ,0 ,9 ,5 ,2=39(18) Stephen (16)Jamarr (23) Natasha 0 ,0 ,7 ,8 ,1=38(19) Ryan (21) Jeffrey (21) Jeffrey0,1,2,11,2=34(20) Amanda (19) Ryan (20) Amanda 0 ,0 ,2 ,13 ,1=33(21) Jeffrey (20) Amanda(22) Bart (22) Bart(23) Natasha (23) Natasha

\

138

Table 6Reading, W riting, and Spelling Rankings for W inter Q uarter 1992

fchild #1R E A D IN G W R IT IN G S P E L L I N G

H IG H(2) Stephanie (1) J ess ica(6) Michelle(7) Ashley

HIGH(2) Stephanie (6) Michelie

HIGH ( t r a n s it io n a l , n ea r lv c o r r e c t )(1) J e ss ic a 13,3,0 ,0,0=78 (4) B ecca 8 .8 ,0 ,0 ,0= 72(2) S tephanie6,10,0 ,0 ,0=70 (7) Ashley 8 ,6 ,2 ,0 ,0=70

MODERATELY HIGH MODERATELY HIGH MODERATELY HIGH(4) B ecca (4) B ecca (s tr o n g tr a n s it io n a l)(5) Shelby (1) Jess ica (11 )S h an n on 6 ,9 ,1 ,0,0=69(3) Theresa (6) Michelle 5 ,10,1,0,0=68

(12) Kyle (3) Theresa 5,10,1,0,0=68(8) Matthew (5) Shelby 5 ,10,1,0,0=68

(15) Jordan 3,12,1 ,0 ,0=66 (12) Kyle 4 ,10 ,2 ,0 ,0=66 (18) Stephen 4,10,2 ,0 ,0=66

A V E R A G E A V E R A G E A VERAGE (e a r ly(14) Erik (12) Kyle t r a n s i t i o n a l )(13) C asey (14) Erik (8) Matthew 4,9,3,0,0=65(11) Shannon (7) Ashley (17) Elizabeth 4,9 ,3 ,0 ,0=65(9) Chris (17) Elizabeth (19) Ryan 3 ,9 ,4 ,0 ,0=63

(15) Jordan (5) Shelby (10) Jay 1 ,13,2,0,0=63(10) Jay (3) Theresa(17) Elizabeth (8) Matthew

(11) Shannon(9) Chris

(10) Jay

MODERATELY LOW MODERATELY LOW MODERATELY LOW (la te(16) Jamarr (13) C asey le t t e r - n a m e )(18) Stephen (15) Jordan (13) C asey 3,7,6,0,0=610 9 ) Ryan (14) Erik 4 ,4 ,8 ,0 ,0=60

(9) Chris 1 ,9,5,1,0=58

LOW LOW LOW(21) Jeffrey (16) Jamarr (e a r ly le t te r -n a m e )(20) Amanda (18) Stephen (22) Bart 1,2,12,1,0=51(22) Bart (19) Ryan (21) Jeffrey 1 ,4,5,6,1=49(23) Natasha (21) Jeffrey (23) N atasha 1,2,11,3,0=48

(20) Amanda 0 6 ) Jamarr 1,2,7,6,0=46(22) Bart (e a r ly p h o n e m ic )(23) Natasha (20) Amanda 2,1,4,3,6=40

139

Table 7Reading, W riting, and Spelling Rankings for Spring Q uarter 1992

R E A D I N G[child #1

W R IT IN G S P E L L I N G

H IG H HIGH HIGH(1) J ess ica (6) Michelle (early syllable juncture)(2) B ecca (4) Becca (4) B ecca 13,3,0,0,0=77(3) Theresa (1) Jessica (1) J ess ica 12,4,0,0,0=76(5) Shelby (2) Stephanie(6) Michelle (11) Shannon (late within-word)

(12) Kyle (3) Theresa 7,9,0,0,0=71(2) Stephanie (7) Ashleyi 6 ,10 ,0 ,0 ,0=70

(5) Shelby 6,10,0 ,0 ,0=70

MODERATELY HIGH MODERATELY HIGH MODERATELY HIGH(7) Ashley (8) Matthew (within-word)

(11) Shannon (3) Theresa (18)Stephen 6 ,9 ,1 ,0 ,0=69(8) Matthew (5) Shelby (6) Michelle 4 ,12,0 ,0 ,0=68

(8) Matthew 7,6 ,3 ,0 ,0=68 (11)Shannon 7 ,6 ,3 ,0 ,0=68 (2) Stephanie 6,8 ,2 ,0 ,0=68

(15)Jordan 4 ,12,0 ,0 ,0=68

A V E R A G E A V E R A G E A V E R A G E(14) Erik (17) Elizabeth (early, within-word)(19) Ryan (7) Ashley (12) Kyle 4 ,7 ,5 ,0 ,0=65(15) Jordan (9) Chris (14) Erik 4 ,6 ,6 ,0 ,0=62(9) Chris (15) Jordan (19) Ryan 2,8,6,0,0=60

(17) Elizabeth (14) Erik (13) C asey 2 ,7,7,0,0=59(18) S tephen (19) Ryan (9) Chris 2 ,6 ,8 ,0 ,0=58(13) C asey (18) Stephen

(12) Kyle(17) Elizabeth 2,0 ,8 ,0 ,0=58

MODERATELY LOW MODERATELY LOW MODERATELY LOW(10) Jay (20) Amanda (solid letter-name)(16) Jamarr (13) C asey (10) Jay 0 ,7 ,9 ,0 ,0=55(20) Amanda (10) Jay (22) Bart 1 ,4,9,2,0=52(21) Jeffrey (16) Jamarr (23) Natasha 0 ,3 ,12,1,0=50(22) Bart (21) Jeffrey1,2,10,3,0=49(23) N atasha (16) Jamarr 0 ,3 ,11,1,1=47

LOW LOW LOW(21) Jeffrey (early phonemic)(22) Bari(23) Natasha

(20) Amanda 0 ,0,5,11,0=37

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Summary

The purpose of this chapter was to offer a view at the macro level of the classroom

context including the teacher, physical setting, the learning climate, the class composition,

and a global view of student progress in literacy.

The teacher's belief system created a learning environment which valued the

integration of subjects and provided for social interaction to facilitate learning. When a

teacher's educational philosophy is current with educational research, while the local school

system hasn't kept pace, conflicts erupt with peers and administrators, as was noted.

The physical setting, freedom of movement, and access to many materials had a

direct impact on the kinds of learning which occurred. The components of the classroom

schedule were flexible and dynamic, allowing extended periods of time to work on topics

and elicit divergent and creative responses.

Finally, the global view of the class collective's rankings in reading, writing, and

spelling over the period of a complete school year was presented as a point of reference to

place the individual case studies and rank them against their classmates in attending to

longitudinal growth and development.

CHAPTER V

THREE CASE STUDIES

Introduction

Kamii (1991) notes that "children first make lower-level relationships in all areas of

knowledge and go on to make higher-level relationships with the ones they created earlier"

(p. 14). This Piagetian view of children's learning is an interesting point for observing a

journey in literacy development, in that children are making relationships from lower levels

to higher ones in assimilating or accommodating (Piaget, 1979a) schemes as they explore

concepts in their progressive understandings of writing. However, acknowledging these

aspects of developmental learning does not require bringing along all the accouterments

associated with a developmental model.

We acknowledge biological maturation theory in relationship to physical and mental

capacities being tied to age and experience. A three year old certainly has limitations

physically and mentally compared to a twelve year old. However, the Piagetian biological

model tends to view development, if a rich, enticing educational environment is offered, as

"naturally" unfolding along a predetermined path without adult interference and/or

assistance. Instead of allowing conceptual understandings to unfold naturally, we value

the Vygotskian model of learning especially in regard to the zone o f proximal development

where a more capable peer or adult can assist children to support and enhance the "buds" of

development These "buds" of development occur when children encounter "problems that

cannot [be] solv[ed] independently but only with assistance" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). For

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instance, in the writing process children may be struggling to understand the concept of

word and where the white spaces should be in their texts. But at the same time they may

by trying to integrate their beginning understandings of invented spelling and keeping the

sequence of textual ideas in mind. Piaget would allow the children to solve their own

problems while the researchers and those who espouse Vygotskian views would offer

assistance. Both Piaget and Vygotsky value these problem-solving periods of time as

important instances when cognitive growth can occur.

In viewing development of multiple concepts of writing as occurring concurrently

but at different conceptual levels, Piaget's "les décalages" or periods of stage mixture in

which children may conceptualize some issues at higher levels than others is useful.

However, Piagetian stages will not be considered, but rather only the idea of conceptual

understandings progressing at varying levels along multiple continua. Although the

theories of cognitive development of Piaget and Vygotsky are different, there are areas of

compatibility which we draw upon to frame the analysis of the case studies.

As noted, the biological developmental model carries some implications which we

believe are valuable but also others which can be debilitating and may inhibit progress. If

one views developmental progress from a reductionist’s perspective, observing what

children cannot do at an earlier stage in comparison to what they can do at a later one, then

one is limiting the perspective of language and literacy development.

Instead, we incorporated those theories of cognitive development which were

helpful and compatible in understanding children's cognitive processing. Along with the

above mentioned aspects of developmental theory, we used a more semiotic view to

describe and interpret the "signs" of development offered by the children, in the context of

their classroom culture, as they progressed in their literacy journey. Newkirk (1989) states

that semioticians not only reject aspects of the biological model, but "reject the positivist's

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view that meaning resides in the external world to be perceived by the learner" (p. 2).

Instead, Robin and I carefully observed and described the "signs," whether talk or text,

extended to us by children. The "signs" are not in themselves "sets of individual things,

but rather networks of relationships... within systems of meaning "(Halliday, 1990, p. 4).

The semiotic approach as Newkirk (1989) states, is "competency driven" rather

than "deficiency driven" (p. 3) so we watched for signs of increasing competencies.

Children as "meaning-makers" (Wells, 1986) joyfully demonstrate their capabilities and are

curiously drawn to new and greater capacities. Thus Robin and I throughout the study

carefully observed how children made connections and drew relationships from the

"known to the new " (Rogoff, 1990, p. 65) along their path of progress in literacy.

Considering children's competencies and experiences when entering first grade,

we noted their knowledge base, especially in the area of their oral language skills, and

Robin attempted to build upon their prior learning (Piaget, 1979a). As the children

progressed in their literacy journey through the writing workshop, we discussed the many

concepts that children were struggling to understand. We noted their progress in gaining

control and finally internalizing a concept to bring another facet of learning to automaticity

(Clay, 1991, class notes). When internalization occurred, children no longer had to

concentrate on how to do something and could then extend their system to think about

something new and compelling.

By viewing children on a daily basis rather than once a week or biweekly, the co

researchers found no sudden shifts or leaps. Rather we found continuous growth along

various continua of conceptual understandings, with the focus on certain concepts shifting

as one became internalized. While coding of the data progressed, we began to sketch

possible continua to characterize the conceptual grapplings and compared those

observations to the texts the children were producing at the same time.

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Frequently, children's writing is viewed from a narrow perspective, such as

focusing only on the message of their texts or the social interaction involved with peers or

in conferences or the progress of invented spelling. However, our desire was to describe

and characterize more of the conceptual grapplings at particular stages of development that

were occurring as a child constructed a text. We hoped by taking a broader view we could

better understand the tremendous variety of thinking and conceptual struggles a child

encounters along various continua of development. If a child has progressed so far along

one continuum (See Table 1: Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing

Development), did this effect the progress on another continuum or did the various

continua work independently of each other?

Hopefully, the reiterations of our theoretical underpinings, our approach to learning

in the collection of data, and how these views affected the analysis will lead to a better

understanding of the following case studies. A view of the case studies are offered from

one of the lowest functioning writers, Jeffrey, to an average writer, Ashley, and finally to

the student with the highest abilities in writing, Michelle. The tales of these case studies are

organized on a quarterly basis with progress along the multiple continua noted at the end of

each quarter.

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Jeffrey

Autumn Quarter

Jeffrey arrived in Ms. Bacquet's room as a developmentally young child.

Describing Jeffrey to me in the first co-researchers' conference, Robin said, "His speech

is very "babyish." The kindergarten teacher encouraged his mother to hold him back, but

his biological father would not permit retention.

Jeffrey loved coming to school, smiled a great deal, and enjoyed playing and

chatting with the other children. With peers, he was a talkative little boy using language

reminiscent of a child a year or two younger. In his school work, he was easily distracted

and had a short attention span. He would frequently quit a task to reach into his desk to

find something to play with or bother a neighbor while he/she was writing. From the first

observational visit until the final closing of the net on October 21, Robin repeated that

Jeffrey was the lowest in the class in reading and writing and would probably be one of the

children she selected as a case study.

Jeffrey's first writings were picture books with large scrawling illustrations. His

benchmark text of September 6 was comprised of two, 9 x12 pieces of white paper folded

over and stapled. He drew a picture of a submarine with a periscope in red crayon and then

traced this drawing onto the subsequent pages, repeating three times.

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Figure 5Jeffrey's Drawing of a Submarine

When I paused at his desk to admire his drawings, he would describe the picture in

minimal words and smile a lot In early October when conferencing with him about a five-

page picture book that he had drawn the previous week, he offered these comments:

"Alligator is a robot" (p. 1). "Alligator with his friend" (p.2). "A dolphin" (p. 3).

"Arrows shoot down" (p. 4). "Alligator dead" (p.5). If I questioned him about the text

and suggested details, he would smile and say that I was correct in my assumptions of

what was happening in the text, but I couldn't elicit any details from him.

Perhaps Jeffrey was unfamiliar with the rituals of storybook reading whereby in

infancy parents often encourage a child to point and name items in the illustrations. Then

as the child gains greater insights and understandings of storybook language, the parents

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discuss the text, answer any questions, and also request greater elaborations. Jeffrey may

never have had opportunities to hear stories read and thus wasn't sure what was desired

when we asked him to discuss his drawings with more detailed descriptions and

elaborations. In addition, perhaps because he lacked encounters with storybooks, he

hadn't developed an appropriate literacy set (Holdaway, 1979) for interacting with us and

discussing the texts he was composing.

Wells (1986) illustrated a similar example with his case study, Rosie. As Rosie

was making a calendar from a Christmas card with a Santa Claus skiing down the hill, the

teacher tried unsuccessfully to have Rosie identify elements of the picture. Rosie was

unfamiliar with the questioning patterns and couldn't respond appropriately. Heath (1983)

also discussed difficulties that the Tiacktown and Roadville children encountered with

schooling in contrast to the "townspeople's" children who had had many encounters with

books and could anticipate the desires of the teacher to elaborate and discuss texts.

Realizing Jeffrey's need for talking about texts, Robin began to stop by his desk to

chat with him about his drawings. She also encouraged him to continue drawing more

pictures in his prestapled books instead of drawing one, crumpling it up, and throwing it

away. Many times she would hurry back to his desk when he completed a drawing to

discuss the picture and write for him a dictated text For the most part, the dictations

occurred after the drawings rather than during the process. However, due to his inability to

elaborate and describe when discussing his illustrations, Robin questioned him a great deal

to solicit some text She shared, "It's like pulling teeth to get him to talk and stay on task."

His first dictated book, "I Fish" was a collaborative writing effort, following the

creation of the illustrations (see figures below).

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Figure 6Jeffrey’s Drawing for First Dictated Book / Firfc

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CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLING1 Fish 1 Fish

He's thinkinq about fishing again.He's playing around and his mom said no.He's catching a fish. There's the fish. He is coming to get it.He got it. It started raining. He w as having fun. But then he is starting to get sad.It is dark time. They are going to sleep .Here is the m ouse. They are going to sleep , too.

The EhD The end.

Figure 7Jeffrey 's Text for First Dictated Book / Fish

Jeffrey wrote the words for the title and closing while Robin pointed to the correct

letters of the alphabet strip on his desk. The remainder of the text, was a dictation

produced after much questioning from Robin. He was very proud of his "I Fish" book and

read it to his friends, approximating the text as he told the story.

For days on end, he had difficulty finding a topic for a story which could sustain

his attention for any period of time. He would scribble a picture, look around at his

neighbor's work, crumple it up, throw it away, walk around looking at other children's

work, and then repeat the process. Robin frequently reminded him, "Jeffrey, please don't

throw away your stories. Keep everything you write or draw in your writing folder." But

he continued to destroy his work, even sneaking texts into his desk and later throwing them

away. Frequently, he appeared frustrated.

Finally, on September 18 and 19, he initiated a topic which could sustain his

interest. He drew intricate, detailed, and action-packed scenes of a helicopter battle (see

figure below). The illustrations were tiny and neat, instead of the usual hurried large

scribblings. I asked him if he would like to add some words, and he said, "Yes."

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Figure 8Jeffrey's Helicopter Battle Picture

Instead of taking his dictation, I assisted him with stretching the words he wanted

and helped him to locate the appropriate letters on his alphabet strip. As I stretched or

elongated the words and segmented phonemes, he would repeat each sound and guess

which letter of the alphabet represented the sound. He correctly identified two letters s and

i . The remainder of the letters were found by his sliding his finger along the alphabet strip

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and saying, "This one? This one?" If I would say the Jcuh sound is the letter Jeffrey

could not find the letter on the alphabet strip.

Jeffrey could neither identify the letters of the alphabet, nor their corresponding

phonetic sounds, except for the few letters noted which had a similar phonetic sound to the

letter name. As can be seen in his text (see figure below), he did not attend to the endings

of words, such as inflected ending er of helicopter in the title, ed of jumped, and the er of

diver. Due to his difficulty in making sound-to-symbol correspondences, 1 did not request

that he reconsider the words and try to attend to each sound, rather I accepted his early

phonetic invented spelling.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGJeffrey hIKPt Jeffrey Helicooterhe jump (adult wrote at bottom of page - "crashing" & "bang")

He jumped.

(illustration only)SKI SKI DIV Skvdiver.hIkPTR Helicopter.

Figure 9Jeffrey's Text for Adult Assisted Story Helicopter

Perhaps, because the process of trying to hear and identify sounds and letters was

so difficult and time-consuming, he wrote only a few words. At a later date, he read the

story to Robin and embellished with a few more oral details. She asked if he wanted her to

write some of his additional comments. He told her to add the words crashing and bang to

the second page, offering action words.

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Trying to observe many children and assist those who needed and demanded help

before "closing the net" for the case study candidates, I was unable to observe Jeffrey for a

period of time. However, on October 2 as I walked by his desk and glanced at his drawing

(see figure below), he said, "Look, bad pumpkin."

Not since the helicopter story of September 18, had he developed an idea which he

could sustain. That morning Robin had read the book Pumpkins. Pumpkins from the

Wright Group Storybox collection of patterned language books before the writing

workshop. This book had inspired Jeffrey to use the character of a pumpkin, although his

plot bore no resemblance to the book (see figure below).

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGJeffrav this Is the BAD PMPKIN Jeflrev This Is the Bad PumokinThe HAOS e s on RR The house if on fire.HAOS yes BOO MOO HAOS House? Yes. Boo hoo. House.Y ooTheE hD You. The end.

Figure 10Jeffrey's Text for T h is is the B a d P u m p k in Story

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■Q TI do OÛ

r

Figure 11Jeffrey's Bad Pumpkin Picture

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Jeffrey definitely had a story in mind about a bad pumpkin who flies through the air

and shoots fire at houses. The illustrations cleverly displayed much action which was

readily discernible as he explained what was happening. I asked him if he would like to

write what he had just told me about the drawings, and he nodded his head, "Yes."

Picking-up on his initial comment, I asked if he would like to say, "This is the bad

pumpkin." He again responded by shaking his head in agreement. Using the process of

stretching and segmenting initial phonemes, when necessary, he began writing the text.

Again the task was difficult as he guessed, always with a smile and wide open

eyes, "Is it this one?" as he pointed to a letter on the alphabet strip. I asked him to say and

stretch the words and also to name the appropriate letter of the alphabet. Then he

painstakingly began to draw the letter of the alphabet, carefully looking back and forth at

the alphabet strip to see if what he drew looked the same. Since he had little knowledge of

concepts of print (Clay, 1985), he allowed no spaces between the words, running all the

letters together.

On the second page, as he found the letters more quickly, he became so excited.

Since I could assist with the understanding of where a word ends and another begins by

stretching one word at a time, he was able to separate words as he wrote and began

stacking them on top of each other. Not wanting to squelch his enthusiasm and knowing

that the concept of word and directionality were not conceptually understood, I

complimented him on his great writing and did not ask him to write the words

conventionally. Then I asked him to continue drawing and writing the rest of the story he

had shared about the people being in the burning houses. As I left his desk to move on to

another child, he was busy drawing more pictures.

Later when I returned I found he had drawn on page three burning houses with

people in them (see figure below).

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® t3? es \ . ,•

Figure 12JefTrey's Burning House Picture

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He had written some text without any assistance. Haos, he copied from the

previous page, yes, was copied from the Quick Word chart at the back of the room, and

Boo noo , may have been copied from a neighbor's story. Page four. The Ehd, was

written all by himself. If Jeffrey hadn't caught my attention that day, perhaps these

wonderful drawings would never have received a written text and would have been

deposited in the wastebasket like many others. Jeffrey's frustrations seemed to be

compounded by his comparison of himself to others Early on, Jeffrey was aware that

many children were writing their own texts, and he could not.

Twelve days later on October 14,1 asked Jeffrey to reread my favorite book about

the pumpkin, but he could not. So I pointed to the words and read his text. He responded,

"Oh, yeh, I remember," and he began sliding his finger along the jammed together words,

repeating what I had read. He ran out of words and looked peiplexed so I took two 3 x 5

cards to display each word and covered the encroaching letters. He then was able to read

the text and made a correct voice to print match. Then he decided to point without the

cards. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he said, "I can spread them [the words] out. Then 1

won't have trouble." He had made a great discovery by himself. He realized the need of

separating words and had a budding understanding of concept of word. 1 offered the

suggestion of using his finger to make spaces between words. He thought that was a great

idea. Jeffrey was beginning to understand the term word, but it would be many months

before this concept was internalized and automatic so that he could understand and hear

separate words within a phrase or clause.

Again, he was very proud of his book which he had taken to completion with adult

assistance. He showed the book to his seatmate, Matthew, and told him he was going to

recopy it, even though "he didn't have to" because he wanted to share it in the author's

chair. He copied several words, allowing space between, but then forgot between several

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other words. When he went back to reread the book, he realized his error and drew a

straight line between the words. However, the concept of word was not yet stable and did

not transfer consistently to subsequent texts.

On October 18 while I was taping a possible case study candidate as the child read

and discussed his text, Jeffrey came over to me and asked for spelling help. He brought a

text which he had started the previous day based on the Bill Martin book. Brown Bear.

Brown Bear (see figure below).

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GBron bar bron bar Brown bear, brown bearred brd rad brd Red bird, red bird1 s e bloue 1 s e e

Figure 13Jeffrey's Text for B ro w n B ear, B row n B e a r Story

He had composed the first two lines. Then I helped him to hear the sounds in the

words see by stretching the word, and he wrote the 3rd line "I se." Moving to his desk a

few minutes later, I found he was trying to spell another word. "How do you spell blue ?"

he asked. He had written bio and before I could respond, he glanced up at the wall above

the cloak closets where the color words were located and said, "Oh, I forgot." "It's up

there." Then he added the ue to make bloue.

When Robin viewed this text, she wrote on her daily record: "This book IBrown

Bear. Brown Bear! is continually chosen in personal reading and for response in writing,

but surprisingly Jeffrey does not have the text memorized. Very odd." Many of the other

children, who were further advanced in letter-sound correspondences, would not have

written such a disjointed text Having memorized the original text, they would have

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included the complete sentences in sequence: Brown bear, brown bear what do you see? I

see a red bird looking at me.

However, Jeffrey had not yet internalized concept of word nor did he have a strong

knowledge base of letter-to-sound correspondences. Therefore, in analyzing this text, I

was pleased to discover that he had progressed to the point that he had included many of

the key words from the original text, that the invented spelling was a close approximation,

and that he had produced individual words, not running them together.

His disjointed text of key words was reminiscent of early oral speech patterns

which Brown and Beluggi (1964) identified as "telegraphic speech" in which key words

similar to those selected for a telegram are used in early language development. Not having

observed the composing of much of the text, 1 ventured a guess that Jeffrey probably

composed most of this text by himself and did not look at a friend's text for spelling help..

Previously when I had assisted him in the composing process, I frequently had to say, "Go

back and reread what you've written." This strategy of rereading appeared to assist him in

holding the phrase or sentence in his mind while he went through the difficult process of

elongating sounds and searching for the corresponding letter of the alphabet Without an

adult assisting him in calling up the phrase to remembrance, he could only concentrate on

key words. Later when 1 went through his folder to find this story and see if had added

anymore, it was gone. Again Jeffrey had destroyed a text. Did he feel that his story was

inadequate in comparison to others?

Because Jeffrey and approximately six other children could benefit from adult

interaction and assistance, Robin asked for parent volunteers for the writing workshop.

Two parents volunteered to help once a week and one other, twice a week. In actuality,

their appearances were on a more irregular basis. With the assistance of a parent volunteer,

on October 23 Jeffrey wrote a book entitled Friends. Despite Robin's request that the

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volunteers should stretch words and permit invented spelling, this parent spelled every

word correctly for Jeffrey (see figure below).

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GJeffrey FRTenD Jeffrey FriendChad is my friend Chad is my friend.1 like the PLAYGROUnD 1 like the piayground.BAH is fun to PLAY Bail is fun to play.trees treesRusty WAits At the DOOR Rusty waits at the door.PLA ChAD Jeffrey Chad and Jeffrey play.

Figure 14Jeffrey's Text for F r ie n d Story

When I asked Jeffrey, to read the book the next day, he couldn't read the text and

remembered little of the textual ideas. Even after I read it aloud and pointed to each word in

the text, he could not read his text. Jeffrey appeared to need the involvement of

constructing his own text, orthographically.

On October 29, Jeffrey came over and grabbed me by the arm and began pulling me

to his desk. He wanted help with spelling. He was writing a book about Ninja turtles. At

this stage of development, Jeffrey needed adult interaction to help him with the rereading

process to sustain a text and develop fluency. What follows from the field notes is an

example of a child's need for adult interaction for developing fluency through the rereading

process.

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As he finished writing the words trtle (turtle), he turned to me and said, "What next?" I reply, "You tell me." "I don't know," he quickly responds. Then I repeat, "What do you need to do, Jeffrey?" "Go back?" he questions. Then he went back to reread, ”The turtle. . .jumped.. ., Is this a new word?" I answered, "Yes." He put his finger down on the paper to make a space, and then said, ” Jumped.. .juh, Juh, juh. " After helping him stretch words and locate the letter of the alphabet, he wrote Jmpt. Again we went through the questioning and reminding strategy to get Jeffrey to go back and reread to remember the sentence and keep the flow of the text going.

Each time an adult assists Jeffrey, he progesses in his ability to remember the rereading process for flow of the text Also, he is getting better at understanding what a word is and using his finger space. Sound- to-letter correspondence has greatly improved. A peer could not have helped him today in this early stage of development, rather an adult who has the understandings of the many concepts he was grappling with could facilitate the necessary cues needed in his zone of proximal development.

Robin moved Jeffrey's seat near a boy who was more advanced in writing, and

who could perhaps assist Jeffrey with stretching and spelling words. Around the time

period of November 9-11, Jeffrey and Matthew wrote books about the class pet. Pepper

the guinea pig (see figure below). The following is a text about Pepper which Jeffrey

composed.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGJeffrey Guinea PIq Jeffrey Guinea Piabrown GuineaPIG SMOK Brown guinea pig is drinking.Guinea PiG Guinea pig.GuineaPiq Matthew-loks At PePPer Guinea pig. Matthew looks at Pepper.PePPer PepperTheEnD The end.

Figure 15Jeffrey's Text for G u in ea P ig Story

Matthew evidently spelled some of the words for Jeffrey such as guinea pig and

Matthew, the word brown was probably copied from the color words listed on the wall

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beside their desks, and the remaining words were created by Jeffrey. This was one of the

few texts that Jeffrey had not received adult assistance, and thus the text offered more

accurate evidence of his level of writing development The text contains "telegraphic

messages" noted and described in level three on the "Sense of Story and Textual

Development" continuum. As described on the continuum, the staccato style may be

attributable to the interrupted thought processes caused by the pauses in the composing

process to stretch words and draw sound-to-symbol correspondences. Each brief message

centers on the illustration and offers an impersonal description (see figure below).

The first sentence appears to contain the word smoke. When I asked Jeffrey to read

this page of the text, he read is drinking. However, when Pepper sucked on the drinking

tube, it did look as though he had something like a cigarette sticking out of his mouth.

Perhaps, he didn't want me to know that they had joked about Pepper smoking.

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to w

Figure 16Jeffrey's Pepper Picture

On November 14, Jeffrey returned a little later than usual from the Chapter I

reading class, he found his classmates making lift-flap books patterned after a "Spot” book

which had been read while he was out of the room. He drew a little dog with a no written

on him , and pasted an orange flap over the dog. He spent the remaining forty-five minutes

of the workshop talking to his friends about recess, snacktime, and nothing related to his

text or one drawing. This minimal contribution to the writing workshop was typical for

Jeffrey if he did not receive adult support.

During December, Robin read many books to the class related to the Christmas

celebration. As I sat down beside Jeffrey to observe him on December 3, he had nearly

completed a lovely Christmas book and on the opening page were beautiful Christmas trees

in dark green crayon. I commented on his nice drawing.

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Without acknowledging my compliment, he quickly pointed to the word, tree , and

said, "Matthew says that it should be trees and not tree.” Evidently, Matthew had assisted

him in spelling the word. I explained that Matthew was correct in suggesting that he add an

s to trees to help the reader understand that there were many trees in his drawing. I asked

him to say the word trees and told him that adding s made the word plural. He seemed

satisfied and added the s.

As he put the finishing touches on his final drawing of Santa's sleigh and the

reindeer flying away, he said, "Rudolph's mad cause he wanted to stay." Then he read the

text on the next two pages to me, "Ho! Ho! Ho! Goodby." "The end" (see figure

below).

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGHo h o - ho Ho! Ho! Ho!Ho ho - ho Merry Christmas HO! Ho! HO! Merry ChristmasChristmas trees Ho h o -h o Christmas trees. Ho! Ho! Ho!Kande Kn Candy cane.Ho h o -h o Godbi Ho! Ho! Ho! G oodbye.The End The end.

Figure 17Jeffrey 's Text for Ho Ho Ho S tory

The idea for this text was a "voice pointing chart" used in the opening exercises and

set to the tune of Frere Jacques. The actual chart read. Where is Santa (repeat). Here 1 am

(repeat). Merry, merry Christmas (repeat), Ho-Ho-Ho! (repeat). Robin had encouraged

him to use the chart to help him spell words he wanted. Although, he had copied much of

the text, he had taken risks in adding his own text about the Christmas trees and with his

invented spellings of kande kn, Godbi, and The End. Being able to copy portions of a text

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and receive some help from a peer and/or adult with spelling had made it possible for

Jeffrey to take a text to completion.

When Robin and I looked through the case study writing folders over Christmas

break, we found that his Christmas story was missing. Robin commented, "Now this is

weird because I worked some with him on this book. He must have felt so bad about

things that he threw the story away. How sad," she added. As we looked through his

folder we found thirty-six stapled books remaining, many incomplete.

Autumn Quarter Qualitative Analysis Along the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings

Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving progression of

development along the "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing

Development." For further description of each incremental progression noted within

individual conceptual understandings of the writing process, refer to Table I, pp. 84-90.

The highest level attained on each gr^hed continua of conceptual understanding verifies

the level of competency at that particular time of the year when the text was written. These

incremental levels were derived from observations of the composing process and the

resultant text.

To summarize the gains in understanding of the writing process during Autumn

Quarter, the following continua and descriptors are offered:

165

Table 8Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write Letters of Alphabet

(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I I I I I I I

9 /12 / Fish (dictated text)

10/2 S a d PumpWn (Benchmark)

11/9 Guinea Pig

12/3 Hoi Ho! Ho! (copied chart)

Jeffrey could neither identify nor write more than a few letters of the alphabet in

September. When an adult prompted him to orally stretch a word, he could hear and

imitate sounds of letters for writing. Then with adult assistance, he could find the

corresponding letter of the alphabet that had the closest match (letter name strategy) on his

alphabet strip and painstakingly copy the letter. By December, he could identify about half

of the letters of the alphabet with their corresponding letter-name sound and quickly draw

the letters. Initially, adult assistance was needed to stretch words and even for phonemic

segmentation, but by December he only needed sementation of the initial phoneme and

stretching for the remainder of the word.

Jeffrey progressed through level one, as documented, of the continuum,

"Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write Letters of the Alphabet" and gained in his ability

to make approximate sound-to-symbol correspondence which are noted in level two.

166

Table 9W ord Knowledge through Invented Spelling Development


I l . l I I I I I L I I I I I I I I I I I I I I0

9 /1 2 1 Fish (dictated text) .................

10/2 Bad Pumpkin (Benchmark) .................

2 3 4 5 6 7

1 r 70: i iO ! r iO : ^CO piSQ C n S i l / • • • • • • • •

Spelling had progressed in the early phonetic stage of development with fewer than

half of the sounds represented by a letter. Using the Gillet and Temple (1982) beginner's

features list to assess spelling development at the end of Autumn Quarter, I found in

scoring Jeffrey's words that he had spelled none correctly, one word skok (shock) was

rated in the transitional category, 2 using letter name strategies, 11 in early phonetic, and 2

prephonetic with random strings of letters. Some of his misspellings are as follow: It

(late), rod (chirped), int (once), rud (learned), w (wind).

Adult assistance was needed to stretch words and segment the initial phoneme and

chunk the remaining portion of the word. By the end of December, more advanced

students could assist Jeffrey with stretching words, but others would simply tell him the

spelling which didn't assist his progress.

Jeffrey could represent more sounds with letters by the end of the quarter.

Generally beginning and ending sounds were more accurate. His sight vocabulary of

correct spellings contained few words.

167

Jeffrey was gaining in his undestanding of the alphabetic principle which assisted

his beginning knowledge of sound-to-symbol correspondences in the early phonetic stage

of spelling, level two progressing toward three of the continuum "Word Knowledge

through Invented Spelling Development"

Table 10Concept of Word or Voice-to-Print Match

(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings In Writing Development" described In Table 1.)

I I 1 1 1 I I I I I I 1 I I I I I

9 /1 2 1 Fish (dictated text)

10/2 S a d PumpWn (Benchmark)

11/9 Guinea Pig

12/3 Ho! Ho! Ho! (copied chart)

By the end of the quarter he had a budding understanding of the concept of word.

Sometimes he could separate words mentally and demonstrated this achievement with

proper spacing between words and even drew diagonal lines between letters on one

occasion when he had omitted the spaces. In rereading texts composed earlier in the

quarter, he had difficulty making a voice to print match, but with more recent texts, he had

little problem. However, the concept of word was not yet internalized which was reflected

in his lack of consistency with spacing in his writing.

168

Jeffrey had progressed in his acquisition of concept of word from little

understanding of print carrying a message to a budding undestanding of space before and

after words and in occasionally making a voice-to-print match as noted in level two of the

continuum "Concept of Word or Voice to Print Match."

Table 11Fluency through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process


0 1 2

9 /1 2 1 Fish (dictated text) ................. l

10/2 Bad Pumpkin (Benchmark) ................. i .................. 2

3 4 5 6 7

1 1/y isuin&a rig

1 no: rto! no! \cop10u crian^

His earliest texts such as I Fish were dictated at a fast pace, and the teacher had to

repeat the text numerous times to keep him from repeatedly changing the dictated text

After a few weeks, he could hold a thought in his mind and even repeat it slowly for

dictation. By October, Jeffrey had progressed from dictated stories to writing his own text

but this change still required adult assistance. An adult was needed to sustain a text for

reminders to go back and reread to hold the sentence in his mind while he spelled words,

otherwise he wrote only labels. Prompts, modeling, and choral rereading assisted in

begining to move this strategy to automatism to enhance fluency in composing.

169

With adult assistance, Jeffrey had progressed from dictated texts of levels one and

two of the continuum "Fluency through Rereading of Text in the composing Process" to

adult assistance in prompting to reread and to add on to his texts noted in level three.

Table 12Awareness of Conventions of Print


L I , . . I L . I I - I . . 1 I I I l . l I 1 . - L . I i J - j - l I L I . , . . I 1 . 1 I.0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

9/12 / F/s /7 (dictated text)

10/2 Bad Pumpkin (Benchmark)

11Æ Guinea Pigm • • * 2' • *2* * *3

12/3 Ho! Ho! Ho! (copied chart)• • • • ! • • * 2

In regards to conventions of print, few were displayed. From the second text on,

he had included the end with a variety of spellings. The first title. Turtles, appeared on

October 29 and soon each text included one. His name, which was requested by the

teacher, was included on most texts. No other conventions were included probably due to

the need of much cognitive attention focused upon conceptual understandings of letter-to-

sound correspondences, concept of word, and rereading for fluency.

Little progress was made in the continuum, "Awareness of Conventions of Print,"

except for the use of three conventions, title, author, and "the end."

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Table 13Collaboration in the Process (from Adult to Peer)

(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua. "f Aultiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

■ L J L . I : l - L . J I I . I I I J - L l I . . , I I I I I I I I I I

9 /1 2 1 Fish (dictated text)

10/2 Bad Pumpkin (Benchmark)

11/9 Guinea Pig

12/3 Ho! Ho! Ho! (copied chart)

Adult collaboration in the prewriting phase and composing process was needed in

his stage of development. He needed someone to assist with the concept of word, to

stretch the words, to find the corresponding letter of the alphabet, and prompt to reread to

recall the clause or sentence to keep the flow of the text going. During the prewriting phase

when he was constructing a drawing, he would occasionally discuss his illustration with a

seatmate and toward the end of the quarter he would request help from peers for spelling.

For the most part his interactions were not about the text but purely social.

Rarely did he want anyone to see or hear his texts. Sometimes he even covered his

paper with his arm so no one could see what he wrote and destroyed many texts. He

would only share those pieces which he had taken to completion with the assistance of an

adult

Collaboration with an adult was needed throughout the quarter. He progressed

from the need of the adult to reread the text for him to the point that he could reread for

himself when prompted. Peer influence was minimal which is noted in level two of the

continuum "Collaboration in the Process."

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Table 14Sense of Story and Textual Development


9 /12 I Fish (dictated text)

10/2 Sad Pu/npWn (Benchmark)

11Æ Guinea Pig

12/3 Hoi Ho! Ho! (copied chart)

•1

• 1 * • 2 -

1 - 2 - • 1 * • 2

Texts in the first month of school were illustrations with a scene frozen-in-time, or

if an adult was available, they included a dictated text which simply described the scene in

his drawing, for example This is.. There is. . . . Much of the meaning was embedded

in his drawings, but he could orally describe more if an adult questioned and probed for

further explanation. These interactions with an adult contributed in making his dictated

texts lengthier and richer, rather than just labels.

On October 2, he began writing his own texts with adult assistance in getting him

to describe the drawings, repeat his clause or phrase, stretch each word, find the

appropriate letter on the alphabet strip, write each letter he attended to, and prompt him to

reread to establish fluency. Texts consisted of labels and telegraphic messages with the

essential words offered to convey the basic thought as in Bad Pumpkin and Guinea Pig.

Illustrations were occasionally tidy and detailed when he had a story idea. On these

occasions, he requested adult assistance for help in rereading and stretching words. Also,

during Autumn Quarter, he enjoyed copying portions of the voice-pointing charts as in his

text HoJ Ho! Ho! which reverted back to a text of level two on the continuum "Sense of

Story and Textual Development." With copying portions of the chart, he could practice

172

saying and writing the words and using correct conventions. Also, his text appeared very

professional.

Cohesive devices in his dictated texts included exophoric reference (outside the text

to the drawing) with personal reference using pronouns and their possessive forms

referring to characters and demonstrative reference pointing to persons, places, or things in

his illustrations.

Jeffrey had progressed along the continuum "Sense of Story and Textual

Development" from level one with illustrations and dictated texts to level three telegraphic

texts of impersonal identifications and descriptions of the drawings.

Table 15Autumn Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts (Content, Length, and Number of Words)

INCOMPLETE BOOKS2 - Cover Drawing only4 - W ordless Picture Books5 ~ W ordless Picture Books with his Name

Added Several Times3 ~ W ordless Picture Books with his Name

and "the end"3 - W ordless Picture Books with One Word 2 ~ Title P age only, no Illustration2 - Title P age with Illustration and

Remainder W ordless Picture Book

COMPLETED TEXTS2 - Copied Text, (small portion) from Rhyming Chart4 - Dictated Texts. Ranging from 1 8 -5 3 Words,

Accompanied by 4 - 7 Illustrated P ages5 - Labeled Illustrations with "the end"8 - Texts of Invented Spelling (assisted by an adult)

Number of Words - range, 2 - 23*Number of P a g es - range, 3 - 8

"Longest book. Friend, written mainly with Chapter I teacher, (correct spelling), 23 words; 7 pages 2nd longest book. Bad Pumpkin, som e adult assistance with stretching words, 18 words; 4 pages Shortest book. Parachuting, assistan ce from adult for spelling, 2 words; 3 p ages

173

Winter Quarter

While I was listening to Michelle, a very advanced writer, reading a text she had

just completed on January 8, Jeffrey came to me and asked, "Will you please come help me

spell tornadoT I directed him to the round work table with his materials and told him I

would be there in a few minutes. Jay, another case study, overheard my comments and

asked, "Can I come over, too?" I responded, "Sure."

When I arrived at the table, I found Jeffrey had illustrated three pages with houses

and tornados. A few days earlier one of his seatmates at his table grouping had begun

writing a book about the Wisard of Oz and had included on the cover a drawing of a

tornado. This stimulus had given Jeffrey an idea to also write about a tornado. He asked

me, "How do you spell tornadol Tuh? 77" "Yes," I replied, and he began drawing the

letter, t. Then I pronounced the first syllable, tor, and he responded, "r?" Before I could

say that he was correct in hearing r, in his early letter-name stage of spelling. Jay jumped

into the conversation and said, "No, there's an a before the r." Suddenly, I was not

needed. Jeffrey wrote and looked back to Jay for assistance in stretching and figuring out

the correct letter. Robin had stressed to the children to ask their peers for spelling help

because the adults were often too busy, but she cautioned them not simply to spell but to

stretch words like the adults did to help each other learn. By January, the children were

modeling her procedure quite well.

After Jeffrey had completed his spelling of tornados, Ashley came by the table,

looked at his drawing and writing, turned to me and said rather imperiously, "I can't read

that kind of writing." Ashley, who was very advanced in her spelling development,

probably meant that she couldn't read the invented spelling as well as correct spelling.

Jeffrey, who had been so proud of his work, looked puzzled and hurt. So I turned to him

as Ashley left and said, "Maybe she can't read tornados because it is such a big word." He

174

grinned and said, "Yeh. It's a real big word." Then I added, "Yes, and you did a very

good job of spelling it." He looked pleased.

At the work table Jeffrey did not have his alphabet strip, so as Jay and he worked

together at spelling, he would occasionally glance above the blackboard to check the giant

alphabet strip. For the most part, he now knew the letters of the alphabet for a great many

phonemes and could make a sound-to-symbol correspondence.

Turning to the next page of his illustrations, I asked what he was going to write.

He responded, "There are lots of tornados. There, there,” he repeated the word. I

segmented the first phoneme, the. "Oh, I know how to spell the,” he said. Then he heard

the rand added it. For the word are, without assistance he wrote R, and then paused to

say, ”Lots, is that a new word?" I responded, "Go back and read what you've written."

Carefully and slowly, he read each word pausing between each and answered, "Yes, it's a

new word, luh. . .awh. . . . " He was developing an awareness of concept of word. In

completing this sentence, I reminded him frequently to reread what he had written to hold

the sentence still in his mind.

For the third page, he wanted to tell what was happening in the picture — The

tornado picked up the house. Quickly he wrote the and then began to ask me how to spell

tornado, but I interrupted and said, "You know how to spell that." He repled, "Oh, yeh,"

and flipped back to the first page to copy the word. "How do you spell picked,” he asked.

Ashley who had returned to the table to watch us, jumped in and said, ”Puh, puh. " "F?"

questioned Jeffrey. "Yes," Ashley responded and added, "/A." He replied, "F? " "No,"

she said, ”Ih, like in igloo.” Her response, demonstrated the conceptual knowledge that

some first graders have in orthography and their ability to act as more capable peers to

assist children.

175

Continuing the spelling of picked, Jeffrey repeated the word and said, "Kuh,

what's that?" "Well, it can be either a c or fe or it could be both," offered Ashley. 1

interjected with amazement, "You're right. Which do you think it is?" She replied, "Ck. "

Jeffrey listened to this exchange and wrote ck. Then he asked how to spell up, picked up.

"Wait, Ashley said, "It's supposed to be picked," and she emphasized the ed with a loud

tuh. Jeffrey quickly wrote t. She didn't correct him. Just then Robin announced, "Time

to clean up."

Was Ashley working within Jeffrey's zone of proximal development or beyond? 1

believe at times that both Jay and she probably confused Jeffrey by offering letters and

sounds, such as vowels, which in his developmental stage he could not yet distinguish, but

he accepted their offerings and wrote them down. However, some of their interactions

were as capably offered as any knowledgeable teacher.

On the next day, as I was assisting Bart in using the computer to write his text,

Jeffrey came over with the Tornado book [which subsequently disappeared] and asked for

spelling help. Moving to the work table with him, 1 praised him for continuing on the same

book. In the past, Jeffrey had difficulty sustaining any idea to the next day's workshop.

"I want to say. Tornados can pick up anything, " he shared. "See, these people were

working on the building, and the tornado picked up the building and set it back down," he

added. Jeffrey's oral descriptions were becoming more elaborate, and he was developing a

langauge set to discuss his textual ideas.

As he began to write his sentence, he never questioned whether a space was needed

for a new word, nor did I remind him to use his finger for a space. Concept of word

appeared on this day to have moved to internalization and could be used automatically.

When he came to the word up, he quickly wrote pu and then looked at it carefully and said,

"That's not right. That would be peeyou, backwards." Then he asked how to spell

176

anything. Joshua who had come to the table to ask me to listen to his story said,

"Ehkhnee. ” Jeffrey looked down and began to write ane. Then we worked on tfi-ing. He

swiftly noted the th sounded like the and then remembered ing and wrote the ending. Great

gains had been made in letter-sound correspondences, but he still needed an adult to remind

him to reread to keep the fluency of the writing going and also to assist with stretching

words. However, I realized that I might be responding too quickly to his resquests for

stretching words. Instead, I needed to urge him to try, first on his own.

As I entered the classroom on January 28, Jeffrey was standing at the large chart

pointing accurately to each word as the class «mg the daily patterned language rhyme. In

previous months, when he had no concept of word, he simply slid the pointer along under

the words, and many children would complain when he finished ahead of their reading of

the text

At this same time, another occurrence brought to our attention Jeffrey's budding

understandings of print. Since the beginning of the year, Jeffrey and six other children

who could not read, had always sat on the perimeter of the carpet during Robin's reading

aloud of children's literature each morning. Suddenly, Jeffrey had moved to the position

of a "footwarmer," as we affectionately labled those children who were so excited about

reading that they wanted to be as close as possible to view the written text. Previously,

Jeffrey had been content to listen and view the illustrations from afar. Now, he sat on her

feet, as close as possible to the book. Interestingly, the previous "footwarmers" of October

and November, who had at that time incorporated portions of retellings and aspects of the

read-aloud texts into their writing, now had moved to the center of the carpet allowing the

burgeoning readers to push to the forefront. The earlier "footwarmers" who had borrowed

elements, such as characters, setting, or an event from the books had progressed now to

creating their own stories.

Ill

On the same day as Jeffrey accurately pointed to the rhyme on the chart, I found

Jeffrey and Jamarr, who was slightly ahead of Jeffrey in writing development, sitting at the

work table drawing scenes of a football game. As I approached Jeffrey said, "I throw the

ball to you, and you make a touchdown." Then Bart came over to the table, said nothing,

but looked at their drawings and listened to their talk with a big grin on his face. With help

from me in stretching words, Jeffrey wrote Jamarr and Jeffrey R PlAing football and Bart

(he decided to add Bart's name since he was watching them). On the second page, he

composed the following text, Jamarr Throws A one 100 Pont shot. This was the first time

Jeffrey had wanted to write anything on a personal level and to discuss the text as he

composed. See figure below for the text.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGFootball FootballJamarr and Jeffrey R PlAing football and Bart

Jamarr and Jeffrey are playing football and Bart.

Jamarr Throws A one 100 Pont shot. Jamarr throw a one hundred point shot.Jamarr and Jeffrey mad a Tachdon. Jamarr and Jeffrey m ade a touchdown.Jeffrey Throd The Bool Dat Bart Katt the Bool.

Jeffrey th rowed the bail that Bart caught the ball.

The End The end.

Figure 18Jeffrey's Text for F o o tb a ll Story

After completing the second page of text, I asked Jeffrey,"What happened next?"

Without looking up nor needing to construct a drawing to explain what happened, Jeffrey

began writing, Jamarr and Jeffrey mad a Tachdon. He turned to me for assistance in

spelling touchdown and then went back to reread aloud, without being told to do so, and

was satisfied with what he had written. The following text is taken from my field notes

and explains the ensuing interaction with his seatmates:

178

Then he looked at Bart who had been watching him write and said, "Jamarr and I are beating you at football" "You have the ball, and we're going to take it." Looking down he began to draw the scene for Bart. Continuing the descriptive commentary, Jeffrey said, "I'm running and you throw the ball. I catch it and make a point." "I don't care," Bart responded, "I can beat you at real football." Then he looked at me, raised his eyebrows and grinned as though to say, "Is this guy for real? Does he really think this is happening?" Jeffrey, caught up in his imaginary football game, ignored Bart's comments and began writing was. He stretched the word, wrote w, and then paused to look to me for help. I said, " Y ou can do it by yourself. " He went right back to writing and was satisfied with wis. Then without a prompt, he went back to reread to see where he was in his sentence and exclaimed, "Oh, no. I need made not was. I'll have to erase it."

The football text appeared to be a milestone for Jeffrey in four ways. First, he had

written a page of text for the first time without an illustration to frame the textual idea.

Second, he had moved to a personal account, rather than an impersonal description of a

drawing frozen in time. Third, he discussed the text with peers as though the game was

really occurring . And fourth, he had moved the rereading strategy for developing fluency

closer to self-monitoring, infrequently needing an adult to prompt him.

Three days later on the thirty-first of January, when Robin asked Jeffrey to read the

Football book, she noted on her observational cards that he had difficulty rereading his

story. Perhaps this problem was compounded by the fact that the illustrations enhanced the

text, for example with arrows depicting the action of the football plays, rather than

duplication of the text frozen in time. Previously his drawings provided a supportive

scaffolding for textual ideas and more information was embedded in the picture than in the

print.

However, since the text was a personal account, with Robin's assistance in

reading, he could recall more than he had on earlier texts if she asked him to revisit a piece

he hadn't seen in weeks. During this conference with Robin, he extended the text in

describing even more of the action.

179

Throughout the next week, Jeffrey could not think of a story idea and generally was

off-task. Robin shared her frustrations with me. He was one of the lowest in literacy in

the class and was causing a lot of disruptions in the workshop by walking around the room

and annoying people. He still needed an adult to keep him moving, but the parent

volunters, who earlier in the quarter had taken his dictation or assisted with stretching

words infrequently visited the classroom. Robin offered story suggestions and even had

him browse around the room to note topics that his peers were using. But he became

belligerent and said, "I don't want to write."

I went to his desk and looked through his folder at previous stories to see if he

could add on to any of them. In his folder, I found an illustrated half sheet of paper with

clever and intricate drawings (see figure below).

180

%

. }ko\)3Q>

1-^ F ;n 4

w ta R ^■

Figure 19Jeffrey's Playhouse Picture

I asked him to explain what was happening in the picture. He pointed to the

characters and commented on a game of hide-and-seek that Eric and he were playing with

Squib, an owl character from a Larry Shies book. Larry Shies and Carolyn Loesser had

visited their school two weeks earlier, and many children were incorporating aspects of the

authors' books into their writing.

181

I encouraged him to write what he had just told me. He became excited and wanted

to draw a new book and add clean pages for writing. Worrying that the recreation of the

drawing might be time consuming and that he would never get to the writing, I tried to

convince him to write the text along the side of the illustration. He looked puzzled so I

brought a children's literature book to his desk to convince him that famous authors wound

their texts around illustrations. Nodding in agreement he said, "Okay. I'll let you know

when I need help."

Twenty minutes later, I saw him cross the room to talk to Michelle, the most

advanced writer in the classroom. I hunied across the room to overhear her spelling

Squwb (Squib). I followed him back to his desk to observe. He quickly wrote Squwb in

Tring tw o.. . . Then he said aloud, "Now where was I?" Then automatically, he went

back to reread aloud and paused after the word house, pointing at the period he had placed

at the end of the first sentence. Reading the next sentence aloud, he paused and added

another period, saying, "There's a period. See?" This was the first time, I had seen him

take into account this mechanical convention of print.

Continuing on, he read the next phrase and questioned me, "How do you spell

find?” After assisting him with the stretching process, he wrote the word and said, "Now

where was I?" However, this time he did not go back to the beginning of the story but

went to the beginning of the new sentence. Possibly this occurred because the period

offered a signal for a stopping point Previously, I had attempted unsuccessfully to have

him reread only the sentence he was working on, but he couldn't and wouldn't. Now for

the first time I witnessed him automatically going back to orally reread only this sentence.

After he read it, he looked confused. He paused and thought. Then he read it again and

erased in , changing it to is. The rereading process was adding the cement to his meaning-

making and fluency.

182

Three days later, Robin conferenced with him on the Playhouse text. He read it

accurately with no assistance. She praised him. Proudly, he told her he wanted to recopy

it for his mother. In the ensuing days, he copied the story three times. That same day he

came to me to show me his copy and said, "I love to write. This is for Mom. I'm going to

read it to her."

Later in the writing workshop that same day, Jeffrey had evidently read the book to

his friend, Eric. Noisily, they came charging across the room to get my input. Pointing to

a word plau, Jeffrey asked, "Is this wrong? Eric said it should be y instead of u ?" I

responded that y was correct, but we could still read it with u. They rushed away and

Jeffrey changed the u' sXoy 'i, except for one which he missed.

Robin read aloud on February 11 the comical book Little Rabbit Foo Foo. Jeffrey

came over to me at the beginning of the workshop and said, "You won't need to help me

today. I can do it myself." I jotted in my observational notes, "He must have a good story

in mind today." For the first time, with some success, Jeffrey wrote a retelling of a

familiar storybook. Earlier he had tried to recreate a portion of Brown Bear. Brown Bear

but could only sustain a few lines of a telegraphic message and had never attempted the task

again. Now with more developed fluency for holding a sentence in mind and his faster

capabilities with letter-sound correspondences, he was successful in writing three events

from the original text (see figure below) and in employing a pronomial adjective in the

possessive case, t o hammer, as a cohesive personal referent for the first time.

183

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGLittle Rabbit Foo Foo Jeffrey

Little Rabbit Foo Foo Jeffrey

Lit! Rabbin Foo Foo Hd a Lit!. Hamr. and Lit! Fox is Net Bi. The Lit! Rabbin

Little Rabbit Foo Foo had a little hammer. And Little Fox is hit by the little rabbit.

LitI Rabbin Foo Foo you Get one More ch an s.

Little Rabbit Foo Foo you get one more chance.

Lit! Rabbit Foo Foo Tok is Hamr Hit The LitI Dog.

Little Rabbit Foo Foo took his hammer hit the little dog.

The Eno The end.

Figure 20Jeffrey's Text for Rabbit Foo Foo Story

The use of retellings from literature read aloud to the class seemed to appear in all

the children's writing at this same juncture of development, when they could hold an entire

sentence in memory and could more rapidly create words in the sound-to-letter process.

Just a month earlier, Robin had commented that Eric and Jamarr had progressed to

including portions of retellings in their texts. She wondered if Jeffrey, who was a little

farther behind, would soon incorporate elements of children's literature in his texts.

When Robin looked in his writing folder the next day, the Little Rabbit Foo Foo

story was missing. We had called his mother the previous month and asked her to please

have him return any stories he brought home. When Robin questioned him about the

story, he didn't seem to know what had happened to it. So, he wrote the story again. One

month later, we found both texts in his folder and compared them. They were identical

except in the second edition he had added another page with an additional sentence. The

Little Rabbit Foo Foo took the hammer (see figure below).

184

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGLittle Rabbit Foo Foo Jeffrey

Little Rabbit Foo Foo Jeffrey

LitI Rabbin Foo Foo Hd a LitI, Hamr. and LitI Fox is Het Bi. The LitI Rabbin

Little Rabbit Foo Foo had a little hammer. And Little Fox is hit by the little rabbit.

LitI Rabbin Foo Foo you Get one More ch an s.

Little Rabbit Foo Foo you get one more chance.

LitI Rabbit Foo Foo Tok is Hamr Hit The LitI Dog.

Little Rabbit Foo Foo took his hammer hit the little dog.

The Little Rabbit Foo Foo Took the Hamr. The Little Rabbit Foo Foo took the hammer.The End The end.

Figure 21Jeffrey's Second Text for R a bb it F oo F oo Story

The next day Jeffrey wrote the second edition of the story. Neither of us was sure

if he created this one by memory or copied it The repetition of texts became a ritual with

Jeffrey. For a three week period, he wrote only two stories, but he copied or rewrote

them numerous times and reread them over and over. During this time, Robin said to me,

"What am I going to do with Jeffrey? He simply keeps writing the same story over and

over." He was on-task, confident, and happy with his rewritings. Perhaps he needed to

bask in his new found competencies. We set aside time to discuss this enigma. We agreed

that there seemed to be a consolidation of learning at this point which perhaps was

confirmed and reaffirmed by recopying or rewriting and also in rereading of the texts. He

wasn't necessarily copying as much as he was rehearsing and practicing the requisite

concepts over and over to develop mastery much as a musician does with repeated practice

until a selection is taken to a level of memorized perfection for performance.

185

Consolidation seemed to occur in his ability to deal with several major concepts on

a consistent basis. First, the rereading process had been established in effecting fluency.

He could hold a brief text in his mind and reread the previous words to add on to his text

as he segmented phonemes for spelling. All of his rereadings at tliis stage were audible but

had moved to more of a mumble for himself, rather than audibly for the teacher.

A second conceptual understanding had occurred in the area of spelling. He was

now an early letter name speller who had a strong understanding of the alphabetic principle

and could match the salient sounds, primarily consonants, with their corresponding letters.

The vowels he chose were randomly selected and used as visible place holders. He knew

that some vowel belonged between the consonants. However, adult or more capable peer

interaction was still frequently needed for stetching words. Most of the time he couldn't

stretch and hear the phonemes without assistance and affirmation. At this same time, he

had a fledgling sight vocabulary and could write a few words quickly.

Third, a knowledge of forming and writing letters of the alphabet was well

established. He seldom needed to use his alphabet strip except when puzzling over a

particular sound. Then he would glide his finger along to remind himself which letter was

associated with that sound.

Fourth, concept of word was fairly well established, and he seldom ran words

together as he composed. He still could not make a voice to print match in reading the

stories he earlier had composed unless an adult assisted him. However, he could now read

and point correctly to each word in all the recent stories which he had repeatedly rewritten

and reread.

Fifth, the content of his texts appears to have moved through four transformations -

- from simple labels describing the drawing to telegraphic messages to complete descriptive

sentences to personal accounts of action with two to three sentences.

186

Consolidation seemed to display itself in repeated copying, repeated themes, and

repeated patterns at all levels of progress from one juncture or stage to the next, perhaps

similar to equilibration as observed by Piaget (1969a).

Accompanying these gains in conceptual understanding was a desire to be more

independent and a budding sense of confidence in his ability to write. If I drew up a chair

beside his desk to observe, he would proudly say, "I won't need your help today." For

months he had observed the abilities of his peers to write their own texts without adult

assistance in prompting to reread, to stretch words to hear sounds, and to make letter-to-

sound correspondences. Now he could accomplish these tasks by himself. Nonetheless,

he still needed adult praise and reassurance that his textual ideas were as good as his peers.

However, on days when he couldn't think of a writing topic, he would become

angry and annoy people. During one of those times, 1 offered the suggestion to take one of

his best stories, such as The Playhouse and add on. He thought this was a great idea and

began to chat to his neighbors. Jay and Casey to include them in the next event. Ever

since, the Football story composed with Jamarr, he was able to talk about his texts to his

friends. As 1 listened to them, 1 found that he was incorporating ideas from the movie

Home Alone, "We're gonna spy on them. Look at this Casey. When the bad guys come,

these stairs flatten out, and they slide down and out the door." Casey replied, "1 got a

surfboard they could slide on." Pointing to his drawing, Jeffrey said, "Well, this is like a

surfboard."

However, after all the discussion including Jay and Casey, the text bore no

resemblance. Instead, it was a continuation from the previous page about Eric, Jeffrey,

and Squib (see figure below).

187

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGThe Plav House.The Plav House.Me and Erik R Playing In The Plau House. Squwb is Tring two Find us. (Label - 1 [drawn heart] you)

The Plav House The Plav HouseMe and Erik are playing in the playhouse. Squib is trying to find us.

Erik is uLing Aot Hes Nm. Squib tRis to Find us. (Label - 1 [drawn heart] you)

Erik is yelling out his name. Squib tries to find us.

Figure 22Jeffrey's Text for Playhouse Story

The original text. The Playhouse which was written with adult assistance had centered on

the topic of a game of hide'n seek and had included a limited sequence similar to a level

eight text on the continuum "Sense of Story and Textual Development." That text had been

elicited after a great deal of discussion and with the adult stretching the words and repeating

the original sentence. However this second edition included another page with a new

complete sentence created by Jeffrey and with the repetition of the earlier pattern, trying to

find us. Use of a patterned texts indicates development at a level of six of the

aforementioned continuum and the limited sequence linking the two sentences offers

evidence of level eight Recopying of familiar text, using repetitive patterns, and then only

having to write a brief amount of new text permitted Jeffrey to consider and write two

sentences which used topic centering and limited sequence.

Also, in this text for the first time, Jeffrey used a pronomial adjective as a cohesive

device, although the referent was indefinite and could have referred to Squib or Jeffrey.

During workshop on February 24, Robin called me over to Jeffrey's desk to see an

illustration of stick people with action marks of dotted lines and curving lines drawn on a

portion of a brown paper bag which Jeffrey had brought from home. He began writing

without assistance on the page a very brief text. Cris and Jeffrey wer Shoting Peple. The

188

End. This was the fii-st time that he had come to class with an illustrated story idea already

prepared for the writing workshop. Similar to the Playhouse book, he had composed the

text and illustration on one sheet of paper and evidently spelled the words by himself.

On February 26 ,1 saw on Jeffrey's desk a quarter sheet of paper on which he had

drawn a rainbow. He asked me if I would help him write a story. I tried to talk him into

stapling more sheets of paper to the book to provide additional writing space, but he

wouldn't. I wondered if his desire to keep all the text on one page was related to the

success he had had with his one page story of the Playhouse. Or perhaps the writing task

was facilitated by being able to see all the text on a single page and then to easily skan from

the beginning to reread which assisted fluency in composing. After responding to his

request to help stretch a few words, I moved on. He seemed willing and able to continue

on his own.

Later, when I stopped by his desk, he said, "It's hard to think after you write."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I don't know," he replied. So I probed further, "Do you

mean that you can't think of the next idea you want to say?" He nodded, "Yes." "Well,

let's reread what you've written and talk about what else you might say about a rainbow," 1

offered. Then 1 continued on to explain that adult writers often talk to themselves inside

their head to think where they are going. He smiled. After this conversation, he wrote the

phrase, Bekos The Hov prte Kirs (see figure below). Then I encouraged him to continue

the story and staple on a new page. He would not Instead, he began a new rainbow

story.

189

\ \ Q i I I v V - f

Beho;

Figure 23Jeffrey's Rainbow Picture

Two days later he came to my side and asked me to listen to the new Rainbow

story. He had created a four-page book by recopying the title on a separate sheet with his

name as author and an exact duplication of the first page of the eaiWcr Rainbow text along

with two new pages of text The recopying of the earlier text had permitted him the

opportunity to consciously attend to the conventions of print, including a very attractive title

page with his name listed as the author, capital letters for the beginning of each sentence,

and ending marks of periods. The copying or rewriting seemed to enhance fluency and

allowed him to deal with new concepts, such as these book and mechanical conventions.

190

Pleased with what he had created, he added two new pages of text using the same structural

pattern of the first sentence (see figure below).

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe Rainbow By Jeffrey Pattterson

The Rainbow By Jeffrey Patterson

The Rainbow Is fun tow LoK at. BeKos T hea Hov prte Kirs

The rainbow is fun to look at b ecau se they have pretty colors.

The Rainbow Is fun tow play wi. The rainbow is fun to play with.The Rainbow is fun tow Lok at. The rainbow is fun to look at.The End The end.

Figure 24Jeffrey 's Text for Rainbow Story

When he read the text to me, he correctly pointed his finger to each word, except on

the two syllable word, colors. I asked him to reread the story and pay close attention to the

words. He self-corrected the error.

Turning to me and questioning me in a very serious tone, he asked, "Can you read

it by yourself?" Jeffrey's oral language development was still much less developed than

other children in the class. I believed I knew what he was trying to say, "Did I spell and

write this story so that other people in the class can read it?" Perhaps this question

hearkened back to an earlier occasion when he had been deeply hurt by Ashley's comment

that she couldn't read his kind of writing [with early letter name spelling]. Looking at his

worried expression, I praised him and said, "Of course, I can read it. It’s a wonderful

story." Smiling he said, "I'm going to ask Miss Bacquet if I can publish it." Jeffrey had

progressed to the point where he wanted and needed his peers to read his text, unlike his

earlier tendency to cover his work with his arm or destroy the texts.

191

(Regarding the publishing of texts, parent volunteers manned a new publishing

center at the school. Teachers were asked to type the children's texts, and then the parents

assisted them with gluing together and decorating a hardback cover with beads, feathers,

and other craft items.)

The Rainbow story was the beginning of a new kind of text which has been labled

as "all about," "attribute," or "inventory" books by Sowers (1985) and confirmed by Lucy

Calkins (1986) and Newkirk (1989). These attribute stories tended to offer all that a child

knew on a topic. Newkirk (1989) believes these texts are based on the propensity to

develop lists and suggests that they are the beginning of expository writing rather than a

progression in narrative writing. Jeffrey's text. The Rainbow, and succeeding texts for

the next month contained inventories of knowledge on a topic. However, they were not

only an inventory but also patterned language texts. They displayed a recurrent subect/verb

pattern with only the object of the verb changing.

In 1975, Clay found the same affinity to pattern-making with the use of a common

sentence starter and varied endings in some children's writing. She identified the schema

used as that of the recurring (repetition of the pattern or store of words) and flexibility

(changing one word) principles. The pattern and substitution of words within the

grammatical structure seemed to enable Jeffrey to write lengthier texts and to quickly reread

for adding new words.

Clay (1975) believed this pattern-making strategy would be useful for teachers to

employ with children who had difficulty coming up with story ideas. However, she found

that some children could begin the subject/verb j>attem but could not complete the sentence.

She offered three examples of this. I believe the difficulty that these children had with

adding an object occurred because the strategy was introduced too soon. Looking back at

Jeffrey's earlier writings, his texts evolved through less sophisticated modes, perhaps

192

dependent upon the concepts he was struggling to develop, such as rereading for fluency,

concept of word, the alphabetic principle, and phonemic segmentation for spelling. All of

his struggles to gain mastery of the concepts constrained the composing of more

sophisticated sentence structures such as those with recurrent patterns.

Winter Quarter Qualitative Analysis along the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings





The highest level attained on each graphed continua of conceptual understanding verifies



resultant text.

To summarize Jeffrey's gains in understandings of the writing process during

Winter Quarter, the following continua and descriptors are offered:

193



j . l I I I I I I I J - U - L I . - 1 . J

1/28 Football

0 1 2

............................1 ..........................2

3 4

x t i ^ LmiWo riauUil tO O lOO

2/18 The Playhouse II

1 / C O / n& MainDOW

By the end of the quarter, alphabetic principle was confirmed in his texts. The

knowledge of forming and writing letters of the alphabet was established, but he still

needed to refer to his alphabet strip when puzzling over a particular sound. Then he would

glide his finger along to remind himself which letter was associated with that sound. He

used a random mix of upper and lower case letters.

Jeffrey made considerable progress along the continuum of "Alphabetic Principle"

in the eight months of Autumn and Winter quarters from level one through level four. He

could now stretch words without adult assistance or prompts to write sound-to-symbol

correspondences and could identify and write the letters of the alphabet.

194


(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I . . I I I L L L I . J . J . J . 1 J - L . U . - I I I I I I I I I I I I I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

A/26 Football ............. 1.............2........... 3

A t\2Lit^e Babbit Foo Foo ............. 1.............2 ........... 32/18 The Playhouse II ............. 1.............2........... 3A&BTheBainbow..................................... 1.............2........... 3

Spelling has progressed in the early letter name stage of development. Using the

Gillet and Temple (1982) beginner's features list to assess spelling development at the end

of Winter Quarter, I found in scoring Jeffrey's spelling that he had 1 of the 16 words

correctly spelled, 4 words within the transitional caXegory which includes spellings using

patterns attributed to both within word and syllable juncture, 5 using letter name strategies,

6 using early phonemic, and 1 using prephonemic strategies. Some of his misspellings are

as follow: shad (shed), shack (shock), chrpd (chirped), cas (once), Ird (learned), gut

(jumped). Evidence of progress within the stage was noted in his correctly using the

diagraph ck, blend sh, long vowels, most beginning and ending sounds, and random

vowels as placeholders between consonants. Adult and peer assistance was occasionally

needed and desired for stretching words and phonemic segmentation of the initial sound.

However, he was able to stretch words and offer more sound-to-symbol correspondences

by the end of the quarter.

His sight vocabulary of correctly spelled words showed evidence of growth. In

analyzing his texts the following words were found; wind, you, man, mom, dad, play,

rainbow, fun, he, the, end, is, go, in, and, are.

195

Jeffrey was gaining in his understandings of "Word Knowledge through Invented

Spelling Development" using letter name strategies as discussed in level three of this

continuum.

Table 18Concept of Word and Voice-to-Print Match

(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of deveiopm ent along the continua, "Muitiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Deveiopment" described in Table 1.)

I .L-l-JJ -i-L I L LI I L U J -L0 1 2 3 4

IfdO rOOlOaiU

1/12 L/ff/e Rabbit Foo Foo

2 /18 The Playhouse II

1/28 The Rainbow

.................

.................

................. l

Concept of word was understood and used appropriately with space between

words. Confusion would sometimes arise when making a voice to print match as he read

aloud two-syllable words. On one occasion, he ran out of words at the end of a sentence

because he had pointed to the next word after reading a two-syllable word. He recognized

that there was an error and after a prompt to reread and pay close attention to the words, he

self-corrected the error.

Progress along the continuum of "Concept of Word and Voice to Print Match" was

evidenced in his more consistent use of space between words and increasing ability to make

voice-to-print matching of level three.

196


(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua. "Muitiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Deveiopment" described in Table 1.)

J - 1 . I I I . I I I I I I I J J - L l . , l . . l I I I I I I I I I I I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1/2BFootball......................................... ................. l .................2 ..............3 .................

2t\2 Little Rabbit Foo Foo ................. l .................2 ..............3 .................4 .................5

2/18 The Playhouse II ................. i .................2 ..............3 ................. 4 .................5

2/26 The Rmnbow ................. i .................2 ..............3 ................4 - ............... 5

Rereading for fluency was fairly well established. On most occasion, he now

could, without a prompt, go back to reread a text and recall his initial thought to add the

next word in his text. Stretching words for spelling and finding the corresponding letter of

the alphabet required less cognitive processing so more attention could be focused on what

he was trying to say. All of his rereadings at this stage were audible but had moved to

more of a mumble for himself, rather than audibly for the teacher.

Progress had been achieved to level five of the continuum "Fluency through

Rereading of Text in the Composing Process" whereby Jeffrey rarely needed prompts to

reread and could add the next word of his text without assistance. The text was sometimes

shorter without the adult being there to assist, but the process was self-initiated and moving

to automatism.

197


(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings In Writing Development" described In Table 1.)

I I I I I I I I I I I I . 1 . I I I I , . I I I I I . I I I I . I . . . I I I L . I I I I . . I I I I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91/28 Footbalf

1 .2 " 32 /12 Litde Rabbit Foo Foo

l---2*--3---4---52 /18 The Playhouse II

••••l***2” -3---4---52/28 The Rainbow

1. . .2 - 3 - 4 - 5

In regards to conventions of print, recopying of texts had permitted him the

opportunity to consciously attend to conventions, such as tidier printing, attractive title

pages with his name listed as the author, capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and

ending marks of periods.

Jeffrey had progressed along the continuum of "Awareness of Conventions of

Print" to level five.

198



i J L . I L 1 - 1 . . . I I I I I I I U - I J . 1 I . 1 - 1 . . I I I0 1 2 3 5 6

1 « 0 rOOTDall • • •

16 L/iuo iiaD D il lO O f~00

d n o / rlB r ia y n O u S B / / • • •

/ n6 nainD O W • • •

Collaboration with peers was an important aspect, both cognitively and affectively,

in the writing process. Ever since, the Football story composed with Jamarr on January

28, he was able to talk about his texts to his friends. He enjoyed their chatting with him

and embellishing the story he was attempting to put on paper. Although he rarely

incoiporated their ideas, the interaction stimulated him to write more, to continue on a

project, and to make him feel that his ideas were worthwhile and acceptable to peers.

In the prewriting phase, he often floundered and still needed an adult to discuss and

encoiuage possible writing topics. Also, he called upon an adult for assistance with

fluency and spelling when he had a good idea and wanted to write quickly before he forgot

something. However, each day he required less adult assistance, and peers were more

frequently used for spelling suppport. Nonetheless, the largest portion of his interactions

with peers was on a social level and unrelated to the text.

199

Considerable gains were made in the continuum "Collaboration in the Process"

from level two in the previous quarter to level five Winter Quarter. No longer did he rely

upon adults but had progressed to self-reliance for the most part and even valued and

desired peer interaction and support.



l _ L J _ L U L L I . , I , I I I J ,. I I I I . 1 , 1 . 1 I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1

0 1 2^/2B Football ' 3 " 4 " '

2/12 Little Rabbit Foo Foo II . g . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5

2/18 The Playhouse II 1 . 2 - 3 ' 4 " 5 ' 6 ' 7 " 8

2fZB The Rainbow

In late January, his writing moved to level four with more personal texts that

displayed a budding sense of voice (revealing of self). The texts moved away from the

"telegraphic" messages and became closer approximations to sentences with occasional

descriptive details. On days when he could not think of an interesting topic, texts appeared

of lower levels, two and three, with copying of charts and brief labels describing the

illustration.

On February 11, he wrote a text. Little Rabbit Foo Foo, of a level five, in which he

incorporated a portion of a retelling from a favorite piece of children's literature. Writing

was beginning to play a prominent role and less of the text was embedded in the

illustrations. The drawings were completed after the text and merely supported the writing.

200

The Playhouse text was adult assisted for the first edition and for the first time

included topic centering and limited sequence similar to a level 8 text. However, this text

was elicited with a great deal of adult support including discussion of possible textual

ideas, stretching of words, and reiteration of the original sentence. The second edition

included the original text plus an additional page using the repetitive pattern, trying to find

us which would indicate a text of level six with patterned text. Also, this additonal text

included a limited sequence linking the two sentences which is one piece of evidence that

appears in level 8.

By the end of the quarter, texts included many elements of levels 6 and 7. The

Rainbow story of February 28 was the beginning of an attribute or inventory text which

included all he knew about the topic. However, the text was not only an inventory but also

included a recurrent subect/verb pattern with only the object of the verb changing.

The cohesive devices incorporated in his texts were the same as those used in the

previous quarter, personal and demonstrative reference, except for a new form of cohesion

using the additive conjunction, and and causal conjtmction because.

Jeffrey made great grains in the continuum of "Sense of Story and Textual

Development," possibly linked to his advanced development in fluency with rereading,

concept of word, and spelling development. With less of his attention cognitively focused

on these concepts, he could concern himself on the meaning level to express what he was

thinking. He progressed from the end of Autumn Quarter at level three with brief

messages describing an illustration to texts predominantly of levels six and seven with an

occasional text of level eight produced with adult support on the meaning level. Levels six

and seven included attribute and patterned subject/verb texts with lengthier statements than

previously used. Level eight even included some limited sequence through chaining

events through cohesive devices.

201

Table 23Winter Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts (Content, Length, and Number of Words)

INCOMPLETE BO O K S1 - Scribbles only 1 -- One Sentence only, no drawing 1 ~ W ordless Picture Book 8 ~ Title P age with Illustration and

Remainder Wordless Picture Book 4 - Title P age with Illustration and One Page

of Text of a Phrase or Sentence 3 - Title Page with Illustration and Two or Three

Additional P ages of Texts but Incomplete (often In mid-sentence)

COMPLETED TEXTS15 - Texts of Invented Spelling, (assisted som etim es

by an adult and occasionally a peer)Number of Words - range, 8 -5 0 *Number of P ages - range, 1 - 6

"Longest book. Little Rabbit Foo Foo, 2nd Ed., (retelling),50 words; 6 p ages 2nd longest book, Jamarr andJeffrey Play Football, 33 words; 5 p ages Shortest book. The Crocodile's Tooth, 8 words; 1 page

Soring Quarter

The next three texts Jeffrey created used a subject/verb pattern. The first piece used

the pattern Leprechauns are fun to . . the second piece used Karate is fun t o , and the

third used Trolls are fun to Each of these texts contained a title, three or four

patterned sentences, and the end. Jeffrey recopied each of these texts two or three times.

As I paused at his desk during the composing of The Karate, the following interaction,

taken from my field notes, occurred:

202

Jeffrey said, "Mrs. Eitelgeorge, I'm doing a new book." Looking at his sheet of paper, I replied, "Oh, it's a one-page book. That's great." "It’s about karate," he added and began to read the title and the first two words of the text to me. ”The Karate. Karate is fun t o . . A don't know what to say." I questioned, "Is karate fun to learn or to watch?" Rather than a discussion ensuing, he simply replied, "Oh, yeah," and began immediately writing - Karate is fun to wich. Then we discussed the short a sound in watch and his thoughtful guess of the letter name match of i. He erased the i and wrote a. Rather than explaining that there was a silent t before the digraph ch in watch, I ignored this error, realizing this was a more advanced understanding which could confuse the issue. After he wrote Karate is fun to fight, I asked what else was fun about karate, and he responded, "Karate is fun to hit bricks." Then he wrote this statement on his book and closed with the end (see figure below)

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe Karate Karate is fun to wach. Karate Is fun to Lm. karatels fun to Fit.Karate is fun to Het Brics. The End

The KarateKarate is fun to watch. Karate is fun to learn. Karate is fun to fight. Karate is fun to hit bricks. The end.

Figure 25Jeffrey's Text for T h e K arate Story

In his third edition of Trolls created on March 16, Jeffrey changed the repetitive

pattern of the verb in his last line of text which was the first occurrence of this variation.

Also in this piece he worked on his penmanship, even using lined primary paper to assist

the process. He had very tidy letters and spacing between words, imitating conventions of

print in the books he read (see figure below). The spelling throughout this text was

correct which indicated that he had probably found someone to assist him (see figure

below).

203

m

Figure 26Jeffrey's Troll Picture

204

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGtrollsThe trolls are fun to wish on.

TrollsThe trolls are fun to wish on.

Trolls are fun to watch. Trolls are fun to watch.Trolls can sit down. Trolls can sit down.The End The end.

Figure 27Jeffrey's Text for Trolls Story

With the repetitive patterned story, illustrations were an afterthought. The ease of

writing with the basic storehouse of words and grammatical structures made drawing to

scaffold textual ideas unnecessary. Most of the original illustrations were simple one item

drawings rather messily added because he felt they were needed. However, with

recopying of texts and emphasis on conventions of print with punctuation and neat

handwriting, the later illustrations, although still simple and minimal were very tidy and

colorful (see figure below).

Within this same time frame, we found several abandoned books which included a

title page with an illustration and an additional page of text with a beginning patterned

clause such as. Igloos are fun . . . . His inventory of knowledge on some of the topics he

selected was evidently limited, and he couldn’t sustain the text.

On March 18, in addition to the variations in the patterned text, we found another

change. Rather than the texts simply stating his inventory of knowledge on a topic, he

appeared to be centering on a topic more like a topical theme, and the language became

more personalized with the inclusion of statements regarding his feelings and preferences.

Interstingly, he incorporated many of the same words from his earlier patterned stories,

using them as a word bank. Perhaps he read the earlier patterned texts to check spellings or

perhaps these words were memorized from frequently rewriting the same texts over and

205

over. These words were applied in more of a narrative style in this text about turtles rather

than as earlier used in the attribute books. With many more sight words and borrowings

from earlier texts, he correctly spelled most words as can be viewed below (see figure

below).

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe Turtles The TurtlesTurtles are fun to wish. Turtles are fun to wish.1 like Turtles. 1 like Turtles.The Turtles wich me. The Turtles watch me.The End The end.

Figure 28Jeffrey's Text for T h e T urtles Story

After reading the story to me, he commented that the first page was wrong. He

hadn't meant to write wish. He meant to say Turtles are fun to play with. Again the

increased speed along with his knowledge of sight vocabulary allowed this kind of error to

occur.

At parent-teacher conferences near the end of March, Robin asked Jeffrey's mother

to discuss with her husband and Jeffrey's father the possibility of retaining Jeffrey the next

year. She explained that she was pleased with the great progress he had made, but he was

still far behind the other children due to his beginning first grade with many areas of

deficiency. With the experience of an additional year in first grade, she believed that

Jeffrey could catch up. She also shared that he was a very bright child and a good worker.

Earlier in the year, Robin had mentioned the possibility of retention to his mother and at

that time restated as the kindergarten teacher had that Jeffrey should have been retained the

previous year. The mother seemed to be in agreement but cautioned that his biological

father made the decision the previous year to promote him to first grade, and that his father

206

would probably again be very opposed to retention. The resultant conversation among

Jeffrey, his parents, and stepfather was evidently problematic which was immediately

evidenced in behavioral and attitudinal changes in Jeffrey.

He began to cause trouble in the classroom. He was angry with Robin and

wouldn't write during the workshop. Since he wouldn't write, Robin asked him to dictate

a text about trolls, a popular topic at that time in the classroom with many children bringing

their toy trolls to school. The following text (see figure below) was solicited through

dictation, and he added illustrations at the bottom of each page. Note the subject remained

the same for all sentences but one. However, the verbs continued to vary as in the texts he

had written in previous weeks. Yet, the style had reverted back to the earlier staccato-style

speech, rather than the personal and natural speech which had recently appeared.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe Three TrollsThe three trolls went into their house.The three trolls had fun.The three trolls played football. The Brown's won.The three trolls played and played.The three trolls played on their swingset.The three trolls had Easter the next day.

The END The end.

Figure 29Jeffrey's Text for T h e T hree Trolls Story (Dictated Text)

Each day Jeffrey became increasingly more belligerent with Robin and refused to

write on his own. So she asked a pretty high school girl. Holly, to assist him in writing.

Holly was assigned as a teacher cadet to Robin's classroom during workshop three days a

week for the last two months of school. Jeffrey really liked Holly but wanted her to tell

him what to say and how to spell it

207

During workshop on April 18 and 19, Jeffrey composed another subject/verb

patterned text with Holly's help. The class had been studying careers, and Jeffrey

incorporated the ideas of a job. He didn't follow his previous patterns but developed a

new one which was more elaborate, 7 like t o . . . . In closing the text, he wrote a

personal, evaluative statement. It is fun work bring more of himself into the text (see

figure below).

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GAt Work At Work1 Like tow work it the Hasptl. 1 like to work at the hospital.1 Like tow Hip pepl. 1 like to help people.1 Like tow Hip. 1 like to help.it is fun work. It is fun work.

Figure 30Jeffrey's Text for A t W ork Story

This text was another milestone, especially in this area of bringing his personal

identity to the prose. His earlier stiff, stilted texts, gave us few glimpses of the author and

his feelings. But in this one, we could hear the lilt of his oral language.

Jeffrey was having a very bad day on May 3. Holly came to me, since Robin was

busy, and said, "I don't know what to do with him. He has no ideas." I suggested she try

"stream of conscious" writing in which a person writes anything that pops in his/her mind.

The following story entitled Easter Eggs was the result of this procedure (see figure

below).

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CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPEL L IN GEaster ea a s Easter Eaas1 Dntwnt to Rit write. 1 dont want to write.1 like The naping Hose. 1 like The Naooina House.The Fat CAT ate avre Thing. The wod caTr chapt Hem in Haif

The fat cat ate everything. The woodcutter chopped him in haif.

1 played soccer y e s tet day. 1 played soccer yesterday

Figure 31Jeffrey's Text for E a ste r E g g s Story

During the solicitation of this text, Jeffrey did not want to use his invented spelling

for two words, write and soccer. He demanded that Holly give him the correct spelling so

I stepped in and used a "boxing" strategy for unknown words developed by Marie Clay

and used in Reading Recovery lessons. In this procedure, the teacher draws the

appropriate number of linked boxes for phonemes, subdividing individual boxes with a

dotted line for blends and digraphs. Then the child is asked to give the sounds he can

attend to and if correctly identified, the teacher writes them in the appropriate boxes. Those

letters which the child cannot offer are either given by the teacher in early stages of spelling

development or an association is drawn by suggesting words with similar patterns.

Jeffrey thought this activity was great fun and was pleased to copy the correct word

onto his paper. Since Jeffrey's sight vocabulary was increasing, he was more aware that

some words were not correctly spelled and was less accepting of his invented spelling.

However, this problem might be more alligned with the affective domain in his feelings of

self-worth due to comparing himself to other more capable writers.

For the next month, the writing workshop was interrupted by field trips,

assemblies, vacation days, and parties. Nonetheless, when the children did have writing

workshop, Jeffrey seldom would write. He would only compose a text if Holly or another

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adult would assist him. If no one could assist him, he would revert back to old habits from

the beginning of the school year, writing only a title or a line of text and throwing it away.

On May 6, Holly assisted him in writing a personal experience story (see figure

below). Again this text moved beyond the consistent use of repetitive subject/verb patterns

and included more diverse verbs, play, can't wait, will hit, will pitch, and can catch. Also,

the story was personalized and seemed to be written for an audience [probably Holly] with

explanations of what he did in baseball. The style of this text had progressed from the

earlier stiff, staccato ones created with repetitive, patterned subject/verb texts to a more

sophisticated style using topic-centering, personal statements, and a hint of sequential

thinking through the limited chaining of one sentence to the next. Even though, he may

have had some sequence in mind as he wrote the text, the sentences could have been

reordered and not lost any meaning.

Also of interest in this text was his first use of substitution to bring cohesion to the

text. He substitued the word one, rather indefinitely for either an implied homerun or ball

in the following sentence: I will hit a good one. Then he used one again, possibly to

substitute for ball in the next sentence, / will pitch a good one.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGB assbol Baseball1 play Basebol tomrwo. 1 play baseball tomorrow.1 cant wat. 1 can t wait.1 wll hit a qod one. 1 will hit a good one.1 wall pitch a gad one. 1 will pitch a good one.1 can catch. 1 can catch.

Figure 32Jeffrey's Text for B aseba ll Story

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Several of the more difficult words, catch and pitch, were correctly spelled using the

Reading Recovery boxing technique. However, Jeffrey was willing to use his invented

spelling for some of the words as can be noted with wat (wait), wll (will), gad, god

(good), and Basebol (baseball). Overall this text displayed great progress, but the results

might be contaminated due to the influence of the student cadet, or perhaps the assistance of

the adult simply enhanced the progress

On May 11, a productive day, Jeffrey had a story idea and wrote by himself a

minimal text on a 3 x 5 card (see figures below).

Figure 33Jeffrey's Plane Picture

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CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe Plane The PlaneThe plane can fui will hiu. The plane can fly real high.

Figure 34Jeffrey's Text for T h e P la n e Story

His immature speech can be noted in the spelling of the word real as mil. His

speech was not a serious problem which warranted therapy, but occasionally it was

noticeable. Perhaps his immature speech contributed to his delayed progress in spelling

development, although in analyzing his texts, we identified this occurrence only twice.

His final text was written on May 15 with assistance in stretching words from

Holly, the high school student The piece was entitled Haunted House and employed the

earlier noted recurring and flexibility principles (Clay, 1985) of a repetitive subject-verb

pattern with the object changing in each sentence (see figure below). In regard to spelling,

he was visually aware that some words were not correct and demanded that Holly spell

certain words for him which she did.

212

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe Haunted House The Haunted HouseThe Haunted House The Haunted HouseHere is the goblin Here is the goblin.Here is the vampier. Here is the vampire.Here is the gost. Here is the ghost.Here is the wenivlfe. Here is the werewolf.Here is the Spreman. Here is the Superman.Here is the Bat. Here is the bat.Here is the snakes. Here is the snakes.Here is the francknstine. Here is the Franckenstine.Here is the spider. Here is the spider.The End The end.

Figure 35Jeffrey's Text for T h e H a u n te d H o u se Story

Interestingly, this text included only one illustration of a big house on the cover

page (see figure below). Instead of needing to draw to assist the composing process, he

came to the writing task with textual ideas already in mind. He wanted to quickly write

with an easy pattern, listing all the possibilities of creatures who inhabit a haunted house.

The grammatical error, is snakes, possibly occurred due to the speed of composing as he

rapidly wrote the subject-verb pattern and then concentrated on spelling snakes. If he had

reread his text, he probably would have corrected the verb to agree with the subject. Due to

lack of time in the workshop that day, he didn't add any more illustrations nor reread his

text

213

TTjp . nocASi’

m

Figure 36Jeffrey's Haunted House Picture

During the last three weeks of the school year, Holly was very busy and could

rarely come to the classroom to assist Jeffrey. Robin had tired of battling with Jeffrey to

get him to write. Meanwhile, I was observing and collecting data for five other case

studies, doing spelling assessments of the class, concepts of print assessments, and some

of the Piagetian tasks with the case studies. Consequently, Jeffrey was on his own. He

continued to draw, write a few words, and discard his work.

214

After the parent-teacher conference at the end of March when possible retention was

discussed, Jeffrey lost his enthusiasm. He no longer cared to learn more about writing.

He simply gave up. His interactions with Robin were very strained. He made mean

comments, such as "I don't want to, and you can't make me." We wondered what

information his mother had passed on to him that had made him so angry. Robin had been

very complimentary regarding Jeffrey's willingnesss to work hard and the great gains he

had made from starting the year with so many conceptual deficiencies compared to other

children.

Jeffrey's parents decided that they would not permit him to be retained, and he was

promoted to second grade.

Spring Quarter Qualitative Analysis alone the Multiple Continua of

Conceptual Understandings








resultant text.

To summarize the gains in understanding of the writing process during Spring


215


(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving competencies of development along the continua. "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I I I I I I I I 1 . 1 I I I . J J . . U2 3 4

3/16 Trolls 4/19 At Work 5/6 Baseball 5/15 Haunted House

•2 ..............3 .............. 4

•2 ..............3 .............. 4

•2 ..............3 .............. 4

•2 ..............3 .............. 4

Alphabetic principle was confirmed in his texts. The knowledge of forming and

writing letters of the alphabet was established, but he still needed to refer to his alphabet

strip when puzzling over a particular sound. Then he would glide his finger along to

remind himself which letter was associated with that sound. He used a mix of upper and

lower case letters.

Jeffrey had a firm grasp of the alphabetic principle and had progressed through

level of four of the "Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write Letters of the Alphabet"

continuum.

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1 I J . 1 M I I I I I I I l . l I I . 1 I I I I I I I . L L - L I0

Q/4 C T m t t e . . • .

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

o / i o 1 r o i is • • • •

A /^ O A t \A/nrt^ • • • •4 /1 y M l w o r is • • • •

0 /0 O a S Q D o il • • • •

0 /1 0 r ta U n iG O rlO U S& • • • •

Spelling development had progressed in the letter name stage of spelling

development. Using the Gillet and Temple ( 1982) beginner's features list to assess

spelling development at the end of Spring Quarter, I found in scoring Jeffrey's spelling that

he had one of the 16 words correctly spelled {late) which demonstrted awareness of the use

of silent e after a long vowel. Two words were scored in the transitional category which

includes spellings using patterns attributed to both within word and syllable juncture —

shad (shed) and shick (shock). Ten words using the letter name strategy, such as ges

(geese), wnd (wind), Imd (learned) , and santd (stained). Three words in early phonemic

stage with fewer than half of the sounds represented for example, ala (yell) and gute

(jumped).

Evidence of progress within the stage was noted in his offering more sound-to-

symbol correspondences. By the end of the quarter, he was attending to and correctly

writing most beginning, ending, and middle consonants and using long vowels as

placeholders between consonants. Also, he was beginning to realize the need for silent e

markers with long vowels. Many digraphs and blends were used appropriately and the

inflected ending of -ing appeared in the word naping (napping) in May. If he had not had

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attitudinal problems, he probably could have stretched most words by himself and not need

the Reading Recovery technique of boxing. His sight vocabulary had increased more

rapidly in this quarter since he had a better understanding of letter-to-sound

correspondences and had recopied or rewritten many texts.

Jeffrey had progressed to the level of a solid letter name speller with hints of

development of the next level four with some silent e markers and an occasional inflected -

ing ending in the continuum of "Word Knowledge through Invented Spelling

Development"

Table 26Concept of Word and Voice-to>Print Match


3/16 TroUs 4H9 At Work 5/6 Baseball 5/15 Haunted House

Concept of word was understood and used appropriately with space between words

and making a voice-to-print match in reading his texts. This progress is reflected in

reaching level four of the continuum "Concept of Word and Voice-to-Print Match."

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I I 1 - 1 I I I I I I I I I I J - l . . l . „ I I I I I I I I L - l - l , J0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

3/16T ro//S 1 ................ 2 ..............3 ...............4 .................5 ...............6

AhSAtW ork 1 ................ 2 ..............3 ...............4 .................5 ...............65/G Baseball i ................ 2 ..............3 ...............4 .................5 ...............65115 Haunted House i .................2 ..............3 ...............4 .................5 ...............6

Rereading for fluency was fairly well established. He could go back to reread a text

and recall his initial thought to add the next word in his text if he wanted to. However,

with his attitudinal problems, an adult was needed for prompting him to reread and to ask

what he wanted to say next, simply to keep him going.

Level six in the continuum "Fluency through Rereading of Test in the Composing

Process" which includes the ability to reread the text from the previous sentence, phrase, or

clause instead of going back to the beginning of the text to add on the next words was

observed.

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(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, “Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

1 , 1 I IJ J - I . . I - I . - 1 . . I . I I I . J . . . J - L J J - I I I , I I J J J J I I I I I I I , l . l I I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

3/16 Trolls ! . . . . 3 . . 4" -5

4/19 At Work l . - ‘2 - - - 3 - **4 - * - 5

5/6 Baseball 1 - - - 2 - - - 3 - - - 4 - - - 5

5/15 Haunted House l - - - 2 - - - 3 - - - 4 - * ' 5

In regards to conventions of print, recopying of texts had permitted him the

opportunity to consciously attend to conventions, such as tidier printing, attractive title

pages with his name listed as the author, capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and

ending marks of periods.

Jeffrey's development in the continuum "Awareness of Conventions of Print"

remained the same Spring Quarter as Winter Quarter with attention give to the first five

items listed, "the end, " title, author, periods, capital letters.

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I I I - I . , . ! I I l . l M U M l - I . J . I l - L I J I J .0 1 2 3 4 5 63116 Trolls 1........... 2 ...............34119 At Work i ................ 2 ...............3

516 Baseball i ................2 ...............3

5 /1 5 Haunted House i ................ 2 .............. 3

Collaboration with peers ended after the parent teacher conference. Due to the

possibility of retention, perhaps he believed his work was inferior to that of his peers. He

no longer wanted to discuss or share his work with others. The only collaboration

occurred with adults who tried to support and encourage him to write. In the prewriting

phase, he still needed an adult to discuss and encourage writing topics.

In the previous quarter, progress had been noted of level five on the continuum

"Collaboration in the Process" in which he valued textual discussion with peers and no

longer required adult support. However, due to attitudinal problems, he had regressed to

level three with occasional copying ideas for a text at the prewriting level from peers and

requiring adult assistance to produce a connected text

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I I I I I I I I i - l I I 1 - 1 . , . I I L i J I 1 - . I I I I

3/16 Trolls 4/19/If Work 5/6 Baseball 5/15 Haunted House

By the end of the previous quarter, texts had begun to include elements of levels six

and seven and with adult textual interaction, level eitghL On February 28 of Winter

Quarter, he wrote The Rainbow story with a patterned text which included a recurrent

subect/verb pattern and only the object of the verb varying. However, the text was not

only a patterned text but an attribute or inventory text which included all he knew about the

topic. For over a month into Spring Quarter, he used the strategies of a repetitive patterned

texts and a topical inventory. Then he recopied or rewrote from memory two or three times

each these patterned inventories he composed. Variations on the patterned/inventory texts

evolved with common subjects but varying verbs and some personalizing of the text as was

seen in The Trolls and At Work. By May with adult assistance, because he wouldn't work

alone, his texts [which may be contaminiated due to these adult interactions] began to

progress from attribute or inventory books to level eight with more personal stories

centering on a topic for example. Baseball. Chaining of the sentences in a beginning and

limited fashion occurred. As in level seven attribute texts, the sentences he wrote in these

texts could have been reordered without changing the meaning.

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He incorporated the same cohesive devices used in the previous quarter, personal

and demonstrative reference and causal conjunctions, because and and, and a new form of

cohesion with the grammatical device of substitution with one standing, in a rather

indefinite way, for homerun and ball.

Illustrations appeared less important and were created after the text was written.

Many were rather hastily created, except during the period of recopying and rewriting

texts. Then he spent more time creating neat and colorful illustrations on subsequent

copies.

There was a leveling of progress during Spring Quarter along the continuum of

"Sense of Story and Textual Development." Jeffrey remained at levels six and seven with

occasional texts elicited by an adult of level eight.

Table 23Spring Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts (Content, Length, and Number of Words)

INCOMPLETE BOOKS2 - Cover Drawing only 8 - Title P age with Illustration

(several quite elaborate and detailed)2 ~ Title P age with Illustration and One Page

of Text, Phrase or Sentence

COMPLETED TEXTS12 - T e x t s of Invented Spelling, (assisted occassionally by adults and increasing frequency by p eers for spelling)

Number of Words - range, 8 - 38*Number of P ages - range., 1 - 1 0

•L ongest book. Haunted House, (patterned book), 29 words; 10 pages2nd longest book. Batman, (more complex sen ten ces with circular theme), 38 words; 9 p agesShortest book. The Plane, (written by himself), 8 words; 2 p ages

223

Ashley

Autumn Quarter

Early in September as Robin and I were discussing possible candidates for case

studies, Robin mentioned the name of Ahsley as a student with average writing abilities.

Looking through her basket of 3 x 5 cards on which she kept observational notes for each

child, she was ranking the children's entry level in writing as high, average, or low.

"She's your typical little first grade girl that loves to chat, wear ribbons in her hair, and

draw pretty flowers and hearts," she shared. This was an apt description of Ashley who

loved coming to school and being a friend to everyone.

Ashley's benchmark text was a response to the opening days' lessons involving a

study of colors and color words after hearing numerous concept books on this topic read

aloud (see figure below).

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPEL L IN Gcolors Colors1 like colors 1 like colors.colors Are GooD Colors are good.1 Love colors 1 love colors.TheNeD The end.

Figure 37Ashley's Text for Colors Story

This initial writing sample revealed that Ashley had a strong knowledge base of

conceptual understandings, including the alphabetic principle and written production of

letters, although she appeared to use a random mix of lower and upper case letters. The

final page of this text, displayed her invented spelling techniques, Ned for en. She

appeared to be using both phonemic strategies in hearing the letter names n and d, as well

224

as her visual memory ability. She knew from reading that there was an e somewhere in

the word.

Another strength was her concept of word, identifiable with the spaces between

each word. A month later the strength of this concept was again evidenced in the last line

of a text when she ran out of space on the paper. She wrote The.eND.of.the.SChOOL.

BUS placing periods between the words which she explained separated the words. The

combination of her knowledge of concept of word and strong sound-to-symbol

correspondences assisted in her acquiring an extensive sight vocabulary. Ashley had

entered first grade already reading with a rich sight vocabulary which translated into the

correct spellings of many words in her writing. The teacher ranking of Ashley's reading at

the end of Autumn Quarter was seventh overall in the class of twenty-three, in the

moderately high range.

This initial text had a very stiff staccato style similar to that of older series basal

readers with controlled vocabularies. Robin believed that Ashley's kindergarten

experiences in a very traditional classroom with basal primer texts, workbooks, and many

ditto sheets had influenced her assumptions of what a text should be. In analyzing the

text, 1 found she centered on the topic her love of colors and offered three statements. The

order of the sentences could have been changed and not affected the content

The accompanying illustrations were created after the text was written. In early

September, only three other children could create a text without the prior building of a

visual text. Most children began with an idea which could be seen in their construction of

their illustrations of a scene and characters. Then they would add to their drawings to

depict some action or interactions between characters. The construction of these drawings

scaffolded the next event, the beginnings of text. On the other hand, Ashley's drawings in

her first text didn't follow this pattern. Instead they were created after the entire text was

225

written and appeared to be superfluous, not adding to the text and obviously were quickly,

not carefully, constructed as can be viewed below. The drawings included four pages of

scribbles with a variety of bright crayons and one page with a typical first grade style of

house, unrelated to the text.

1 1' ÎKP ‘CO'OTcH 7 ^

i \! \! \ i ^

\CM

Figure 38Ashley's Colors Picture

226

On October 2, Ashley created a clever little book with two pages of text and two

separate pages of illustrations. On the cover of this four page book was a tidily folded

kleenex and glued to it was the eraser off her pencil. When I asked Ashley to tell me about

this book, she explained that the kleenex represented a blanket and the eraser was a

pacifier. Below these objects she had written the author's name, hers, and the illustrator's

name {piks by Joey) but no title.

During the first months of school as Robin would read aloud children's literature

books in the opening activities while sitting in her rocking chair, Ashley would quickly

push to the front to sit at her feet Ashley was excited to view the text when Robin turned

the book around to share the illustrations. Craning her neck as the teacher moved the book

for everyone to see, Ashley appeared to intently look at some detail which had caught her

attention. Frequently, she would turn and stare with a serious expression on her face to

look at her classmates and listen to their responses to the text, and sometimes she even

stood to be able to see the student speaker better. Most of the other children seemed to

attentively listen to their classmates, and many were interested in viewing the illustrations,

but none were absorbed as Ashley was with looking at other children's facial expressions.

Interestingly, those children who always sat at Robin's feet at the beginning of the

year, not only seemed interested in the illustrations but the text and the conventions.

Evidence of this interest surfaced in their texts with incorporations of portions of

retellings, story book language, such as once upon a time, a long time ago, and book

conventions such as a title and author, and even an illustrator's name. Possibly due to

Ashley's attentiveness to the conventions of books, she was the first child to include an

illustrator's name, PiKs BY JOeY. Her choice of the illustrator's name as Joey was

unique. Robin shared that no book she had recently read to the children used a single

227

artist's name nor the name of Joey, and there was no child with this name in the first

grade.

n-, Am ab lG rf,/V \ A/UTA N<s Afi' K

Figure 39Ashley's I Used Be A Baby Pictures

228

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GBY Ahsley The PiKs BY JOeY 1 usTo Be a BaBY BuT N W 1 AM BiG 1 AM NUT A BABY NO Mr

By Ashley The pictures by Joey 1 used to be a baby, but now 1 am big. 1 am nota baby no more.

Illustration only.1 WiSY TheT 1 WiS A BABY SiL 1WD SIL B Kroleing UrAD The HAS

1 wish that 1 w as a baby still. 1 would still be crawling around the house.

Illustration only.The enD The end.

Figure 40Ashley's Text for I U sed B e A B aby

Ashley was one of a few children whose early texts carried a sense of voice and

conveyed beginning elements of cohesion. With further examination of the above text, one

finds a strong sense of voice through the use of a first person account and even a touch of

humor when switching to the subjimctive mood —I wish that I was a baby still crawling

around the house. Cohesion is produced through the back and forth movement in time

from the past to the present tense and the adversative conjunction, (/ used to be a baby, but

now.I am big.).

The next text Ashley created used a different form of coherence in an "all about" or

attribute book, offering what she knew about wolves.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe Wof BOOKWOfs are RiLe MeN To - PePPL HUTis KiL The Wofs

The Wolf BookW olves are really mean to people. Hunters kill the wolves.

The wofs Liv in The woDs The wolves live in the woods.1 LiKi W olves eVN TheT TheA are men 1 like w olves even that they are mean.The end The end.

Figure 41Ashley's Text for T h e W o lf B o o k

229

Ashley's textual ideas frequently evolved from the books which were read aloud.

A few days earlier Robin had read to the class a version of Little Red Riding Hood in

which the character of a wolf appears. The memory of a wolf being mean and hurting the

grandmother became the topic for her text about wolves. Considering the information

which Ashley written in her attribute text, I found that Ashley had included four global

elements found in the structure of informational books (Pappas et al., 1990). The first

three elements are considered obligatory and the fourth, an optional but frequently used

element.

• Topic Presentation -- The Wolf Book (title)

• Description of Attributes — Wolves are really mean to people.

» Characteristic Events — The wolves live in the woods.

• Summary Statement — 7 like wolves even that they are mean.

Perhaps, using this structural analysis for such a brief text seems to be stretching its

intended use. However, the foundation has been laid in this early piece of writing for an

expository text. Using this same framework in the future, when she has gained more

experience in writing, and by adding more elaborative and descriptive information,

Ashley could create an informational book.

In early October when she composed the wolf book, she was seated across from a

boy named Jay whom Robin had also rated as an average writer, and who was later

selected as a case study for whom yearlong data was collected. Jay was also writing many

"all about" or attribute books but on different topics such as. Ninja Turtles and dinosaurs.

In addition to centering on a topic which is typical of a level seven text on the continuum

"Sense of Story and Textual Development," he continued to use a repetitive subject/verb

pattern such as, I like . . or There are which is noted in texts of level six. Two of

his October texts appear below.

230

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGT he PurriDkin Book The Pumpkin BookTher Ard Slad PmPKin There are sad pumpkins.Ther Ard Happy PmpKin There are happy pumpkins.The Are Dr Pmpkin There are doctor pumpkins.Ther are wrd PmpKin There are weird pumpkins.1 Like mi Glove (Drawing show s two g loves .)

i like my gloves.

1 mi Goin hm I'm going home.The End The end.

Figure 42Ashley's Text for T h e P u m p k in B o o k

In this text about pumpkins can be found the pattern of There are.. . as well as

some additional sentences which are unrelated to the topic. Jay explained that there were

extra pages so he drew some pictures and then had to add some words. In these extra

pages the reader could discern a revealing of "self" through the voice of the first person,

perchance by accident as he commented about the additional pages. But in adding his

personal comments, he was moving away from the format of the pattern which produced a

more detatched staccato-like style.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGII LKWTRI BlOnsI 1 Like Water BalloonsWTRBIns Water balloons.II LiKe Wodr BeLLes 1 like water balloonsWodr BeLLes Water balloons.

Figure 43Ashley's Text for I L ik e W ater B a llo o n s

Another attribute text he wrote at the same time Ashley was writing hers was a text

entitled 7 L/ike Water Balloons. The brevity of this text was possibly constrained by Jay's

conceptual experimentation with the various spellings of water balloons and the

231

mechanical convention of an exclamation mark. All of the children when experimenting

with new conceptual understandings appeared to have less developed texts of a shorter

length and regressed to earlier forms of writing which supports the theory of the

recursiveness of learning (Bruner, 1986).

Referring back to Ashley's attribute book. The Wolf Book, her text appears at first

glance similar to the style of Jay's attribute books. However, with more careful

comparison much more development is inherent her text, for example, her choice of a

leading sentence ties in thoughtfully with her concluding statement. Wolves are really

mean to people.! I like wolves even that they are mean. The intervening statements are

undeveloped subtopics or global elements as noted of an informational text. Also her

developing sense of voice rings through the last sentence as she switches from a narrative

voice, third person, to the first person, "I" in sharing her feelings about wolves.

Greater development is also found in her use of cohesion with even that, similar to

even though which is an adversative conjunction, as in (contrary to expectation) I like

wolves even that they are mean. Her choice in personalizing the text and using a cohesive

device pushes this text to a higher level than Jay's, although the element of a central theme

and inclusion of attributes tends to place this text in the category of an attribute book. This

text hints of experimentation with more sophisticated forms which will soon appear.

During this same time frame, Ashley also wrote a text about a pumpkin. Children

at this higher level of development, like Ashley and Jay, who did not have to struggle with

conceptual understandings of the alphabetic principle, constructing letters, using invented

spelling, and rereading of the text for fluency were more interested and aware of their

peers' work. Frequently, Ashley would quit her writing for periods of time to chat to

friends or even walk around the room to see what other children were writing. While

observing her movements, I found that she often looked at their illustrations and made

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comments, such as "I like your flowers. They're so pretty." In addition, she would

mumble read their texts and sometimes even comment negatively, as with Jeffrey's text

when she said, "1 can't read that kind of writing" [referring to his invented spelling]. The

children who could construct texts of level four on the continuum "Sense of Story and

Textual Development" enjoyed sharing and discussing textual ideas and were beginning to

incorporate others' ideas into their texts.

Their sharing was different from Jeffrey's ability and desire to share. Jeffrey

struggled to understand and use the aforementioned concepts to construct a minimal text.

He could not stop in the middle of the text to discuss the topic with a friend, or he would

forget where he was and simply quit. Another factor not linked to cognitive processing

but more to the affective domain is the child's self-esteem and self-worth. Ashley and Jay

realized that their texts were similar to their neighbors' and they weren't inhibited to

display and discuss their texts. On the other hand, Jeffrey realized his texts didn't look

like those of many peers so he covered his texts with his arm and often crushed them into

balls.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGBv Ashley Day The Pumokin Book By Ashley Dav The Pumokin Book1 LiKe PuKin PuKin are NeT To RD 1 HV NevrRDAPUKin IHvBOTAPUKin

1 like pumpkins. Pumpkins are neat to find. 1 have never found a pumpkin. 1 have bought a pumpkin.

I rLE LiKe PUKin PUKin are Net To hov yor MoM Mourn Bis PuKin

1 really like pumpkins. Pumpkins are neat to have. Your momma buys pumpkins.

The Ead The end.

Figure 44Ashley's Text for Second T h e P u m p k in B o o k

The form of this text is an "all about" or attribute book (level seven) centering on the topic

of pumpkins. The first page offers a listlike collection of facts regarding her feelings

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about and some experiences with pumpkins. The second page uses repetition of the

previous textual ideas but with slight variations, for example, / like pumpkins / 1 really like

pumpkins. Pumpkins are neat to find / Pumpkins are neat to have, and I have bought a

pumpkin / Your momma buys pumpkins which displays further progress wielding

patterning techniques. Further development is also noted in her use of the first person

which pulls the reader into the text to relate with the writer rather than an impersonal

staccato style and in her offering a causal explanation that she hasn't found any pumpkins,

but she has bought them. In addition, she offers more specificity in the last sentence

explaining who buys the pumpkins for children.

In both of these October texts, another aspect which we noted was Ashley's taking

risks through her decision to use invented spelling rather than using only the words she

could spell correctly from her sight vocabulaiy as she had done in September. Drawing

from her rich oral vocabulary and creative abilities in letter name spelling, her texts became

less stiff and staccato-sounding.

On the next to the last page, Ashley had written MoM Moum. As 1 was typing the

text into my observational notes at home, I circled these words to ask Ashley what they

meant The next day 1 pulled the text from her writing folder and asked her to read it to

me. When she came to these words she read, "Mamma." Interestingly, Robin had

recently read aloud the book Have You Ever Given Your Mamma a Llama? Again textual

conventions, ideas, and even words contributed to her writing in this phase of

development.

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Nearing the end of October as Robin and 1 began to "close the net" to select the six

students for the case studies, Robin repeated that Ashley would probably be one of the

average students she would choose. Consequently, I watched Ashley more closely and

noticed she had formed a friendship with Shannon who was often shunned by other

children because of her anger and temper tantrums. Every child seemed to enjoy Ashley,

and she was eager to please her friends.

Building on her ongoing interest in seasonal themes, such as pumpkins, Ashley

wrote the following book co-authored with her new friend near the end of October.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGThe Ashlev Book bv Shannon

byAsheivThe Ashlev Book bv Shannon

by AshleyA girl wus wuking Down The roD sh e sol A big pumkin

A girl w as walking down the road. She saw a big pumpkin.

AnD thes Is wut sh e seD 1 like the Pumpkin

And this is what sh e said, "1 like the pumpkin."

The end [Attached mini book on the back which had printed inside - (p.1)The litol rAsgIs (p.2)l like BaBy (p.3) The end.l

The end. [Attached mini book on the back of the text - T he little rascals. 1 like baby. The end.l

Figure 45Ashley's Text for T h e A sh le y B o o k

Since I had not observed the writing of this book, I wondered how the two girls

wrote the text so I conferenced with Ashley. When I asked her if Shannon had helped

write the book as the title page indicated, she replied, "No. She gave me some ideas, but I

wrote it."

Since Ashley could commimicate so well, she described the formulation of the book

and added much more information than the text carried. For instance, she told me that the

girls in the story had to find their own pumpkin ". . . because their momma had a baby so

she couldn't go out to get pumpkins for her kids," she explained. I had wondered why

she attached a mini book to the back of her text, and especially I wondered how the text, /

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like baby was related to a story about pumpkins. Now I understood that she had wanted

to explain why the children's mother had not accompanied them. However, she could not

yet logically organize the information to convey this in a written form, but she could orally

explain what she had meant

With her usual sense of humor, she continued elaborating on the text, laughing as

she told me that the kids were looking for the biggest pumpkins, "The little rascals. "

Now I understood why she had added the phrase, "The little rascals. " A change occurred

in her retelling of this story, she switched to two little girls instead of only one in the text.

Lastly, she read the final line, I like baby and offered a different reason than I had deduced

for the inclusion of this statement. "I want a baby brother or sister, and I keep begging

my mom, but she won't have one." Ashley's father had died in an auto accident before

she was bom, and at her age, she didn't realize the need for a father. Often students

seemed to offer an aside statement within their texts sometimes to add humor which

frequently had no logical connection.

This text. The Ashley Book, was the first text in which the important opening

elements of a story (Hasan,1985; Pappas et al., 1990) the setting, character, and the

initiating event, appeared. The brief style of conveying all these elements in one sentence

is suggestive of that used in folk and fairy tales. Folk tales had been read to the class, and

at Ashley's level of reading her basket of books to draw from for reading time contained

many folk tales, such as those by Tomie de Paola. Quite purposefully and adequately,

Ashley moved the reader into the story but could only sustain one sequent event of a

sentence of dialogue stated by the character. And this is what she said, ”I like pumpkins. ".

Then she abruptly ended the development of the plot while apparently holding many ideas

in her mind which she was unable to sustain in formulating a written sequence of ideas.

Sharing with me, she could remember and explain all the ideas which should have been in

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the middle of the text as sequent events. And yet, perhaps she did try to offer a sample of

her extended thoughts through the attached mini book which contained portions of the

untold story.

A week later on October 22 Ashley composed the text entitled Cupcake for a level

nine text on the continuum "Sense of Story and Textual Development." In this text, she

seemed to be concentrating on developing a sequence which can be seen in her numbering

of the pages for the first time and the sequence of events. Calkins (1986) affectionately

termed this style of book as "bed-to-bed" or a chronological text due to the penchant of

children in this phase of development to "tell everything that happened" (p. 74) in

chronological order. However, these texts generally lacked focus or centering on the

main event Nonetheless, Ashley did include some topic-centering and development of a

specific event, more than many of the Calkin's examples. And yet taking into

consideration the global elements of a story grammar to produce a narrative, Ashley

included the placement (taking a walk and meeting a friend), initiating event (went to a pet

shop and bought a rabbit), and the sequent events (the remainder of the text). However,

due to the lack of focus, no development of the plot occurred and consequently no

resolution or final event.

237

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGBa Shannon and Ashley CUPCAC By Shannon and Ashley Cuocake1 was wuKing 1 MI My FRAD Shannon We W r TO The PET SO P We got A-RaBT 1

1 w as walking. 1 m et my friend Shannon. We went to the pet shop. We got a rabbit. 1

We BroT IT Horn Shannon and Ashely We ThD To asK if We KD DO it so w e DiDit Hr momYELD 2

We brought it home, Shannon and Ashley. We tried to ask if w e could do it. S o w e did it. Her mom veiled. 2

it w r TO mi Afres.HAWS fst AnD Te AFDr That it w r TO Min 3

It went to my friend's house first, and then after that it went to mine. 3

Figure 46Ashley's Text for Cupcake S tory

Not only does the text move closer to a nanative account due to the chronology of

events but also due to the cohesion offered in personal reference and conjunction. After

the main characters are introduced in the first two sentences, she uses a pronomial referent

and refers to Ashley and Shannon as we. On the second page, she evidently is worried

that her audience may not know to whom we refers so she repeats their names. Then she

uses it refening back to the rabbit on the previous page. However, in the next sentences

she states. We tried to ask if we could do it. So we did it. In this instance, it is a form of

ellipsis referring back to the purchase of the rabbit, but confusion for the reader develops

because of the previous use of it Nonetheless, this was a unique eyent for Ashely to use

ellipsis for cohesion. On the final page confusion again occurred with the indiscriminate

use of it referring back to the rabbit, even though other referents were in closer proximity,

such as the one noted in the ellipsis.

Cohesion was also achieved through conjunctions. She used a causal conjunction

so (So we did it) and in the last sentence and then after that — an additive conjunction

(and ), a temporal conjunction (then) , and redundancy with another temporal conjunction

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{after that). Ashely was definitely musing and playing around with sequence to make the

text logical for her reader. Awareness of audience, as a thoughtful effort, was noticeable

in this piece of writing.

On October 24, as we closed the net for Robin's selection of the students for the

case studies, Ashley was chosen as one of the focus children. During the previous day,

Ashley had begun a new text about Clifford's Halloween . Today she was revisiting the

text and adding additional information. Only a handful of children, this early in the year,

could sustain a text over a period of several days. Most would simply begin a new book

each day and allow the previous text to remain imfmished.

Ashley had selected a Clifford book by the same title during reading time and had

carefully reread the book several times. Now she was writing her own version. The basic

story line was conveyed through a minimal text which included dialogue with a close

approximation to that of the text and the similar repetitive idea of not being late.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GClifford’s Halloween Clifford’s HalloweenClifford wus the red Dog the FrsT TimTrk-r-Treting.

Clifford w as the red dog. The first time trick-or-treating. . .

it is tim To Go SeD-thegirt. ”lt is time to go ,” said the girl.Kam on Clifford, it is tim to go Clifford. "Come on Clifford.” "It is time to go,

Clifford.”Do NOT Be LAT Clifford. The SUN is siNiNg.MO/231

"Do not be late, Clifford.” "The sun is shining.”

Hre up Clifford W e Do NOT wut to Be Let. "Huny up, Clifford." "We do not want to be late.”

The end The end.

Figure 47Ashley's Text for Clifford's Halloween

The correct use of an apostrophe with a possessive on the title page was due to her

copying the artwork and title directly from the book which she had taken to her desk.

Other than the elaborate cover drawing, illustrations were simply three items, two red dogs

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and a sun with a happy face squeezed on the comer of the pages of text. The dash

between sed and the, she explained was added because she forgot to leave a space

between the words. The use of punctuation and end marks was directly related to a

conference with the teacher on October 22, calling her attention to the use of periods in

books and the need for them in her writing. If she had been directed to edit the text, she

might have realized that other periods were needed. However, during the composing

process while thinking about spelling and the sequence of her textual ideas, punctuation at

the end of sentences had not moved to the automatic level.

During the time period of October 30 until November 4, Ashley composed a

"chapter" book. While the children ate their snacks each morning, Robin would read

aloud a chapter book of a higher level than the children were capable of reading.

Theoretically, Robin valued children cognitively building and extending their knowledge

of stoiy frames and discussing texts of higher levels than they were capable yet of reading,

which built upon their more developed oral language skills. Many of the advanced writers

were fascinated by the idea of chapters so Robin set aside a period of time to discuss how

some chapter books have a table of contents with a corresponding page number, chapter

titles, and numbers for each chapter. Consequently, approximately one quarter of the

class begin writing their renditions of chapter books. The following text was Ashley's

chapter book entitled The Baby Book (see figure below).

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CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe Babv Book The Babv BookThe Baby 3 Therabrt 10 The Hot Sot 20 TheHrt 40 The HoNUD Hows 50

The Baby 3 The Rabbit 10 The Hot Shot 20 The Heart 40 The Haunted House 50

Babvs are a Pane they cri Babies are a pain. They cry.1 wis that Mi MOM Had a Baby 1 wish that my mom had a baby,Bet sh e DidiT Hav a Baby but sh e didn't have a baby.1 Love Babys 1 Hav seN a Baby B e for 1 love babies. 1 have se e n a baby before.a gri Fawb a rabit A girl found a rabbit.a rabit Fawb a Degg A rabbit found a duck.My Freb gav me a R daown and sed you are a Hot Sot Not a Nut rom

My friend gave me a put-down and said you are a hot shot. (Not enough room).

1 s e d 1 Do Not k r se s he gav me a pt dawn 1 said, "1 do not care sin ce he gave m e a put-down."

1 like Hrts red Hits and blue Hrts. 1 like hearts, red hearts and blue hearts.1 srTiALe like Hrts Wi SOiDT 1 1 certainly like hearts. Why shouldn't 1?in the HotiD HWS wus a wich and a gost and agoblin.

In the haunted house w as a witch and a ghost and a goblin.

and it wus NiT Thea srD aol of The PePol awae

And it w as night. They scared all of the people away.

The end The end.

Figure 48Ashley's Text for T h e B a b y B o o k

As I was browsing about the classroom on November 1 to check the writing

activities of the six case studies, Ashley stopped me to explain about the new chapter book

she was creating. The observational notes which follow give an account of our exchange.

"I'm writing a chapter book. Would you like to read some of it?" asked Ashley. "Yes," 1 respond. "Which chapter do you want to hear?" she says. "1 don't care," I reply. "You can choose which ever you like best." She flips to the table of contents and reads all the titles to me and then adds, "Oh, I like The Baby,' The Rabbit,' and The Hot Shot.'"

Then she reads them to me out of order but knows exactly where to go by looking at the first picture of each chapter.

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Before reading "The Rabbit," she explains that it is a "guessing" book like Mrs. Bacquet read in the opening activities. As Ashley reads, she stops in mid sentence, and then I am supposed to complete the thought by guessing and checking the answer on the next page.

After reading these three chapters, she picks up her pencil without saying a word to me and begins a new chapter, by drawing hearts on the page and writes the caption: 1 certainly like hearts. Why shouldn't 1?

In actuality, the chapter book was a collection of short stories with thoughtful,

thematic titles given. Each story was somewhat less developed in length, cohesion, and

sequence than previous texts. However, again I comment on the recursiveness of learning

whereby she dips back to earlier forms to keep her primary concern of chapters to the

forefront of her thinking. The earlier forms are also exhibited in the use of large

illustrations on every page. Yet, she still signals her knowledge of cohesion in using an

adversative conjunction but in the second sentence, 7 wish tht my mom had a baby, but

she didn't have a baby, and with the use of the additive conjunction, and, in the "Hot

Shot" chapter in My friend gave me a put-down and said, "You are a hot shot. " and the

use of this additive conjunction several other times in the remainder of the text. Using

dialogue and knowing to use the convention of identifying the speaker with ,she said, is

also an example of higher writing development than the simple text might at first sight

offer.

Two chapters. The Rabbit and The Heart hearken back to the earlier form of writing

in level four on the continuum Sense of Story and Textual Development (See Table 1).

And yet more advanced forms of writing were displayed in the chapters entitled The Hot

Shot and The Haunted House with sequential dialogue in the first text and a beginning

narrative in the latter. Analyzing the last chapter The Haunted House, 1 found the first two

sentences offered a placement with characters, place, and time simply and concisely stated

as in a fairy tale. However, the plot wasn't developed, and the text ended abruptly after

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one statement These chapters were written at a level eight with a limited sequence in

chaining events.

Looking at the invented spelling used, 1 found Ashley to be in the late letter name

stage and toying with some patterns that appear in the within word stage. In the letter

name stage, she used the letter name for i in cri (cry) and e in bet (but), hearing the short u

as a close approximation to the letter-name of e. Then for the word pane (pain), she took

into consideration the pattern of long vowels, the sound made by the a (ai) requiring a

silent c marker as in the within word stage of spelling.

In the formation of letters, she still used some reversals of lower case b 's and d"s,

as found in the words Fawb (found) and Freb (friend) and possibly due to this confusion,

switched to the capital forms thereafter except in the word blue.

On November 5, Robin discovered Ashley and Joshua (her new seatmate) acting

out a scene with paper bag characters they had made the previous day during "Free Choice

Time." The characters had the same names, Mr. and Mrs. Peffer, as the characters in the

book entitled Who Sank the Boat? which had been read aloud the previous morning.

Robin asked them if they would like to write a play and use their cut-out figures in the

puppet theater. Excitedly, they nodded in agreement. Robin reached for a Story Box book

(Wright Group) on the nearby table to demonstrate the format of a play. To facilitate the

process, Robin explained the procedures and wrote their dictated text The opening

comments of their interactions follow.

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Ms. B: First you write the characters names, a colon, and then what they say. [As she s p c ^ , she demonstrates.]

Ashley: She says, "I want this bike."Ms. B; So I write Mrs. Peffer since she is talking?Ashley: Yes.Ms. B: Okay, Mrs. Peffer says,"I want this bike."John: Mr. Peffer says, "No." [The children begin sparring as

one character pushes the other.]Ms. B: Next you want me to write Mr. & Mrs. Peffer. I'll put this

in parantheses because you will act this out. You aren't saying anything. Okay, what happens next?

John: Whaaat shoooould weee doooo abooouut fiiiiight ing? (He stetches the words to accommodate Robin's writing.)

Many children crowded around the desks to observe the process of writing a play.

The basic story idea was that the Peffers were arguing about the color of bicycles to buy.

Robin asked the pair how the Peffers would resolve the problem. Ashley and Joshua

talked for a few minutes and decided that the Peffers would ask the class during the play to

help them settle their argument After writing down their question, Robin asked, "What if

no one in the class raises their hand and offers the solution you expect?" They quickly

replied, "Oh, they will." Sure enough, the second person they called upon during the

presentation of their play suggested that each Peffer choose the color they like best. And all

the class hollered "yes" in agreement After the problem was solved, the puppeteers had

their characters hop on their new bicycles and ride off the stage.

Robin was thrilled to find children desiring to collaborate on a text. Many other

children asked if they could be next, and Robin said that she would be happy to take their

dictation. However, in actuality the collaborative interactions were difficult for the children

to sustain and develop into a simple story frame with any sequence. Two other groups of

girls attempted the feat but never completed the task. The children enjoyed making the

puppets and playing with them for a few minutes, but their attention waned quickly with

the consideration and construction of a plot and dialogue.

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For the next month, Ashley tended to be distracted by her new friend. Shannon,

and was frequently off task during the writing workshop. We found her playing with the

guinea pig or writing books about the guinea pig, which stated the same information over

and over that could be quickly written, such as I love guinea pigs and we all love Pepper

very much. As soon as she could quickly fill the pages of her book with pictures or

writing, she would begin circulating the room and chatting with her friend. Robin called

them back to writing and tried to redirect Ahsley into more productive topics but to no

avail. We noted that Ashley's friend wasn't as advanced in her sense of story and in the

use of cohesion and sequence, but they were equal in their spelling development. However

Robin shared that Ashely's texts were now beginning to resemble those of her friend's

which meant a regression.

In mid-November, Ashley wrote a text which explained the behavioral and social

problems of her friend, as well as reflecting Ashley's mixed feelings for her.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe Shannon Book The Shannon BookShannon is fat Shannon is fat.Shannon is sine Shannon is skinny.SuM Pepol like Shannon suM Do Not Som e people like Shannon. Som e do not.Shannon is MyN Shannon is mean.Shannon is Nis Shannon is nice.1 Like Shannon 1 like Shannon.1 Do Not 1 do not.Shannon is GooD Shannon Is good.Shannon is Not Shannon is not.eN e was Any w a y s .. .The Theand end.

Figure 49Ashley's Text for The Shannon Book

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This text used some of the previous techniques in construction with an "all about"

or attribute based on the theme of what she had observed in Shannon and her feelings as

well as other children's. Also included were patterned subject/verb arrangement with a few

similar patterns, I like.. . and Some people like.. . .

On November 19,1 commented on a sentence she had written in a recent text, I

wish that we could have a song about Pepper, and encouraged her to write the lyrics for a

song about Pepper. I explained that she could set the words to a familiar tune. 1 hummed a

few bars from several familiar children's songs, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Mary Had a

Little Lamb," and "Frere Jacques" to offer her some ideas. Then she selected the tune of

"Frere Jacques." In just a few minutes she quickly wrote the following song on a large

sheet of paper.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGToh Faru Zoca To Frere Jacgu esPepper is a gulNea PIG Pepper is a guinea pig.Pepper Is a GulNea PIG Pepper is a guines pig.We Love him. We love him.We Love him We love him.he is s o good He is so good.he Is s o good He is so good.evre budy Likes him Everybody likes him.evrebudy Likes him Everybody likes him

Figure 50Ashley's Text for F rere Ja cq u es

Finally in mid December, Ashley quit writing trite and disjointed texts about loving

Pepper to a more narrative text. Due to the season, Robin had begim to read books about

snow and Christmas. One of the books which must have sparked a creative element in

Ashley was the book entitled The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. However, the only

similarity of her text to the original was the title. Another book which may also have

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contributed to Ashley's text is Clement Moore's, introductory phrase 'twos the night before

Christmas. The similarity can be noted in Ashley's opening statement.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPEL L IN GThe SnOWY NiGhT The Snowv Niohtit w us The NiGhT BeFor Christmas w e Just got the tree up w e hug up owr soking.

It w as the night before Christmas. W e just got the tree up. W e hung up our stocking.

it w us - Finule Christmas Day We gut got a presit it wus a Guinea Pig he is PePPer. (Dialogue Bubble - sk e k .. . )

It w as finally Christmas Day. W e got a present. It w as a guinea pig. He is Pepper. (Dialogue Bubble - "Squeak!")

win we got howm we fed him When w e got home, we fed himand 1 got a dog. (Dialogue Bubble - roof! roof! roof!

and 1 got a dog. (Dialogue Bubble ~ Roof! Roof! Roof!)

1 got a rabit Too 1 got a rabbit, too.

Figure 51Ashley's Text for T h e S n o w y N ig h t

The literature read in the classroom and home contributed to the writings of children

at Ashley's level of development in observable ways. Prior to this level of development,

children's literature was laying the foundation for developing a sense of story, enriching

their vocabulary, and in general providing excellent models. Children at Ashley's level had

progressed in their control of basic conceptual understandings, such as concept of word,

rereading for fluency, the alphabetic principle, written production of letters, and spelling

development of at least the letter-name strategy. Once these concepts were in place, the

effect of literature was discernible in children's appropriations for their texts of small facets

from their favorite books. For instance, they might borrow from one up to four of the

following items: title, specific characters and their names, textual ideas, several

conventions such as illustrators names and dedications, complete phrases, and even

retellings of their favorite part. Whenever a child began to borrow from literature, Robin

and I believed this signaled another milestone in writing development

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In this text, Ashley wrote a "bed-to-bed" (Calkins, 1986) or chronological narrative

which displays a focused theme within a chain of events in the first, eight sentences. Each

sentence in a limited fashion led sequentially to the next She even used a subordinate

clause, when we got home, to lead to the next statement about feeding the guinea pig.

However, in the last two pages, she switched to unfocused chains similar to those

identified by Applebee (1976) in some children's oral storytelling development. In

Applebee's analysis of narrative structures of children between the ages of two and five in

developing a sense of story, the fourth of six levels was defined as unfocused chains in

which more events are added to the story and "the incidents lead from one to another, but

the attributes which link them continue to shift" causing the story to lose its point (1976, p.

64), This description seems quite apt for the end of this text.

However, before Ashley had drifted off into her month of simple statements about

the guinea pig, she had on October 22 created a text. Cupcake which not only used

chaining of one event to the next as in Snowy Night, but also had a more central focus or

theme about the purchase of a guinea pig. In length, the texts were comparable with

Cupcake containing fifty-seven words and Snowy Woods, fifty-five. In the earlier text,

she effectively had brought cohesion to the story with her use of personal reference, clausal

ellipsis, and conjunctions. The more recent text. Snowy Night, used some cohesive

devices, mainly personal reference through pronouns. But the main characters to whom

the personal pronoun we referred were never given and left the reader wondering who they

were. Later she effectively used personal reference in the form of the pronoun it to refer

back to the present and he to refer back to the guinea pig.

Ashley appears to have regressed somewhat in her textual development with no

centering on a topic to build a plot and with the lack of conjunctions for cohesion.

However, she has retained a few of the gains she had made in cohesion employing

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personal reference. Also her spelling development has stablized in the late letter name

stage.

Autumn Quarter Qualitative Analysis along the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings








resultant text.




(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1 .)

.1 I I . . I I I ! I I U . . I . . I . 1 . 1 I I0 1 2 3 4

09/06 Cofors (Benchmark) ........... i ...........2...........3.......... 410/10 Pumpkin Book ........... i ...........2...........3.......... 411/04 The Baby Book ........... i ...........2........... 3.......... 412/10 The Snowy Night................................ ........... i ...........2...........3..........4

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Alphabetic principle and ability to write the letters of the alphabet was understood

from the onset and confirmed in her texts. The only area of confusion occurred with lower

case b and d which she has apparently decided not to worry about and switched to using

the capital forms of these letters. Frequently she chose to use upper case letters when

lower would have been conventional, displaying a continuous mix in her writings.

Ashley entered first grade at level four of the continuum "Alphabetic Principle and

Ability to Write Letters of Alphabet."

Table 33Word Knowledge through Invented Spelling Development


■ I J I I . . L . I . 1 I 1 I I I .1 I I I I . I I I I I I I I . 1 I .0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

09/06 Co/ors (Benchmark) i ........... 2......... 310/10 Pumpkin Book i .....2.........3MIOA The Baby Book i .....2.........3...........12h0 The Snowy Night ............i ...........2.........3........... 4

Spelling had progressed to the late letter name stage of development. Using the

Gillet and Temple (1982) beginner's features list to assess spelling development at the end

of Autumn Quarter, 1 found in scoring Ashley's spelling that she had 2 of the 16 words

correctly spelled, 9 words within the transitional category which includes spellings using

patterns attributed to both within word and syllable juncture, and 5 using letter name

strategies. Some of her misspellings are as follow; lot (late), chrpd (chirped), ones (once),

Imd (learned), ges (geese). Evidence of moving to the next stage of spelling was noted in

her experimentation with long vowels marked by silent e , with some correct short vowels.\

250

understandings of many blends and some digraphs, and the inflected ending -ing. Her

sight vocabulary of correct spellings was strong from the first texts and continued to

increase.

Ashley progressed during Autumn Quarter in the continuum of "Word Knowledge

through Invented Spelling Development" within level three, letter name spelling, and

evidence was displayed of strategies and awareness indicating level four with her use of

silent e markers, occasional correct use of inflected endings and short vowels, and better

understandings of blends and digraphs.



LI_L1...I±U. L-LI.J JJ-I U0 1 2 3 4

09/06 Co/ors (Benchmark) 10/10 Pumpkin Book 11/04 The Baby Book 12/10 The Snowy Night

Concept of word was understood and used appropriately. Ashley was ranked

seventh in the class in reading ability Autumn Quarter by the teacher and could correctly

make a voice-to-print match since the beginning of the year.

Ashley entered first grade at level four of the continuum "Concept of Word or

Voice to Print Match."

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(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continue, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I I I . . 1 . 1 I L I I I I I I I I I I I L I I I I . ! I I I I I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

W 9/UO L/Vft/fùf lUI II1 Idl IV/ * 0 »*" ^#

1V / 1V r 'U fllfJ tK ifI DL/UfV

1 I /V 4 / / i d D a O y O u O K ................ * " 1 "

1 d i 1 u / r /d o n o w y iM iynt .............• • • ! •

Rereading for fluency was established through level seven of the continuuum of

"Fluency through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process" without any adult

assistance. Ashley progressed in her abilities to reread to add on to her texts by repeated

practice and at what point she began to reread only the previous sentence, clause, or phrase

instead of going back to the beginning to recall the text for continued fluency was

unknown. No observation of this change was witnessed.

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(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, ‘Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I I I I I . . J , I . I I I . . . I I I I 1 1 I I I I I I I I J I . . I I I - L J - L . . I . . I - L i - I I I .0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

9/B Co/ore (Benchmark)

10/10 Pumpkin Book 1---2'-*3” *4” -5*-*

11/4 The Baby Book. , . . 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 * ” 4 * ' * 5 * - - 6 * ' * 7 * ' - 8 ” - 9 * ” 10

12/10 The Snowy Night

In regards to conventions of print, Ashley offered a title and "the end" in her

benchmark text. Colors. By October, she had included authors' and illustrators' names

{piks by Joey) and capital letters at the beginning of sentences. From October 30 through

November 4, she created a chapter book with titles. Ending punctuation of a period and a

question mark were occasionally used, as in her Guessing Book written on November 7.

Also dialogue bubbles appeared, as noted in The Snowy Night, similar to those used for

characters' talk in comic books.

Ashley began the quarter at level two in her benchmark text and by the end of the

quarter had included conventions up through ten.

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I - L I - I „ . I I _ U _ L I . J I - I J - L . I I I I I I I I I0 1 2 3 4 5 6

5 7 / 0 OO/OrS) (DonCniTiorK^ • • •

l U / 1U r^UfTtpKiii UOÜK - - *

1 1 / 4 / fiG O a O y OOOK • • •

Collaboration with adults for prewriting and the composing process was rarely

needed. However, teacher conferences occurred throughout the quarter to encourage

higher level writing practices. Interactions with peers was observed a few times for

prewriting activities in developing and refining her ideas for a text During the actual

writing process, she sometimes interacted with a friend regarding the text but generally the

discussion caused her to add on unrelated material from the friend's writing topic, or she

simply abandoned the text and started a new one. Most often her interactions were purely

social and unrelated to the text.

Ashlely began the quarter at level five of the continuum "Collaboration in the

Process" and remained at that level.

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(Four selected texts of tfils quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, ‘Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development” described in Table 1.)

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I . 1 1 - . I I I . . I I I I I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1

0 1 29J6 Co/ors(Benchmark) . . . . i . . . g . . . 3 . 4

10/10 Pumpkin Book ------1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . s . . . 7

The Baby Book . . . . j . . . 2 . . . 3 . •.

12/10 The Snowy Night 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 - 4 " - 5 " - 6 - 7 - 8 - - 9

Ashley's benchmark text. Colors, was a level four text with approximations to

sentences in stiff staccato-like language and personalizing the text drawing from oral

language, such as / like The Pumpkin Book included elements of levels six and

seven with the inclusion of patterned subject/verb text and attributes and information

regarding pumpkins. The November chapter book. The Baby Book, dipped back to

include elements of level four in two chapters, but one chapter included elements of level

seven, offering attributes of a baby. The final chapter offered elements of a level eight text

with a brief but limited sequence and a compound sentence. Near the end of the quarter,

texts were written as high as level nine. The Snowy Night, with chaining of events

chronologically and brief sentences containing little description or elaboration to focus on

the essential element of the story.

Sometimes her texts borrowed aspects of lower forms, such as those of levels six,

seven, and eight with attribute books using patterned language. In one instance, she added

to an attribute book a brief chaining of sentences describing one event, similar to a level

nine in which the sentences could have been reordered without losing any meaning.

255

Although she revisited simpler forms, she still used cohesive devices which

normally occur in the higher levels of nine and ten. She incorporated cohesive devices of

personal and demonstrative reference, causal conjunctions (so), (then), (because),

adversative conjunctions (even that), (but), and additive conjunction (and), and a new

form of cohesion with the grammatical device of substitution with some standing for people

in the text. The Shannon Book.

Ashley progressed during Autumn Quarter along the continuum "Sense of Story

and Textual Development" from her benchmark text of level four to a text of a level nine

with the The Snowy Night. In the level nine text, she linked each event to the next in a

sequential and chronological fashion and also offered a beginning element of a story

grammar with a placement


INCOMPLETE BOOKS2 - Title p age only with no illustration2 - Title page with llustration and two to three attached p a g es of illustrations only 5 - Title P age with Illustration and two to three attached p ages with unfinished texts and no

illustrations

COMPLETED TEXTS28 ~ Complete texts signaled by filling all the pages and the u se of % e end*

Number of Words - range 5** -126*Number of P ages - range 3 " -18*

* Longest book, The Baby Book, a “chapter book* [actually, undeveloped short stories]. 18 p a g es with 126 words (including chapter titles and table of contents)Secon d longest book. The Pepper Book, a “chapter book” similar to the above mentioned style but included the repetitive c lau ses of I love Pepper, I love guinea pigs, We love him very, very, very much. 13 p ages with 76 words (including chapter titles and table of contents).

““Shortest book. Flowers, 3 p ages with 5 words.

256

Winter Quarter

Over Christmas break, I took eight children's writing folders (the six case studies

and two other children's) to analyze and type their texts in my field notes. Then I met with

Robin one day during vacation to discuss what she had found in the folders she had studied

in comparison to what I had found. We realized that each of us had identifed two distinct

groups of children, each composed of three to five children who appeared to be at the same

level of development in their composing process. One group had previously needed adult

assistance in the following areas:

— prewriting activities for story ideas,

— prompts to reread their writing for developing fluency in their composing,

— assistance in stretching words to hear sounds for spelling.

Now these children, on most occasions, could control the aforementioned features of

writing and when they needed assistance in these areas could work with peers, rather than

adults. In analyzing these children's texts, we found that all of them were drawing textual

ideas, whether titles, characters, setting, or parts of scenes, from the books that Robin read

aloud. Related to their new interest in ideas from books, we realized that these children

were the same ones who had now become the "footwarmers" during the opening activities

when Robin read aloud books. They eagerly skanned the page as Robin turned the book

around to share the illustrations. Although, this group of children had progressed to a new

level, there were some children like Jeffrey and two others who remained in lower levels

because they were still struggling to understand some of the earlier mentioned concepts.

A second group of children, including Ashley, were identified who shared in

common certain features of their writing. These children were more advanced in their

writing abilities than the previous group. The texts of these children exhibited evidence of

experimentation with sequence through chaining one event to the next with equal weight

257

given to each event. There was no apparent focus nor expansion of certain portions with

detail. We believed that these unfocused chains might improve if the children could also

take into consideration the inherent structure of narratives. Perhaps calling the children's

attention to the framework of stories in the books read aloud would transfer and enhance

their progress in writing.

Consequently, Robin began in Winter Quarter to read aloud books which had

definitive story frames, such as folk tales and to call the children's attention to sequence

within these texts by noting the beginning, middle, and end. After reading aloud various

books, she asked the children to assist her in developing wall charts which listed the setting

and characters, as well as the beginning, middle, and end of the story. After writing the

children's dictation for the information on the chart, she would ask children to draw

illustrations for each element listed.

From our discussion of the children's writing progress during Autumn quarter,

Robin decided to move many of the children's desks as she tried to group children of

similar writing abilities or to place stronger writers near children who needed assistance

with prewriting ideas and spelling. However, believing that Shannon had inhibited

Ashley's progress in writing, Robin moved Ashley to the opposite side of the room with a

new group of girls. She hoped that Ashley would be more serious about her writing and

continue to progress.

On January 8, the day that Ashley unknowingly hurt Jeffrey's feelings by saying

that she "couldn't read that kind of writing," referring to his invented spelling, she drew up

a chair to the table where Jeffrey, Jay, and I were working and began to write. She wrote

the following text in the remaining twenty minutes of the writing workshop and never

revisited the text to complete the book

258

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLING1 like My Cat 1 Like Mv CatMy cat Is fun to Ply wityh 1 se lD to Elizabeth.

"My cat is fun to play with," 1 said to Elizabeth.

1 fawd a Littol rabit. 1 found a little rabbit.Elizabeth Elizabeth 1 fawd a rabit. "Elizabeth. Elizabeth 1 found a rabbit."1 wet awt sid a Dog. "1 want out," said a dog.

Figure 52Ashley's Text for I L ik e M y C at Story

In analyzing the structure of the text, it appears to be three separate and unrelated topics

with no centering. This was a common style of book for Ashley on days when she had no

ideas for developing a text And yet when one looks more closely at the different

techniques employed, it appears that Ashlely is experimenting with her knowledge about

dialogue.

Not since her late October text imitating the dialogue in the Clifford the Big Red

Dog books, had she used an equal quantity of dialogue. During November and December,

she had used conversational techniques in a minimal fashion with a dialogue bubble in one

text and a quote from one character in a "chapter book." Perhaps her renewed interest was

due to the interaction with her new seatmates, Jessica, Shelby, and Megan, who were

beginning to explore the use of conversation in their texts. Also worthy of notice is

Ashley's correct usage of ending punctuation and of capital letters for beginning sentences.

On January 15,1 asked Ashley to select some of her favorite books from her

Autumn Quarter writing folder to read to me. She could read every book with ease because

of her correct spellings of many words and her late letter name strategies for invented

spelling. Other children who wrote more advanced forms of texts than Ashlely had

difficulty rereading texts they had written months earlier because they had to slow down

259

and sound-out their invented spelling. Ashley enjoyed rereading all her past books and did

not want to quit reading. At one point in the conference when I complimented her on her

use of some mechanics in writing, such as periods and capital letters for beginning

sentences, she offered, "I can do it again. I'll go back and add them." Also during this

session, I reinforced Robin's lesson on building story frames by discussing which of her

texts had good beginnings or endings and also her use of sequence to develop the middle.

Nearing the end of January, Ashley had difficulty initiating a topic which could

sustain her interest. Repeatedly she would say, "I don't know what to write about." Then

she would look around at her neighbors' books, draw something similar, and add a few

lines of text. She began one text about Squib, which was requested by the teacher in

preparation for the upcoming author visit of Larry Shies and Carolyn Loesser. But she

simply wrote. Squib is a very, very good owl. I love him. Then she began a book about a

Valentine's Day party and wrote that it would be a "blast." Next she began a book about

"love" with the following sentences: Love is good. I love love. Love is good.

Finally on February 3, she had an idea for a text which kept her occupied for three

days .

260

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GValintis Dav. (Label on the house — cristol)

Valentine's Dav (Label on the h o u se - Crystal)

on ce a Ron a tlm elhar livd a gri and a boy. nam ed A shley and Jay. Thay (awnd a Haws. Thay so le the nam e cristol. S h e w us a n ics wich. HI cristol you are a nics wich.

Once upon a time there lived a girl and a boy named Ashley and Jay. They found a house. They saw the nam e Crystal. S h e w as a nice witch. "Hi, Crystal!" “You are a nice witch."

christol in vIDID u s in her Home. Her Tub Lookt Like this. (Dialogue Bubble - ugle.)

Crystal invited u s in her home. Her tub looked like this. (Dialogue Bubble - Ugly!)

Littol LittI KiDs com e corns y e s y e s y e s seiD the Now on e Jordan Hi.

“Little, little kids." “Com e, come." “Yes, yes. yes." said the new one, Jordan. "Hi!"

Than Jordan left. By Jordan. S o w e DID not get in the tuB Bekus w e now that sh e will lock u s in.

Then Jordan left. "Bye, Jordan." S o we did not get in the tub b eca u se w e know that sh e will lock u s in.

S h e lockt the Door on us s o w e Brok open the window to gat out. so w e got out.

S h e locked the door on us so w e broke open the window to g e t out. S o w e got out.

My Dog cam e to resku us. My dog cam e to rescue us.and thay livd Hole evre aftr. And they lived happily ever after.

Figure 53Ashley's Text for V a le n t in e 's Story

While I was observing her on the day when she was nearing completion of the text,

she shared with me all the unwritten details of her story. The events she articulated were

rich and descriptive and filled in the gaps for the plot development which were missing in

her written text. For instance. Jay and she had believed the witch was a good person. But

the witch was bad and had tried to trap them, she added. I questioned her about Jordan and

why he didn't help them. She responded that Jordan had been searching for them but

couldn't stay to help them with the witch because he had to be home by 2:00. Also she

discussed how her dog had followed Jordan and was waiting for her outside the bathroom

window and how the witch locked them in the bathroom after Jordan left.

Her comments exemplify the rich story frames she was developing in her mind and

her ability to articulate them. On the other hand, her writing displayed the beginning ability

to offer portions of the story frame in a sequential outlay. There was a definite setting and

261

introduction of the characters within her storybook opening - once upon a time there lived

a girl and boy named Ashley and Jay. The initiating event was offered with the invitation

of the witch and elaboration was used with the dialogue of the witch and children.

However, the middle section lost coherence with the entrance of a new character, Jordan,

saying "Hi!" and offering no explanation as to his arrival. Also the lack of plot

development to understand the witch's desire to get the children in the tub creates

vagueness. Much is left unwritten. Nonetheless, Ashley continued on with the text to the

concluding event of her dog coming to their rescue. Though she does not include

information as to how this was accomplished. In the finale, she added the storybook tag,

they lived happily ever after.

Cohesion was achieved in some portions of the text through the chaining of

dialogue and also through the use of cohesive devices, such as personal reference, with

personal pronouns and possessive adjectives referring back to the characters, and also

using conjunctions, because (causal), then (temporal), so (causal), and and (additive).

Throughout the composing of this text, Ashley focused on the writing of the text

and supplied only minimal illustrations for exemplification. None of the illustrations were

used to scaffold or extend the text, as occurs with children at lower levels of writing

development. The cover page contained the title, a boy, a girl, and a house with the label

of Cristol. Another page included text with a drawing of the ugly bathtub, and the final

page displayed two smiling children with their dog drawn below a text which stated — and

thay lived haple ever aftr.

Robin was pleased with Ashley's accomplishment and believed that her lessons on

story structures and sequence were being internalized and used by children whose writing

development was equal to Ashley's or higher. Robin conferenced with Ashley and praised

her for her use of sequence, periods, transitions, such as so and then, and her use of a

262

story grammar, calling attention to the storybook language at the beginning and end and the

structure of a beginning, middle, and end. Ashley was pleased by her compliments and

decided to publish this book in the parents' publishing center.

The next day, Ashley, couldn't think of an idea for a text so she decided to copy an

idea from Jordan, who sat across from her. He was writing a book about his favorite

cartoon characters "Tom and Jerry." Ashley shared with me that she loved Tom and Jerry

and thought they were so funny. She brought much of the humor of these cartoon

characters into her text

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GTom and Jorrv. Tom and JeirvTom w us home alon. and Janry wus snaking food from The frig.

Tom w as home alone, and Jerry w as sneaking food from the frig.

Tom kot Jarrv and Jarry ran of. Tom caught Jerry, and Jerry ran of.by Tom sieD Jarry 1 wil Miss you Tom. "Bye, Tom," said Jerry. "1 will m iss you,

Tom."and thay livd Haple evre aftr. (Dialogue Bubble - Kom Bac)

And they lived happily ever after. (Dialogue Bubble - "Come back!")

Figure 54Ashley's Text for Tom and Jerry S tory

The illustration for this text complements and enhances the humor, as can be seen in

the following illustrations. Note on third illustration, the rear view of Jerry and the profile

of Tom giving the impression of action and movement. Also, depicting great speed and at

the same time humor is the view of just the tip of Tom's tail as he speeds after Jerry. On

page five, the reader is aware of the irony involved in this ongoing saga as a smiling Tom

hollers Kom bac, and Jerry, arms raised, grins at us. In conclusion, the reader finds Jerry

smiling as he stands again beside the refrigerator.

263

In this short illustrated text, Ashley has a clear theme and centers on the ongoing

battle of Tom and Jerry. She selects one sequentially ordered, concise event which

displays great action, offers insight into the characters, and moves the plot along just as

cartoons offer tremendous action and simple, minimal dialogue to propell action and bring

coherence to a stoiy line. This short text gave us insight into Ashley's understandings of a

story frame, focus or centering on a theme, and sequence, even though she might not be

able to sustain a detailed and elaborated text of greater length. The basic understandings

appeared to be in place for development of more complex and lengthier texts. Perhaps

repeatedly viewing many Tom and Jerry episodes with similar comic situations had helped

her develop this story frame.

Figure 55Ashley's Tom and Jerry Picture

264

^'^0 Jérry


265

H


266

Figure 58 Ashley's Picture

On Februaiy 11, a significant event occurred which offered more insight into social

interaction effecting collaboration in textual ideas. As I stopped by Ashley's desk, she

wanted to read the book she had completed the previous day entitled. Little Monster at

School. On the last page, she had asked the question. Will you be my valentine because

Valentine's Day is almost here? Before I could make a comment, Chris, who now sat

across from Ashley and who seemed unaware of us as he busily drew, said, "I bet she

doesn't do it." Ashley replied, "Oh, yes, she does." Immediately she picked up her pencil

and wrote, "Yes, " said the 2nd grader. Ashley had considered her book finished until

Chris had offered his input. Perhaps incidents like this occur more frequently than busy

267

teachers can catch or perhaps this type of editing through collaboration might occur more

often if children were encouraged to read their texts to a peer.

Often in peer conferences, children view each other's texts and are distracted by the

illustrations and mechanics instead of focusing their attention on a meaning level. In the

aforementioned instance with Ashley revising her text, Chris did not look at her book but

only responded on the meaning level. Because of this accidental conference and other

interactions Robin noticed, she began promoting peer conferencing at the meaning level

with the use of the "author's chair" (Graves & Hansen, 1983) in late November. Several

times per week for 15 -20 minute sessions, an author would read aloud his/her completed

text. Then the audience offered compliments and suggestions. For the first few months,

Robin modeled appropriate comments for the children to lead them in the techniques of

conferencing. But not until mid April had the children developed enough skills to offer

suggestions and ideas which could possibly lead to development of better texts or editing.

Prior to this date, the children routinely offered compliments, such as the following offered

by Ashley to a book read by Michelle — "1 really liked your book. The pictures were cute."

and "1 liked the boy's name. Jack."

Robin and 1 also realized from conferencing with the children that only three or

four, such as case studies Ashley and Michelle, were advanced enough in their writing

development to edit on a meaning level; most were willing to consider mechanics and make

a few changes or additions on this level. Even though the children couldn't edit on the

meaning level, they listened to the suggestions and ideas offered by the teacher and their

peers and perhaps these ideas were incorporated in future texts. Nonetheless, the children

were pleased and satisfied with being able to get some of their thoughts on paper and

needed the author's chair for positive feedback from an audience.

268

After Ashley had revised her text by adding the words, Jay came over and asked

me for help. I moved to Jay's desk and began helping him brainstorm. Meanwhile,

Ashley wandered over to his desk and began talking about her mother going to California

to visit her boyfriend and that Ashley would have to stay with her grandma. After sharing

this information, she decided to write about it and went back to her desk. Ten minutes

later, I saw her scrunching up her new text and throwing it in the wastebasket How many

incomplete texts ended in the wastebasket? The number remains unknown.

On Februaiy 18 Ashley was writing a book entitled, Sam's Teddy Bear. I asked

her where she got the idea for her text, and she said, "From a book called Sam's Cookie."

I said that I wasn't familiar with this book so she quickly ran over to a basket of books,

grabbed the book, and rushed back to hand it to me. The book was approximately at the

preprimer level three with a staccato style text describing the illustrations. The book had

been translated from Swedish and had lovely illustrations. The only element she had

borrowed from the text was the character's name, Sam. Nonetheless, in some way the

book had generated a writing idea which developed into two disconnected events rather

than a sequential text Many texts at this level of development appeared to include an initial

idea which couldn't be sustained. On the other hand, peitaps a different thought or a topic

spawned by a classroom distraction took precedence over the original idea and rather than

begin a new book, the child simply began the new topic in the same book.

In analyzing the structure of these two separate events in Ashley's text, there

appears to be two paragraphs, one centered on a "teddy bear" theme and the other, on a

"new school" for Sam. In each paragraph, the author endeavors to give descriptive

information on the subject through terse statements which could be reordered and lose no

meaning. There is no chaining from one sentence to the next, and yet the style of the text is

269

very similar to the Swedish book. Some cohesion is offered in the use of reference with

personal pronouns {he, him, and it) and possessive adjectives (his, my, and mine).

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGSam 's Teddv Bear Sam 's Teddv BearSam had a teddy his name Is mugzy. he is nice 1 love my Teddy (Dialogue Bubble -- it's Myn)

Sam had a teddy. His name is Mugzy. He is nice. "1 love my teddy." (Dialogue Bubble - "it's mine.")

Sam is in scool he likes his new scool. his friends are nice to him The end

Sam is in school. He likes his new school. His friends are nice to him. The end.

Figure 59Ashley's Text for Sam's Teddy Bear Story

During writing workshop on February 20, all of Ashley's girl friends were busily

chatting about the movie. The Little Mermaid. As they recalled the movie, they drew

pictures of scenes from the movie. Ashley told her friends that her mother had bought her

The Little Mermaid coloring book, and "it was so neat" Consequently, she created a six

page coloring book which included some of the following drawings. This was the first

wordless book she had produced.

270

Figure 60Ashley's Mermaid Picture

271

Figure 61Ashley's Mermaid and Fish Picture

On March 2, to prepare for the upcoming county spring writing assessment, Robin

asked her students to write a personal narrative about a visit to the dentist. Robin had never

before given her children a writing prompt but was fearful that they would not score as

high as children from the other first grade classrooms in her building. Ashley wrote the

following text to the prompt of visiting a dentist

272

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN Gthe dav i wnet to the dentist. The Dav 1 Went to the DentistWin I went to the dentist i got to pIcK out a silly toy my mom pIcKt out the silly glasls. and i pIcKt out a card magnuflnglas. (Label -- m ade in u.s.a.)

When 1 went to the dentist 1 got to pick out a silly toy. My mom picked out the silly g la sses , and 1 picked out a card magnifying glass. (Label -- Made in the U.S.A.)

Figure 62Ashley's Text for T h e D ay I W en t to the D e n tis t Story

Ashley's feelings regarding the use of a prompt, I believe, are reflected in her repeated

choice of the word silly. Robin was genuinely discouraged by her children's attempts

with the mandatory prompt. She thought the raters, using the county ruberic, would

probably have scored Ashley high in spelling but low in her ability to develop a narrative.

Possibly, she added, those scoring the text might have given Ashley some additional credit

for her creative label of made in u.s.a., although the lack of capital letters for U.S.A might

have detracted from the scoring.

As mentioned earlier, Robin had never before given her children a writing prompt.

However, the other teachers, who did not use a writing workshop throughout the year,

were teaching their children to write by having them copy personal narratives from the

board and by giving them weekly writing prompts for practice for the upcoming spring

assessment. Robin shared with me that a personal narrative was something which only the

very best writers in her class by the end of the year could produce on their own. She was

afraid that her children couldn't formulate a true personal narrative and therefore would

score poorly unless she taught them how to write a personal narrative as the other teachers

were trying to do. Robin shared her bewilderment regarding the county personnel's choice

273

of requiring a personal narrative for the writing task. "Don't they know that first grade

children aren't that far advanced in their writing development?" she questioned me.

After spending considerable time rethinking her strategies and planning, she

decided not simply to teach what they should write but to offer models which she hoped the

children would internalize. For example, she began to read aloud books which exemplified

the use of the first person and also the sequential ordering of events.

A week later on March 3, Ashley chose to write on a topic which was generated by

the announcement of a very vocal child in the class that she had watched The Wizard of Oz

and was going to write about it. From this offering, Jeffrey borrowed the idea of a tornado

to write his Tornado book, and Ashley borrowed the character, Dorothy, for her book

entitled The Wizrd ofoz which otherwise bore no resemblance to the movie as can be seen

below.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGThe Wizrd of oz The Wizard of OzDorothy’s mom sa y s wake up som eone Is here with a little present for you. Do you no who It Is Dorthy? no mom Who Is It mom it Is your sisstr. I will be rite thar. OK.

Dorothy's mom says, "Wake up!" "Someone Is here with a present for you." "Do you know who It Is. Dorothy?" "No. mom." “Who is It?" "It is your sister." "1 will be right there." "Okay."

Figure 63Ashley's Text for W izard o f O z Story

In this text, Ashley centers on one event and then develops and describes the event

through sequentially ordered dialogue. In the opening, she offers an implied setting and

the characters (Dorothy, mom, and someone), the initiating event (the person bringing the

present), her reaction (who is it?), and lastly the resolution (she'll be right there) with the

common elements of a story grammar. This ability to organize sequentially and include a

274

beginning, middle, and end may be a precursor, to ordering of paragraphs and on a larger

scale, to a narrative with much more focus on details.

As spring vacation drew near, Robin began reading aloud Easter holiday books,

and one of the books was about "Clifford, the Big, Red Dog" hunting Easter eggs. She

called the children's attention to the use of the "I" voice and how the author used this

technique to tell a personal story. As noted earlier, Robin was trying everything possible to

assist her children in writing a personal narrative for the county writing assessment.

Ashley had written the title of her new book, Clifford's First Easter, when I asked

her the following question, "What will your book be about?" I asked this question to

ascertain how much of the story frame was already developed in her mind during the

prewriting mode before she came to the actual writing task and also to discover whether the

actual text would differ from the original intent. Ashley responded to my question by

stating, "They're going to an Easter egg hunt. Then they get in the car and it's time to go."

She stopped and offered no more so I inquired, "What happens next?" "Well, then Emily

found one egg, and Clifford didn't find any," she added.

Her written text contained exactly the same textual ideas except for the final

statement that Clifford didn't find any eggs. She came to the writing task with a

preplanned story. Regarding the omission of the final statement she had made, perhaps she

ran out of time to close her story. Frequently, children would write the end quickly when

Robin announced that the workshop was over. In addition many of the children didn't

seem to be able to sustain a story into the next day, even when we would encourage them

to do so. Because so many texts ended abruptly, Robin decided to tell the children when

there were 10 minutes and then only 5 minutes remaining in the workshop.

275

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GCliffords frst eastr Clifford's First EasterClifford its time for the eastr egg-hunt. OK. said Clifford, i will be rite dawn.

"Clifford it's time for the E aster egghunt." "Okay." said Clifford. "1 will b e right down."

Clifford get in-the car it is time to go Clifford.

“Clifford, get in the car." "It is time to go. Clifford."

Clifford go find sum e g g s 1 fawnd on e mom said Emily, did you find any e g g s no

“Clifford, go find som e eggs." "1 found one." Mom said. "Emily, did you find any eggs?" "No."

the end By

The end. "By!"

Figure 64Ashley's Text for C liffo rd 's F ir s t E a ster Story

Drawing from the use of dialogue in the Clifford books, Ashley used conversation

for the entire text, sequentially chaining one event to the next. Instead of developing one

event as she did in the previous book. The Wisrd ofoz, this time she attempted to

sequentially order an entire story or narrative account but included no final event or

resolution. Her recent texts, focusing considerable attention on the use of dialogue with the

first person, retained her ability to chain events but seemed to lose some of the richness

attained through the use of story frames in the books created a month earlier, such as the

Valentine's Day book. In the Valentine's Day text, she had opened with the introduction of

the characters and the setting, a climax of the events, and resolution with a story book

ending. Since neither the story frame nor dialogue had moved to a mode which could

occur without a great deal of concentration, it appears that Ashley had to select on which

concepts she would concentrate her efforts and cognitively process a limited number.

276

Winter Quarter Qualitative Analysis along the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings








resultant text.

To summarize the gains in understanding of the writing process during Winter



(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1,)

I I I I I I I I I . I I I I I I - L I

1/8 1 Like My Cat 2/3 Valentine's Day

0 1 2 3 4

o/o / #70 W lZaTO O f KJZ

O/D im/UTToro s iirsi C00(0#

Alphabetic principle and ability to write the letters of the alphabet was confirmed in

her texts. The area of confusion between lower case b and d and her subsequent decision

to use only capital B and D had disappeared by the beginning of March. From then on, she

277

used the letters correctly and rarely used the previous mix of lower and upper case letters.

The only capital letters which appeared within sentences were the letters Mand P.


Ability to Write Letters of Alphabet"


(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Muitiple Continua of Conceptuai Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I L . . . U - i J - 1 - L - l - . . l - J0

1 /R / 1 U fa k A u C 'a* .............

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

n o 1 L JK 0 M y U a l ..........

V a l Q n i in B S U a y • • • • •

O tO / f W W iA C uO O f \ J Z ..........

0 /0 K ^ i in u iu s f r'l/dfi c u t f i o f • • • t •

Spelling development remained in the late letter name stage. Using the Gillet and

Temple (1982) beginner's features list to assess spelling development at the end of Winter

Quarter, I found in scoring Ashley's spelling that she had 8 of the 16 words correctly

spelled, 6 words within the transitional category which includes spellings using patterns

attributed to both within word and syllable juncture, and 2 using letter name strategies.

Some of her misspellings are as follow: ges (geese), chrped (chirped), shuv (shove), Irn

(learned), onenc (once). Her sight vocabulaiy of correct spellings was very strong and

growing.

278

Ashley had progressed in level three, letter name stage of Word Knowledge

through Invented Spelling Development, to include beginning knowledge of level four,

within-word stage, with occasional use of long vowels with silent e markers and some

correct short vowels.

Table 42Concept of W ord or Voiee-to-Print Match

(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described In Table 1.)

miUkeMyCat 2/3 Valentine’s Day 3/3 The Wizard of Oz

0 1 2 3 4

o/o KUTforos t/rsi caSiQr

Concept of word was understood and used appropriately. Ashley was ranked

eighth in the class for reading ability Winter Quarter by the teacher and could correctly

make a voice-to-print match since the beginning of the year.

Ashley entered first grade at level four of the continuum "Concept of Word or


279


(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of deveiopm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I I I . . I I I I I l . l I I I I I . I J I I I . . I U I I l - l I J0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

U9/UO L/UfUfùi ••••

i /R / / il/a KA\i . . . .1/0 f U K 0 M y L/ai t . . •

6 / 0 V a i 0 n u n & S U a y • • • •

O/w / HQ W lZ a fO OJ L/c • • • •

0/0 C / / / / / C / f U o i l i O i tZ a o t t f l • • • • 2


"Fluency through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process" without any adult

assistance.



I I . L I I I I I . 1. I..I , 1 . 1 I_L1 l . l I 1 - L . I . 1 I I 1 - 1 1 I I 1 I I J - I .0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

I Like My Cat 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5

2/3 Valentine's Day 1 . . . 2 . . -3 . . . 4 - - -5 -” 6-*-7-"8"-9” 10--11

3/3 The Wizard of Oz 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . g. . . 7 . . . 8 - " 9 " 10" 11--12 "13" 14

3/6 Clifford's First Easter. . . .1 . . . 2- . -3- - -4- - -5

280

In regards to conventions of print, Ashley was more aware of the diversity and

used many of them appropriately but not alway consistently. Ending punctuation and

capital letters for the first letter of a sentence were used in incomplete and lower level texts,

but generally these conventions were used less frequently in the more complex texts when

she was centering on a theme and developing sequence through dialogue. Conventions for

dialogue appeared with dialogue bubbles, a few quotation marks, and occasionally said. . .

to indicate the speaker. Storybook language of once upon a time and they lived happily

ever after appeared in the text Valentine's Day. In The Wizard of Oz, she used an

apostrophe to denote possession when referring to Dorothy's mom.

Ashley began the quarter using a variety of conventions up through level ten and by

the end of the quarter added conventions up through level twelve with quotation marks and

. . . said John.

Table 45Collaboration In the Process (from Adult to Peer)


.1 I I . I . . . I . I I I I I I l - l I I I J I I 1 - 1 I I 1 , 1

1/8 i Like My Cat

2/3 Valentine's Day

3/37/70 Wizard of Oz

316 Ciifford's First Easter

5

•5

•5

•5

•5

Collaboration with adults for prewriting and the composing process was rarely

needed. Collaboration with peers occurred frequently in the prewriting activities for

developing ideas for texts. During the actual writing process, she sometimes interacted

281

with a friend regarding the text but generally the discussion caused her to add-on unrelated

material from the friend's writing topic, or she simply abandoned the text and started a new

one. Most often her interactions were purely social and unrelated to the text

Ashley began the quarter at level five of the continuum "Collaboration in the

Process" and remained at that level.



1/8 I Like My Cat

2/3 Valentine's Day

3!3The Wizard of Oz

316 Clifford's f^rst Easter

i _ L I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

2 - 3 - 4 " 5 - 6-

- 2 - - - 3 - - - 4 - - - S - - - 6 -

. 2 - - - 3 - - - 4 - - - S - - - 6 -

. 2 - - - 3 - - - 4 - - - S - - - 6 -

8 9 1 10 1

- 8 - 9 -

- 8 - - - 9

■8- - - 9

•10

The majority of her texts were produced at levels nine and ten with centering on a

theme and chaining of events but did not always include a complete story grammar. In the

level ten texts, such as Valentine's Day, the placement, initiating event, and a final event

were more prose-like in texture but the sequent events which were essential to developing

the plot were frequently disjointed and illogical. Most of the higher level texts were

lengthier and included more detail and elaboration, especially when the text developed a

single event such as Valentine's Day. A majority of her texts used large chunks of

dialogue, which offered sequence and cohesion, to move the text forward for example The

Wizard o f Oz and Clifford's First Easter..

282

Occasionally her texts borrowed asp>ects of lower forms, such as those of levels

seven and eight with attribute books on topics, such as love and cats. These books used

minimal chaining and linking of ideas and appeared on days when she couldn't "think of

anything to write about." However, even when borrowing from simpler forms, she

incorporated cohesive links which normally occur in the higher levels of nine and ten.

Cohesion occurred through use of sequential dialogue and events, along with personal and

demonstrative reference {here), {this). Also, many conjunctions, such as additive {and),

causal (because), (so), and temporal (then). Substitution was again used in the new one

with one referring to the child, Jordan.

Ashley progressed during Winter Quarter along the continuum "Sense of Story and

Textual Development" with more texts offered at the higher levels of nine and ten. In the

level ten text of Valentine's Day, she included all the elements of a story grammar but the

sequent events lacked logical development to a climax. Also, most elements of the

grammar included more detail and elaboration.


INCOMPLETE BO O K S4 - Title page with illustration3 - Title page plus 1-3 additional p a g es of illustrated text

COMPLETE TEXTS16 “ Texts taken to completion which include her closing signal, fhe end.6 - Texts which are very brief and le s s developed but do com e to closure, although they do not

include the end.Number of Words - range 10 -1 2 8 *Number of P ages - range 2 - 8

"Longest Book, Valentine's Day, unfocused chains with som e elem ents of a story grammar exhibited; 128 words, 8 pages.

Second Longest Book, Cats, 46 words, 8 pages.Shortest Book, Love, 10 words, 4 pages.

283

Soring Quarter

Returning from spring vacation, Ashley immediately began to write the same style

of texts, containing large chunks of dialogue which moved the text along in a sequential

fashion. Her first text entitled. Today is St. Patrick's Day was composed during two days

of workshop. For some reason, she wrote the text from the back of the book forwards.

When I asked her why she had done this, she replied, "I don't know."

Earlier in Autumn, Robin and I discovered that approximately 75% of the books

were written backwards. We questioned many children, and they would shrug their

shoulders or respond, "I don't know." Finally, on December 3 ,1 spent some time

questioning Michelle, the best writer in the class. She informed me that the smooth part of

the staple which held the papers together in a book form was on the backside of the books.

Explaining further she said, "The staples poke so I start on the smooth side." Pointing to

the smooth side, she added, "I like staples this way." In preparation for writing workshop,

Robin, who is right-handed, would hurriedly staple books together by sliding a stack of

papers into the stapler under her right hand and stamp the smooth portion of the staple into

the backside of each book. The puzzle was finally solved as to why they were writing

books from the back forward. However, on this occasion when Ashley wrote from the

back of the book, the staples were in the correct position.

The text she created contained no illustrations, except for the cover page with a

portrait of a leprechaun. Her handwriting was messily created with markers, appearing as

though she was in a hurry. On those occasions when Ashley had a preplanned story, she

would sit quietly at her desk with her head down and work quickly and steadily.

However, her industrious moments would often be interrupted by friends. She would

even leave her seat to chat with them, but now, in March, she could return to her text and

continue on. Earlier in the year, when she was just beginning to use some sequence in her

text, any lengthy interruptions would affect the text by causing her to quit or add on

unrelated information.

284

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GTodav is St. Patrick's dav Todav is St Patrick's DavToday is St' Patrick's day -i-said to Jess ica , i s e e the leprechaun that cam iast night.

T o d a y is St. Patrick's Day," i said to Jessica . "1 s e e the leprechaun that cam e last night."

here is his hat and his sh u e i said to J e s s ic a .here they are w ow said Jess ica let m e se e them. ok. here you go.

"Here is his hat and his shoe," 1 said to Jessica . "Here they are." "Wow," said Jessica , "let m e s e e them." "Okay." "Here you go."

hry i s e e the leprechaun he is here hry hry "Hurry." "1 s e e the leprechaun." "He is here." "Hurry!" "Hurry!"

he is s o cut this is s o s o so so funny 1 love you.

He is so cute. This is so , so , so , so funny. "1 love you."

1 will be your child 1 said to the leprechaun, ok h e said

"1 will be your child," 1 said to the leprechaun. "Okay," he said.

Well luts get on with it dad and mom. ok thav said Hove you mom.

"Well, let's get on with it dad and mom." "Okay." they said. "1 love you, mom."

1 love you to dear, and 1 love you to " love you too, dear." "And 1 love you, too."

and this is the end And this is the e n d . . .of my book Good of my book. Good.the end The end.

Figure 65Ashley's Text for Today is St. Patrick's Day S to ry

Ashley enjoyed all the holiday themes and always incoiporated something about

them in her texts. For St. Patrick's Day, Robin had a mini learning center which was

decorated with leprechaim posters and included St. Patrick's Day books and math and

word games with shamrock markers. Ashley had read some of the books about

leprechauns and talked to her friends about how cute they were and how much fun it would

be to catch one. The girl mentioned in Ashley's text, Jessica, was one of her seatmates

with whom she shared an interest in the topic.

285

The leprechaun text shared a characteristic in common with all of the preceding ten

texts Ashley had written. This common trait was the use of dialogue among the characters.

Ever since, Robin read the first "Clifford the Big Red Dog" book, to demonstrate the use of

the first person narrative, Ashley had been experimenting with dialogue. The topic of

Clifford with conversational style texts was used over a two month period for five of her

books, although other texts were interspersed which also incorporated large chunks of

dialogue. The main characters, Clifford and Emily Elizabeth, appeared with ongoing

dialogue throughout the following texts Ashley composed: Clifford's Family, Clifford's

Birthday, Clifford's Bath, Clifford's Puppy Days, and Clifford's First Easter.

As earlier mentioned in the case study of Jeffrey, repetition signaled to Robin and

me a consolidation of learning and internalization of conceptual knowledge which began to

shift to automatic routines. For Ashley the consolidation and internalization of concepts

occurred through writing stories that centered on one event and by using conversational

language to develop sequence in a text. From the beginning of the year until now, she had

created only two lengthy texts (The Snowy Night and Valentine's Day ) which attempted to

encompass the larger frame of a narrative, but both failed to keep a central theme and chain

the events with any sort of focus. They were similar to the "bed-to-bed" books identified

by Calkins (1986) which contain unfocused, chronological chains from one sentence to the

next. However, by narrowing the scope of the narrative to only one event as she did for

the past two months, Ashley could logically develop what one character would say and

then the next while consciously holding a theme or central focus in the foreground. She

repeated this technique for two months with short pieces of text until March 17 and 18

when she experimented with her basic story frame and techniques to move to a lengthier,

more detailed text in her book Today is St. Patrick's Day.

286

The beginning of the text sets the stage by offering the setting and the actors, and

then draws the reader into the scene through the initiating event, in finding the leprechaun's

hat and shoe. As mentioned earlier the brevity of the introduction is similar to that of a folk

tale. Looking at the technique of using dialogue, Ashley has a beginning awareness of the

need to identify the speaker {said Jessica), although not consistently.

Reading further the the conversation between the author and Jessica as they

discovered the leprechaun, I call attention to the giant leap in logic on pages five and six

(the seventh and eighth cells). Part of the text appears to be omitted, such as whether the

leprechaun invited her to be his daughter and how her mother arrived on the scene. Ashley

appears to be able to write fairly logical beginnings and endings to her texts but is still

experimenting with the sequence and logic of the middle. The sequent events of a text need

to be focused to develop the plot to reach the climax and bring a resolution to the conflict.

The endings of her books included sometimes as many as three or four pages of

filler or "fluff," and this is the end o f my book good the end, as Robin and I nicknamed the

penchant for many of the children to use all the pages of the prestapled books. During the

early months of Autumn, many children would find they had two pages left to fill so they

would write rAe on one page and on the second.

The conversational style of the texts each day grew to sound more and more like the

natural lilt of Ashley's own voice. In Ashley's folder, Robin and I found the book. The

Big Egg, dated March 23. Unfortunately, neither of us observed the creation of this text,

but we both wondered if Ashley and her friends had discussed the topic and even acted out

the text Ashley's voice was so realistic in this text as she calls out the names of her friends

Matt and Jessica, the seatmates in her grouping. Especially authentic sounding is the

exchange with Jessica, who is a more reticent and slower moving child, when Ashley

urges her t o . . .come on. Are you on your way? Ashley conveys the excitement of the

287

moment in her choice of words, such as wow, wowe, and come quick. In the earlier

"Leprechaun" story she had used repetition of words, lexical reiteration, for a similar

effect, for example hurry, hurry and in this text Matt, Matt.

Just as the aforementioned lexical reiteration brings cohesion to the text so did

Ashley's usage of demonstrative reference with the adverb, here (Here it is.) and in the

previous text. Leprechaun, the use of here (here is his hat), (here they are), (he is here)

and the demonstrative pronoun, this (this is so funny) and (this is the end).

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe bia eaa The Big Egg

•Wow" 1 s e e a big egg “Wow, 1 s e e a big egg."here It is wowe it is big. "Here it is. W owee! It Is big."Kelly com e owic. ok. "Kelly, com e quick." "Okay."1 s e e it is it big “1 s e e it. Is it big!"J ess ica com e on. ok. “Jessica , com e on." "Okay."are you on you'er way ovre yes "Are you on your way over?" "Yes."matt matt com e on "Matt, Matt, com e on."the end The end.

Figure 66Ashley's Text for The Big Egg Story

The excitement of the conversation and the discovery of a big egg piques the

curiosity of the reader and makes one want to know what happened next, but the story

hastily ends. Many of Ashlely's texts during this period of time began with clever

attention-getting techniques developed through dialogue, and yet she could not sustain the

sequence to develop the plot and middle part of the story grammar. But she did use some

newly acquired cohesive devices such as lexical reiteration (Matt, Matt) and demonstrative

reference (Here it is).

288

Perhaps, if an adult had seen this text as Ashley was bringing it near completion,

the adult could have asked some leading questions such as What kind o f egg was it? Did it

hatch? What did they do with it? Maybe the answers and the ensuing discussion would

have assisted her in developing the next element of her story frame. On the other hand,

perhaps Ashley was not developmentally ready to sustain something for that length of time

or maybe she could not cognitively consider a new element of a story frame along with the

other concepts she was holding in her mind, such as focus, sequence, and dialogue.

Another example of a text with strong introductory elements was a story about

Squib created on March 26. She opens the text with a clever idea of a phone conversation

about a sleepover, but provides no development beyond the initial scene. The reader feels

as though he has been dropped into the middle of a movie scene, but as previously noted

the text ends abruptly, with no development of the plot.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GSauib (Dialoaue Bubble - Oh vou're iust talking silly talk)

Scuib tOialocue Bubble - "Oh. vou're iust talking silly talk.)

dedicated to my mom dedicated to my momSquib you have a to n e call it is Kelly sh e wunts to no if you wunt to have a sleepovre at her haws tonight. OK. he said yes.

Squib, you have phone call. It is Kelly. S h e wants to know if you want to have a sleep-over at her h ouse tonight. Okay? He said, "Yes."

Squib is on his way ovre to sleep with you. OK. OK.

Squib is on his way over to sleep with you. Okay. Okay.

Figure 67Ashley's Text for Squib S to ry

Also note that she is considering other conceptual underetandings such as book

conventions by adding her first, dedicated to my mom.

289

The conversational tone of this text is so realistic that it could be used as a script for

a monologue. Perhaps as Ashley was composing the text, she could visualize the scene in

her mind and hear the voices inside her head. Overtly in the composing process, Ashley's

voice was audible, at a mumble level, saying each word and in some cases still stretching

words for spelling as she wrote. Seldom did any of the first graders write without the

audible mumbling accompaniment of the words to their texts.

In both of the aformentioned texts. The Big Egg and Squib, cohesion was

enhanced by chaining conversation and use of personal reference, for example in the Squib

text with the use of you, he, his referring to Squib and you, she, her referring to Kelly.

During the next week, Ashley created an unusual book which incorporated two

different genres with a short letter or note on the cover and a story about the events leading

up to the reading of the note. A sample of her handwriting and an illustration follow.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGMv Valentine By A shley DayThank you for the valentine. 1 rilly aprisheaded it vary vary much, love a secrit atmler to Ashley

Mv Valentine by Ashley DayThank you for the valentine. 1 really appreciated it very, very much. Love,a secret admirer To Ashley

Mom 1 w us gust looking in the mailBox mom m om thar is a valentine for me.

"Mom, 1 w as just looking in the mailbox." "Mom, mom. there is a valentine for me."

Well opin it. OK. It îs from umumum w ho is it form mom. i do not no.

"Well, open it." “Okay." “It is from, uhmmmm." "Who is it from. Mom?"

Mom i am opining it you betr hrry up. "Mom, 1 am opening it." "You better hurry up."

Figure 68Ashley's Text for My Valentine S tory

290

0 ftïi

V(Kle n -f-fh

fj€h:f|hC.

(X ) ( C r L

Figure 69Ashley's Valentine Pictures

291

The thank you note, bearing the conventional format except for the greeting at the

end, was an effective technique for getting the reader's attention and also to lead into her

opening dialogue. However, the last two pages seem to be reversed. Perhaps in

hindsight, she thought of a more sequential and descriptive text to follow her

announcement of discovering a valentine and then realizing that she had the pages out of

sequence simply quit the text. However, even though the text lacks the ordering of events,

each page includes sentences that are descriptive. Coherence between the sentences in each

event lies in the sequential conversation and in her offering of further : planation for each

event Cohesion is enhanced with the use of the personal pronoun referrent, it. Taking

into consideration her knowledge of the mechanics of the text, she uses a period correctly at

the end of each sentence but omits the capital letters at the beginning of the sentence.

For a period of more than a week, Ashley struggled to find a topic that interested

her. During this time she quickly created several lower forms of texts. An example of one

of these texts follows:

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN Gmv doa My Doa1 have a PuPPv he is s o nice. 1 Love him. 1 have a puppy. He is s o nice. 1 love him.It is nice to have a PuPPy 1 like my PuPPy It is nice to have a puppy. 1 like my puppy.he is cute 1 iove my dog He is cute. 1 love my dog.the end The end.

Figure 70Ashley's Text for My Dog Story

292

This text appears to fit the category identified by Newkirk (1987) in his analysis of

non-narrative writing as an attribute series in which a writer "uses one-clause units to state

facts or feelings about the topic" (p. 126). The rearrangement of the clauses, Newkirk

notes would not effect the meaning. Perhaps Ashley was intentionally creating an

expository text as Newkirk's study implies in identifying this form, but on the other hand

maybe she was unable to develop a story idea and simply reverted to an earlier attribute

form as a sort of stream of conscious writing in hopes that a story idea might manifest

itself.

A few days later I observed Ashley busily cutting through several thicknesses of

paper and forming an oval-shaped book. Several other girls nearby were also designing

books in the shape of Easter eggs, rabbits, and birds. Next Ashley stapled the sheets of

paper together, wrote a title, The Easter Egg, and drew a decorated Easter egg on the

cover. During the next two days of workshop, she composed the following text which

appears somewhat unrelated to Easter.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGthe Easter eaa The Easter Eoomom wut's for brekfist? an egg. e g g s ugan? y e s e g g s ugan. Wy. be eus 1 said s o Jeni

"Mom, what's for breakfast?""An egg." "Eggs, again?" "Yes, e g g s

again." "Why?" "Because 1 said so , Jeni."yucky ! hate egg 's thay mak m e sick. "Yuckyi" "i hate eggs." "They make me

sick."OK 1 will ea t tham if you by m e a toy "Okay." "1 will eat them if you buy m e a

toy."it's all rite with me 1 will by you wut evre you wunt

"It's all right with me." "1 will buy you whatever you want."

it hast to be 1 ;24 or you will not gut a toy o- rite

"It has to be 1 ;24, or you will not g e t a toy." "All right?"

m ake m e a eqq "Make m e an eqq."here you are here is you'er eqq "Here you are." "Here is your egg."the end The end.

Figure 71Ashley's Text for The Big Egg S tory

293

Again Ashley created a sequential text based on one event, a conversation about

eggs at breakfast. Ashley's voice rings strongly through the text and sounds so life-like

that I wondered if this dialogue really occurred. Coherence is achieved through the

progressive logical dialogue centering on the problem of having to eat eggs until she

interjects the time of 1:24 with no explanation as to the reason for giving a specific time.

Again, nearing the resolution, in the middle of the story, there is a minor breakdown in

logic. Perhaps something was omitted. However, she is getting closer to reasoning

through the crux of the problem and resolution in each new text which uses this format of

dialogue to tell a story.

Ashley no longer employs the technique of illustrations to extend her texts. Her

illustrations are few, simple, and enhance the key thoughts of the text. The only

illustrations in this book, other than the cover, were three drawings of a fried egg under the

texts which discussed eggs.

Within this conversational text, Ashley is extending the text by elaboration through

several different methods, for example, elaboration through explanation as in her mother's

response to eating eggs. Because I said so. Elaboration through cause and effect in the

clauses on page two (cell 2) with the text, / hate eggs. They make me sick. A subordinate

clause is used for relational elaboration as in cell three. Okay. I will eat them if\ou buv me

a toy , and also with the use of the additive conjunction or in cell seven with an alternative

relation between the two clauses, it has to be 1:24 or you will not get a toy. The longer

Ashley experiments with dialogue, the greater her skills become in enhancing the text with

elaboration. The texts are becoming denser and richer.

Looking at the mechanics of the text, she uses question marks correctly in the first

and second clauses but omits one after why. She uses an apostrophe for the contraction

you'er in cell seven. But she omits most of the periods at the end of sentences. However,

294

if she had been requested to revise the text, 1 believe she could have correctly placed all of

them.

Regarding her spelling development, she appears to be moving into the within word

stage with her correct use of many short vowels (mom, egg, sick, evre, hast ) and the silent

e marker {make, rite) after long vowels.

During the next two weeks, Ashley's seatmates, the group of girls mentioned

earlier, were all chatting about the characters who appeared in their texts. Squib (a male owl

character created by the author who visited the school, Lany Shies) and Jenny Au (a girl

owl named after the girls' mutual friend in another first grade classroom) and the possibility

of a marriage between these characters. The idea of a marriage may have arisen from

Ashley's constant chatter about her mom's engagement to a man and their wedding plans.

For a period of approximately three weeks, these characters appeared in the girls' texts.

Shelby was the first girl who wrote about their marriage. A few days after Shelby created

her text, Ashley began her text of Squib and Jenny An.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGSauib and Jennv Au Sauib and Jennv Audeldlckaded to mom and Skip dedicated to Mom and SkipSquib wili you marry me. Y es 1 wiil marry you tomaro. is that or-rite with you. Yes that is o-rite with me.

"Squib wili you marry me?" "Yes, 1 will marry you tomomow." "Is that all right with you?" "Yes. that is all right with ms."

Squib and Jenny get marryd (ta ta ta teteta) Squib and Jenny get married.(ta - ta - ti-ta)(Dialogue Bubbles ~ gust a sakit Squib hry up it is time to get mard)

(Dialogue Bubbles ~ Just a second; Squib, hurry up; It is time to get married)

Squib is geting maryed today "Squib is getting married today."(Dialogue Bubble from Squib - Jenny Jenny)

(Dialogue Bubble from Squib -- Jenny, Jenny!)

Squib Squib Squib, Squib!1 love you Squib, i love you too. (Label - this is the plas thay stad in)

"1 love you Squib." "1 love you, too." (Label - This is the place they stayed in.)

Figure 72Ashley's Text for Squib and Jenny Au S tory

295

The spelling of deidickaded (dedicated) displays Ashley's careful attention to

stretching and hearing each sound in this word which she has never used before. As

mentioned in the previous text she is using strategies common to the within word stage

with appropriate short vowels, silent e markers and even some strategies from the next

stage of syllable juncture with the occasional doubling of the r in marry and the ed ending

on maryed.

In this text, illustrations played an important role, quite different from her previous

texts and probably attributable to her peers. Her group of friends were adding great

elaboration to their texts through their detailed drawings. Ashley's illustration were

atypical for her. They were tidy, color was added, and dialogue bubbles which hadn't

appeared in months were used on some pages to replace text. All of these changes reflected

the commonality in the textual appearance of the other girls' books.

7

>0

Figure 73Ashley's Squib and Jenny Picture

296

%

Figure 74Ashley's Squib and Jenny Picture

The cover illustration introduces the characters Squib and Jenny Au holding hands

and wearing sunglasses, similar to the humor of Larry Shies with his character, Squib,

donning many disguises. The next illustration probably requires some explanation. The

"U-shaped" figure is a rope, a humorous aside despicting the colloquialism of "tying the

297

knot." And the "ta ta ta te te ta" emanating from a square building is the tune "Here Comes

the Bride" floating out of the church.

When Ashley reverts to these earlier forms of writing where the illustrations carry

much of the meaning, the actual text bears fewer words and has less texture and richness.

However, a story frame is used with a initiating event (dialogue of proposal for marriage of

the leading characters), a sequent event (a conflict with Jenny telling Squib to hurry), final

event with resolution of the problem (they are married), and a finale (statements of their

love). Also the dialogue is realistic and along with the illustrations moves the text forward

through the narrative format.

On the next to the last day of the school year, June 11, Ashley was writing a book

entitled My Kitten . As 1 peered over her shoulder to see what she was writing, I found

she had composed two pages (cells one and two) and had begun the third page with I let

my kitten outside yesterday.. . She turned to me and asked, "Do you want to hear my

story?" I said, "Yes," and drew up a chair alongside her desk. After she read the pages

she had written thus far, I asked her questions about the kitten, such as What color is he?

How old is he? Has he ever been outside before? What did your kitten do outside? She

talked at great length, describing her kitten and how he had caught a squirrel and played

with it but didn't hurt i t Then I encouraged her to write the story about the incident with

the squirrel. She seemed reluctant to put so much effort into the text, possibly because it

was the end of the year, and she wanted to play. Also, the classroom was generally noisier

this time of year and made the task difficult to sustain if distracting things were happening

all about her. However, I told her that she was capable of telling the story and added,

"Ashley, it will be such a good story."

298

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGMv Kitten Mv KittenMy Kitten is silly and he Plays alot. My kitten is silly, and he plays a lot.My Kitten is cute a s a hart and 1 love him. My Kitten is silly

My kitten is cute a s a heart, and 1 love him. My kitten is sillv.

1 Lut my Kitten outside yestrday and he ^ o t a scwrl and he lat him qo aqin.

1 let my kitten outside yesterday, and he qot a squirrel, and he let him qo aqain.

My Kitten dus not Kill the scwrl thay gust bite tham.

My kitten d oes not kill the squirrel. They just bite them.

and thay livd happly avr after And they lived happily ever after.the end qoodby The end. Goodby.

Figure 75Ashley's Text for M y K itten Story

The text began, as many books did when she had no story idea in mind, as an

attribute book with random, disordered statements about her kitten, told in the present

tense. Then with the lead-in of letting the kitten outside, she briefly describes a past event

involving the kitten and a squirrel. However, in the next cell in her explanation that her

kitten does not (dus not) kill the squirrel but they just bite them, she switches genres to

more of a style reminiscent of an informational book. She even uses the plural form of

they (kittens) and them (squirrels). Also, she switches the tense of the verbs from the past

to the present tense again as in an expository style. Lastly, she adds the familiar storybook

ending, thay livd happly avr after and her "fluff" of the end goodby, even though the

ending is over-worked it signals her awareness of the need for an ending.

Cohesion in the text is basically through the forms, which she used months earlier,

of the additive conjunction (and) and personal reference with personal pronouns and

adjectives (my, he, him, them, they) referring to the kitten, squirrel, or author.

299

Ashlely's last text in a very simplified fashion contained all the elements of a story

grammar (Hasan, 1984; Pappas, 1990). Nevertheless, it was less developed through

elaboration, as earlier texts that included more explanation, relational description, and detail

in the placement and initiating events. It lacked the richness of previous texts, but the

earlier texts contained less logic and coherence in the sequent events to develop the plot..

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGSauib ao's to the airPort with Jennv Sauib G oes to the Airoort with JennvSquib is tirde from tiying to get to Jenny. Jeny why did you go so fast. 1 can t catch up with you.

Squib is tired from trying to get to Jenny. Jenny, why did you go so fast? 1 can t catch up with you.

1 w as running s o 1 can s e e the Plans take off and land. Well do you want to go with m e Squib.

1 w as running s o 1 can s e e the planes take off and land. Well, do you want to go with me Squib?

Thank you Jenny fortakeing m e to the airPort.

Thank you Jenny for taking m e to the airport.

goodby Goodby.

Figure 76Ashley's Text for S q u ib G oes to th e A irp o rt w ith J e n n y Story

However, all the elements were present in this brief dialogic text covering one

event. The title offers the placement by identifying the characters. Squib and Jenny, and

the setting of going to the airport. The first sentence (cell three) is told by the narrator and

states the initiating event or problem of Squib becoming tired trying to keep up with Jenny

who is going so fast. The ensuing conversation with Jenny as to why she was hurrying

functions as the sequent event, although she omits something which could perhaps bring

clarity to the initial problem and the resolution as to whether Squib was simply chasing

Jenny, or she had previously invited him and he was trying to fly behind her. Also

confusion arises for the reader in the final event — Well, do you want to go with me Squib?

She omits his response and any discussion about the event of watching the planes to move

300

directly to the finale (restoration of the habitual) with Squib saying. Thank you Jenny for

taking me to the airport.

Even though the text was not as rich in detail and elaboration of previous texts,

especially in the initiating events and final event, Ashley took the process one step closer to

building a complete story frame or narrative.

Spring Quarter Qualitative Analysis along the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings








resultant text.



301



I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I0 1 2 3 4

3/17 Today is St. Patrick's Day ................. 1 ................. 2 .................3 ............... 4

4/2 The Easter Egg ................. 1 ............... 2 ...............3 ..............4

5/1 Squib and Jenny Au ................. l ................. 2 .................3 ............... 4

S/t 6 Squib Goes to the ................. l ................. 2 .................3 ............... 4Airport with Jenny


her texts. This quarter she used lower and upper case letters correctly except for the letter p

which was always written as a capital. The former confusion with using capital M instead

of lower case m appeared to be resolved.




(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Deveiopment" described in Tabie 1.)

I I I I I I I I I I I I I , I ] ! , I I I I I I I I I I I I I

3/17 Today is St. Patrick's Day

4/2 The Easter Egg

5/1 Squib and Jenny Au

5/18 Squib Goes to the Airport with Jenny

4

4"

•4*

4• 4 -

302

Spelling development had progressed to late within word stage with evidence of

moving to the next stage of spelling development, syllable jimcture. Using the Gillet and

Temple (1982) advanced features list to assess spelling development at the end of Spring

Quarter, I found in scoring Ashley's spelling that she had 3 of the 14 words correctly

spelled, 10 words within the transitional category which includes spellings using patterns

attributed to both within word and syllable jimcture [although only 3 words displayed

features of this stage], and 1 using letter name strategies. Some of her misspellings are as

follow: seter (setter), shuve (shove), prisin (prison), nacher (nature), pecked (peeked).

Looking at spelling development within her texts, I found the correct use of long

vowels with silent e markers, many correct blends and digraphs, and many more correct

short vowels. Evidence of moving to the next stage of spelling development, syllable

juncture, was observed in her beginning awareness of syllable units, in doubling

consonants, and the use of the affix -ing and -ed.

Her strong sight vocabulary of correctly spelled words continued to grow.

Ashley had progressed along the continuum of "Word Knowledge through

Invented Spelling Development" from level three, late letter name stage the previous quarter

to level four, within word stage, with hints of progress moving to the next stage of level

five, syllable juncture, as noted above.

303

Table 50Concept of Word or Volce-to-Prînt Match

(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving competencies of development along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I I , 1 1 . 1 I0 1 2 3 4

3/17 Today is St. Pa trick's Day 1 .............. 2 .............. 3 .............. 4

4/2 The Easter Egg 1.............. 2 .............. 3 .............. 4

5/1 Squib and Jenny Au 1.............. 2 .............. 3 ..............4

5 /\8 Squib Goes to the l .............. 2 .............. 3 ..............4Airport vrith Jenny

Concept of word was understood and used appropriately throughout the year.

Ashley entered first grade at level four of the continuum "Concept of Word or Voice to

Print Match."



0

3/17 Today is St. Patrick's Day •

4/2 The Easter Egg


I I I , 1 . 1 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I2 3 4 5 6 7

5/18 Squib Goes to the Airport with Jenny

•2 ..............3 ..............4 ..............5 ............... 6 ..............7

•2 ..............3 ..............4 ..............5 ............... 6 ..............7

•2 ..............3 ..............4 ...............5 ...............6 ............. 7

•2 ..............3 ..............4 ...............5 ...............6 ............. 7

304


"Ruency through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process" without any adult

assistance.


(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multipie Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

1 . 1 . 1 I I I J I I I I I U . J I L L I J J . I I I I I I J I I I I J J I I I - I J .8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

3/17 Today is St. Patrick's Day 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 .

4/2 The Easter Egg 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 -

5/1 Squib and Jenny Au 1 . . . 2 . . - 3 " 4 ' - 5 - -6-

5/18 Squib Goes to the Airport with Jenny 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 .

• 8 ' • • 9 - • 1 0 - «11*•12*- I S * ‘ 14

•8 -* * 9 - •1 0 - -1 1 - - 1 2 - - 1 3 - -1 4

• 8 " * 9 - - 1 0 ” l l - - 1 2 - - 1 3 ' - 1 4

In regards to conventions of print, ending punctuation of periods and question

marks seems fairly well established. With attention called to editing, she could probably

self-correct the few errors. The editing procedure would also assist in correcting her

general disregard for using capital letters for the first letter of a sentence. For the most part

this quarter, she did not capitalize the first letter, except in the last few pieces she wrote.

This improvement was probably due to a class conference led by Robin in late April to call

attention to the need for capital letters in names and the first letter of a sentence and the use

of ending marks.

305

Quotation marks only appeared for one word the entire quarter, even though her

texts were constructed with large chunks of conversation. However, identification of the

speaker with said.. . was more consistent and dialogue bubbles were used appropriately.

Also she use an apostrophe for every contraction and also to denote possession.

Attention to details in literature were numerous with her inclusion of a title, author,

illustrator, table of contents, dedications, and storybook language of once upon a time,

long ago, and they lived happily ever after.

Ashley began the Spring Quarter using a variety of conventions up through level

twelve and by the end of the quarter added conventions up through level fourteen with

book dedications and the use of an apostrophe for contractions and for denoting

possession.



3 /1 7 Today is St. Patrick's Day

4 /2 The Easter Egg


5 /1 8 Squib Goes to the Airport wth Jenny

2 3

• 2 ................3-

•2 ................3-

•2 ................3-

•2 ................3*

• 5 ...............

• 5 ................ 6

• 5 ................ 6

• 5 ................ 6

Collaboration occurred frequently in the prewriting activities for developing ideas

for texts. Toward the end of the quarter when her group of friends were writing about the

same characters and the same topics, she did observe what they were doing and

incorporated their ideas into her texts, such as more detailed illustrations and dialogue

bubbles. But the construction of her texts with large chunks of sequential dialogue was

306

very different from her friends. Perhaps her friends' interactions caused her to abandon

some texts as earlier noted, since there are a fair number of incomplete texts and perhaps

their input assisted her with textual ideas. However, I never observed that her peers' input

caused her to edit her texts during the composing process. Above all else, her interactions

with peers remained on a social plane. She loved to chat with friends.

Ashley began the Spring Quarter at level five of the continuum "Collaboration in the

Process" and progressed to level six where she seldom needed assistance with ideas for

writing and could discuss her texts with peers to incorporate their ideas within in her story

frame.



I I I I . 1 . I I . I I I I I I I I I I I I I

3/17 Today is St. Patrick's Day . . . . 2 « 3 - 4 - 5 - G-

4/2 The EasterEgg . . . . 1 . . . 2 » 3« "4 - 5 - 6-

5/1 Squib and Jenny Au 1 - 2 " 3 " 4 - 5" -G»

5/18 Squib Goes to the . . . . 1 . . . 2 - • . 3 - • • 4 - • -5 . • - s*Airport with Jenny

8 9 1 1 10 1 2

. 3 . . . 9

. 3 . . . 9

8 - 9

. 3 . . . 9 . . . 1 3 .

She created texts as high as level 10 and attempts at level 11 with centering on a

theme and chaining of events, but encountered problems with story grammar in the

development of the plot and the climax to logically resolve the problem as in Squib Goes to

the Airport with Jenny. However, several texts included well developed placements,

initiating events, and even finales but the middle suffered in all. Some of the higher level

307

texts were lengthier and included more detail and elaboration, especially when the text

developed around one short sequent event such as Squib and My Valentine. A majority of

her texts, for example The Easter Egg, used large chunks of dialogue, which offered

sequence and cohesion, to move the text forward and develop the sequent events.

Occasionally her texts borrowed aspects from lower forms, such as those of levels

7 and 8 with attribute books on topics, such as My Puppy and My Easter Bunny with

minimal chaining (two sentences) and could be reordered without losing meaning.

However, these books seemed to appear on days when she had no story or even a topic

preplanned. Some sentences were more comlex with the inclusion of compoimd sentences,

subordinate clauses, and prepositional phrases.

Even when borrowing from simpler forms, Ashley incorporated cohesive devices

which normally occur in the higher levels of 9 and 10, such as personal and demonstrative

reference, some conjunctions, and substitution with that in the clause is that all right with

you substituting for marriage in the text Squib and Jenny Au.

Ashley progressed during Winter Quarter along the continuum "Sense of Story and

Textual Development" with most texts offered at the higher levels of nine and ten and

inclusion of some ability to center on a theme which is beginning evidence of level eleven.

In the level ten texts, the elements of a story grammar were offered but the sequent events

lacked logical development to a climax.

308


INCOMPLETE BOOKS4 ~ Title page with Illustration

" Title page plus 1-3 additional p a g es of illustrated text7

COMPLETE TEXTS1 2 - Texts taken to completion which include her closing signal, the end

4 - Texts which appear completed but do not include her closing signal, the end.Number of Words - range 2 0 -1 2 1 *Number of P ages - range 3 -1 2 "

•Longest Book, Today is St. Patrick's Day, focused chronological chaining through the u se of dialogue with elem ents of a story grammar exhibited but a weak middle of sequent event and resolution of the conflict; 121 words, 11 pages.

" S eco n d Longest Book, The EasterEgg, 79 words, 12 pages.Shortest book. Pepper, 19 words, 7 pages.

309

Michelle

Autumn Quarter

Michelle was a very quiet, self-sufficient child who didn't seem to need

collaboration or interaction in the writing process. Yet all the children enjoyed talking to

her during writing workshop and accepted her into their activities if she desired to be

included. Frequently children would ask her for help in spelling difficult words, which she

freely gave. However, she never solicited help from any child nor desired to move about

the room to chat as Ashley had. Michelle came to first grade with very advanced

understandings in literacy and could already read.

Michelle's benchmark text, completed on September 9, was a wordless picture

book which tells the tale of a little fish and his many adventures. Each illustration depicted

an ensuing event which could prove to be disastrous as the little fish was busily pursued by

various predators. As Robin roamed about the room writing anecdotal notes on 3x5 cards,

she inquired of Michelle as she drew her pictures, "What is the title of your book?"

Michelle replied, "It's called Swim Fish, Swim. Her title was the catchy phrase used in the

book Swimmy by Leo Lionni which Robin had read to the class the previous day.

Michelle's title was the theme for her text, and the illustrations depicted the evidence of this

title as the little fish had to change directions and swim quickly to avoid many catastrophes.

Her illustrations were atypical for a first grader in early September in several ways.

First, they carried a sequential story line, a story-like quality that made the observer want to

hear what the text might say. Second, they used dotted lines to depict on-going action

which was resolved in the next page. Third, the illustrations spanned more than eight

pages and represented beginning elements of a narrative. Fourth, some illustrations, such

as that on the next to the last page offered a different perspective by showing only the feet

of the fisherman.

310

Figure 77Michelle's Fish Picture

Figure 78Michelle's Fish and Turtle Picture

311

For two days, September 11-12, Michelle worked on the following text entitled ITie

Cat and Dog. She was the first child in the classroom who was able to sustain a story into

the second day.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GIH CAT IND DOG THE CAT AND DOG(Dialogue Bubbles - WOF WOF HOP HOP MIW)

(Dialogue Bubbles - Woof 1 Woof! Hop! Hop! Meow!)

CaT IS JISO BoaT To BT JISK HS MIC nTIL IH DOG. (Dialogue Bubbles - Miw Miw)

Cat is just about to drink his milk until the d o g .. .(Dialogue Bubbles - Meow! Meow!)

Cat InD IH DOG rcIS In e co s (Dialogue B ubbles-W O F WOF Miw)

Cat and the dog are chasing, in any ca se . (Dialogue Bubbles - Woof! Woof! Meow!)

Cat Ind OP In IH Ciy Wot Wpf sad the DOG

Cat ends up in the tree. (Dialogue Bubbles - Woof! Woof! Meow!)

WoF woF Sed DOG HHep (Dialogue B ubbles-H H H ep/FO W FOW)

Woof, Woof! said the dog. Help! (Dialogue Bubbles - Help! Woof, woof!) [“Help" is said by the man who is hit by the tree he is cutting down to get th e cat.]

IHcatW IS S eF In IHHOS The cat w as sa fe In the house.HTI WIT bac In IH bo WeT for IH DOG Two Gwo

Hunter went back in. The rabbit waited for the dog to go.

IH Cat Hatd Hay Horn The cat had a happy home.DOG (Dialogue Bubble - Fow) Dog (Dialogue Bubble - Woof!)

Figure 79Michelle's Text for T h e C a t a n d D og Story

First, Michelle drew detailed illustrations to carry the elements of the story in

picture form. Then she went back to add dialogue and text to enhance her story frame.

The visual details added depth to the text, much as a picture book does. In the first

illustration she placed a rabbit, a minor character, in a hole high in the tree, later he hopped

out, and then he appeared again in the hole with action lines going from his eyes to the

ground.

312

Figure 80Michelle's Cat and Dog Picture

313

yVdf'W'of Scd'0o&Ht/MeP,

Figure 81Michelle's Dog Picture

On the next page (p. 6), the illustration depicted the rabbit's gaze fixed upon a

carrot by the trunk of an apple tree. Meanwhile, as this minor scene or subplot was played

out, the main characters, dog and cat, were embroiled in a chase, and the cat ran up the

tree. Michelle interjected a little humor with her phrase, in any case, as she described the

dog chasing the cat.

At this point in the text, Michelle had introduced the characters and setting

(placement), and had established the conflict (initiating event). Rather than ending her

story abruptly as Ashley had for many months in the Spring, due to her difficulty in

developing the middle of the story, Michelle introduced a secondary problem with the

himter being hit by the falling tree as he tried to assist the cat However, this complicated

portion of the text (sequent event) appeared only in drawings and was unwritten.

314

Looking at the illustration with the dialogue bubble "HHHelp," I was confused and

asked Michelle to explain. She giggled in her shy manner, hung her head, pointed to the

hunter, and said, "See, he's coming out from under the tree, (giggle, giggle) It fell on

him." The succeeding illustration and text resolved the conflict (final event) with the cat

safely in the house.

Lastly, to develop a restoration of the habitual (finale), on the next page she tells the

reader that the hunter went back into the house and that the cat was safe. But not forgetting

the minor character and subplot regarding the rabbit, she explains that the rabbit waited for

the dog to go. In the final illustration, the dog is seen walking alone in the yard and

barking. Everything is back to normal (restoration of the habitual). Michelle has a strong

sense of story. All the elements of a story grammar are offered to the reader in primarily

the illustrations with some assistance from the text

As Robin and I discussed Michelle's advanced writing abilities. Robin decided

immediately that Michelle would have to be one of two case studies for the category of the

highest writing abilities in the class. Sharing from her previous experience, Robin noted

that each year she had one or two students who were much more advanced in writing than

any of the other children, although she had never before had a child who could develop a

narrative through pictures and text in early September.

Several unusual things occurred in Michelle's construction of this text. First, she

wrote the book from the back to the front and continued with this procedure throughout the

first four months of school. As mentioned earlier in the account of Ashley, we discovered

on December 3 through lengthy questioning of Michelle that these "backwards books" were

due to the smooth part of the staple appearing on the back of the book. The second unusual

occurrence was her "mirror" or reversed writing of the text for certain dialogue bubbles. A

315

mirror was needed to read the comments. However, Robin and I had solved the puzzle of

the "mirror" writing the previous year in my pilot study.

The reverse writing was tied to figures in profile which we discovered in late

November the previous year in the writings of the most advanced writer in that class. Lucy

Calkins (1986) found in her research that drawings figures in profile was the "biggest

breakthrough into narrative" (p. 53). The profile of the figure permitted the display of

action and interaction between characters in the texts. Already Michelle was projecting in

her drawings sequential events, action lines for movement, dialogue bubbles, and figures

in profile.

Considering the use of figures in profile, Robin and I discovered that children's

drawings of characters who faced to the right had dialogue bubbles with text emitting from

their mouths in the conventional print format, from left to right. However, if the

characters faced the left, then the text would emit from the characters' mouths in the

opposite direction, from right to left. This logical reasoning and depth of thinking

regarding directionality of print had astonished Robin and me the previous year, and now

we found confirmation of the same strategy in the case of Michelle for the barking of the

dog {wof; fow).

The student in the class from previous year had used the "mirror" text for dialogue

bubbles in late November; Michelle, in early September. Nonetheless, this directional

strategy quickly became imprinted, and she continued to write the letters backwards every

time a character faced left until late January, despite Robin's intervention conferences with

explanations regarding directionality of print.

Looking at her spelling development, Michelle's texts were difficult to read. As 1

typed this text, IH Cat ind DOG, into my observational notes, I kept glancing at the detailed

illustrations to assist me in deciphering the spelling. The following day, I asked Michelle

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to read her book aloud for confirmation. Ashley's texts had been easier to read than

Michelle's due to Ashley's strong sight vocabulary. Michelle's sight vocabulary was

small. In this text, only the following words were spelled correctly — cat, dog, in, hop,

and is. Most of her words reflected late letter name strategies with many vowel place

holders. Although her vowels may not appear logical, by checking the position of the

tongue and mouth, one is aware of the apparent matching to a letter name. Michelle seems

uninhibited in taking risks to use her rich oral vocabulary with invented spelling. Perhaps

her kindergarten experiences had been different from Ashley's where correct spelling was

requested. Thus Ashley's early writings in September had been stiff and stilted, much like

a controlled vocabulary basal reader in which all the words are comprised of one syllable

and no more than five or six letters per word, while Michelle choice of words permitted

richness of voice and even a sense of humor through her selection of words.

Observing Michelle as she wrote, I found that she never asked her teacher or peers

for assistance with spelling, instead she carefully worked on sound to letter

correspondences in her head. If I passed her desk, I could hear an indistinct gutteral-

sounding mumble while she wrote. Her mumbling was quite different from the audible

rereading of text and stretching of individual words that Jeffrey needed in order to make

letter to sound correspondences. In Jeffrey's stage of development in spelling and

composing, he needed to actually hear the words while composing and to hear phonemes

when spelling. Interestingly, Vygotsky (1962) commented on children's speech for

oneself, or as Piaget coined egocentric speech, that the speech didn't disappear with age but

instead became internalized as inner speech, to "think words" instead of saying them.

Vygotsky noted that the vocal aspects of the egocentric speech faded away between the

ages of three and seven years. Michelle's audible speech was beginning to fade away and

move to internalized speech for herself.

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On September 17, as Robin moved about the room assisting children, she wrote the

following anecdotal notes about Michelle:

Very detailed pictures which tell the story as well as the words. She never chats or fools around but is on task every minute of the writing workshop drawing and writing. She works on a story for days until it is complete.Very mature in work habits.

Michelle worked with her head bent down over her desk, drawing detailed pictures

first and then going back to add text to her stories. To draw her attention away from

composing, children would have to call her name several times. Otherwise, classroom

noise seldom distracted her from her task.

Nearing the end of September, I observed Michelle going back to the beginning of a

book of detailed illustrations to begin the text. The title of this book was Knight and

Dragon. Her text read almost like a script for a tour guide as she announced each room

until the last three pages when a brief story evolved.

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T h i s IS N/i/.

Figure 82Michelle's Knight Picture

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t h e %

Figure 83Michelle's Knight and Dragon Picture

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CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGNit Ind Jiqin Kniaht and DraconThis is Niyt rim. This is knight room.This is iigin rim This is dragon roomthe iigin is aract The dragon is practicing.the Niyt is aract The knight is practicing.tiv bis git a ivotcn They best get a (?) yacationtis is the jil (Label - Niyt /jigin) This is the jail. (Label -- knight / dragon)

wis the niyt ind iigin "Where's the knight and dragon?"oh hir tiv r mien friz "Oh. here they are making friends."niyt ind iigin Knight and dragon.

Figure 84Michelle's Text for Knight and Dragon Story

The ending of her tale about the knight and dragon conveyed her mature sense of

humor with the illustration of the dragon spewing his fiery breath on the firewood so that

the knight could roast some marshmallows to share with the dragon. The text for this

delightful scene was written with a conversational tone, "Oh, here they are making

friends. "

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%Figure 85Michelle's Friend Picture

Her text is constructed of an random mix of lower and upper case letters with all j's

drawn backwards. In the first sentence she remembered to use a capital letter for the first

letter and also added the ending punctuation of a period but for the remainder of the text.

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only one sentence used a beginning capital letter and no ending punctuation appeared after

page one. Another convention of print, in which she signals an awareness that the form

should appear differently, is seen in the way she stacks the words of the quotations on

pages seven and eight and even underlines the words on the second page. She realizes that

she has moved to an active voice where she is speaking rather than telling. However, she

doesn't yet know to use quotation marks.

Michelle's use of a patterned text with the common sentence starter, this is, is

similar to early forms of writing, such as in the patterned texts (level six of continuum,

"Sense of Story and Structure of Text"). However, after taking the reader through the

preliminary pages of patterned text which lead the reader to believe that a big battle will

ensue, she inserts a blank page without illustrations and printed at the top of page is a

question -- Where's the knight and dragon? Then she gives a surprise ending with the

resolution of the conflict and a nontraditional, satirical finale with the roasting of

marshmallows. As Michelle created her illustrations and text, she had a definite story

frame in mind which was developed through a variety of genres.

The vocabulary used in the text is varied and rich. When rereading this text to me,

Michelle helped me decipher several words. The first one, aract (cells 5 & 6), she quickly

read as practicing, but the word ivotcn (cell 7) puzzled her as well. Since she couldn't

read her word, I asked if she meant vacation, she immediately said, "Oh, yeh." But in her

eyes I read, "I'm not sure." Nonetheless, her choice of words added much description and

humor in the way of elaboration to the illustrations. However, in reading her texts, the

style and use of language was not that of storybook language but more based on her oral

language with a story-telling style including conversation woven throughout.

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In October, many of the children were attempting to write chapter books like the

ones Robin read to them during snack time. She always read the title, author, and

illustrator along with the acknowledgements so when she read the first chapter book she

explained and shared visually how this book had a table of contents listing the chapter

titles. The children ,who could only read much simpler picture books and patterned

language books, were very interested in the format of chapter books.

As the time for the Halloween party drew near, many of the children were creating

books about pumpkins and monsters. Michelle was no exception. She had written the

title. Monsters Like Halloween, on the cover of a new book and was beginning to draw an

illustration on the first page. I interrupted her thinking to ascertain if she had a preplanned

story idea and said, "Tell me about your story." She replied, "I don't know yet."

Obviously, from the title, she had an idea for a story but hadn't developed the plot; instead,

she was allowing the story to unfold as she drew and wrote. So I probed a little deeper and

questioned, "Do you usually create and write the story as you go?" "No, sometimes 1 have

the story already planned, but not this time." Rather than waiting to see if I would question

her further, she turned to the next page of her book and began her low gutteral mumblings

as she wrote a line of text before sketching a scene. Her mind was engaged in the text. My

queries had momentarily interrupted her composing process, although she had willingly

responded with a modicum of words.

On October 19, Michelle began another text about a knight and dragon. This time

she took into consideration chronological sequence and began to write a book which

Calkins would label as a "bed-to-bed" type of text. In her experimentation with

chronological sequence she had for the first time used the transition, now, to move from

one time frame to the next Although now is overused, it is a new form of a cohesive tie

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for Michelle to use. This text was never finished and was only one of three texts for the

entire quarter that she did not complete.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GThe haoibiv Nit and the haoibv ilain bv The HaoDV Kniaht and the Haoov DraaonMichelle Walters by Michelle Walterstiy r git fisns tiy r giyn rind the jigin They are great friends. They are going ride

the dragon.Niw it Is Nit-tim Now It is night time.Niw It Is dly-tim Nlw tiy r sll sigin Now It Is day time. Now they are still

sleeping.

Figure 86Michelle's Text for The Happpy Knight and the Happy Dragon

Michelle's first chqjter book was begun on October 22 and spanned three days of

writing workshop until completion. The book was a mini size of 4" x 5" and contained

twenty-six pages of text She numbered every page and offered titles for each chapter. On

the final page she added an table of contents listing the chapters and the corresponding page

numbers. However, in the next chapter book. The Big Halloween Party, she planned

ahead and left a blank page at the beginning and later went back to write the titles.

Looking at her knowledge of other conventions of print, I found that she used the

capital forms of the following letters throughout the text — G, H, B, and K, even when the

lower case was needed. Each sentence began with capital letters, but ending punctuation

was infrequently used.

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CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGSKurv Halloween by Michelle Walters Scarv Halloween bv Michelle WaltersNuk Halloween 1 Next Halloween (Chapt. 1)Im aGow 2 1 am going.Now its Halloween 3 Now Its Halloween.The dly Bly-Fr Halloween 4 The Day before Halloween

(Chapt 2)IT Is The dly Biyfr Halloween 5 It Is the day before HalloweenMustrs Thinowtsid 6 "Monsters!" Then, outside.Mom 1 am SKrd Sid Jak. 7 "Mom, 1 am scared," said Jack.Jak Thlrs nosy to boy SKrd 8 "Jack, there's nothing to be scared."Jak WIsTheMlstrs 9 Jack With the Monsters (Chapt. 3)Mom 1 wet to Bey a MSr 10 “Mom, 1 want to be a monster."Jak you Do Nt Wet to Be a Msr 11 "Jack you do not want toBe a Msr (Dialogue Bubbles - y es / on) 12 be a monster." (Dialogue Bubbles - Yes! /

No!)WersJak 13 "Where's Jack? " (Chapt. 4)W ersJak he Isit her 14 "Where's Jack?" "He isn't here."Jak N os to e t h es Brift 15 "Jack knows to eat his breakfast."

16 (blank page)(Dialogue Bubble - OOB) 17 (Dialogue Bubble - BOO!)(Dialogue Bubble for ghost labled Jak (Dialogue Bubble for ghost labled Jack ~OOB) 18 Boo)1 Dun Wit to Be a Msr Mom yuw rut. 19 "1 don't want to be a monster." Mom,

you're right."20 (blank page)

Jaks Halloween 21 Jack's Halloween (Chapt. 5)JakyirBak 22 "Jack you're back."

23 (Illustration only)Lis Go 24 "Lefs go."(Dialogue Bubbles-kaj daig ma 1 Me to) 25 (Dialogue Bubbles - Jack, 1 am glad. Me,

too.)(Index) (Index)SKury Halloween 0 Scary Halloween 0The dly BiyFr Halloween 4 The Day Before Halloween 4JaK wIs the MIstrs 9 Jack W as the Monster 9WersJak 13 WhereteJack 13Jaks Halloween 21 Jack's Halloween 21Thy End The end.

Figure 87Michelle's Text for S c a ry H a llo w een Story

The first chapter seems disjointed as she appears to be thinking of a story idea and

offers minimally the setting and main character. Then chapter two further describes the

situation with Jack, the main character, telling his mom that he's afraid of monsters. The

initiating event. Jack's decision to become a monster, is labeled as chapter three. Then

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chapter four brings the story to a climax with the search to find Jack who has disappeared.

The end of chapter four and the beginning of five offer a resolution of the problem with

Jack's appearance. The last three pages of illustrations and text display a return to

normalcy (finale). Jack trick-or-treating with a friend. Even though the text lacks

elaboration, the basic story grammar is in place.

Drawing from children's literature read to the class, Michelle dressed her character

of Jack in a costume exactly like that worn by the character Max in Where the Wild Things

Are by Maurice Sendak. Michelle was very observant of the texts read aloud and

frequently included aspects of a text she had heard.

♦

J

Figure 88Michelle's Max Costume Picture

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A strong sense of voice is established with the use of the first person as Michelle

takes on the role of the main character. Jack. Also the dialogue between Jack and his

mother seems very realistic and the reader can identify with the characters.

The cohesive ties Michelle used were varied and helped to link the sentences. For

instance, she uses pronomial reference with he and his referring back to Jack and it

referring first to Halloween and later to day; temporal conjunctions, before and then; and

demonstrative reference, there and where. Taking into consideration the strengths of

Michelle's text, cohesive ties and the elements of the story grammar, one realizes that with

more elaboration and detail transferred from the illustrations to the text she could have a

stronger narrative. The basic foundation has been laid.

After completing this Halloween chapter book, she began another entitled The Big

Halloween Party starring her brother as Jack (the same character as in her previous text),

her sister as the fairy, and herself as the ladybug. 1 inquired where she originated the ideas

for the roles and costumes. She replied that these were the real costumes that her mother

made for her sister and her. However, the costume for her brother Andrew was different.

She said she copied this idea from Where the Wild Things Are.

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-, ■ S'

-S

m :

Figure 89Michelle's Costumes Picture

Early in November, Michelle wrote an informational book patterned after the book

Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton. She kept the book at her desk and

frequently looked at the pages as she drew her illustrations. The drawings were very

similar to those in the text with many detailed examples of bones laid out in display. Some

of the text was similar in the basic explanations and used the same verbs — dig, wrap,

pack, but generally she paraphrased and did not simply copy text. When I conferenced

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with her about the book a month later, I commented on the similarity of her book to

Barton's. She quickly responded, "But it's different from the other book. 1 just needed to

get some words." Note that all the words except Dines-Bones are spelled correctly rather

than using her invented spelling so she did draw the vocabulary from the book. Then I

added, "Well, it's a very good book and does give similar information.. . " She

interrupted saying, "Yes, but it's different." She was correct.

In her experimentation with a new genre, she had reverted to an earlier patterned

form of text with the subject I followed by the verbs find, dig, wrap, and pack with the

object of each a pronomial referent referring back to dinosaur bones. Then in the second

portion of the text in a new setting (the museum), she switched to the plural subject, we, as

Barton's text used throughout and followed with reiteration of the same verb, put, for three

sentences. Reverting to earlier forms of text, appears to be typical for young writers when

they experiment or test a new concept. Bruner (1986) addressed the issue of recursiveness

in learning as students dip back to earlier strategies when encountering new conceptual

knowledge.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPEL L IN GDinosaur B ones bv Michelle Walters Dinosaur B ones by Michelle Walters1 find D ines-Bones 1 find dinosaur bones.1 dig them up. 1 dig them up1 wrap them up 1 wrap them upand pack them and pack them.1 h ave the b ones of dinosaurs. (Label -■ NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM)

1 have the b on es of dinosaurs. (Label - NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM)

W e put them in the MUSEUM We put them in the museum.W e put the teeth in We put the teeth in.W e put the d a w s on the foot W e put the d a w s on the foot.

Figure 90Michelle's Text for Dinosaur Bones Story

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Her illustration added a large amount of descriptive information through her detailed

drawings, for instance in the following figures with the bones laid out in display for

reassembling in the Museum of Natural History. Her last page included no text or ending

but simply a display of many unassembled bones.

M P r p w - ' h e i o i n + M u s e u m

Figure 91Michelle's Dinosaur Bone Display Picture

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1 \\ch)fC thG or

Figure 92Michelle's Natural History Museum Picture

For the Thanksgiving holiday, Michelle developed a narrative with some dialogue

interspersed. Her first, two sentences offered the placement and included a little more

elaboration than earlier texts, as she described the preparations for Thanksgiving — We are

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washing and painting. Next, she presented the initiating event — We need a turky. Again

she offered more elaboration about the kind of turkey — a big fa t turkey. Then the

adventure began with the sequent events of chasing the turkey to try to catch him.

Her illustration of the first incident in the chase displayed only the hand of the

pursuer with a dialogue bubble above stating, "There's one," as he reached for the large

turkey. Michelle was one of the few more advanced writers who used this artistic

technique of just one portion of a body or a portion of a scene positioned on the edge of the

paper to give the reader a sense of urgency or to lead the reader into the next scene in a

visual maneuver. She used this illustrative technique to lead the reader in ways that she

was able later to develop through textual techniques of chaining, sequence, and description.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GSaasavina Dav by Michelle Walters Thanksolvlno Dav by Michelle WaltersSagsgving Is cmly w e are wesing and pyding

Thanksgiving is coming. We are washing and painting.

w en od aT rk y a big Fat IrKy (Dialogue Bubbles -T o r s one/goBI)

We need a turkey. A big fat turkey. (Dialogue Bubbles - T here's one." "Gobble.")

Folow Thty ThrKy (Dialogue Bubble -H y You Com Bak/gobl)

"Follow that turkey." (Dialogue Bubbles - "Hey, you." "Come back." "Gobble.")

(Dialogue Bubble - w e s e e hm) (Dialogue Bubble - We s e e him.)OI hyO Hyr (Dialogue Bubble - Soo we Fblow)

"I'll hide here." (Dialogue Bubble - S o , w e follow.)

We are saF We are safe.MVS OSlyP (Dialogue Bubble - Hm 1 FOD) He's asleep . (Dialogue Bubble -

"1 found him.")I hav om st Got hm 1 have almost got him.We Got hm Hory (Label -ovin) We got him. hurry. (Label - oven)vom thrky Yum, turkey.Im linlst I'm finished.1 cyt wyt in toi It Is crsms 1 can t wait until It Is Christmas.The End The end..

Figure 93Michelle's Text for T h a n k sg iv in g D ay Story

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The final event of the adventure occurred with the capture and roasting of the

turkey. Then she extended and elaborated the ending with dialogue describing that the

turkey tasted delicious and that the character was finished eating. Her final line of text

made the reader wonder if there might be a sequel to this tale, / can't wait until it is

Christmas.

Again Michelle had developed a foundational structure for a story grammar, only

this time she added a little more elaboration in the placement and finale. In the development

of the sequent events, the text was sparser and less descriptive, although she was able to

develop the plot somewhat through the use of dialogue and illustrations.

Cohesive ties helped to accomplish some of the linking. Those used were mainly

pronomial referents, you, him, he, i t , and conjunctions, so (causal) and until (temporal).

However, one unusual cohesive link was used in cell four. There's one. One was used as

a substitutionary item standing for the word turkey. In the analysis of cohesion used in

dictated and written texts by thirty-two kindergarten through second grade children. King

and Rentel (1981) found the use of substitution so rare that it was not included in their final

statistical analysis.

Ashley and Michelle used many integrative elements of cohesion in their texts,

especially in the portions of text which contained large chunks of dialogue. Perhaps the

use of dialogue which effectively assisted Ashley in sequence and in the chaining of

sentences was an important contributing factor to writing progress. The effective use of

dialogue appeared to evolve from a rich oral language base. Both of these girls were

effective communicators who had developed a rich oral vocabulary, unlike Jeffrey. They

enjoyed talking to adults to explain their texts and pursued our interactions. Considering

their rich oral language foundation, perhaps this area of strength enabled them to develop

story frames by using a conversational style of language to "talk" their way through the

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narrative. Note that Michelle used dialogue in the middle of the story. Thanksgiving Day,

to develop the plot which was similar to Ashley's texts during Spring Quarter when she

used large chunks of dialogue in the middle of her texts for the sequent event and

sometimes the final event As mentioned in Ashley's account, the middle part of the story

was the most difficult portion in which to build coherence, and it appears that dialogue can

assist this cognitive process.

During Autumn Quarter, I spent an entire day once a month in the classroom

observing the students in activities other than the writing workshop. When I observed the

opening activities on November 11, Michelle and Ashley were seated closely together at

Robin's feet as she read aloud. From the beginning of the school year, both girls had been

"footwarmers" and closely observed the texts. Michelle would become so engrossed in the

stories that her mouth would drop open and her eyes would open widely as she gazed up at

Robin and the book from her perch on the floor. She reminded me of a baby bird sitting in

the nest eagerly awaiting a morsel from its mother.

After opening exercises this day, Michelle went to her seat to resume work on her

book entitled Spot's Birthday Party. She began pasting flaps over the pictures she had

drawn and beside her on the desk lay a copy of the book of the same title by Eric Hill. The

illustrations outstandingly imitated a Spot book with large, simple, uncluttered drawings

which were dimensionless and contained one simple line of text. However, her text did not

use a pattern or rhyme as Hill's text did.

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V iS in Tie flush! spot

Figure 94Michelle's Spot's First Christmas Picture

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GSoot's Frst Crsmis bv Michelle Waiters Soot's First Christmas by Michelle WaitersWrs Sant (Dialogue Bubble, under the flip- tab - ma 1 rih)

Where's Santa? (Diagiogue Bubble, under flip-tab - "Here 1 am.")

Wis in the prasnt sid Spot “What's in the present?" said Spot.Spot sid wye up Mom and dad Spot said, "Wake up, mom and dad."Wof Wof sid spot “Woof, woof," said Spot.Oh yov This big one is myn "Oh, yeah." "This big one is mine."This is my Frst chrsmis This is my first Christmas.The End The end.

Figure 95Michelle's Text for Spot's First Christmas Story

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The text offers the sequence of one event, Santa's arrival with Christmas presents.

Most of the chaining from one sentence to the next is accomplished through the use of

naturally occurring dialogue. Cohesion is assisted with the use of demonstrative reference,

this, here, the (a specific present)-, pronomial reference, my, mine, 1; and again the rare use

of nominal substitution occurs with - This big one is mine, one standing for the Christmas

present.

For the next two weeks Michelle worked on a book entitled Spot's First Chapter

Book which included two chapters, "Spot's First Thanksgiving" and "Spot's First

Easter." She skipped the first five pages to begin chapter two which told of an Easter egg

himt in Spot's home. Then she returned to chapter one and rewrote a story similar to her

earlier Thanksgiving book except the characters were different. She used Spot and his

father to tell the tale through the dialogue of their hunting a turkey. The illustrations again

emulated those of Eric Hill and each page incorporated flaps for lifting and peeking

underneath which added some elaboration to the simple texts. The texts were mainly

sequential dialogue, for example "Dad, can we get a turkey now? said Spot. "Yes, we can

said Spot's dad."

On December 5, as 1 entered the room with my equipment, Michelle as usual

greeted me with a book in her hand. Immediately, she asked as she hung her head shyly,

"Would you like to hear my stoiy?" "Sure," I replied and then added, "What is it about?"

With head somewhat bowed and eyes gazing up at me, she mumbled something which I

couldn't hear. From the daily occurrence of Michelle vying for my attention to hear her

texts and her shy quiet way of speaking, I knew that 1 needed to stash my gear, find a quiet

comer, and lend careful attention to Michelle's whispered reading. After finding our quiet

spot, I again asked her what the book was about. She pointed to the title, Santa and he's

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randars, and then began to giggle. "What's so funny?" ! inquired. She explained that this

was a humorous text about a forgetful Santa Claus. The text follows.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GSanta and he's randars bv Michelle Walters (Dialogue Bubble - ho ho ho)

Santa and His Reindeer bv Michelle Walters (Dialogue Bubble ~ "Ho!" "Ho!" "Ho!"

Santa and he's randars Santa and his reindeers.ftitle page]Santa and he's randars Santa and his reindeers, [title page]Santa is Gating raOy for Christmas in Christmas, towne

Santa is getting ready for Christmas in Christmas Town.

War are my 8 loky randar (Dialogue Bubble --com owt)

Where are my eight lucky reindeer. (Dialogue Bubble - "Come out!")

Hir is 1 oFTham oP sys 1 Tak 1 fond a Bivr "Here is one of them." "Oops, 1 think 1 found a beaver."

Oh y e s 1 md wor Thay are now thr stel on my slay (Dialogue Bubbles - los Get Going / tomdr [said by the beaver])

"Oh, yes." "1 remember where they are now." 'They're still on my sleigh." (Dialogue Bubbles - "Let's get going." 'Timber.")

(Dialogue Bubble - HO HO HO) (DialogueBubble-"HO!" "HO!" "HO!"

The end The end.

Figure 96Michelle's Text for S a n ta a n d H is R e in d ee r Story

Santa with all his regalia is displayed on the cover and both title pages, as can be

seen in the figure below.- However, throughout all the middle humorous section of Santa

searching for his reindeer, Michelle gives the reader only a glimpse of Santa's profile,

sometimes with a dialogue bubble coming from his mouth, as he looks upon each scene,

trying to find his reindeer. Her illustrations extend the text with inherent details and

humor.

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oï\6Sant

t

Figure 97Michelle's Santa Picture

The text, although concise, includes all the elements of a story grammar. The title

and first sentence introduce the characters and setting (placement). The second sentence,

Where are my eight lucky rindeer?, offers the conflict or initiating event. Next, the

humorous attempts of Santa to locate his reindeer are the sequent events. The final event is

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Santa's remembering where he left his reindeer. Then she inteqects a comic relief scene

with the beaver, whom Santa earlier mistook for a reindeer, chopping down a tree and

shouting. Timber! In conclusion, she adds a finale, a return to the normal modus operandi,

with Santa landing on a rooftop and shouting. Ho! Ho! Ho! A simple but complete

narrative.

Her knowledge of conventions of print seemed to have stablized. She still used a

capital letter for beginning a sentence, but infrequently she remembered to use any ending

punctuation. Regarding lower and upper case letters, she still used an random mix.

Consistently, she wrote only upper case letters for B. D, F, P and occasionally for G and

T. Another convention of print also appeared. Apparently Michelle had been noticing in

the texts she read the use of apostrophes for possessive pronouns, and thus she

hyj)othesized that his denotes possession so she applies an apostrophe he's in the title

phrase Santa and he's randars which would be a logical assumption. Also checking her

hypothesis in the previous text, she used an apostrophe in the title, Ainml's in the Snow.

In the use of the apostrophe in he's, she is working to solve this concept of denoting

possession with the use of an apostrophe

The story of Santa and his reindeer was sequential and logical in the middle section

possibly assisted by her use of the conversational mode with Santa talking to himself. But

adding to the coherence was the interplay of three textual elements — the drawings, writing,

and conversational comments of the dialogue bubbles. Cohesion was also enhanced

through Michelle's choice of semantic relations in the linking of items within the text, such

as pronomial reference using his, my, them, they, us; conjunctions, where, and; and

demonstrative reference, here. Again she used a rare form of cohesion for young writers in

substituting one for reindeer as in the clause, Here is one o f them.

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During the last week of Autumn quarter before the Christmas holidays, Michelle

created an informational book about Christmas trees.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGall diffrit covdos of Christmas teerevs All Different Colors of Christmas TreesChristmas teereys can Be Betfol. Becos Thay are dcoradod

Christmas trees can be beautiful because they are decorated.

Som other Christmas teereys omt dcoradod hot thay can stiol be betfol

Some other Chrismas trees aren't decorated, but they can still be beautiful.

thay can be fun to clamb They can be fun to climb.thars foriss of tham There are forests of them.be or adod trees are borot Decorated trees are brightChristmas trees are very piity Christmas trees are very pretty.Merry Christmas Christmas trees Merry Christmas. Christmas trees.the End The end.

Figure 98Michelle's Text for A ll D iffe re n t C olors o f C hristm as T rees Story

The first and second sentences of this text are comprised of two clauses which

Newkirk has identified in his study of nonfiction writing as couplets. In a couplet "the

writer builds relational coherence between two clauses" with the second clause providing

"more specific information about the topic introduced in the first part of the couplet," as in

Michelle's opening sentence Christmas trees can be beautifiil because they are decorated

(Newkirk, 1987, p. 132). The first clause makes a statement which is substantiated by

more specific information in the second clause. Connecting the two clauses she uses the

cohesive device of a causal conjunction, because. In the second sentence. Some other

Christmas trees aren't decorated, but they can still be beautiful, she links this sentence to

the preceding one with an endophoric reference of substitution some other which points

back to the topic of Christmas trees, but then she uses lexical renaming, by restating

Christmas trees. To link the first clause to the second, she chooses an adversative

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conjunction, but. The linking of these couplets signals a beginning development of

paragraphs. The sentences for the remainder of the text could be reordered and not lose

any meaning which is reminiscent of earlier forms of writing, such as the attribute book in

level seven of the continua entitled Sense o f Story and Structure o f Text. However, the

use of the opening paragraph with couplets and the various cohesive links signals higher

levels of development.

Pappas et al. (1990) note that information books contain specific global elements

which I will list and identify comparable elements in Michelle's text. In some instances, I

am stretching the comparison since Michelle's text is not tightly organized enough to

revolve around her theme, the title, AU Different Colors o f Christmas Trees. In any case,

the comparison follows:

• Topic Presentation — the title and opening clause about the trees being beautiful.

• Description of Attributes -- forests of them, are pretty, decorated ones are bright.

• Characteristic Events - fun to climb.

• Category Comparison -- decorated trees are beautiful but some that are not decorated are also beautiful.

However, the "Final Summary" or summary statements which are not mandatory in an

information book were not included in Michelle's text, instead she switched to a different

voice, from a narrator's stance to a direct address with the ending tag. Merry Christmas,

Christmas Trees. The various global elements could be reordered, except for the opening

paragrah which includes the linking couplets, and lose none of the meaning within the text.

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Autumn Quarter Qualitative Analysis along the Multiple Continua of

Conceptual Understandings








resultant text.





I I.1..I I I I I... I, I .. I I I J-1.. I . I0 1 2 3 4

The Cat and Dog................................................................... 1 ...............2 ............. 3 ............... 4

10/22 Scary Halloween ............... 1 ...............2 ............. 3 ............... 4

11 /7 Thanksgiving Day ............... l ...............2 ............. 3 ............... 4

^2/^4 All Different Colors ............... 1 ...............2 ............. 3 ............... 4of Christmas Trees

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her texts, although she used a mix of lower and upper case letters. However, by the end of

the quarter, confusion remained for some letters, such as — B, D, F, P and occasionally G

and T. Consistently, she used only the capital letter forms of these letters.

Michelle entered first grade at level four of the continuum "Alphabetic Principle and




I I I I J . . I I I L J - I . . . L I I I I I I . . I I I I . . . I I I I2 3 4 5 6 7

9/11 The Cat and Dog

10/22 Scary Halloween

11/7 Thanksgiving Day

12/14 All Different Colors of Christmas Trees

• 2 ...............3

• 2 ...............3

• 2 ...............3

• 2 ...............3

Spelling development has progressed within the letter name stage and moving into

the next stage, within word. Using the Gillet and Temple (1982) beginner's features list to

assess spelling development at the end of Autumn Quarter, I found in scoring Michelle's

spelling that she had four of the sixteen words correctly spelled, eight words within the

transitional category which includes spellings using patterns attributed to both within word

and syllable juncture, and four using letter name strategies. Some of her misspellings are

as follow: lat (late), ges (geese), chrpod (chirped), trande (trained), chekc (chick).

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In September, she could represent many phonemes with letters and a few vowel

place holders but no blends or digraphs. However, by December, she represented

considerably more speech sounds with letters and also many correct long vowels and a few

short vowels. Also, she included the inflection -ing , the digraph ch , and a few blends

which are evidence of moving to the next stage of spelling development, within word.

Her sight vocabulary was a very weak area in September. Some of the basic sight

words and her early spellings are given - ind (and), r (are), and IH(tke). Her store of

sight words increased throughout the quarter but still remained weak.

Michelle's text revealed letter-name strategies at the beginning of Autumn Quarter

and progress was made

Michelle progressed along the continuum of "Word Knowledge through Invented

Spelling Development" at the beginning of Autumn Quarter from level three, letter name

stage to the end of the quarter at the late letter name stage with hints of moving to level

four, within word stage, as noted above.


(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving competencies of development along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development” described in Table 1.)

I . . 1 L I . J 1 - 1 . . . . . 1 l - U I i J .0 1 2 3 4

9/1 "i The Cat and Dog l ................ 2 .............. 3 ............... 4

10/ 22 Scary Halloween 1 ................ 2 .............. 3 .............. 4

11 /7 Thanksgiving Day l ............... 2 ............. 3 .............. 4

12/14 All Different Colors l ............... 2 ............. 3 .............. 4of Christmas Trees

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Concept of word was understood and used appropriately from the beginning of the

year. Michelle entered first grade at level four of the continuum "Concept of Word or


Table 59Fluency through Rereading of Text In the Composing Process

(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving competencies of deveiopment along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Deveiopment" described in Table 1.)

I I I I . . I . . . L 1 . I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I - I I





Rereading for fluency at level seven of the continuum was self-established before

entry to first grade.

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M i l l I , 1 . 1 I I I I . . I I I I I I I I I J J I I I . U I l - J - U I I . L . L . 1 I

9/11 The Cat and Dog -----

10/22 Scary Halloween 1 . . . 2 " 3 - 4 " 5 - 6-

11/7 Thanksgiving Day I . . . 2 . . . 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 -


1 - - - 2 - - - 3 - - - 4 - - 5 - 6 -

8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

■10

-10

-10

In regards to conventions of print, by the end of the quarter she generally began

sentences with capital letters, but ending punctuation was random. With attention called to

editing, she could have self-corrected the errors. She used an apostrophe for denoting

possession but not consistently. Chapters with titles and a table of contents were used in

the text Scary Halloween.

Dialogue bubbles were used for direct statements from her illustrated characters, but

quotation marks were never used with her dialogues.

Michelle began the Autumn Quarter using a variety of conventions up through level

ten and remained at that level.

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(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua. "fVlultiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Tabie 1.)

I I I I . I . . L U I I I I I I . . J J - I I . I J - L I I . . L I .2 3 4 5 6





■2 .................3 ............... 4 ............... 5 ................ 6

• 2 .................3 ............... 4 ............... 5 ................ 6

■2.................3 ............... 4 ............... 5 ................ 6

• 2 .................3 ............... 4 ............... 5 ................ 6

Collaboration rarely occurred during the prewriting or composing process. She

was a solitary, quiet individual who didn't need or want any assistance. Socially, she

would respond to inquiries in a friendly manner and smile a great deal. However, on a

daily basis she wanted adults to listen to her texts and comment on what they liked;

especially she enjoyed their appreciation of her humor.

Michelle began the Autumn Quarter at the highest level of the continuum

"Collaboration in the Process."

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(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1 .)


10/22 Scary Halloween . . . . 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . g .

11/7 Thanksgiving Day . . . . j . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . g .

12/14 AH Different Coiors . . . . %. . . 2 . . 3 . . 4 . . . 5 . . g.of Christmas Trees

8 9 1 1 10 1 2

.3 . . . 9 . . ' 1 0

. 8 . . . 9 . • • 1 0

. 3 . . . 9 . . . 1 0

. g . . . 9 ^ ^ ^ 1 0

Texts were as high as level ten from the beginning of the quarter. However, in the

early texts much of the story grammar was developed through illustrations and dialogue

bubbles. From the earliest pieces she appeared to have a theme and centered on this.

Similar to Ashley's texts in Spring Quarter, Michelle improved in the richness of text

during Autumn Quarter through better description and elaboration in the placement,

initiating event, and occasionally with the ending. However, the middle of the text which

included the development of plot with sequent events remained weak. Nonetheless, she

was able to chain events coherently in the middle section through the use of conversational

text, illlustrations, or dialogue bubbles. Occasionally, her texts borrowed aspects from

lower forms, such as those of levels six, seven, and eight with attribute books on topics,

like Knight and Dragon and The Happy Knight and the Happy Dragon. These included

minimal chaining with some portions of these texts that could have been reordered without

losing meaning. Two informational books were written. The first. Dinosaur Bones, was a

retelling of portions of the book Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton. The

second, Christmas Trees, was her own creation and contained some of the global elements

of an informational book.

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Though she borrowed from simpler forms, Michelle incorporated many cohesive

devices, such as personal and demonstrative reference, a wide variety of conjunctions,

lexical renaming, and even substitution which more frequently occurs in higher levels of

text

Michelle remained at level ten throughout Autumn Quarteron the continuum "Sense

of Story and Textual Development." However, her texts did change across time with

greater development in the sequent events with the use of dialogue and greater elaboration

and detail in other elements of the story grammar.


INCOMPLETE BO O K S1 ~ Cover illustration, with 2 additional p ages of illustrated text.3 - Illustrations only, 3-5 p ages (Sept. books on dinosaurs and colors).1 - Mini book with 2 letters addressed to friends regarding their birthday

parties.1 - Title page, with 4 additional pages of illustrated text.

COMPLETE TEXTS1 - W ordless Picture Book, title only.

22 ~ Texts taken to completion with many complete story grammars.Number of Words - range 3* -116**Number of P ages - range 2 - 27**

**Longest Book, Scary Halloween, 5 chapters each about different events centering on Jack's Halloween with som e elem ents of a story grammar; 116 words, 27 pages.

Second Longest Book, Thanksgiving Day, elem ents of story grammar in place; 73 words, 14 pages.

*Shortest Book, Swim Fish Swim, wordless picture book, narrative in pictures; 3 words,8 p a g es of illustrations.

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Winter Quarter

Selecting the texts to share for Winter Quarter was a difficult task. The amount and

quality of texts that Michelle created were phenomenal. She was a very productive and

dedicated writer. Immediately, when the workshop began, she would bend her head over

her desk to write or draw without stopping to chat or move about the room. She would

ignore any distractions in the classroom and continue to write until the last request from

Robin to quit writing and place folders in the baskets. Robin noted that twice a week when

the children had free choice at the end of the day, Michelle would frequently elect to work

on texts from her folder. In the selection of texts for analysis, I tried to choose a

representative selection from her writing for this quarter.

In preparation for the visit of authors Carolyn Loesser and Larry Shies, Robin had

prepared a unit on nocturnal animals and insects. Seveial times during the day she read

aloud to the children, books written by the visiting authors, such as Sounds o f Night by

Carolyn Loesser and many of the comical books by Larry Shies about his owl character

Squib. Robin also included in this unit, many informational books about nocturnal

animals. In our analysis of all the children's texts, Robin and I had discussed the lack of

variety in genres. We wondered, if more informational books were read, would the books

influence the type of texts the children created.

A brief comment regarding the response to our hypothesis follows. The more

advanced writers in the class seemed able to take into consideration different genres and

some of them did write informational books, as will be noted in the analysis of Michelle's

Winter and Spring Quarter texts. But other children at lower levels of development made

fewer attempts. Yet, once these children could control various conceptual understandings

to reach level seven of the continua describing "Development of Text and Sense of Story,"

they were able to develop informational texts fashioned like an attribute books with listings

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of facts. As Newkirk (1987) found, some clauses are related and could form categories but

the categories and independent statement could be reordered and not affect the meaning.

Newkirk (1987) believes these attribute books are the beginnings of expository texts.

The planning committee for the authors' visit announced to the students that the

authors would visit the classrooms to conference with them about their writing. They

suggested that the children write books with a style and topics similar to the authors.

Consequently Michelle wrote four books about the owl character Squib during Winter

Quarter. On January 14, Michelle created a whimsical book entitled Squib's Valentine in

which her illustrations rivaled the humorous drawings of Larry Shies.

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I

Figure 99Michelle's Owl Pictures

Her text was incidental to the drawings which conveyed the expressive feelings of

the characters as well as the humor of the owls' amorous meeting. However, within the

text, she did present the basic elements of a story grammar. The placement and initiating

event were given in the opening sentences. It was the day before Valentine's Day. And

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Squib had fallen in love. The sequent events were offered in the brief dialogue between tire

characters about their love, and the final event occurred with the marriage proposal.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPEL L IN GSauiwb's Valitvm (Dialoaue Bubble - toot) Souib's Valentine ^Dialogue Bubble -

Toot!)Sauiwb's Vailntovtom dadcd to mv mom and dad on Valtvmsdav

Souib's Valentine dedicated to mv mom and dad on Valentine's Day

It w as the day befor Vallntoytoms day. And Squiwb had folin in lovo. (Dialogue - HOOOOOO toot)

It w as the day before Valentine's Day. And Squib had fallen in love. (Dialogue - Hooool Toot!)

(Dialogue Bubble --.ovoL ni nlof v'l) (Dialogue Bubble - "I've fallen in love.")(Dialogue - toot / Dialogue Bubble - uoY ovoL 1)

"Toot!" (Dialogue Bubble - "1 love you!")

(Dialogue Bubble - Hoy Big boy) (Dialogue Bubble -- "Hey, big boy.")Wlo You Mary m e? yes "Will you marry me?" "Yes."

Figure 100Michelle's Text for Squib's Valentine Story

Her knowledge of print conventions continued to grow as can be seen in her use of

a title page and dedication for the book. Also, for the first time, she consistently used

capital letters for beginning all three sentences and ending puctuation marks of two periods

and a question mark. Another development occurred in this book. She used the lower case

forms for 6 and d correctly. Possibly due to her confusion in the direction of the letter

forms, she previously had used only the capital letters. Although, she still incorrectly used

capital Y and M in the last sentence.

In early January, 1 noticed that Michelle had moved to the outside perimeter of the

gathering for the morning opening activities when Robin read aloud books to the children.

The children who sat near Michelle on the outside perimeter were also some of the more

advanced writers in the class. Whereas, Michelle had previously been a "footwarmer"

throughout the Autumn months, now Eric and Jamarr were the "footwarmers" pushing

aside other children so they could see the text. As mentioned in the analysis of Jeffrey's

354

case study, the self-positioning of children during storytime was an indicator of change in

writing development which was evidenced in children's beginning use of storybook

elements in their texts. Sometimes only the character was borrowed for their texts; other

times the setting was reproduced with illustrations imitating what they had viewed. These

borrowings were not limited to textual ideas only, but also print conventions appeared in

their books with dedications and title pages, as in previously discussed text by Michelle.

On January 28 as I entered the room a few minutes late for storytime, I saw that

Michelle and Ashley had moved back to the front by Robin's feet. I wondered what had

caused this change in position. Then I noticed that Robin had selected a picture book of a

more advanced reading level. She was reading Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard.

This text included a lengthier and more complex plot which children love to try to solve.

On February 10, Robin read aloud The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy, by Jane Thayer, and

again Michelle and Ashley began to scoot closer and closer while Robin read until they

were finally beside her rocking chair. In each of these instances, the book was a narrative,

incorporating a more complex plot and the text conveyed more of the message than the

illustrations. Interestingly, Michelle and Ashley at this same time were beginning to

incorporate elements of a story grammar in their texts. Evidently, these more complex texts

offered a stronger narrative with details and elaboration which they needed to hear to assist

their development Somehow being close to the book and the reader was important to their

understandings.

While I assisted another child on January 28, Michelle touched my arm to get my

attention. As I turned she said, "I'm going to get this book published." The new parent

staffed publishing house had opened, and Robin was permitted to send two children so she

had asked Michelle to select one of her texts. Michelle had been working on the text. The

Tiger's Adventure, for the past few days and was reaching completion. I noticed that the

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previous title had been erased, and this one added. I asked her what the orignal title had

been and what made her change her mind. She responded, "First I thought I'd write a

book about animals, but I didn't like it so I erased the title. I was going to call it My Book

o f Animals, but it didn't seem like it was My Book o f Animals because it was about a tiger

so I went back after I wrote the book and changed the title." Then she added, "My next

book will be about Squib, and I'm getting it published, too." This was the first instance

that Robin and I had observed of any child in the class purposefully self-revising a text.

Considering Michelle's interaction with me, I realized that any time she could get

my attention she spoke in a mature manner with lengthy sentences, unlike Jeffrey's

immature short, choppy phrases of speech. She loved to conference with adults about her

writing. I understood that she was often frustrated because she couldn't have more of our

attention. Frequently, she would catch me at the door when I was packing to leave and

say, "Do you want to hear what I wrote today?" Robin would nod, "Okay," while she

continued into the math lesson with the rest of the class. When Michelle finally caught one

of us, she was prepared to converse.

Unfortunately, many teachers have feelings of guilt just as Robin and 1 did because

so little time can be given to the more advanced children. Most of our time was devoted to

assisting children who were struggling in the prewriting stage with topical ideas or who

were struggling with sound-to-symbol correspondences to write a word. Beginning

writers like Jeffrey needed considerable support to stretch words, to make connections

between phonemes and letters, and then to identify the letter on an alphabet strip to

reproduce them. Once Jeffrey had written letters to approximate a word, then he needed

someone to prompt him to reread the previously composed words to recall his thoughts and

develop fluency in his composing so he wouldn't simply give up. If a teacher left a

beginning writer like Jeffrey to fend for himself, then he might progress even more slowly

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or else remain at the level of merely drawings pictures to tell his story when he could be

gaining conceptual understandings of the alphabetic principle, concept of word, sound-to-

symbol correspondences through invented spelling, and fluency in composing. Teachers

have difficult choices and decisions to make with a class of 20 - 30 children at varying

levels of development. Unfortunately, Michelle had to catch us when she could get our

attention.

The newly titled text of The Tiger's Adventure was another of Michelle's books

with a well-developed plot and clever surprise ending.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN Gthe tvars advochr by Michelle Walters The Tigers Adventure by Michelle WaltersTygrs are meyn. Thay eat deer. Tigers are mean. They eat deer.oh no h es going aftr a deer. Grrrr said the tygr. (Dialogue Bubble - .rrrG)

Oh, no! He's going after a deer. “Gnr," said the typer. (Dialogue Bubble ~ GrrrI)

The tygr thot he had to get som e food. Hoomm he thot.

The tiger thought h e had to get so m e food. "Hmmm," he thought

Rats he said. "Rats," ha said.Wow food he said. "Wow, food!" he said.Yepyl said the zoo Kypro. 1 got a tygr "Yippee!" said the zoo keeper. "1 got a

tiger."(Dialogue Bubble -- Hr we Go) (Dialogue Bubble ~ "Here w e go.")(Labels - ZOO, closd / Dialogue Bubble - orHreW)

(Labels - Zoo, c losed / Dialogue Bubble - "We’re Here")

Figure 101Michelle's Text for T h e T igers A d v en tu re Story

Much of this tale is told through the illustrations, labels of objects, and dialogue

bubbles. The hungry tiger tries unsuccessfully to find his dinner. Finally, he finds some

delicious food, but it is really bait left by a zoo keeper. He is caught and hauled off to the

zoo, strapped to the top of an airplane. Again, Michelle used a more advanced literary

technique with irony in the closing of her text when the hunter becomes the hunted.

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Figure 102Michelle's Tiger Picture

Few of the children in the class were developing sequence and chaining of events in

their texts so Robin held a large group conference to discuss how authors develop sequence

in their books through chaining of events and transitional words, such as then, next, later.

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First, she read the book The Mitten by Jan Brett. Then she went back through the text to

point out the key words that lead from one event to the next Last, she had the two most

advanced writers, Michelle and Jessica, read recent texts which used some of these

techniques. Jessica's story used the following phrases for chaining — after breakfast, and

then Miss Bacquet, and then I got. Michelle's text. Squib's Valentine, had an effective

placement with storybook language and linked one clause to the next with the conjrmction

and — It was the day befor Valintoytoms day. And Squiwb had folin in lovo.

Michelle's next text contained a flamingo appropriated from The bock Flamingo

Knees by Carolyn Loesser and Larry Shies. A poem in this book was about a character

named Nancy the Flamingo. For the next few weeks, Nancy the Flamingo starred in

Michelle's texts, although her books bore no resemblance to the original poem. The

following narrative entitled Nancy is a Flamingo was written over a period of four days in

early February.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN Gnansva is a flomnow Nancv is a Raminoothis flamngo is nam ed nansy. This flamingo is named Nancy.He laves weth a moniKy on a dsrtd eyind. In a codig mad owt of wood. And eat bonons. And coconot. (Dialogue Bubble - mmH)

He lives with a monkey on a deserted island in a cottage m ade of wood and ea ts bananas and coconut. (Dialogue Bubble - Hmmm.)

W ots cooing, said nansya. "What's cooking?" said Nancy.1 navr mad anythng. W olohw did. 1 Jest W osow tsad . Oh no not anothr anoml. Wot is this toym (Dialogue Bubble - RRR)

1 never made anything. “Well, who did?" 1 just w as outside. "Oh, no, not another animal!" "What is it this time?" (Dialogue Bubble - Rrrr.)

Pop wint the door in cam the cookc. the Ion w os the cookc moky fadid

Pop went the door. In cam e the cook. The lion w as the cook. Monkey fainted.

1 w e s wting for You. 1 wondrd if 1 cod levu with You. 1 cook for us. 1 gas.

1 w as waiting for you. 1 wondered if 1 could live with you. 1 cook for us. 1 g u e ss

Lits go owt to Ply. OK Let's go out to play. Okay.And they levid haply evr aftr And they lived happily ever after.the End The end.

Figure 103M ichelle's Text fo r Nancy is a Flamingo Story

359

This text carries a complete story grammar as the following analysis will show;

Placement: (cells 3 &4) characters - Nancy and a monkey;setting — deserted island, wooden cottage; habitual — eat bananas and coconut

Initiating Event: (cell 5) somebody is cooking.Sequent Events: (cells 6 &7) attempts to discover who was cooking,

suddenly door opens and monkey faints.Final Event: (cell 8) Lion asks if he can cook for them. He offers to cook. Finale: (cells 9 & 10) They go out to play and live happily ever after.

By February, Michelle had developed the essential story frame, even in the middle section.

The middle of the story or sequent events were better developed in this text due to her

changing from her typical use of sequential dialogue in trying to develop the plot. On this

occasion she switched from the conversational voice of the first person to a narrator's

stance in the third person which permitted the use of more dynamic storybook language,

such as Pop went the door. In came the cook. The lion was the cook. Monkey fainted.

These short, terse statements propelled the text forward in an exciting manner to lead to the

final event However, even though the language is richer and development of the plot is

stronger, the reader must still draw much of the descriptive elements for the text from the

illustrations. For example, the first figure below offers the details for the lovely island

setting, and the next figure depicts the monkey fainting and falling to the floor.

360

Figure 104Michelle's Flamingo Picture

361

PopIf) Csii'ok Lf-

A iV , .

Figure 105Michelle's Fainting Monkey Picture

Michelle created a new format for her next text by dividing the pages in half,

horizontally, to create two books. The cover titles were The Feather and Peace and Quiet.

The former text was a very artistic, literary piece which displayed considerable thought and

362

attention to choice of words. On the other hand, the latter text contained only one line of

text. Why can't I have some peace and quiet? with an illustration of a bell ringing loudly

depicted by curved lines emanating from it. Perhaps Michelle wished she could have a

quiet place to compose her book about a feather which was set in a peaceful, tranquil

forest.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN Gthe tether The Featherthe Father by Michelle Walters to my Fam ily

The Feather bv Micheiie Walters To my family.

the Fetherto my Fam ily by Michelle Walters

The Feather To mv family. By Michelle Walters

Dawn bawn bawn it fal. Dawn to the forist. Bat wot w os it from ?..

Down, down , down, it fell. Down to the forest. But what w as It from?

On and on. Intol it landl. It ladi on a dranch. It w as a shagiy father dot dot it hapnd with a slap. Dawn It fa l.. .

On and on, until it landed. It landed on a branch. It w as a sh aggy fea th er .. . it happened with a slip. Down it fe l l.. .

It w a s m age dot dot nodby now. (Caption - Splash)

It w as m a g ic .. . nobody knew. (Caption - Splash!)

And a boy w os swaming And a boy w as swimming.the boy sail the Fether (Dialogue Bubble - - KooL)

T he boy saw the feather. (Dialogue Bubble - Look.)

He gadab the Father and told H es Frond (Dialogue Bubble -- Hay LooK Frond)

He grabbed the feather and told his friend. "Hey, look friend."

(Dialogue Bubbles - 1 Fod it in the wotr/ Word you Fod it?)

"Where did you find it?" "1 found it in the water."

Figure 106Michelle's Text for T h e F e a th er Story

In this text, Michelle experiments with the use of literary techniques, such as

repetition with Down, down, down it fell. Down to the forest. As one read the words, the

rich rhythmic cadence is noticed and one desires to add an extra word, such as floor (down

to the forest floor) to keep the meter even. What rich rhythmic language.. . created by a

first grader! Cohesion is also achieved through this use of lexical reiteration with down,

down and on and on.

363

Testing her hypothesis in the use of ellipsis, she wrote dot dot to indicate the

omission of words. During the previous week, Robin had read aloud a book which used

ellipsis, and one of the children had noticed the dots and asked what they meant. Robin

had explained the use of these marks and allowed the children to look at the book

throughout the day and pass it around. Evidently, Michelle had examined the book closely

and decided to try this technique within her text First, she used it inappropriately after the

third sentence which ended with a question mark. She used three dots and an arrow to

point to the next page of text, as though the ellipsis simply meant to keep reading for the

answer. The second time, she used ellipsis more appropriately with the words dot dot

between two clauses - It was a shaggy feather [from ? ]... it happened with a slip.

Perhaps this use of ellipsis was to provide suspense by not revealing to whom the feather

belonged. Finally, she used ellipsis in the sentence Down it fe l l . . . , suspensefully

omitting where it landed. Elements from texts that Michelle read and that the teacher read

aloud were being incorporated into her writing on a daily basis, such as the use of ellipsis

and repetition in The Feather.

Other cohesive devices she employed were personal reference {it, he, his) and

conjunction {but, and). Cohesion was also acquired through the chaining of the events of

the text, but more masterfully accomplished this time, with the interweaving of the narrative

voice and coversational dialogue. For months, she appeared to only be able to achieve

sequence and chaining of events through dialogue. Perhaps, after repetition of this dialogic

mode, consolidation of learning occurred, and she could now move to other modes of

discourse to achieve focused chaining.

Regarding her spelling development in this text, she is beginning to correctly use

consonant blends nd (land), fr (from) (frond) (friend). Id (told), st (forist) and diagraphs

ch (dranch)(branch), th (fether). Her use o f ay (shagiy) and the affix -ing signals

364

understandings that move toward the stage of syllable juncture. However, the use of d

instead of the affix -ed and many incorrect short vowels holds her in the letter name stage

of development.

From February 12 through 17, Michelle wrote a narrative with a plot similar to that

of the book The Mysterious Valentine read aloud by Ms. Bacquet. Michelle titled her book

Mystery Mouse's Valentine and borrowed the characters of mice for her text

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN Gmestorv m avs valentovms Mvstenr M ouse's ValentinesO nce Iher w as a botofi m ouse. And her nalm w as Sharlet.

O nce there w as a beautiful m ouse and her nam e w as Charlotte.

And ther w as a hansom e boy m ouse. And his nam e w a s Sam. And the two m osw orfm ds. And h e mad a Vaientoms. Bot he frgt to pat his name on it.

And there w as a handsom e boy m ouse. And his nam e w as Sam . And the two m ouse were friends. And he m ade a Valentine, but h e forgot to put his nam e on it.

Sharlet w as going to get her may). She grabed the omvlop. And opnd it C ewecly sh e lookd to s e e how it w as from. Bat it didnt say.

Charlotte w as going to get her mail. S h e grabbed the envelope and opened it. Quickly, sh e looked to s e e who it w as from, but it didnt say.

The umly clow sh e had w as tat he had a blue pen. And this is wot the Valtain siad

The only du e sh e had w as that he had a blue pen. And this is what the Valentine s a id . . .

deer Sharlet your a s sw t a s a Has. Wo! you be my Valntn.Love from f 1

Dear Charlotte,You're a s sw eet a s a rose. Will you be my Valentine?Love, from ( )

"Sharlet Sharlet 1II," Wat Sam Im lay in g to fnod." "gest a ment Sharlet 1 mad that Valntn" "You did. Wal woy dednt. it say." b eca s 1 frgt to!" 1 now n a w ..."

“Charlotte, Charlotte!" "1 , 1 " "What Sam?" "I'm trying to fin d ..." "Just a minute, Charlotte." "1 made that Valentine." "You did?" "Well, why didnt it say." "Because 1 forgot to!" “1 now kn ow ..."

"Bat haw did you frogt?" "1 ont rombrol. “But how did you forget?" "1 c a n t remember."

"Wo! Im glad you rombred." "Well, I'm glad you remembered."the End The end.

Figure 107Michelle's Text for M ystery M o u se 's V a len tin es Story

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Again the text includes the essential elements of a story grammar but with minimal

text and development in each global category. Especially underdeveloped are the sequent

events which lack logical and coherent chaining to the final event When the author offers

the only clue of a blue pen, the reader expects this piece of evidence to play an important

role in the solving of the mystery, but the idea is abandoned, and Sam comes to visit to tell

Charlotte that he is the author who forgot to sign his name. Once more the development of

the plot is the weakest link in the chaining and focus of the text.

Placement (cells 3 & 4) characters — Charlotte and Sam;habitual — they are good friends

Initiating Event: (cell 4 & 5) Sam forgot to write his name on theValentine he sends Charlotte. Charlotte opens the mail and doesn't know who sent her the lovely Valentine.

Sequent Events: (cells 6 & 7) The only clue as to the author of theverse is that he has a blue pen. Next the Valentine text is offered.

Hnal Event (cell 8 & 9) Sam tells Charlotte he made the Valentinebut forgot to sign it

Finale: (cells 9 & 10) Charlotte tells Sam that she's glad heremembered. They go out to play.

366

I TmiC û W +-A A, - ratf<^J W *«j f ô

dü. tif.f ‘<tlh'm ii c '*V *dnt-rjf to;Tn.w P»»'...

Figure 108Michelle's Mystery Mouse Picture

Michelle's choice of words had a more literaiy quality with clauses such as, once

there was a beautituL . . , quickly she looked to see.. . , and the only clue she had.. . .

Using the narrator's stance, instead of dialogue to chain one event to the next had made her

texts be^n to read like a story. The only use of dialogue occurred in a large chunk at a

natural point in the final event and seemed very realistic. She even used ellipsis effectively

367

three times — first, with Sam rushing in and trying to say, 7 . . . / . . second, with

Charlotte beginning to say and then being interrupted by Sam, "I'm trying to find. . .

and third, with Charlotte dropping the phrase, 7 now know " Only in the last

occurrence did she use the appropriate periods to indicate ellipsis. Nonetheless the use of

ellipsis was cleverly employed to heighten the excitement and suspense.

For the first time, Michelle began to use quotation marks. Several times in the last

three months, both Robin and I had conferenced with her about different forms of

punctuation that were needed in her texts, but we did not require her to edit unless she was

going to publish her text. We both believed that these mini conferences would assist her

knowledge base and when she was ready to manage another conceptual understanding she

would incorporate the use of quotation marks. And she did. We feared that premature

pressure to incorporate correct mechanics would hamper progress in fluency, in

developing a focus, and in chaining and sequencing ideas. Our primary focus was for

children to work on a meaning level and to facilitate getting their ideas down quickly

without distractions of minor details, such as spelling and mechanics, which can always be

repaired later.

Also within the area of conventions of print, Michelle used a capital letter for every

sentence but two and for the first time, ending punctuation including periods, question

marks, and exclamation marks for all sentences but two.

On February 20 as I was packing to leave, Michelle came over to show me what

she had written in her new book entitled Nancy and Her Family Are Moving. She was

revisiting a familiar character by writing another book about her character Nancy the

flamingo. I asked her where Nancy was moving and she responded softly hanging her

head shyly. I couldn't hear so I bent over to place my ear closer to her and asked her to

repeat what she had said. "She might move to Ohio, o r . . . I don't know," she repeated.

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"If she moves to Ohio she won't live near the water anymore." "I thought flamingos liked

and needed water," I said. "Well.. . maybe she'll move to Horida. I haven't decided

yet," she replied. This was an occasion when she had only a beginning idea and not an

entire story frame preplanned. However, this was one of the texts she never completed.

To prepare for the county writing assessment, as mentioned earlier, Robin gave the

children a prompt to write a personal narrative about a visit to the dentist or losing a tooth.

The following was Michelle's sample:

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGthe chaotre Book The Chaoter Bookby Michelle (Label ~ Green tayp) by Michelle (Label - Green tape)tapi of contns 8 teeth Gon 3 in the zoo 10

Table of Contents Eight Teeth Gone 3 In the Zoo 10

8 teeth Gon Eight Teeth Gonei got a loos tooth, im going to tail dad and mom and brothr.

1 got a loose tooth, i'm going to tell dad and mom and brother.

"Dad, dad 1 have a loos tooth." "Just a menut," said dad

"Dad, dad, 1 have a loose tooth." "Just a minute," said dad.

mom mom I lost my toth. Jest a ment "Mom, mom, 1 lost my tooth." "Just a minute."

Brother Brother 1 iost my toth. Jest a ment. (Label - car wosh) [Brother is riding his skateboard by the car wash.1

"Brother, brother, 1 lost my tooth." "Just a minute ." (Label - Car W ash) [Brother is riding his skateboard by the car wash.]

Mom dad brottir 1 got a qwtr. Mom. dad. brother, 1 got a quarter.

Figure 109Michelle's Text for T h e C hap ter B o o k

Although she had written another chapter, I have displayed only the chapter which

responded to the prompt This was one of Michelle's weakest texts. She took one brief

event and offered dialogue to explain sequentially what happened when the character lost a

tooth. Each family member was too busy to pay attention, and finally she says she got a

quarter, possibly from the tooth fairy, but she offers no explanation. Robin was fearful

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that in a pressure situation where a prompt is imposed Michelle would create a weak text

such as this. Robin wished the county would allow the students and the teachers to select

the child's best text from his/her portfolio and use this for assessment purposes.

Nearing the end of Winter Quarter, Michelle composed an adventure story about

Squib, the character created by author Larry Shies, entitled Squib Goes to the Park.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GSauwid G os To The Pork Souib G oes to the ParkSouiwd G os To The Pork Souib G oes to the Park"Lais go to the pork tooted Squiwb." "hoot up" H es Mom Hooted bake to hem Like yshwl. Sow he told her ogn. S h easrd "Yes"

“Let's go to the park," tooted Squib. "Hoot up," his mom hooted back to him like usual. S o he told her again. S h e answered, "Yes."

S o sh e flow hem to the Pork and told hem sh e is going to pek hem up at five thrdy.

S o sh e flew him to the park and told him sh e is going to pick him up at five-thirty.

S o he playd and playd and playd intio he w as tard. S o h e sat down to rest.

S o he played and played and played until he w as tired. S o he sat down to rest.

S o h e cold h es mom and h es cam e and got hem. b eco s he w as to tird.

S o he called his mom, and sh e cam e and got him b ecau se he w as too tired.

Sodi ther w as a lawd "Hooooooo" it was Squiwd. Hooting and he w as saeing look a hontr bot he frgt he hooted, he w as sow exsd that he hooted agn.

Suddenly there w as a loud "Hoooo." It w as Squib hooting, and he w as saying, "Look, a hunter." But h e forgot he hooted. He w as s o excited that he forgot and hooted again.

Squwd w as sow mad that he stated to fly. [illustration depicts Squib attacking the hunter with his beak poised at his hand and the gun flying up in the air. Also there is steam coming off the top of Squib's head showing that he is angry.]

Squib w as s o mad that h e started to fly. [Illustration depicts Squib attacking the hunter with his beak poised at his hand and the gun flying up in the air. Also there is steam coming off the top of Squib's head showing that he is angry.J

the hntr w as gon and squd w as a rei owl (Dialogue Bubble - Hooo)

The hunter w as gone and Squib w as a real owl. (Dialogue Bubble - Hooo!)

Figure 110Michelle's Text for S q u ib G oes to th e P ark Story

A complete story grammar was produced with a much lengthier and stronger middle

section. There were several sequent events leading up to the climax when Squib in his

anger forgets that he doesn't know how to fly and attacks the hunter to successfully chase

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him away. Then the finale states his rite of passage since he can fly and defend himself.

Squib was a real owl. The only understanding the reader has that Squib couldn't fly before

the battle was offered in an illustration. On the title page. Squib is seen riding on his

mother's back, but this fact is never presented in the text In each ensuing text Michelle has

gained greater control in offering more detail in her texts and in developing the plot through

chaining of sequent events to build to a climax. This was her most successful foray thus

far.

I found numerous cohesive ties in this text Personal reference occurred with the

use of us (let's), his, him, he, her, she; demonstrative reference with there. Conjunctive

relations appear in the inclusion of jo, tW , and because (ceaisaiy, (adversative); and

owf (additive), like ususal (an additive after-thought).

Many gains have also been made in the area of spelling development Michelle now

uses both letters in blends where previously she used only the beginning or ending sound.

Some examples of this insight follow: park, rest, told, flow for flew, playd, cold, hontr

(hunter). Also more short vowels are correctly used than in any other piece of writing thus

far, for example, rest, sat, got. These words may also be moving to her ever-increasing

bank of sight words. The analysis indicates that many more single syllable words are

correctly spelled. However, with multisyllabic words, she reverts back to letter name

spelling to catch the essential sounds which is evidenced in the following words: exsd

(excited), asrd(answered), sodl (suddenly), sndyshwl (usual), although in this particular

word her spelling strategy is closer to that used in the within word stage due to the use of y

and sh. Also for the first time, she used the inflected ending of -ed with the word hooted,

although she didn't with the word pkcyd. However, this signaled beginning conceptual

knowledge of the inflected ending found in the stage of syllable juncture, along with the

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understandings of inflected endings of -ing, short vowels, and silent e markers as Michelle

used in bake (back).

Winter Quarter Qualitative Analysis alone the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings








resultant text.

To summarize the gains in understanding of the writing process during Winter




1/26 The Tiger's Adventure

2/3 Nancy Is a Flamingo

2/17 Mystery Mouse's Valentines

0 2 3 4

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her texts. She rarely confused lower and upper case letters, except for the following use of

upper case letters only in the last text of Spring Quarter, L and P. Both Robin and I had

conferenced with her about correct forms throughout the quarter.

Michelle entered first grade at level four of the continuiun "Alphabetic Principle and



(Four se lected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, 'Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

■I . I . . . I I I I I I I 1 - l l . U - l - L L I I I 1 . I . l . l - L J J . L I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

112B The Tiger's Adventure ................. i .................2 ...............3 .................4 ...............

2/3 Nancy Is a Flamingo l .................2 ...............3 ................. 4 ...............

2/17 Mystery htouse's ValenSnes.................. 1 .................2 ................ 3 ..................4

3I& Squib Goes to the Park ................. 1 .................2 ...............3 .................4

Spelling development has progressed through the within word stage and begiiming

understandings have begun to germinate in the stage of syllable jtmcture. Using the Gillet

and Temple (1982) beginner's features list to assess spelling development at the end of

Winter Quarter, I found in scoring Michelle's spelling that she had 4 of the 16 words

correctly spelled, 12 words within the transitional category which includes spellings using

patterns attributed to both within word and syllable juncture. Some of her misspellings

were as follow; gees (geese), traned (trained), chorped (chirped), yall (yell).

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In early March, she had a strong understanding of many blends, some digraphs, all

long vowels, some short vowels, some silent e markers, and inflected endings of -ed and

-ing. However, she was not consistent with the inflected -ed ending nor did she have an

understanding of the schwa sound, vowel digraphs, or dipthongs.

Her sight vocabulary appeared to have increased greatly. Probably, these gains

were assisted by her conceptual knowledge of spelling patterns as indicated by her progress

to early syllable juncture stage. Also her visual memory assisted the development of sight

vocabulary as found in her spelling of hwo (who) and hse (she). She knew that certain

letters were included in these words.

Michelle progressed in level four within word stage of the continuum "Word

Knowledge through Invented Spelling Development" with hints of moving to level five,

syllable juncture stage, as noted above.

Table 66Concept of Word and Voice-to-Print Match


. 1 J - L . . I I I I I . 1 - 1 - 1 . . I I2 3 4

M2Q The Tiger's Adventure

2/3 Nancy Is a Flamingo

2 /17 Mystery Mouse's Valentines

3/S Squib Goes to the Park

•2...............3 ..............4

•2.............. 3 ..............4

•2...............3 ..............4

•2.............. 3 ..............4


year. Michelle entered first grade at level four of the continuum "Concept of Word or


374



0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1/îsD /n © IigarSAOVeniUfd • • •

f c f O f V f l l / C j r l O <4 tiallllfiyO w w w m




(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua. "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

L l - U - I . l 1 - L J _ 1 I I . . . . L I I I I U J - . 1 . . I I I I I I I I I I 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1/26 The Tiger's Adventure4 " ' 5 ' " 6 " 7 " 8 " 9 " 10 "11 "12

2/3 Nancy Is a Flamingo. . . . 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 » * " 4 * * ' 5 ” *6- *- 7- - - 8” *9-” 10--11-'12

2/17 Mystery Mouse's Valentines 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 " ' 4 " ' 5 ' " 6 " ' 7 " ' 8 " - 9 " ' 1 0 " l l " 1 2 " 1 3 - ' 1 4 " 1 5 " 1 6 '

316 Squib Goes to the Park 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 - - - 7 - - - 8 ‘ - -9- - -10- -11- -12*-13- -14'*15*-16

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In regards to conventions of print, Michelle was aware of the diversity and used

most of them appropriately. Generally capital letters and ending punctuation of p>eriod,

question marks, and exclamation marks were consistently and correctly used. Occasionally

when she was writing rapidly and didn't reread, errors occurred which she could have self

edited. Dialogue bubbles, quotation marks, and said.. . to indicate the speaker appeared

throughout her texts. Ellipsis marks were employed in the text Mystery Mouse's

Valentines

Michelle began the Autumn Quarter using conventions up to level eleven and

progressed using a variety of conventions through level seventeen. Attention to details in

literature were seen with her inclusion of a title, author, title page, table of contents, and

dedications.



0 2 3 4 5 6

irdo 1 n e 1 lyGrS AaVenlUfB .............. ..

dfo rJanCy IS a r/amfngo ....................

6 / 1 f M ystery mouso s valentines ........... .. • •

o/D oCJUID (jOeS to tne rQn\ ....................


was a solitary, quiet individual who didn't want or need any assistance. Socially she


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Michelle continued through Winter Quarter at the highest level of the continuum




J _ L0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1

0 1 21Æ6 The Tiger's Adventure " 1 ' 2"213 Nancy Is a Flamingo ---- 1---2* •112/17 Mystery Mouse's Valentines ----

3A5 Squib Goes to the Park ---- 1-..2- •11

Texts were as high as level 10 and 11 throughout the quarter. However, the story

grammar was less dependent upon the illustrations and dialogue to carry the plot, instead

there was more textual chaining of events. Throughout the quarter the texts offered a

topical theme with centering and chaining of her sentences. Furthermore, the middle of her

text in developing the sequent events became more cohesive and logical, although this

element remained weaker than other elements of the story grammar. Nonetheless, she was

able toward the end of the quarter to chain events in the middle section through the use of

conversational text and even advanced to the use of the narrator's stance.

The only lower forms of writing occurred in incomplete texts and in required

writings, such as a text written as an attribute text about Squib to conference with the

visiting authors and the response to the writing prompt about a visit to the dentist

377

Michelle incorporated numerous cohesive devices, such as personal and

demonstrative reference, a wide variety of conjunctions, lexical renaming, substitution, and

ellipsis.

Michelle progressed with texts at level ten and eleven during Winter Quarter on the

continuum "Sense of Story and Textual Development." The sequent events of the story

grammar were better developed and less dependent upon the illustrations and dialogue to

carry the plot, instead there was more textual chaining of events and centering upon the

theme.

Table 71Winter Quarter Quantitative Analysis of the Texts (Content, Length, and Number of Words)

INCOMPLETE BOOKS3 -- Title page, with 3-4 additional p ages of illustrated text.

COMPLETE TEXTS10 - Texts taken to completion with many complete story grammars.

Number of Words - range 44* -1 5 5 **Number of P ages - range 7* -1 3

‘ ‘Longest Book, Mystery Mouse's Valentine, a complete story grammar with the firstoccurence of a narrator stance in sequent events, 155 words, 13 p a g es of illustrated text.

Second Longest Book, Squib's Goes to the Park, adventure story with all global elem entsof a story grammar, sequent events developed through narrator, 3rd person and 1st person dialogue; 136 words, 9 pages of illustrated text.

‘ Shortest Book, Squib's Valentine, complete story grammar with minimal developm ent in each element; 44words, 7 p ages of illustrated text.

Soring Quarter

At the opening of writing workshop on March 12,1 paused at Michelle's desk to

ask her about the topic for her new book. She had written only the title thus far of Candy

Mountain. "1 don't know what it will be about, yet," she told me. Her stories generally

evolved as she drew pictures and text. However, as I glanced across the grouping of

378

desks, I noticed that Jessica was nearing the end of her book, entitled Rock Cany

Mountain. And Shelby one of the other girls in this grouping had read her book with the

same title in the "Author's Chair" the previous week. Each of the girls developed books

around the idea of a mountain covered with all kinds of delicious candy. However, the

setting was the only commonality, the characters and the situations were different.

As I observed Michelle in the writing process, she underscored the title and her

name, as author. Next she turned to the inside page, wrote once upan a tami, erased it,

drew a line across the page about 3 inches from the bottom, sketched a large mountain

sitting on the line, and then began to write text below the line. She wrote Once upan a

tamei thare was a cady ntawten, and then she drew a square around this sentence and

placed a number one at the beginning. Next she wrote the second sentence all cinds of

thengs levid har and again drew a square around the text and added number 2. Finally she

returned to the illustration to draw candy and labels on the mountain. One label read

chocolate lair (chocolate layer).

Continuing this procedure, she wrote two sentences for every page and enclosed

each with a box and renumbered the boxes for each page. Sometimes the drawings

preceded the text; other times, they followed. On the next to the last page, she had drawn

an intriguingly descriptive illustration which spanned the full two pages. However, the text

didn't explain everything that was depicted in the following drawing.

379

^ ....

t h t q W | ________

'cIq \ ^ i\ }

Figure 111Michelle's Giant Picture

I questioned her about the squiggles and star above the giant's head. She explained

that the eagle had flown in circles around the giant, and the giant had become so dizzy

trying to catch him that he fell down. I complimented her on the great story idea but

encouraged her to include this descriptive information in the text so the reader wouldn't

380

miss her clever idea. Immediately, she bent her head to add a lengthy sentence. Then she

paused to decide where to draw the boxes around the text. First, she drew a box around

the independent clause and dependent clause. And the giant got too dizzy that he fell down,

and after that she drew another square around the dependent clause, because the eagle was

going around in circles. Then she simply stared at the text for a long time, grabbed an

eraser, and began to remove the line which divided the second and third clauses to keep one

lengthy sentence — And the ginat got too dizzy that he fell down because the eagle was

going around in circles. This was the first time I had ever observed a child consider the

concept of clauses within a sentence.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGCandy Mawten Candy Mountainby Michelle by Michelle

(Labels - candy bear / candy cane house)(Labels - candy Bare/Candy can Howes)on ce upan a tam e thare w as a candy mawten. all cinds of thengs levid har. (Labe - calcit lare)

O nce upon a time there w as a candy 1 mountain. All kinds of things lived here. (Label ~ chocolate layer)

Bat they had to be carfi b ecas of the giyent. B eca s of the gint thay dodent get moch oandy. (Illustration depicts an eagle and a giant at a stand-off.)

But they had to be careful b eca u se of the giant. B ecau se of the giant, they didnt get much candy.

Thay fat for the candy. And wan som eone w en s they e e t cady. (Illustration depicting fallen giant with victorious eag le flying up the mountain to munch on a candy cane.)

They fought for the candy. And when som eone wins they ea t candy.

the candy w as vary good, the candy w as th omly fod thay had (Label - candy cans)

jT hecandy w as very good. T he candy w as the only food they had. (Label - candy ca n es)

a gint egiu cam e and toe a candy can for hei babby.

A giant eag le cam e and took a candy can e for her baby.

the gont chast the the eg le bot he qodnt get the eg le ...

The giant chased the eagle , but he couldnt get the eagle.

And the giant got to dezy that he fal down B ecos the egl w as going orad in srcis

And the giant got too dizzy that he fell down b ecau se the eagle w as going around in circles.

and the eg le got Red of the gint And the eagle got rid of the giant.the end. The end.

Figure 112M ichelle's Text fo r Candy Mountain Story

381

Since she had misspelled ia«/ (giyent, gint) throughout the text, I decided to

discuss the spelling of the word with her. I showed her the correct spelling and pointed out

that there was an ant in giant and that the a is swallowed with the nt when one pronounces

the word. We went back and looked at her first spelling of giant when she wrote giyent

and had her pronounce and stretch the word to note her hearing the sound ye, and that this

was a close match. Then we discussed that a is the letter that made the ye sound. She

corrected the spelling of giant and went on to write the next page of text continuing to spell

giant as gint. Evidently she was not ready to incoiporate this understanding about spelling

or move the word to her sight vocabulary.

As noted above in Michelle's lengthy sentence, she was now writing more complex

sentences with both independent and dependent clauses. In another place in the text, she

began a sentence with a dependent clause — And when someone wins, they eat candy.

Also, she began a sentence with a prepositional phrase - Because o f the giant, they didn't

get much candy. With the development of more complex sentences, the text incorporated

more elaboration and description. However, some of the paragraphs were awkward due to

the repetition of the same conjunction (because) and the length of some sentences as she

tested new conceptual understandings.

In linking the clauses and sentences she used numerous cohesive ties, such as

personal reference (they, he, her, someone) and conjunctive elements (because, but, and,

that).

Again the global elements of a story grammar were in place. The middle section

included more development in the sequent events due to the logical chaining and richer

description from more details in the complex sentences.

382

The next text Michelle wrote about Leprechauns on March 12 utililized her newly

acquired knowledge of complex sentences. Twice she began sentences with prepositional

phrases. When it rains, they send a pot o f gold and On St. Patrick's Day, they spread four-

leaf clovers. Also, she used a dependent clause followed by an independent clause. Even

though they don't have pets, they're still happy. Each of these complex sentences added

more elaboration and description to her text.

This text entitled Leprechauns resembled an informational book. The fomat

appeared somewhat similar to the early texts labled by Sowers ( 1985) as "all about" or

attribute books which list all a child knows about a single subject. However, this book

offered more elaborative text and narrowed the topic in the opening presentation to what, in

the author's view, makes Leprechauns smart, claims that she supported. Although the

book used an informational format, she switched genres for one sentence in the final event

to a narrative mode — St. Patrick's Day is over and the Leprechauns have all gone home.

Then she switched back to an informational format and added a humorous tag with a

leprechaun riding on the back of an Easter bunny.

The change of genres caused the piece to lose coherence. Robin and 1 noted that

frequently texts on holiday themes were less substantive. Holidays always played an

important role in the choice of textual matter for the children's writing. Throughout much

of March and early April, the social chatter during workshop centered around "cute little

leprechauns," Easter egg hunts, and the Easter bunny. However, the children had limited

information and experience relating to the topic and much of what they offered lacked the

freshness of their other texts.

383

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN GLeorachauns bv Michelle Walters

Leorechauns by Michelle Walters

Leprechauns LeprechaunsLeprechauns are vary sm ote, and lave In an cendre grawand kasle

Leprechauns are very smart and live in an underqround castle.

wine it rains thay sand a pot of gold up When it rains they sen d a pot of gold up.Leprechauns are vary smrat. on St. Patrick's day thay Sprad four lefa co lo v e 's .

Leprechuans are very smart. On St. Patrick's Day they spread four leaf clovers.

Thay have a toni to get in the ondre garand kasel.

They have a tunnel to get in the under ground castle.

Leprechaun's dont have eny pats. Leprechauns don t have any pets.Eaven thuw thay dunt have pats ther stel happy

Even thought they d ont have pets they're still happy.

St. Patrick's day is over and the leprechauns have all gon home, ther how e's am i in the kasi its weth the eastr banny. the End (Dialogue Bubble - my hat)

St. Patrick's Day is over and the leprechauns have all gone home. Their h o u ses arent in the castle. It's with the Easter Bunny. The end.(Dialogue Bubble -- my hat)

Leprechaun'sLeprechaun's are vary sm ole. And ieve in an ordr growd kasl. Wen it rains thay sand a pot of gold up. Leprechun's are vary smrat. On St. Patrick's day thay sprad four lefa colove's, thay have a tonI to get in the ond gom d kasel. Leprechaun's dont have any pats. St. Patrick's day is over. The leprechaun's have all gon home, ther how s am t in the kasl it's weth the estr bonny.

LeprechaunsLeprechauns are vary smart. And live in an underground castle. When it rains, they sen d a pot of gold up. Leprechauns are very samart. On St. Patrick's Day, they spread four leaf clovers. They have a tunnel to get in the underground castle. Leprechaun's don t have any pets. St. Patrick's Day is over. The leprechauns have all gone home. Their h ou ses arent in the castle it's with the Easter Bunny.

B ooksits b a n n /s shoks mrads cats D ogs bevns sqrs owls ginypas

Booklistbunnys sharks mermaids cats dogs beavers squirrels owls guinea pigs

Figure 113Michelle's Text for Leprechauns Story

384

Some of the global elements of informational books as identified by Pappas and

associates (1990) are included in this text.

• Topic Presentation — the title and opening clause, Leprachauns are very smart.• Description of Attributes — live in underground castles, have a tunnel to get

underground, don't have any pets,• Characteristic Events — send a pot o f gold up, spread four leaf clovers.• Category Comparison — none

The two main categories, description of attributes and characteristic events are randomly

organized and distributed without any links. The information appears to be ideas which

popped in her mind as she wrote but the ideas can be categorized. The Final Summary or

summary statements which are not mandatory in an information book were not included in

Michelle's text, instead she added an afterword as a humorous aside that Lephrachauns

actually live with the Easter bunny.

Michelle must have read a beginning reading book that included a repetition of the

text confined to a page without illustrations which is recopied on her next to the last page.

The other addition, a list of words, on the last page of the text, I thought might be an

attempt to offer something which resembled a vocabulary list at the end of a controlled

reader. However, the caption for this list was Booksits. I conferenced with Michelle about

this list of animals. She explained that it was a booklist of possible texts she could write.

Then I realized she had seen on the inside cover of a children's literature book a list of

books written by an author which she attempted to incorporate. Even though her list did

not include a list of previously written books, she was taking into consideration some of

the conventions of print which she had seen in books by including these two additional

pages.

385

In late March she wrote another informational book. This one was a spoof about

mermaids. She wrote humorous information about mermaids but in a serious tone. The

factual statements were very brief, but her illustrations were detailed and extended the text

in humorous ways. Michelle's informational books tended to be briefer and were usually

written in one or two sittings unlike the narratives which spanned up to six days.

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGmradsby Michelle Walters

Mermaidsby Michelle Walters

murmdsby Michelle Walters

Mermaidsby Michelle Walters

Murmds can be sckrd vary ofen. Mermaids can be scared very often.Most morads have n a m e s .. . Most mermaids have nam es.Like this on e her nam e Is Lura. Like this one. Her nam e is Lura.Marmads e t the fod off of feshrmans hoke. (Dialogue Bubbles -- I'll make a sadwech / a c h e se sndw ech)

Mermaids ea t the food off of fisherman's hook. (Dialogue Bubbles -- I'll make a sandwich. A c h e e se sandwich.)

Marmads leva in a ondr watr kasi Mermaids live in a underwater castle.Marmads have lats ove P a ts . . . like carbs. Mermaids have lots of p e t s . . . like crabs.Marmads all have fothrs. This on es fthr is the kenq.

Memnalds all have fathers. This on es father is the king.

Naw you new odwt mrads saw my storys ovre.

Now you know about mennaids so my story is over.

Figure 114Michelle's Text for M erm aids Story

386

Figure 115Michelle's Mermaid Picture

Michelle ventured further into the realm of mixed genres with a text which offered

some facts about bunnies, but also included dialogue under the flaps of paper which could

be lifted to peek Robin had recently purchased additional Spot books with lift-flaps and

387

other new books which imitated this style of illustrations with portions to lift. All around

the classroom children were pasting construction paper over sections of their drawings.

Michelle followed suit. In pages 1-4 of the text (cells 4-7), Michelle states her four facts

about the subject and the drawings support the facts in a style reminiscent of earlier level 7

attribute texts. Then on page 5 (cell 8) a narrative begins, mainly told in cartoon style with

most of the text offered in a dialogue format.

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGBunnav'sby Michelle Walters

Bunniesby Michelle Walters

Bunnysby Michelle Walters

Bunniesby Michelle Walters

Bunny'sby Michelle Walters a left and flap Book

Bunniesby Michelle Walters (a lift and flap book)

Rabbits are good pats. (Flip tab with rabbit underneath.)

Rabbits are good pets.

Rabbits leva ondrgand to hid from the fox. (Flip tab with rabbit - "lick me.")

Rabbits live underground to hide from the fox. (Flip tab with rabbit - "Like me.")

Bunnys hate foxs. the foxs ch a se s the bunnys a way. (Fiip tab with fox - "lick me.")

Bunnies hate foxes. The fo x es c h a se the bunnies away. (Fiip tab with fox -- "Like me.")

Rabbits don' lick foxs (Flip tab with fox - "Ined fod.")

Rabbits don't like foxes. (Flip tab with fox - - "1 need food."

"1 hate foxss" sad one of the rabbits. (Dialogue Bubbles - HIppe / Leve hem alon / wiy shod 1 / GrGr /1 hate fox)

"1 hate foxes," said o n e of the rabbits. (Dialogue Bubbles - "Help!" / “Leave them alone!" (says an owl) / "Why should I?" "Grrr" (says a fox) / "1 hate fox" (sa y s a bunny)

The foxx sad "1 wall not lev hem a Ion" And jist th a n .. . (Flip tab - nvun toost foxs)

The fox said, “1 will not leave him alone." And just th e n .. . (Flip tab-- "Never trust fo xes" )

(Flip tab on a tree witii an owl underneath - "1 told you ") "Look a fox" sad a boy to h es fathr. h e s fathr had a gon weth hem. he shot the Fox.

Flip tab on a tree with an owl underneath - "1 told you.")"Look a fox," said a boy to his father. His father had a gun with him. He shot the fox.

"Fathre fathre can 1 get a wiyld rabbit" "war do w e get it" "ovre her" “1 guess"

"Father, father, can 1 get a wild rabbit?" "Where do w e get it?" “Over here, 1 guess." (Flip tab with rabbit under a bush.)

the End the End

Figure 116Michelle's Text for Bunnies S tory

388

The remainder of the text contained the elements of a story grammar with the

initiating event of the fox chasing the rabbits. The sequent events included different

animals speaking and trying to stop the fox. Then a boy and his father, a hunter, entered

the scene, and the final event happened when the father shot the fox. The finale occured

with the little boy wanting to keep a wild rabbit as a pet Even though the elements of a

story grammar were provided, the text was very different from her most recent narratives

which included more chaining of statements and richer descriptions through a narrative

stance. Michelle's text, because of the desire to copy a lift flap book which carried most of

the story in the illustrations, was much less developed. And yet the illustrations and

dialogue were similar to that of the picture books she was imitating.

389

one c?-P+b<f

Ü»

'■

, /^ J W lc3

Figure 117Michelle's Bunnies Picture

390

As mentioned earlier, sometimes writing appeared less developed than on previous

occasions. At first glance, Robin and I would read a text such as this and would be

disappointed that Michelle was writing at a lower level. However, upon closer scrutiny,

we realized that on these occasions, Michelle was focussing her attention on different

concepts, other than the story grammar, sequence, and chaining of sentences. Instead, she

was grappling with new conceptual understandings, such as those mentioned in creating a

text similar to Eric Hill's "lift the flap" books and some other conventions of print For

example, Michelle used quotation marks correctly in all the conversational portions of her

text throughout the book. Also, she used ellipsis marks correctly when she dropped the

phrase in cell #10 {And just then.. . ) to allow the reader to lift a flap to read what the owl

said.

The recursiveness of learning in dipping back to earlier forms of writing, perhaps

can be attributed to the need to focus cognitive attention on fewer concepts. By going back

to simpler patterns of writing, the brain could automatically process the earlier patterns and

concentrate on bringing new conceptual understandings into practical application.

Those students who had been ranked in the bottom third of the class in their writing

abilities in September had now progressed to the level where they incorporated elements

from the children's literature that was read aloud to the class. Robin read many books in

April and May which had strong story frames and encouraged the children to retell parts of

the stories or give a complete retelling. She reiterated this to the children frequently in

hopes that they would soon begin to develop more sequence of events and to consider

chaining and connecting their statements. For those who were more advanced than needing

simply to chain events, she hoped they would emulate the structure of stories and begin to

incorporate elements of a story grammar.

391

Michelle who had successfully written narratives which incorporated global

elements of a story grammar decided to try a retelling. First she selected the book The

W olfs Chicken Stew to retell. Her version follows:

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLIN Gthe wloffs chekcen stow The W olfs Chicken StewO nec there w as a wlotf that loved to et more then any thenq e le s in the worold

O nce there w as a wolf that loved to eat more than anything e ls e in the world.

W ons he w as don weth one me! he b ege to thek of the naxet

O nce he w as done with on e meal, he began to think of the next.

O ne NIgit h e thot s o hrood of the naxst mal that he siad all have ean erley mel. S o he said all have Checken stow.

O ne night he thought s o hard of the next meal that he said, "I'll have an early meal." S o he said, "I'll have chicken stew."

S o he went out to find a checken. S o he went out to find a chicken.hers one oh its not fat a noffe S o he went hom e to thenk

"Here's one." "Oh, it's not fat enough." S o he went hom e to think.

rii make 100 D enotes and he did. I'll make 100 doughnuts.the naxst nigit he mad a gint cake and pot it by the door

The next night he m ade a giant cake and put it by the door.

afftor that h e mad 100 copcac and pot them by the door

After that he m ade 100 cupcakes and put them by the door.

naxet he gave all of h e s charys and Pot them by the door

Next he gave all of his cherries and put them by the dour.

now sh e show d b e a s fat a s en elepont. Now sh e should be a s fat a s an elephant.he went the h en s howe and opend the door. He want to the hen's house and opened the

door.look c e d e s it w osent the easter bunny geveing u s all thos Present it w as oncol wolffe

"Look, kids!" "It w a sn t the Easter bunny giving u s all those presents." "It w as uncle wolf."

m abey 1 shold make 100 scropsh Chocleit Candy bors (Label - candy Bor)

"Maybe 1 should make 100 scrumptious chocolate candy bars." (Label - candy bar)

the End The end.

Figure 118Michelle's Text for W o lf s C h icken S tew Story

Michelle's stoiy carried the basic theme and development of plot as the original text

However, she used poetic license in varying the incidents to suit her purposes, for

instance, using the Easter buimy in the final event rather than Santa Claus. Probably this

change was made because Easter had just occurred. Another variation in Michelle's text

392

built suspense for the final event. Instead of the hen simply opening the door and catching

the wolf in the act of leaving food, Michelle had the wolf going to the hen's house to check

if she was fat enough to eat -- He went to to the hen's house and opened the door.

Despite these variations, she kept the final event similar with the mother hen

surrounded by all her chicks saying, "Look kids.. . it was uncle wolf." The original text

offered an implied finale with a closing illustration minus any text which could be taken one

of two ways. Either, the wolf was baking more pastries because he liked all the baby

chicks crawling on him and wanted to care for them. Or, the wolf was baking more to feed

and fatten all the baby chicks so he could eat them. Instead of a detailed illustration like the

original text, Michelle drew a candy bar and included a text which could also be interpreted

either way — "Maybe I should make 100 scrumptious candy bars. "

Her retellings encompassed a complete story grammar. The first page of text (cell

three) included the placement and a thesis about the topic, the wolf loved to eat more than

anything else in the world. Then to support her thesis, she gave the reader an example.

Once he was done with one meal, he began to think o f the next.

As a lead into her initiating event, she stated ~ One night he thought so hard o f the

next meal that he said, "I'll have an early meal. " This elaboration described the setting and

situation which led up to the initiating event in which the wolf decides to make chicken

stew and goes out to find a chicken.

The sequent events were similar to the original text but not as great a number of

events. Likewise the type of items baked were similar but fewer. Michelle made one

addition of cherries rather than a baked item, but otherwise the plot evolved similarly.

Another omission made by Michelle was the illustrated events of the hen taking away the

food each night.

393

As mentioned earlier, Michelle did alter the final event leading to the climax,

regarding the opening of the door of the henhouse, but her changes increased the

suspense. Also, as I noted before, she incorporated a finale comprised of an illustrated text

and not simply an illustration like the original. With all these elements in place, the story

grammar was complete. In addition, this text was much more elaborative in the placement

and initiating event than previous texts. Also, the sequent events were logically chained

and built to a climax which had occurred only recently in those texts which were related

from the narrator's perspective. Note that in this text as well, she used the narrator's voice

to build the middle of her text rather than dialogic discourse. Perhaps a retelling made the

task of developing a narrative easier and thus afforded her more opportunities to explore

descriptive language, complex sentences, and cohesive links.

Looking at the language she selected to build the climax, I discovered her use of

figurative language in cell 12, Now she should be as fa t as an elephant. This simile was

similar to that used in the original text but the original comparison was made to a house.

Other forms of language which added to the richness of the text were the numerous

cohesive elements.

Personal reference was used — I , he, and it referring to the wolf ; it and them

referring to the different foods; she, to the hen; and us, to the hen and chicks.

Demonstrative reference occurred three times. First, here was used as a form of verbal

pointing in Here's one (cell 7). Second, those used as a possessive adjective to specify in

those presents. Third, now was used more unusually as a demonstrative adverb meaning

"this state of affairs having come about" in cell 12, Now she should be as fa t as an elephant

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976, p. 75). She also used conjunctions to build cohesion — and

(additive), next and after that (temporal), and then , so, and that (causal).

394

Some other cohesive devices seemed rare for a first grader. For the first time she

used the comparative conjunction, as, in her simile. Now she should be as fa t as an

elephant and another instance with the use of more than in the phrase more than anything

else in the world. Substitution occurred in the cXawse Here's one, with one taking the place

of the chicken. Lastly she employed ellypsis in the sentence Once he was done with one

meal, he began to think o f the next. N ext, meaning the next meal. Lexical cohesion seems

to occur in the use of that in the first sentence — Once there was a wolf that loved to eat . . .

. That appears to be renaming wolf. This impressive array of cohesive relations

contributed to unifying the text and developing richer more complex sentences. Coupled

with the cohesion and rich storybook language, the chaining of events and focus on the

theme made this narrative Michelle's most coherent text thus far.

Checking her spelling progress in this text, I found her sight vocabulary was

burgeoning. A greater number of words were correctly spelled and three words even

contained the correct letters (siad, eles, and onec ) but out of order which reveals her sight

knowledge. Perhaps, in quickly writing to get her thoughts on paper, the letters were

inadvertly reordered. Probably with teacher prompts to note her errors, she could self-

correct. Several other words were very close approximations and revealed her thinking of

spelling patterns and syllables. For example, the word wloff conXzàns the correct letters

which could be quickly reordered and also displays her beginning awareness of the

doubling pattern, although incorrectly used. The inflected ending of -ing is consistently

appearing, but she isn't aware of the rule for dropping e as in giveing. Confusion in the

use of short vowels still occurs with checken (chicken) and naxst (next). However,

knowledge of digraphs is progressing for example in the many uses of th anythengs

(things), weth (with), thot (thought) and ^ in shold(should) and showd (showed) and

knowledge of blends with worold (world), scr_ and mg in scrompsh (scrumptious), and

395

tü in went.. Many of her understandings hail from the within word stage and suggest

progressive movement toward the syllable juncture stage of development.

Having successfully completed one retelling, Michelle began another. The title of

her new story was Hachey hen and included the following information on the cover page —

ritold by Michelle Walters. I had never heard of this piece of literature so I inquired of

Robin who was the original author. She replied, "I've never heard of this book, but the

children brought many books from home and from the local library for our mini unit on

eggs and chickens for Easter. Perhaps there was a book by this title, but on the other hand,

she may have just made up this title and added the information that it was a retelling." Then

she added, "Since the beginning of the year. I've always read the author's name and

explained carefully what is meant by a retelling."

Michelle was very observant of the conventions of print dealing with the cover,

title, and end pages. In October, Robin had read aloud several of Eric Carle's books which

were designed as step books, whereby the fold of the book is moved to the left allowing

the edge of each page to show and permitting each page to grow in its dimensions. Again

in Spring, Robin had read another Eric Carle book entitled The Very Hungry Caterpillar

which evidently was an incentive for Michelle to create her text Hatchy Hen using a step-

book format.

Around May 15, Michelle revisited the idea of writing a chapter book. This time

she wrote a book about a bear in the circus with the title of The One Famous Bear.

396

CHILD'S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGa Chaptor BooKthe on e fam es Bearreten and llostrad by Michelle Walters

a chapter book,The One Famous Bear wriiten and illustrated by Michelle Walters

I h e o n e welad Bike" "The One W heeled Bike"O nec there w as a on e wela bike, and on that W ela Bike there w as a Bare, and on that Bare w as a hat. and on that hat w as a Ball. A flotfy Boll, the Bare loved h es Bike, h e Ived to play on it

O nce there w as a one-wheeled bike. And on that one-w heeled bike there w as a bear. And on that bear w as a hat. and on that hat w as a ball, a fluffy ball. The bear loved his bike. He loved to play on it.

(Caption on a poster - the lam s Pocy the Bare)

(Caption on a poster - The Famous Pokey the Bear)

T he Bare weth the Bike and the hat and the Boll w a s in the seres. Evry Body loved hem. He went all ovre the world he got to ea t all Cinds of thengs. He had frands eavrywar. But he w as sad he wonted a grol to be h es frand but he nowe h es frands wod laffe at hem.

The bear with the bike and the hat and the ball w as in the circus. Everybody loved him. He went all over the world. He got to eat all kinds of things. He had friends everyw here. But he w as sad . He wanted a girl to b e his friend, but he knew his friends would laffe at him.

The Bare had a name h es name was Pocy. P ocy deside to run a way. S o if he wonted to have a grol for a frand he cod. he ran for a way. but were evar he looked he codet find any goii Bares. Oh 1 w esh 1 Cod find a gorol Bar. (Dialogue Bubbles - not her / are you her)

The bear had a name. His name w as Pokey. Pokey decided to run away so if he wanted to have a girl for a friend, he could. He ran far away. But wherever he looked, he couldnt find any girt bears. "Oh, 1 wish 1 could find a girl bear." (Dialogue Bubbles -"Not here!" Are you here?")

"Supthenq New" "Something New"1 s e e a gorl Bare! s o he went up to hor and Said "do you wont to be my frand" “Yes" "Wots your name" “Amanda and wots yours" "Pokey" now "what do you wont to do" "play hid and Sek" "your it frist" "ok""1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10. rady or not har 1 com e

1 s e e a girl bear! S o he went up to her and said, "Do you want to b e my friend?""Yes." "What's your name?" "Amanda. And what’s yours?" "Pokey. Now what do you want to do?" "Play hide and seek." "Your it, first. Okay?" "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9- 10. Ready or not, here 1 come."

"1 fond you so your it" "OK" "But 1 dont wont to play any more" "Wall wot do you wat to do" “go home" "dont you wont to stay weth me." "yes" "but you can com e wthe me" "OK" "come on you can be my hlopr" "good idey" and poky w as happy agen

"1 found you so your it." "Okay, but 1 dont want to play anymore." "Well, what do you want to do?" "Go home?" “Dont you want to stay with me?" "Yes, but you can com e with me." "Okay." "Come on. You can be my helper." "Good idea." And Pokey w as happy again.

"pokey and Amanda have Baby" "Pokey and Amanda have Baby"Amanda and poky have babis now. The babis can hilep jogol and som e can dance weth poky, poky w as moch happyerthen he yost to be. The end

Amanda and Pokey have babies now. The babies can help juggle and som e can dance with Pokey. Pokey w as much happier than he used to be. The end.

"Poky and Amanda go to the Beche" "Pokey and Amanda Go to the Beach"

Figure 119Michelle's Text for The One Famous Bear S tory

397

Michelle's text consisted of three chapters and one incomple chapter with only a

title. The first three chapters encompassed the first half of the book and were actually

begun from the back of the book dlie to the smooth side of staples appearing on the back of

the book with the boimd edge of the book on the right side instead of the conventional left

side. The fourth, unfinished chapter was printed on the front cover and appeared as though

she had intended to try a creative apprcach and write from the back forward to the middle

of the book to meet the other chapters.

The first chapter of the book was a cumulative tale, Once there v;as a one-wheeled

bike. And on that one-wheeled bike there was a bear. Her text was patterned after the

book. The Napping House by Audrey Wood, which Robin had recently read to the class.

The books read aloud continuously spawned ideas for Michelle to borrow or adapt.

The first chapter included the placement with the introduction of the character,

setting, and the bear's habitual behavior (working at the circus) and problem or theme (the

desire for a girl friend) (cells 4-6). Then the initiating event took place in the closing of

chapter one (cell 7) when Pokey the bear runs away to find a girl friend.

Chapter two relayed the sequent events leading up to the climax or final event of

Pokey deciding to be Amanda's helper (cells 7 & 8). In the sequents events, she reverted

to her earlier format of dialogic text rather than using a narrative voice as in her more recent

texts. Nonetheless, she linked the events carefully by use of exemplification in describing

the meeting of the bears and their game of hide-and-seek through dialogue.

A finale was added with a paragraph describing their family life and the statement —

Pokey was much happier than he used to be. Perhaps, Michelle did not write another

chapter because she felt the complete resolution of her story grammar and did not know

how to add another chapter. Interestingly, each chapter encapsulated certain elements of

398

the story grammar, as I noted in the preceding descriptions. Each chapter was organized

into coherent units.

Chaining and linking of sentences and events was achieved through the sequence of

the cumulative tale, sequential dialogue, and with cohesive ties throughout. Some of the

cohesive ties are as follow. Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives were used to

refer back to the main characters. Pokey and Amanda {he, him, his, her, you, your. I, me).

Demonstrative reference was used with that frequently pointing to each item in the opening

cumulative tale, such as and on that bear. Conjunctive ties were numerous, for example

and, but, so, or. Nominal substitution was displayed in the next to the last cell with some

substituting for babies (The babies can help juggle and some can.. .). Another cohesive

device occurred with ellipsis in the statement, " I don't want to play [this game] anymore. "

and in the response following this statement, "Well, what [activity] do you want to do? "

Michelle's final book written on June 1 included many of the illustrative techniques

used by printers of contemporary children's literature. Her book, the magec cat, imitated

the design of a step-book (similar to many of Eric Carle's books which was mentioned

earlier). Similar to "Spot" books by Eric Hill, she included flaps to lift On the front cover

a flap hid a portion of the title, the magic. At first glance all the reader could see was the

word cat until the flap was lifted. Also on the cover was a paper construction of an old

lady which could be folded flat and then when lifed would pop-up. The remainder of the

illustrations in the book were pop-up creations, some even three-dimensional but crudely

constructed to achieve an effect and not simply for aesthetic purposes for which she could

simply have added more detail and colored markers.

399

CHILD’S TEXT CONVENTIONAL SPELLINGthe m aaec cat The Maaic Catthe m agec cat The Maaic CatO nec there w as a old Lady that Lived in a old shad wheth har cat.

O nce there w as an old lady that lived in a shed with her cat.

the lady's est w as m aceke. S o if sh e wanted anything sh e g est had to tail the cat wot sh e wanted.

The iady's cat w as magic. S o if sh e wanted anything, sh e just had to tell the cat what sh e wanted.

on e day the lady asked the cat if sh e cod maka a hou se for her. the cat sied "yes."

One day the lady asked the cat if sh e could make a house for her. The cat said, "Yes."

the nateit day sh e w heshed for Gold, and the cat siad y es. then the lady Spant all the golld on clos and food. S he said thats not a noffe s o sh e asked for a car thane a plan and the cat said yes.

The next day sh e wished for gold. And the cat said, "Yes." Then the lady sp en t all the gold on clothes and food. S h e said,"That's not enough." S o sh e asked for a car; then, a plane. And the cat said, "Yes."

S h e asked for ali the mony in the worled the cat sied NO and tok a way all berthings.

S h e asked for ail the m oney in the world. The cat said, "NO," and took aw ay ali her things.

the End The end.

Figure 120Michelle's Text for T h e M agic C a t Story

This text again contained a complete stoiy grammar similar to a folk tale. The

placement is given in cells three and four with the introduction of the characters (old lady

and cat) and setting (lived in a shed). Then she describes the magical abilities of the cat.

The initiating event occurs when the lady makes her first wish (a house).

The earlier weakness of coherence in the middle of the story or sequent events

appeared to have been conquered as development has indicated in the last few texts. This

time the sequent events built to a climax with the lady requesting more exorbitant gifts with

each wish. Then a surprise ending occurred again similar to many folk tales. The cat said,

"No," and took away all the gifts. No moral tag was written, but one was implied in the

understanding the reader gains of the result of the old lady's greed.

400

Spring Quarter Qualitative Analysis along the Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings








resultant text.




(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving com petencies of developm ent along the continua, “Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I I I I I I 1 . . I J . I I I I

3/12 Leprechauns

0 2 3 4

otdo Dunnfes

4/1 u / ns woiTS {^ntcKsn oiow

6/1 The Magic Cat


her texts. She rarely confused lower and upper case letters, except for the occasional use of

upper case letters G, P, and B.

401

Michelle entered first grade at level four of the continuum "Alphabetic Principle and




I I I I I I I I I . J I I I I I I . L I I I I I I I I .0 2 3 4 5 6 7

v /l6 L0pr&ciiauns . . . . . .

0/1 / n& M a g ic uav • • • • • • • •

Spelling development has continued to progress in the within word stage and had

some imderstandings of the syllable juncture stage. Using the Gillet and Temple (1982)

advanced features list to assess spelling development at the end of Spring Quarter, 1 found

in scoring Michelle's spelling that she had 1 of the 14 words correctly spelled, 12 words

within the transitional category which included spellings using patterns attributed to both

within word and syllable juncture (although only 2 displayed features of syllable juncture),

and one word using letter name strategies. Some of her misspellings are as follow: sottere

(setter), groreyeae (grocery), saelar (sailor), fecharea (feature), prechar (preacher ), peced

(peeked).

Rather than considering only this assessment, I looked at the spelling development

in her texts. I found a beginning awareness of syllable units, in doubling consonants,

blends, consonant digraphs, a few silent e markers, some doublings, and inflected endings

(mainly -ing) which signaled beginning understandings of the syllable juncture stage of

402

development. Short vowels remained a problem. She continued to use the letter-name

strategy with short vowels. Another weak area was the lack of consistency with the

inflected -ed ending and vowel digraphs and dipthongs.

Her sight vocabulary continued to grow. These gains were probably assisted by

her conceptual knowledge of spelling patterns as indicated by her progress to early

understandings of the syllable juncture stage of development. Also, her visual memory

assisted the development of her sight vocabulary for example in the next to the last text she

offered the following spellings —onec (once) and siad (said). She knew that certain letters

were needed in these words.

Michelle progressed in level four within word stage of the continuum "Word

Knowledge through Invented Spelling Development" with hints of moving to level five,

syllable juncture stage, as noted above.



..I . . . L I . . I . I , 1 . 1 .1 U - L U - U - I J .

3/12 Leprechauns

3/23 Bunnies

4/10 The Wolfs Chicken Stew

6/1 The Magic Cat

• 2 ................ 3 ................4

• 2 ................ 3 ................4


year. Michelle entered first grade at level four of the continuum "Concept of Word or Voice

to Print Match."

403


(Four selected texts of this quarter represent the evolving competencies of development along the continua, "l ultiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" described in Table 1.)

I I I I I I I I 1 . 1 . L I I I I I I ,1 . I I I I I I I I I I I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

3^2 Leprechauns l ........... 2.............3.............4 ............ 5 .............6............73/23 Bunnies l ........... 2.............3.............4 .............5.............6............7

4/10 The WoH's Chicken Stew ............. l ........... 2.............3............ 4 ............ 5 .............6............76/\ The Magic Cat l ........... 2.............3.............4 .............5.............6............7





I I , 1 I I I I I I I I ! I I I I I I I I . . . . ! . . I I I I I I I U - U J . I 1 U - L I0 1 2 3 4 5 6

3/12 Leprechauns

3/23 Bunnies j , . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 -

4/10 The Woifs Chicken Stew 1 ...2 ...3 ...4 ...5 ...6 *6/1 The Magic Cat

1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 -

8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

• 8 * • • 9 " • «lO*•1 1" •12 *■ 13" •1 4• • 15" * 1 6 ' •17"•18

■ 8 . . . 9. . .10 '*11* - 1 2 ” 13-*14> - I S ' - i e

• 8 - ” 9 - - - 1 0 * * l l - - 1 2

. 8 . . . 9 . . . i O” 1 1 ” 12

404

In regards to conventions of print, generally capital letters were used at the

beginning of sentences and for proper nouns. Punctuation at the end of sentences was

consistently and correctly used. Occasionally when she was writing rapidly and didn't

reread, errors occurred in both areas which she could have self-edited. Dialogue bubbles,

quotation marks, and jairf.. . to indicate the speaker appeared frequently in her texts.

Ellipsis marks were occasionally added in appropriate places.

Attention to details in literature were seen with her inclusion of a title, author or

reteller, title page, table of contents, dedications, chapter titles, booklist, lift-flap books,

shape books,.

Michelle began the Autumn Quarter using a variety of conventions up to level

seventeen and reached the highest level of inclusion of conventions with the offering of

booklists. Not all of the conventions were consistently used as the above continua

represent.



. L . I . . . I I I - L . L L . I . . I - L . J . 1 I 1 - L . U . L I J L L J - . 1 J .0 1 2 3 4 5 6

3^2 Leprechauns 1............ 2 .............3...........4............5..............63/23 Bunnies l ............ 2.............3...........4 ............5..............64/10 The Wolf's Chicken Stew ............. i ............ 2 ............. 3...........4............5..............6Q/\Theh/lagicCat l ............ 2.............3...........4 ............5 - ............6

405


was a solitary, quiet individual who didn't need or want any assistance. Socially she




Michelle continued through Winter Quarter at the highest level of the continuum




I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ,1. I I0 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 1

011

12

o n c L G p r d c n s u n s " " 1 "

o/kio o u n n iB S • • • • ! •

4/1U 1 n6 WOITo OniCKBn OÏ6V/ " ' ' * 1 '

O/l 1 n 0 MâQfC U a l • • • • ^ •

Texts were written at levels 10,11, and 12 throughout the quarter. All the global

elements of a story grammar were in place in the higher levels (11 and 12) of texts. The

placement and initiating events contained richer storybook language with more attention to

details in description. The middle section of the text became better developed and more

coherent. During the early part of the quarter, dialogue tended to carry the sequent events.

Then midway in the quarter, she began to use the narrator's stance to tell the story, used

more complex sentences, and offered more elaboration. By the end of the quarter, she

could successfully weave dialogue and the narrative voice throughout the sequent events to

406

build to a climax. The final event sometimes included more elaboration and occasionally a

moral tag was written or implied. Illustrations, no longer carried the plot but enhanced and

exemplifed the text.

The lower level texts were those in which she attempted to imitate children's

literature authors' types of texts, frequently with a mixture of genres, such as in the text

Bunnies. In this instance she copied ideas from Eric Hill's "Spot" books with the inclusion

of lift-flaps and dialogue, but at the same time, she also incorporated informational text

about rabbits. Michelle continued to experiment with informational texts in Mermaids and

Leprechauns. These writings included some global elements of infomational books

(Pappas et al., 1990) such as topic presentation, description of attributes, and characteristic

events, and afterword but no category comparison, or final summary. However these

elements were offered in a very brief fashion, were randomly organized, and were

distributed without much chaining or linking.

Michelle incorporated many cohesive devices, such as personal and demonstrative

reference, a wide variety of conjunctions, lexical renaming, substitution, and ellipsis in

much more complex sentence structures.

Michelle progressed with texts at level ten, eleven, and twelve during Spring

Quarter on the continuum "Sense of Story and Textual Development." All the global

elements of a story grammar were included with the placements and initiating events

containing richer storybook language and attention to details in description. Within the

middle section of the text, the sequent events became more coherent through the use of

dialogue and the narrative voice to build to a climax..

407


INCOMPLETE B O O K S1 - Title page, only.6 -- Title page, with 2-7 additional pages of illustrated text.

COMPLETE TEXTS10 - Texts taken to completion with many complete story grammars.

Number of Words - range 52* - 315 **Number of Pages - range 6* -17**

**Longest Book, The One Famous Bear, a complete story grammar with narrator stance and dialogue woven throughout; 315 words, 17 pages of illustrated text.

Second Longest Book, The Magic Cat, folk tale with a complete story grammar, sequent events developed through narrator, third person and first person dialogue; 132 words, 12 pages of text and pop-up illustrations.

*Shortest Book, The Easter Surprise, (an Easter egg shape-book), a bed-to-bed text written in the first person; 52 words, 6 pages of illustrated text.

CHAPTER VI

SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS

Introduction

The yearlong tales of three young writers' development were filled with many rich

descriptions and details. As much as possible through an adult's writing of the accounts,

we've endeavored to share these stories from the child's perspective to reflect his/her

struggles and joys. Accompanying these tales, we've interspersed analysis of the

children's struggles with conceptual understandings and the resultant texts. Trying to

digest such a great quantity of data and bring to the forefront the important developmental

changes in conceptual knowledge within the writing process over time is a difficult task. In

this chapter, the overarching findings will be framed within the context of the research

questions. These overarching findings will be noted across case studies to enhance

understanding of the model we tested regarding "Multiple Continua of Conceptual

Understandings in Writing Development."

Research Questions

The following questions guided the inquiry:

1. What patterns emerge as first-grade children progress in their writing development over the period of a school year? What are the varied dimensions which interact in the orchestration of writing? How are the understandings of the varied concepts and dimensions reflected in the composing process and their texts?

2. What types of interaction are involved in the process and what kinds of collaboration or interaction support progress over time?

408

409

Patterns

The first part of question number one addresses the isssue of patterns in writing

development. Few studies have taken a more global view as we have with writing

development to actually discover if there are patterns and what concepts are involved in

creating these patterns. Many studies have offered a limited view of the writing process by

focusing on one or perhaps two important aspects. Some studies (Read, 1975;

Henderson,1990; Temple et al., 1982) have examined children's writing to note patterns of

spelling development. Others (Newkirk, 1987) have examined samples of children's

writing in a specific genre, such as, expository texts to offer patterns of progress in textual

development. Dyson (1989a) has carefully studied children's interactions within their

social world and the effects of these interactions upon their texts. Graves (1983) from his

findings has categorized the steps involved in the writing process and attended to the effect

of conferences in assisting children. Sowers (1985) and Calkins (1986) offered more

global views to reflect progress across grade levels and identified several textual forms

which we have included and further expanded upon. However, none have invested in a

global perspective to ascertain and examine the conceptual understandings involved in

creating a text and the effect of the progress in these understandings upon the types of texts

a child can create.

What patterns did we find? Four general patterns emerged which could be

classified as —

1. Hierarchical

2. Recursive

3. Static

4. Individualistic

410

Hierarchical

Hierarchical patterns emerged as we analyzed and coded data. From our

observations we found that children were struggling with a mixture of concepts in the

composing process in all stages of writing development, from simple labels to beginning

narratives. For months, the co-investigators struggled to separate and define the various

concepts involved in the writing process. After finally constructing a list of concepts, I

reviewed relevant literature to incorporate theories generated by other researchers. One of

the conceptual understandings, word knowledge through invented spelling had already

been delineated with categories divided in a hierarchical order, based on the strategies

children had employed.

Other concepts, such as concept of word or voice to print match, alphabetic

principle and ability to write the letters of the alphabet, and sense of story and textual

development had been identified by other researchers and some aspects discussed, but no

developmental patterns of progress had been offered. In these three conceptual areas,

Robin and I discussed the changes we were observing each day as children progressed in

their imderstandings. Then I began to develop a continuum for each concept to map

incremental progressions of development.

Yet, other conceptual understandings, such as fluency through rereading of text in

the composing process, awareness of conventions, and collaboration in the process in

regards to assisting development had received little or no recognition by other researchers,

especially viewing these as hierarchical progressions. So again we collected data and

analyzed to note changes across time.

411

Thus hierarchical patterns in each conceptual understanding were displayed

through the children's writings and interactions with the co-researchers. As children

progressed in their understandings of a particular concept, we observed and noted what

they could do at that time. Each incremental progression was like a building block which

permitted access to a higher level of understanding. The data from each time frame were

analyzed and placed along a continuum to note progressive understandings. Finally, we

observed when a concept no longer required focused cognitive attention to employ the

understanding. Then we assumed that the concept had moved to internalization and was

operating at an automatic level. Examples of this internalization process will be given and

further discussed in the category of static patterns.

Another hierarchical pattern was observed at a more global level. When observing

children's writing development over a yearlong study, hierarchical patterns of progress

across all conceptual understandings were noted with individuals. Each child grew in his

conceptual understandings and could produce more coherent texts by June than he/she had

in September. However, without the "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in

the Writing Process," children like Jeffrey might have seemed to make little headway in

writing development if we had simply compared their texts to those of other children in the

classroom. In addition, the multiple continua offered evidence of the great progress Jeffrey

made along each continua of conceptual understanding, besides textual development.

Jeffrey entered first grade with little understandings of the basic concepts involved

in the writing process, such as "Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write the Letters of the

Alphabet," "Concept of Word," "Word Knowledge through Invented Spelling," and

"Fluency through Rereading." By April, he had a strong understanding of the alphabetic

principle and could write the letters of the alphabet without any adult or peer assistance or

use of his alphabet strip. He progressed to the level of using a letter-name strategy for

412

spelling. Concept of word moved to internalization. He could accurately point to each

word, including multisyllabic ones, and used appropriate spacing between words rather

than running all the letters together as he had in Autumn Quarter. Regarding rereading

through fluency, he advanced to the level in which an adult was no longer needed to reread

for him nor to prompt him. Also, he appeared to have internalized the concept of a

sentence and could go back to the beginning of the sentence rather than the beginning of his

story to add on to the text These great gains in conceptual understandings might have

gone unnoticed if we solely examined the texts.

Hierarchical patterns occurred along each continuum of conceptual understanding,

and for each child global hierarchical patterns of writing development were perceived

across the yearlong study.

Recursive

The recursiveness of learning was reinforced in this study. Even though

incremental progressions could be cited along a continuum from a macro view, children did

not always directly follow this progression. Studying individual development at the micro

level revealed the fluctuations with progressions and regressions along each continuum and

also revealed that development was not simultaneous along all continua.

For example, Michelle had progressed by March in her narrative texts to a level

eleven on the continuum "Sense of Story and Textual Development" with the rudimentary

elements of a story grammar in place. Each element contained more elaboration and

description than earlier texts, and the middle section comprised of the sequent events was

more coherent due to her use of sequential, focused dialogue. However, in late March, the

texts dropped one level in textual development, were very brief, and used none of the rich,

complex sentences that she had begun to develop in her previous narratives.

413

In discussing these changes with Robin, we concluded that the regression in textual

form occurred because Michelle's cognitive attention was focused on the creation of an

informational book, a new genre for her, and the use of contemporary illustrative

techniques. The format of her informational books was similar to a level seven "all about"

book but with more advanced forms of chaining and cohesive devices. Considering the

textual formation of her informational books, she appeared to experiment with the various

global structures of the genre accompanied by the typical narrator's stance of the third

person and the use of the past tense. Another change was the prominent role played by the

illustrations, as in earlier textual levels in which much of text is embedded in the drawings.

Also, she employed illustrative techniques, such as, "lift the flap," shape, and "step"

books. Recursiveness of learning as displayed in the use of earlier forms of writing,

perhaps can be attributed to the need to focus cognitive attention on a limited number of

concepts. By going back to simpler patterns of writing, the brain could automatically

process those patterns and cognitive attention could be focused on bringing new conceptual

understandings into practical application.

The recursiveness of writing in the multiple conceptual understandings has not been

discussed by other researchers possibly due to focusing on narrow aspects of writing, such

as spelling development, analysis of texts, or social interaction rather than a more global

perspective. Viewing writing with all its complexity as in this study permits both a narrow

and broad perspective which facilitates notice of the recursive nature of learning.

Static

There were junctures in each case study's progress which seemed to reach a fixed

or static level. Progress in conceptual understandings appeared to come to a standstill.

During these junctures, children tended to repeat the same textual patterns, recopy or

414

rewrite the same text repeatedly, and reiterate topics or themes. After a sometimes lengthy

static period, up to three to four weeks with Jeffrey and Ashley, of repetitive and recurring

activities, a consolidation of learning seemed to occur. I will cite one example for each case

study, although this static pattern did occur with each of the case studies at least two or

three times during the school year but. sometimes for briefer periods of time.

In February, Jeffrey wrote a brief portion of a retelling of Little Rabbit Foo Foo.

The original text disappeared, but for the next three weeks, he rewrote the same text over

and over. He was very content with this task and seemed to bask in his new found

capabilities. Each copy was neater in spacing and printing, and displayed accurate

mechanical conventions. At this juncture, Jeffrey had reached a level of competency in the

concept of alphabetic principle and forming the letters of the alphabet which enabled him to

move into the early letter name stage of spelling development. However, he still needed

adult assistance and affirmation in stretching words to make a letter-name match. And yet,

without any adult assistance, he now could reread his text for fluency in composing after

stretching words, and he now could place proper spacing between each word for a

functional knowledge of concept of word. I qualify this statement by noting a functional

knowledge due to the assistance the adult still offered by stretching and saying each word.

Throughout this static period, he appeared very calm and satisfied with his newly

acquired knowledge base. Perhaps, in rewriting, he was rehearsing and practicing the

requisite concepts over and over to develop mastery much as a musician does in perfecting

a musical composition for performance.

With more advanced writers, such as Ashley and Michelle, static junctures in

progress were more subtle. For instance, Ashley's earliest texts were attribute texts and

therefore centered on a topic. However, when she began to try to develop more of a story

frame and sequentially link her ideas, she lost the focus or ability to center on a theme or

415

topic. Instead, she created "bed-to-bed" texts which relayed every event in a meandering

fashion. However, in late February with her text based on the cartoon characters Tom and

Jerry, she began to chain her sentences through dialogue and briefly focused on one event.

Sometimes, the reader felt as though he/she had been dropped in the middle of a movie

scene. During this static period of one month, she persistently developed her texts aroimd

one brief event and sequentially linked the sentences through dialogue. After this static

juncture, she moved on to experiment with linking another event to the first one. During

the static month, consolidation of learning seemed to take place which helped her to

internalize the technique of sequentially linking sentences and at the same time maintaining

a focus. The use of realistic dialogue enabled the process.

Michelle used a similar technique in one of her static junctures of development. She

used sequential dialogue, not in linking one event, but rather linking the sequent events of

her story grammar to logically build a coherent plot to a climax. During this same time

period, she used the narrator's stance effectively in creating the placement and initiating

events, but she appeared to need the realistic format of dialogue to maintain a focus and link

each sentence to the next. Earlier she had spent several weeks, in another static period,

using dialogue to build the placement and initiating event However, the middle section or

sequent events at that time were brief and often illogical. Consolidation in both of

Michelle's static periods seemed to occur from repeatedly using the first person dialogic

format to develop a concept, such as a specific element of a story grammar. From the

books she had read or heard, she was developing a mental story frame which she attempted

to convey in her writing.

416

After a respite of repetition and recurrence using certain conceptual understandings,

consolidaton of learning seemed to occur. Each static period of repetition appeared to

contribute to the transposition of one or more patterns of conceptual understanding from

outward cognitive focus to internalization where the act could be performed automatically.

Individualistic

The last pattern the co-investigators wish to convey seems obvious from what has

been shared in the previous patterns but deserves acknowledgement since it was a guiding

issue throughout the inquiry. This pattern is labled individualistic. Each child was a

unique individual who did not follow the pattern of any other child. As teacher-

reseanchers, we followed the lead of each child and assisted or offered whatever we felt

he/she wanted or needed at the time. All children came to the first grade writing workshop

with varying levels of literacy knowledge and competency. All children could be placed at

varying levels of development along each continuum. For example, Michelle remained

higher in her development compared to most of her classmates throughout the year on the

continuum "Sense of Story and Textual Development," while Ashley, who remained

several levels lower, advanced more rapidly in spelling development and sight vocabulary

than Michelle. Developmental progress along each continua of writing development was

individualistic.

The range of literacy development across reading, writing, and spelling varied

within individuals. Robin's quarterly rankings of the children in areas of literacy, reading,

writing, and spelling offered the varying and individualistic range of literacy abilities for the

class composite. The following chart depicts each case study's class ranking out of 23

students on a quarterly basis:

417

Reading Writing Spelling

AU WI SP AU WI SP AU WI SP

Jeffrey 21 20 21 19 20 22 22 20 21

Ashley 7 4 8 9 7 10 8 4 4

Michelle 6 3 5 1 2 1 2 6 7

For further information regarding the range of divisions into high, moderately high, and so

forth, please refer to the complete composite charts of Tables 5,6, and 7 (Chapter IV, pp.

133-35).

Since this inquiry addressed a more global and expansive view of literacy to explore

individual differences and developmental issues, we discovered four general patterns in

writing development — hierarchical, recursive, static, and individualistic.

Multiple Continua of Development

The second part of research question number one, relating to writing development,

focuses on "the varied dimensions which interact in the orchestration of writing." The

dimensions we identified from our observations, interactions with children, co-investigator

discussions, and data analyses have been designated as the "Multiple Continua of

Conceptual Understandings in Writing Development" (See Table Ï, pp. 84-90). These

seven dimensions were the dominant conceptual understandings that leaped to our attention

in the inquiry. Perhaps other researchers may wish to include other understandings and/or

further delineate the continuum of awareness of conventions and sense of story and textual

development which will be discussed under implications and questions for further research

in the next chapter.

418

The seven continua, although originally appearing in different forms, emerged

immediately in our interactions with the children in their orchestration of writing.

Acknowledging the individualistic patterns earlier discussed, we found that each child was

an individual who played a different instrument at different levels of competency within

each conceptual understanding in orchestrating his/her compositions. These varied and

divergent competencies and seemingly mixtures of diverse concepts at first clouded the

issue of clearly identifying concepts. Then, as specific concepts began to emerge,

confusion again ensued when trying to distinguish which concepts were being used more

concretely with focused cognitive attention, and which ones had moved to an internalized

mode for operation at an automatic level. Perhaps further explanation of this phenomena

would be helpful.

As discussed within hierarchical and static patterns, each concept, whether a

specifically identified category, such as concept of word or a conceptual understanding

within a larger category such as development of the sequent events to build to a climax

within textual development, progressed in hierarchical increments with outward cognitive

focus on the concept until the child arrived at a level of competency and understanding.

Then the child employed this concept in a redundant fashion, repeatedly using this concept

as though rehearsing for perfection. After these static periods, the conceptual

understanding appeared to move to an internalized mode where it could be used at an

automatic level and cognitive attention then could be focused upon a different conceptual

understanding.

Due to the difficulty of extracting the conceptual understandings from the integrated

process of writing, the original list of continua contained sixteen variables. However,

after further data collection, ongoing analysis, and post-site analysis coupled with

419

discussions by the co-investigators, the continua were limited and in some instances

combined into the following conceptual understandings:

• Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write Letters of the Alphabet (Henderson, 1990)

• Word Knowledge through Invented Spelling Development (Read, 1975; Henderson, 1990)

• Concept of Word or Voice to Print Match (Downing & Oliver, 1973; Morris, 1980)

• Fluency through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process

• Awareness of Conventions of Print

• Collaboration in the Process: Assistance and Interaction with Adults and Peers

• Sense of Story and Textual Development(Brown & Bellugi, 1964; Britton, 1970; Clay, 1975; Applebee, 1976;Halliday & Hasan, 1976; Sowers, 1985; Calkins, 1986; Newkirk,1987)

Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write Letters of the Alphabet

The first conceptual understanding, "Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write

Letters of the Alphabet," is discussed minimally in most research of the writing process.

However, Temple, et al. (1982) in their book The Beginnings o f Writing and Henderson

(1990) in his book Teaching Spelling discuss the alphabetic principle with more detailed

descriptions in relation to spelling development. Yet, none of the authors attend to

incremental progressions of understanding within the concept nor the kinds of interactions

with an adult which can assist a child in development along this continiuum.

For the case studies, Ashley and Michelle, the concepts of the alphabetic principle

and forming letters of the alphabet were already established upon entering first grade and

operated at an automatic level of internalization. But both girls used a random mix of lower

and upper case letters when they were quickly composing until late in Spring Quarter.

420

Also, both girls at different times, used the capital forms of b and d instead of the lower

case forms which are frequently an area of confusion for a period of time with young

children due to the similarity in form, only reversed.

However, Jeffrey, who came to the first writing workshop at the lowest levels of

literacy understandings in comparison to his classmates, could only recognize a few letters

of the alphabet. Jeffrey needed adult assistance to move along the continuum of

development in this area. Adult assistance commonly followed this format. Adults would

pose each word for his spelling consideration by first saying the whole word and then

through phonemic segmentation, support him in hearing and attending to each phoneme as

he guessed which letter might be represented. After drawing a sound-to-symbol

correspondence aurally, he then was asked to visually locate the letter on his alphabet strip

in order to form the letter on his paper. Again in this early phase of development, the

process was a guess and check one with Jeffrey running his finger along the alphabet strip

and asking the adult, "This one?.. .this one?"

Beginning writers like Jeffrey struggle with trying to understand and use multiple

concepts at the same time, such as holding a word in mind as they separate phonemes to

connect a sound to a letter of the alphabet and then visually identifying the letter to

physically form each letter in print By the time they have written a complete word, they

frequently have forgotten the original sentence.

Descriptions of the adult interactions with Jeffrey to stretch words and find the

corresponding letter for each phoneme are numerous in his case study accounts during

Autumn Quarter. With adult prompts, these tasks progressed into his realm of

responsibility and eventual understanding.

421

Word Knowledge through Invented Spelling

The conceptual area of "Word Knowledge through Invented Spelling" has been

thoroughly researched, refined, and reaffirmed in the work of Read (1975), Gillet &

Temple (1982), Temple et al (1982), and Henderson (1990) who have developed stage

models of spelling development from which we drew. Harste et al. (1984) have

broadened the perspective of graphophonemic perspectives to include the awareness that

children not only spell the "way it sounds" through letter-sound correspondences but also

spell the "way it looks" which brings into play the transaction between reading and writing

as children draw from their beginning sight vocabulary (p. 96-97). Harste et al. (1984)

also observed that children spell the "way it means" as they consider words as meaning

units, for instance WASAPANATAEM (Once upon a time), prior to their understanding

concept of word (p. 97).

The groundbreaking research in spelling by these prominent researchers has been

reaffirmed and confirmed in our study. We plotted the children's progress along the

developmental stages they identified and noted when key changes in understandings

occurred to signal awareness of progress into the next stage. Also, the assessments

developed by Gillet and Temple (1982) coupled with our daily analyses of the case studies

offered end of quarter gains. All of the case studies advanced in their understandings of

word knowledge through graphophonemic awareness and sight vocabulary.

Jeffrey's progress was enhanced by adult assistance with stretching words and

identifying the letters within the conceptual realm of "Alphabetic Principle and Ability to

Write Letters of the Alphabet." His gains in alphabetic understandings corresponded with

his progress through the first two stages of spelling development, prephonemic and early

phonemic. By the end of the school year, he was a solid letter-name speller. Ashley, the

child of average writing abilities, progressed by the end of Autumn Quarter to a late letter

422

name stage of spelling. By the end of Spring Quarter she displayed evidence of moving

two stages higher into the syllable juncture stage. Michelle, the student with the highest

competency in writing completed Autumn Quarter in the late letter name stage and

progressed to the next level within word stage by the end of the school year.

Placing the developmental stages of invented spelling on a continuum allowed us to

visually compare one phase of conceptual development to that of another conceptual

understanding such as alphabetic principle or concept of word. Noting the interplay of the

concepts and progress could be an effective assessment tool for teachers to note progress.

Concept of Word or Voice to Print Match

Downing and Oliver (1973-74) called teachers' and researchers' attention to the

need of children in reading and writing to develop a concept of word. In the stream of

spoken language, it is difficult for a child to distinguish where one words ends and the next

begins. However, adults who already have this knowledge base can work at a

metalinguistic level to use language to discuss language, such as words, phrases, clauses,

and sentences. The young writer, on the other hand, must begin to draw from his limited

knowledge gained from adults pointing to words as they read to him/her and through

his/her beginning attempts at reading to establish units of meaning. Morris (1980)

developed a model to enhance concept of word entitled the "voice pointing" technique

which Robin used daily in her opening activities.

Approximately one-third of the children entered her first grade classroom with a

fairly stable concept of word, as did Ashley and Michelle. However, the other two-thirds,

like Jeffrey, were assisted in their development through the "voice pointing" charts and

adults stretching one word at a time for spelling purposes. These children and Jeffrey

progressed along the continuum through four phases of progress until concept of word was

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established. The final hurdle for Jeffrey was the understanding that words could be

comprised of more than one syllable. For months, he would move his finger to the next

word when he encountered multisyllabic words until the end of the static period when he

repeatedly rewrote a text. During this static juncture, a conceptual understanding, concept

of word, was rehearsed and rehearsed which reinforced his understanding to move this

concept to an automatic level. Again, I repeat that repetition during static junctures of

development enhanced conceptual progress and consolidation of learning, as noted in this

example concerning concept of word.

Fluency through Rereading of Texts in the Composing Process

Fluency through rereading is one continuum of conceptual understanding which

seems to have been overlooked by many researchers. Perhaps this oversight is due to

many studies looking at emergent literacy to understand children's drawings and pseudo

letter forms, while other researchers studied children at more advanced levels. Children

like Jeffrey who are crossing the divide between emergent literacy with prephonetic writing

and more conventional writing with early phonetic and letter name strategies offer greater

insights into the struggles of conceptual understandings in becoming literate. Throughout

our interactions with Jeffrey and other beginning writers, we realized the need for the

rereading strategy to develop fluency in the composing process.

Children who are at the initial level of recognition of the letters of the alphabet and

knowledge of forming the letters must focus cognitive attention on these concepts as they

spell each word. As they stretch and spell words, they frequently forget where they were

going with their thoughts in constructing a sentence. However, in the earliest stages, if

these children have an adult who can reread for them, they quickly remember what they

were going to say next and will continue writing rather than offering a one-word label for

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their illustrations. With the rereading strategy, we asked the other adults who worked with

the children to point to each word as the child read which also fostered and reinforced

understanding of concept of word.

Once Jeffrey understood the need for the rereading strategy, the adults began to

transfer responsibility to him to point and reread. However, this was a gradual process and

modeling and choral rereading assisted development as noted on the incremental

progressions of the continuum.

Advanced writers, such as Michelle came to the first grade writing workshop with

the rereading strategy already established. Early in the year, we observed her flipping back

to previous pages to look at the illustrations and to reread the text up to the point where she

was comtemplating what to write next. She used the rereading strategy to enhance the

fluency for organizing her thoughts in the composing process. By Winter Quarter, as

noted in her case study analysis, she reread one text several times and then erased the title

to write a more appropriate one suitable for the text which evolved. She explained that she

had begun writing the text to describe animals and thus the title. My Book o f Animals, but

in the process of composing, a story about a particular tiger had developed so she revised

the title to The Tiger's Adventure,

Rereading for fluency in composing for the earliest stages of development assisted

Jeffrey to remember his textual ideas for adding on to the text. But, for more advanced

writers like Ashley and Michelle, rereading assisted the fluency in composing for

developing coherent texts which included the linking of ideas and maintaining a central

focus.

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Awareness of Conventions; Conventions of Books. Mechanics, and Storybook Language

This continuum represents a loose progression of the conventions which appeared

in the six case studies' texts. By loose, I mean that perhaps the fourth one appeared before

the third one in the texts Ashley produced or vice versa in Lindsay's texts. However, in a

more global sense the simpler conventions appeared first; the more sophisticated ones,

later in the year. Jeffrey, one of the lowest functioning writers of the class, never

attempted using ellipsis marks, quotation marks, book dedications or other conventions

noted near the end of the continuum. However, by the end of the school year, Michelle

had included all of those listed and Ashley had included most of them.

The classroom context probably has a great influence in the use of these

conventions. For instance, when Robin read fairy tales in the winter, then many of the

children used storybook language, such as, long ago, once upon a time, and they lived

happily ever after. On another occasion, as Robin read aloud a book and shared the

illustrations, a child raised a question about the ellipsis marks in the text. Robin paused to

explain the use of the marks and reread that portion of the text. Then the next day, she read

aloud another book which used ellipsis and again explained how this technique was used.

For the next few weeks, Michelle used ellipses in her texts, and likewise a few other more

advanced writers included ellipsis as well.

Therefore, teacher emphasis through large group discussion or individual

conferences, for example with mechanics, may effect the order of acquisition. However,

we did not analyze this area carefully and specifically enough to note which conventions are

related to teacher offerings and which are more inherent in the developmental level of texts

a child is capable of producing. Perhaps, in future research, the co-investigators might

separate the various conventions, book or literary conventions, mechanics, and storybook

language, to ascertain if there is a correlation between the acquisition order of each

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convention and the level of texts a child composes, as well as the effect upon these of

teacher conferences.

Collaboration in the Process: Assistance and Interaction with Adults and Peers

The continuum of "Collaboration in the Process" emerged after all the data were

collected. Throughout the yearlong period of data collection, I noted collaboration or

interaction which contributed to a text or writing development. Also, within the field notes

were numerous comments regarding how much of the chatter was purely social and

contributed little to the writing process, except to make it pleasurable.

Our model for collaboration begins with adult facilitators and progresses to self

monitoring and/or peer interaction. In the most fundamental form, collaboration was

initiated by adults to assist beginning writers in developing strategies to enhance conceptual

understandings. In the first few weeks of school, adults helped Jeffrey with brainstorming

ideas for drawings and afterwards for taking his dictation to describe the drawing. Then in

the following months numerous examples were shared of adults helping Jeffrey to stretch

words, draw a sound-to-symbol correspondence, print a corresponding letter, reread for

fluency in adding onto the text, and for encouragement in the early phases of literacy

development.

Robin and I believe that the adult collaboration and interaction was an essential

ingredient for the great progress Jeffrey made in conceptual understandings of the writing

process during Autumn Quarter. Once competency was gained in the aforementioned

conceptual understandings, peers rather than adults interacted with Jeffrey at the prewriting

level for discussing ideas for texts and also to help him stretch and spell more difficult

words.

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Another case study, Ashley, began Autumn Quarter at level five of this continuum

in which the writer rarely needs adult collaboration, except for teacher conferences to

discuss techniques within the texts which might assist textual development. For instance,

Robin conferenced with Ashley regarding the need for sequential linking of sentences,

rather than disjointed attribute-type texts she had been creating in the fall. Later in spring,

Robin assisted her with the use of some mechanical and literary conventions in her use of

dialogue, such as, quotation marks and identification of the speaker.

Peers played an important role in the prewriting stage for Ashley's choice of writing

topics. Many of her topical ideas came from talk with friends, from noticing topics her

peers used, or from books that were read aloud. During the composing process, she

sometimes discussed her text or chatted with friends about their texts. However, these

textual exchanges of ideas generally caused her to add on unrelated material mentioned by

her friends or to simply abandon the text and begin a new one. By the end of the year, a

change occurred. She could discuss her text as she composed, add some illustrative

techniques or character names used by her friends but still maintain her textual coherence.

The third case study, Michelle, was a self-sufficient, industrious individual who

reflected the highest level we identified on this continuum. Michelle never turned to adults

or peers for any assistance. She came to the workshop each day with an abundance of

topics and themes. By March, many story frames had been preplanned before she began

composing, and the creation of her texts extended over as many as eight or nine days.

Very few children, even by the end of the school year, could sustain a story across two

days of workshop. Even though she required no assistance with writing, other children

did request her help with spelling, and she gladly shared her knowledge. But overall, she

didn't have time for interactions while composing. She was totally absorbed during the

workshop with creating her texts and illustrations.

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However, she did desire that adults listen to her completed texts, explain what they

noted as excellent techniques of her craft, and laugh with her at the humor embodied in her

drawings and texts. With twenty-two other children, many of whom needed adult

assistance, Robin rarely conferenced with her except for mechanical editing in the books

she took to the parents' publishing center and to praise her latest text

Collaboration within the process was viewed from an interactional perspective. As

teacher-researchers who wished to assist children in understandings and emancipate and

transform the curriculum from the status quo, we interacted with children to ascertain what

conceptual struggles were involved within their level of development. Then we assisted

them to develop strategies which they could self-monitor and move to internalization. As

noted in the incremental progressions of this continuum, this model of collaboration begins

with adult facilitators and progresses to self-monitoring and/or peer interaction.

Sense of Story and Textual Development

This continuum of "Sense of Story and Textual Development" was the most

difficult to categorize into progressive levels and to develop descriptors which possibly

illuminated the multiple concepts involved within each level. The final rendition has been

revised weekly throughout the data collection, ongoing analysis, post-site analysis, and the

written account of this inquiry. The final chapter of this dissertation discusses possible,

futiu-e refinement of this category into subdivisions to offer more indepth descriptions of

the multiple conceptual imderstandings within the larger framework of text analysis.

This coding category of "Sense of Story and Textual Development" has received the

most attention by researchers of writing. Emergent literacy researchers (Clay, 1975;

Bissex, 1980; DeFord, 1980; King & Rentel, 1980; Ferreiro & Teberosky, 1982; Sulzby,

Teale, & Kamberelis, 1989) have analyzed children's texts and questioned children to

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ascertain their intentions in creating texts comprised of drawings and letter-like squiggles

in their pseudowriting. A composite, sequential outlay of their results offers a

progressions of forms [see Chapter I] which highlights children's development in their

meaning-making.

However, the descriptive research of elementary age children (Graves, 1983;

Harste, et al., 1984; Calkins, 1986; Dyson, 1989) generally discusses individual children's

development and interaction with peers for a more global perspective of development of

text, even by grade levels (Calkins, 1986), rather than offering a progression in the types

of textual development reflected by individuals across time as the emergent literacy

researchers have offered. One notable exception to this more global perspective of textual

development is the careful analysis and descriptions of 100 non-narrative texts created by

students in first through third grade by Newkirk (1987). His analysis revealed incremental

progressions in coherence and hierarchical ordering of information which would allow a

classroom teacher to lay alongside a text from one of her students to compare development

as identified by Newkirk. Sowers (1985) and Calkins (1986) also have identified and

described two forms of writing. As teachers read the accounts described by Sowers and

Calkins, they generally smile and nod in agreement or state, "Yes, I've seen that type of

text and can certainly relate to what these researchers have identified." The two types of

texts they found, and we have confirmed in our findings are "all about book"(Sowers)

[level 7] and "bed-to-bed" (Calkins) stories [level 9]. A model which attempts to

tentatively organize and highlight progressions is helpful to a teacher for understanding

where his/her students have been, are that moment, and may possibly progress by

themselves or with some adult or peer guidance and assistance. In our analysis, we have

attempted to create a model which highlights the incremental progressions we observed.

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To cite our case studies across the continuum. I'll begin with Jeffrey, whose first

texts encompassed levels one and two with dictations taken to describe the drawing of a

scene frozen in time (Dyson, 1989). The first dictation was very brief, but the next few,

with adult interaction and questioning included a little more elaboration. As noted on the

continuum, exophoric reference with demonstrative and personal reference was used in the

text, since most of the textual meaning was embedded in the drawing.

Ashley's first texts began at level four with staccato-like statements resembling a

primer controlled reader. Perhaps this format occurred due to her willingness to use only

the words she could correctly spell. But within a few weeks her texts progressed to levels

six and seven with patterned texts (recurring subject/verb patterns) using an attribute textual

format of an "all about" book. Cohesive devices were primarily personal and

demonstrative reference and conjuntive ties, mainly and. The illustrations were sometimes

created after the text and tended to enhance rather than extend the text.

Michelle's first texts began at level ten with focused chaining of events in a

wordless picture book. However, from that time on, her books began to incorporate a text

which complemented the illustrations in offering a detailed and more focused slice of a

"bed-to-bed" text During Autumn Quarter, the opening elements of a story grammar

(Hasan, 1985) appeared in her texts with a brief placement and initiating event and

sometimes a well-developed final event and even an occasional finale. However, the

middle section or sequent events of the story grammar were often weak and illogical.

Cohesion was achieved through numerous devices: personal and demonstrative reference,

varied conjunctions (additive, adversative, causal, and temporal), substitution, and lexical

renaming.

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By the end of the school year, Jeffrey, when his attitudinal problems didn't hamper

writing, was capable of composing texts of level six with a patterned subject/verb and the

object changing. Many of these texts were topically centered on a subject such as Ninjas

and trolls, similar to an attribute book which moved them to the next level of seven which

centers and focuses on a topic to offer what a child knows about the subject. This was the

same writing level employed by Ashley in her early texts.

Ashley ended the school year creating texts of level ten with focused, chaining of

texts to encompass one event. She used large chunks of dialogue to assist her in centering

on her theme and to link the sentences. As noted in the aforementioned account of

Michelle's level ten texts, Ashley also included beginning and ending elements of a story

grammar. Also, she tended to use many borrowings from the book that were read aloud in

the class for textual ideas, such as characters, setting, or a new episode. Ashley ended the

school year at the level Michelle began the school year.

Our continuum ends with level twelve, identified through analysis of Michelle's

final texts. Level twelve incorporates a primitive narrative with all of the essential elements

of a story grammar included. The earlier difficulty displayed in the illogical sequent events

seems to have been overcome by this level. The middle section, although still brief,

contained a focused theme for coherent development of the plot to a climax and also a

logical resolution of the final event In the previous level, eleven, Michelle used mainly

dialogue in the middle section to carefully and in a focused fashion link sentence to

sentence. However, during this same time frame, she used the narrator's stance of the

third person for the opening elements. Finally, in her primitive narratives of level twelve,

she successfully moved the narrator's voice into the sequent events to weave dialogue in a

more realistic literary style thoughout. By this level of attainment, Michelle was using

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many cohesive ties — personal and demonstrative reference, conjunctions, substitution,

lexical renaming, and ellipsis.

All of the continua emerged from our interactions and observations of the children

along with the analysis of their texts and are contextually dependent. The levels noted

along each continuum are tentatively offered as ways of understanding and monitoring

development These continua are intended for use by researchers as a tool for

understanding the complexity of writing development and for mapping progress in

conceptual understandings. Also, teachers should find it useful for noting individual

progress in conceptual understandings for pedagogical decisions and assessment purposes.

However, these continua have not been developed to teach writing in a lock-step

fashion nor to be used for a scope and sequence chart for direct teaching methods of

isolated concepts. The hierarchical, recursive, static, and individualistic patterns of writing

identified in this inquiry should forewarn teachers, researchers, and publishers that

teaching of isolated concepts would not assist the integration and interplay of conceptual

understandings inherent in the complexity of writing. Although, the concepts can be

hierarchically arranged along a continua, the recursiveness of learning coupled with static

periods of repetition and recurrence leading to internalization of concepts, and the

individualistic progress along varying continua, highlight the need for these concepts to

interact and operate simultaneously.

Varied Concepts Are Reflected in the Process and Texts

The third part of question number one required us to take the dimensions or

conceptual understandings a step further to analyze how they were reflected in the

composing process and the texts children composed The interplay among the continuua at

varying levels of development along each provides a rich developmental view of writing.

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As Robin and I interacted with beginning writers like Jeffrey, it was difficult to try to

separate what were the concepts they were struggling to understand as we assisted them in

creating a text. The conceptual understandings that are needed to compose a text are so

tightly woven that finding threads to pull apart was an intricate task in developing the

continua of multiple conceptual understandings. In responding to the previous research

question, each thread or continua was cited and examples offered. Now, the threads will

be woven back into a perspective which will allow a view of the complexity of these

interwoven textures as a child created a particular text.

Many examples were described earlier in the recursive, static, and individualistic

patterns. However, I will share an additional example for each case study to highlight the

interplay and interweaving of the continua. These samples are individualistic patterns and

reflect the cognitive processing of one case study at a particular point in his/her

development. Reflecting back to the class composite, we found that some children could

more easily understand and incorporate certain conceptual understandings than other

children, reflecting the uniqueness of each individual.

As shared in the case study analysis of Jeffrey on October 2, he created a level three

text entitled The Bad Pumpkin comprised of a brief telegraphic message. This impersonal

text attempted to describe in minimal words what was occurring in his illustrations.

Throughout the composing process, Jeffrey was intermittingly assisted by adults. Adults

repeated the statements he offered in describing his drawings, such as the initial statement.

This is the bad pumpkin. After each word was streteched for spelling purposes, the

statement was reiterated.. Also, the adult helped him to locate on his alphabet strip the

appropriate letter for the sound-to-symbol correspondence he made for each phoneme.

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Taking into consideration each concept which came into play in this collaboration,

we find on the continua "Alphabetic Principle and Ability to Write the Letters of the

Alphabet" that Jeffrey operated on level two in which an adult was needed to stretch, to

assist approximations of sound-to-letter correspondences, and to help identify the letters on

an alphabet strip to form the letter in print. Regarding "Word Knowledge through Invented

Spelling," Jeffrey had gained in his knowledge of sound-to-symbol correspondences and

worked at a level two of early phonetic spelling, but with adult assistance in segmenting

phonemes, this text was written at a level three, letter name stage. On the continuum

"Concept of Word or Voice-to-Print Match," he had progressed to level two where he

could point to the words and reread chorally with the adult and occasionlly knew to place a

space after each word. "Fluency through Rereading in the Composing Process" was at a

level three since this was not a dictated text. This is actually the lowest level with the child

writing his own text and demonstrates the inability of a beginning writer to hold a sentence

in his mind while struggling at the lowest levels in the aforementioned continua to write one

word. Adult assistance with rereading the sentence supported him in composing more than

a one or two word label. On the continuum "Awareness of Conventions: Conventions of

Books, Mechanics, and Story Book Language," Jeffrey was at level one and used only the

story book convention, the end.

On October 10, Ashley wrote a text entitled Pumpkin Book which incorporated

elements of level seven on the continuum "Sense of Story and Textual Development" The

text offered a listlike collection of statements regarding her feelings and experiences

centering on pumpkins. No cohesive devices were used and consequently the attribute

statements could have been reordered and not effected the content. On the continuum

"Alphabetic Principle and Ability to wrtie Letters of Alphabet," Ashley had reached the

highest level of internalization of this concept which supported her strong letter name

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spelling abilities on the continuum "Word Knowledge through Invented Spelling

Development." Two other concepts also had attained the highest levels and appeared to

operate automatically. These were "Concept of Word and Voice to Print Match" and

"Fluency through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process." Ashley was one of the

first children in the class who could lead the voice-pointing charts and point to individual

words, even multisyllabic words, as she read. Fluency in rereading was observable in her

flipping back to reread aloud what she had previously written before she added a new page.

Regarding the use of conventions on the continuum "Awareness of Conventions:

Conventions of Books, Mechanics, and Story Book Language, she used the first five

conventions — the end, title, author, periods, and capital letters to begin the sentences.

"Collaboration in the Process" had reached level five in which she valued peers

contributions for textual topics. However, interactions during the composing process

tended to cause her to add unrelated material to her book or to abandon the text to begin a

new one.

In the creation of her February 17 Mystery Mouse's Valentine text, Michelle

developed a level ten text which borrowed mouse characters and ideas from the plot of a

book Robin had read aloud to the class. The text contained all the elements of a story

grammar and offered rich folk tale quality in the placement and initiating event from a

narrator's perspective. However, the sequent events became muddled and lost the focused

chaining. Then she switched to a dialogc mode to resolve the conflict. As mentioned

earlier, the middle section or sequent events in a level ten text lacked coherence. In other

conceptual areas displayed in the composing of this text, Michelle had attained the highest

levels on all the other continua except "Word Knowledge through Invented Spelling" and

"Awareness of Conventions." In her use of invented spelling in this text, she used letter

name and early within word strategies. The conventions incorporated in the text ranged

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from levels one through sixteen with correct ending punctuation and capital letters for

beginning sentences and proper names, title, author, and quotation and ellipsis marks.

These case study examples offer a view of how the varied concepts or multiple

continua of conceptual understandings were interwoven in the comp>osing process and the

resultant texts.

Collaboration and Interaction

The final research question focused on eliciting the types of interaction that occurred

and the types of collaboration or inteaction that supported progress over time. This

question was incorporated into the "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings in the

Writing Process" as we realized that collaboration and interaction fostered development and

was tied so closely to many of the beginning conceptual understandings needed to compose

a text. We desired to identify levels of interaction which supported development and

therefore moved this coding category into the multiple continuua to plot progress along

conceptual understandings. In this way, for any text that was composed, we could check

the levels on each continuum, including the interaction which assisted the composing

process.

Summary

The research questions guided the inquiry and provided a foundational framework

to provide a focus for observing writing development across time. The overarching

findings we have drawn from the huge body of descriptive analysis offer many insights

into the conceptual understandings involved in the production of a text along developmental

continua. The descriptive accounts coupled with the aforementioned significant findings

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add to the limited body of research regarding developmental progress in writing of

individuals across time.

CHAPTER VII

IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY

A Summary of Intent of the Inquiry

The purpose of this study was to explore patterns in children's writing development

over a yearlong inquiry in a first grade classroom which offered rich literacy experiences.

Robin and I had hoped to provide thi ough the study insights which would prove to be

useful for classroom researchers and teachers in discerning the multiple and diverse

conceptual understandings that children must grapple with and internalize in writing

development We found the delineation of multiple continua for conveying progress in

conceptual understandings, for mapping development, and for drawing relationships

among the various concepts to be helpful to us as researchers and hopefully for others.

Not only were we interested in understanding the progression of various conceptual

understandings and their interconnections, but also, how we as teacher-researchers could

support and meet the needs of children to assist them in their literacy journey.

Before the analysis of the data was shared in Chapter V, we foregrounded the

influence of several theories, seemingly at odds, but from which certain elements were

valued and contributed to shaping our study. First, from a Piagetian perspective, we

observed and interacted with children to understand the background knowledge they

brought to the writing process. Then taking into consideration their prior knowledge,

Robin built her curriculum to offer a rich literate environment which would foster

development. Along with this understanding of prior knowledge, we valued allowing

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children to progress at their own pace and not conform to a class standard. We believed

that a child operates from his/her personal strengths or prior knowledge to construct

meaningful relationships between known and unknown as the he/she progresses in literacy

understandings

However, from a Vygotskian (1978) perspective, we carefully observed and

interacted with the children to ascertain where an adult or more capable peer could assist an

individual in his/her "zone of proximal" development. As mentioned in the analysis,

occasionally in peer conferencing, we offered more advanced conceptual understandings

which the child did not seem to be able to incorporate along with the struggles of

understanding other concepts.at the same time. When this occurred, we simply stepped

back, reevaluated the situation, and assisted the child in the conceptual area that he/she now

seemed to be cognitively foregrounding. In this way, we assisted children to develop

strategies to progress along the continua. Thus the teacher-researchers and more capable

peers assisted children in the learning process to assimilate or accommodate (Piaget, 1979a)

understandings. Our guiding maxim was — "The child is the informant. Follow his/her

lead." Children corrected our misjudgments, and we listened. We, as semioticians

(Newkirk, 1989; Smith, 1987; Harste, 1984), observed and related to the signs children

extended us.

Throughout the aforementioned process of student-to-teacher interactions, we

acknowledged and incorporated elements of Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories. However,

our perspective also encompassed a semiotic view of literacy as influenced by the signs

children displayed and relayed in the context of the situation. The children brought to the

learning situation the literate culture from their homes, and Robin created another literate

culture which she believed from her training would enhance their development Thus the

descriptive information in this study endeavored to highlight the individual differences of

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the case studies, as well as the effect of the classroom offerings and collaborative, social

interactions with peers during the writing workshop.

Throughout the discussion of this inquiry, attention was given to convey the role of

the co-investigators as ethnographers and action researchers. As ethnographers, we tried to

understand what occurred and the meanings of phenomena through dialogic relationships.

As collaborative action researchers, we tried to ascertain through problem-solving the

conceptual grapplings of the children in the writing process. Based on our analysis of the

observations and discussions with the children, in a cyclical pattern of data feedback, we

adjusted the instructional strategies to accommodate the needs of the children. Then,

reflecting on practice (Schoen, 1973), we discussed the effect of our interactions as we

analyzed and compared data to further enhance development through large group

conferences and models of writing in the books Robin read aloud. In this decision-making

process, Robin and I continuously discussed and collaborated to adapt the curriculum to

meet individual needs as well as setting more global goals for the class composite. Robin's

foremost goal was to assist her children's writing development. I became a sounding

board, a collaborator, and support system for Robin.

The collaborative process of inquiry, as action researchers, assisted in the

acquisition of scientific knowledge as we daily gained insights into the writing process and

began to identify the "Multiple Continua of Conceptual Understandings of Writing

Development"

The following quote by Ferreiro (1990) summarizes succinctly the intent of our

study as we developed theories about writing development "Many things are not

observable when we do not have a reliable theory to interpret them. Many things remain

unnoticed if we do not have the possibility of making sense of them" (p. 23).

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Overview of the Implications

Writing is a dynamic, complex multidemensional phenomenon. This inquiry

illuminated the complexity of the multiple conceptual understandings involved in the

writing process and revealed through a yearlong inquiry the progress and shifts of these

understandings within three case studies. The knowledge gained from this study adds to

the body of research literature in the following three areas:

— Writing development and related pedagogical issues;

— General pedagogical issues;

— Collaborative action research.

Implications for Writing Development and Related Pedagogical Issues

(1) The use of case studies offers valuable insight into individual learning and

growth. These three case studies provided the thick description and indepth information

which revealed to us the multiple continua functioning within the writing process. The

individual differences of the case studies afforded us an insightful view of incremental

gains in progress along these continua. While generalizations may not be made from these

three case studies, the close examination through the case studies does offer real-life,

holistic description which adds to the body of research to apply at a more macro level. The

detailed observations and analysis of texts over a yearlong inquiry can inform researchers

and teachers of the struggles and gains with conceptual understandings in writing. More

case studies are needed which view the child as the informant in the complex phenomena of

writing to develop more generalizabiliy.

2. Few writing studies have encompassed a broad view of writing to include all the

inherent and complex variables of conceptual understandings and how these

understandings interacted with each other across time. This study attempted to bring all

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these complexities into view through the descriptive data shared in the case studies. Then

we lifted from the data the discrete conceptual understandings and organized them in a form

which assisted our analysis. With the structural format of continua, developmental learning

patterns were observable and describable.

Many studies have been useful to teachers for looking at one aspect of writing, such

as, spelling or visual features of print However, teachers need a more global view to

understand the interplay of the conceptual understandings at varying levels of development

in order to assist children. This study offered a more global view which permits teachers to

draw comparisons to students in their classrooms. For instance, if a teacher found in our

research a text which was comparable in form to those a particular student in her classroom

was constructing during a particular time frame, then the teacher could read the

accompanying descriptions of conceptual understandings and progressions which might

offer useful insights.

3. We developed and tested a model as pertinent conceptual understandings of

writing development emerged. This model of "Multiple Continua of Conceptual

Understandings in Writing Development" permitted us a way to catalogue systematically

the configurations of the various concepts inherent in the writing process. In creating the

continua, we limited the conceptual understandings to seven major categories for our

analysis purposes. However, other conceptual understandings and further refinement

could be added to the model which will be discussed later. Nonetheless, our model proved

useful for our analysis of the various concepts involved in the writing process.

Another asset of the model was the descriptive incremental levels along each

continuum that permitted us a way to note progress, leveling, or even regressions.

Progress was not simultaneous nor linear along each continuum but rather reflected

naturally-occurring shifts and fluctuations. For example, if a child switched cognitive

443

focus to another conceptual understanding of a slightly higher level, then his progress

along one continuum might drop back several levels to a pattern which had been

internalized and required less cognitive processing. Also, the continua were useful to note

major developments and what conceptual understandings contributed to the

accomplishments.

With the model of multiple continua, we could plot the length of time and the

concepts involved when children seemed to come to a standstill in their progress. Those

junctures in their literacy learning displayed repeated copying, repeated themes, and

repeated patterns at varying levels of developmental progress. Each time progress appeared

to come to a halt, we were reinforced in our theoretical beliefs that consolidation in learning

was taking place. After a short respite of repetitive and recurring activity, we found a

consolidation of learning had occurred which contributed to transposing one or more

patterns of conceptual understandings from outward cognitive focus to internalization

where the act could be performed automatically. This insight could alleviate much of the

frustration and worry that teachers feel when a student seems to be at a standstill in his

learning and simply repeats and repeats his/her previous learning.

Apparently some continuity holds true for the descriptive progression along the

continuum "Sense of Story and Textual development" since Jeffrey began at level one and

ended the school year at level seven, Ashley began at level seven and ended at level ten,

and Michelle began at level ten and ended the school year at level twelve.

Perhaps our model will prove to be effective for other researchers to incorporate or

use as a springboard. For teachers, the continua may prove useful for understanding the

multiple conceptual understandings within the process. The descriptive incremental

progressions along the continua could also prove useful for teachers to discern

developmental levels, and thus make informed decisions for developing strategies and set

444

fair expectations for children who might be at earlier developmental levels on continua.

Also, teachers could better comprehend the interplay of the concepts and the resultant

textual product

4. This study adds to the body of literature in writing development in two new

areas. First, we identified the importance of the rereading strategy on the continuum

"Fluency through Rereading of Text in the Composing Process" for holding a sentence in

mind while stretching and spelling words to add on the next word. Later in the

developmental progression, we noted that rereading builds the fluency for developing more

coherent texts as listed in our incremental progressions on the continuum.

Through our analysis of the data within the early developmental phases of writing,

the interaction and interplay of the rereading concept with other concepts, such as concept

of word, alphabetic principle, and word knowledge through invented spelling, brought to

the forefront the importance of assisting children to develop strategies to move this

conceptual understanding to internalization. The progress of children at risk, such as

Jeffrey, could be greatly enhanced with assistance in the early phases of writing

development to build strategies in fluency through rereading and thus complement

understandings in the other conceptual areas. We hope teachers will be able to test the

strategies we found useful in accommodating the children's progress along the various

continua.

The second area which offers new contributions to the body of knowledge in

writing is the continuum of "Sense of Story and Textual Development." No research that

we have encountered has discussed a progression in this area with thick description of the

story grammar, cohesive devices, types of illustrations, use of dialogue and the many other

changes across time. Perhaps our contributions in this area will assist other researchers to

look more closely at these developments. The developmental progression in textual form

445

that we have offered may vary due to the classroom context. For instance, if a teacher

assigns writing topics or offers writing prompts for specific genres rather than allowing

children to self-select as in this classroom, then the progressions we found may be skewed.

5. Perhaps in future studies the two continua, "Awareness of Conventions" and

"Sense of Story and Textual Development" could be further elaborated and further refined

with subcategories or separate categories. For instance, "Awareness of Conventions"

could be subdivided into the three distinct types of conventions we identified in the study as

follows:

(a) book conventions, such as author, illustrator, and book dedications noted;

(b) mechanics, such as punctuation and capitalization;

(c) story book conventions, such as once upon a time and they lived happily ever

after.

With these subdivisions, perhaps progressive knowledge could more eaily identified and

also be corrolated to textual development or teacher conferences.

The other continuum which might be enhanced with further subdivisions is "Sense

of Story and Textual Development. Perhaps the categories could reflect progress in the

following areas:

(a) developmental changes in illustrations as related to textual development;

(b) development of cohesive devices;

(c) development within different genres, such as notes, lists, expository

texts;

(d) progress in revising to note when children move from mechanical

revisions to textual revising.

446

6. We found the range of literacy development, across reading, writing, and

spelling, varied within individuals. The most advanced writer in the class was ranked in

the moderately high range in spelling with seven other children at a higher level; while in

reading she ranked in the high range but with five children ranked higher than she. Further

research is needed to learn if this diversity in the range of literacy development within

individuals holds true. This type of information would be invaluable to classroom

teachers' understanding of literacy development.

7. One of the focal points of this study was the child as an active constructor of

knowledge and how adults and peers could contribute to the learning process. As we

discovered the children's conceptual understandings of written language's functions and

forms, we tried to support and extend those concepts, rather than letting the child feel that

he/she was all alone in his/her struggles. Perhaps, the examples of our interactions and

support will prove useful to teachers in assisting children in developing strategies for each

conceptual understanding.

Implications for General Pedagogy

1. This study adds to the body of literature regarding the teacher as a reflective

practitioner. A reflective practitioner, such as Robin in this study, adapts strategies to suit

individuals and adjusts the curriculum to meet more global goals of the collective body. A

reflective practitioner considers the child as an informant who guides practice. Perhaps

other educators can relate to the understandings we gained in reflecting on the children's

struggles and progress as well as our interactions for guidance in both direct and indirect

ways. Our style of reflectivity and action may assist teachers in developing their own

personal understandings of literacy and build more reflection into their teaching and

planning.

447

2. The descriptions of this inquiry attempted to convey to the reader the classroom

environment and climate which Robin created. The context of this research was a key

factor in acquiring data which permitted the insights we gained into writing development

Robin's primary goal was to provide an environment which fostered literacy development

and a climate which facilitated this progress. Robin created a supportive setting with

realistic social settings to encourage peer and teacher interactions in the writing workshop.

Implications for Collaborative Action Research

This study documented the roles of the researchers as collaborators or co

investigators in action research which was devised to better understand development in the

writing process and to emancipate the curriculum from the status quo to daily adjust the

curriculum, pedagogy, and interactions to support the process. With this goal, we

endeavored to meet the needs of children through individual assistance with strategies and

with more global planning for the entire class. The instructional strategies were adapted

and the curriculum changed as knowledge was gained through data analysis, reflection on

practice, and the co-investigator's discussions. The record of our collaboration, the action

in the process, and the scientific knowledge generated is documented and can add to the

body of knowledge in collaborative action research. The explanations of data collection,

analysis, and member checks offer a format to consider for future collaboration between

public schools and universities.

448

Some Boundaries of the Study

1. The context of this study provided the rich data needed to inform writing

development. Robin offered an amazingly rich literacy environment through the 800

volumes of children's literature she had purchased, the daily and multiple opportunities to

hear quality children's literature read aloud, the many and varied responses to literature she

offered, and the literature-based curriculum. Children had many encounters with fine

literature which enhanced their knowledge about writing through the registers of written

language, extensive vocabulary, different genres, sense of story, concepts about print,

sound-to-symbol correspondences, and textual ideas, such a setting, characters, and plot.

2. Reactivity was a reality in this inquiry. We foregrounded from the onset of the

study that our intent was to ascertain the conceptual grapplings (understand) within the

writing process and then assist children in developing strategies (participate) for progress in

their conceptual understandings. The descriptions of our interactions and the children's

reactions were carefully noted throughout the text

3. The collaborative nature of this action research project was unusual. The

presence of an additional knowledgeable adult who could interact and assist children with

conceptual understandings was an asset to creating and facilitating the emergent theories.

With two adults collecting and discussing data, we were able to develop substantive theory

that focused on the particular setting and subjects we were studying. And in the post-site

analysis, I was able to develop formal grounded theory through the continua and multiple

patterns of writing development.

4. The collaborative nature of this action research was also unique in that it

permitted Robin to emancipate and transform the curriculum to daily meet the needs of her

children. The process of this inquiry "assist[ed] in practical problem solving" and

"enhanc[ed] the competencies of the respective actors" (Kelly, 1985, p. 3) for self

449

understanding. The research process did "re-orient, focus, and energize the participants in

what Freire (1973) terms 'conscientization,' knowing reality in order to better transform it"

(Lather, 1986a, p. 67). After observations each day, we discussed, reflected on the

process, and brainstormed pedagogical strategies. Then Robin would make the final

pedagogical decision to enhance individual understandings through a one-on-one

conference, a large group conference on some particular aspect of writing, or a reading of a

book which demonstrated a particular conceptual understanding, such as a folk tale for

building a concept or sense of story.

5. The continua offered in this study have not been fully refined. As noted in the

Implications as well as Questions for Further Research, some conceptual understandings

could be further subdivided and incremental progressions noted along each, as well as

noting any correlations among them.

Questions for Further Research

1. Does oral language development affect progress in writing development? If

there is a correlation, what strategies might assist development in this area?

2. Is there a correlation between the developmental levels of drawings, especially

in regard to research in the area of development in construction of the human body over

time, to the levels of writing children produce?

3. Are the multiple continua of writing development transferable for research in

other contexts, especially whole language classrooms, and are they helpful for further

understandings of writing development?

4. What further refinement of conceptual understandings could be lifted from the

continuum "Sense of Story and Textual Development" to form other categories or

subcategories?

450

5. Is there a correlation between the progression of conventions (conventions of

books, mechanics, and story book language) and the developmental level of the text? Is

there a correlation between the progression of conventions and teachers conferences

requesting the use of conventions? Is the transfer of knowledge from teacher conferences

on the topic of conventions retained over time if the textual development is of a lower level?

6. Would parent interviews to ascertain background of literacy experiences be

helpful in classroom literacy instruction and for requests for parent participation in literacy

events in the home to enhance writing development?

7. What further knowledge of writing development could be gained from more

collaborative action research uniting classroom teachers and the university?

Summary

This inquiry was initiated with the goals to understand children's writing

development and to improve strategies for teaching. Many insights were gained through

the persistent engagement of four to five days per week for an entire school year. This

longitudinal study offered the co-investigators the time to develop collaborative techniques

and interactions which evoked substantive and formal grounded theory which can add to

the body of literature regarding writing development, related pedagogical issues, and

collaborative action research.

We gained a better understanding and appreciation of the conceptual grapplings that

children must process to gain understandings in writing. Realization of the multiplicity of

these understandings and the interplay produced a feeling of awe as we regarded the

abilities of these young children.

451

As a university researcher, I gained intimate understandings and an appreciation for

classroom practice. A teacher's role is complex with the daily decision-making process for

merely the writing curriculum in creating a rich literacy environment, planning and adapting

the curriculum to accommodate needs of individuals and the whole class, reflecting on

development for twenty-three children, and daily making pedagogical decisions to enhance

all children's progress.

The findings of this study are not definitive but rather offer some insights into

writing development and the related conceptual understandings. However, the inquiry

raised many questions that require further study. We encourage other researchers to build

upon the understandings we have brought to the forefront. More longitudinal studies

which note children's progress in writing across time are needed.

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