Florida's Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program
Emergent Literacy for VPK Instructors
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Emergent Writing

Key Instructional Strategies Promote Emergent Writing Skills

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Shared Writing

Related Standards

Standard: V.A.1 - Shows motivation for reading.

Standard: V.B.2. Uses letter-like shapes, symbols, and letters to convey meaning.

Standard: V.B.4. Shows knowledge of structure of written composition.

View Explanation of Standards

 

Shared writing is a strategy for teachers and children to work together to write a message. Shared writing is an opportunity for you to show children different reasons for writing and how to record messages on paper. You are showing children how to form letters and how to put letters together to write a message. You are showing children the various reasons we have for writing.

During shared writing, you write on chart paper or another surface which is large enough for all children to see. Model the writing process by thinking aloud while writing.

For example, you could start by saying, “That was so nice of Jill’s mom to send us cupcakes for snack-time today. Let’s write her a thank-you note. Let’s see, a thank you note always starts with ‘dear’. I need to start up here at the top of the page. Hmm.... /d/ /d/ /d/ What letter do I hear at the beginning of ‘dear’? Oh, that’s a 'D'!”

Focus your think-aloud demonstrations on what the “next step” in writing would be for your students. Children observe how to plan, organize, and record their thoughts by watching your writing demonstrations.

During shared writing, children learn:

  • that we can write what we can say, and that others can read what we write
  • that print is organized from left to right and top to bottom
  • that we leave spaces between words
  • how letters are formed.

Children begin to make connections between letters and sounds and they may even learn the spellings of some commonly used words (like "Dear").

Interactive Writing

Interactive writing is similar to shared writing except that you are “sharing the pen” with your students. As you “share the pen,” you will pause and think aloud and ask students questions like "What letter should record that sound?" "How do we spell this word (cat)?" "What should we do when we finish a word?" "What mark should we put at the end of this sentence?" As you ask these questions, students will tell you what they think and you will offer them the pen to write it down.

 

 
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