The early writing skills of children identified as at-risk for literacy difficulties

Thomas, Leiah J.G.; Gerde, Hope K.; Piasta, Shayne B.; Logan, Jessica; Bailet, Laura L.; Zettler-Greeley, Cynthia M.

doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2020.01.003

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…There is, however, wide variation across children’s writing skills during this period (Diamond, Gerde, & Powell, 2008; Puranik & Lonigan, 2011). In particular, children from low–socioeconomic status backgrounds (Kim, Puranik, & Al Otaiba, 2015), children at risk for later reading difficulties (Thomas et al, 2020), and students with language impairments (Cabell, Justice, Zucker, & McGinty, 2009; Puranik & Lonigan, 2012) often develop at different rates than their typically developing and more economically advantaged peers, indicating that many children may need consistent scaffolding and support to develop writing skills in preschool and elementary settings. Thus, it is important to examine the standards that guide this support to identify how they align with both theory and writing development across the early childhood period.…”

Section: Writing Development Across Early Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready, Set, Write: Early Learning Standards for Writing in the Common Core Era

Tortorelli

Gerde

Rohloff

et al. 2021

Reading Research Quarterly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Early writing skills are among the strongest predictors of later reading and writing achievement; however, these crucial skills are often neglected in early childhood classrooms. In this article, we present a systematic, quantitative content analysis of early learning standards (for ages 3-5) in states that were using the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts at the time of analysis. We identified 458 discrete early learning writing standards across 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Head Start (publication dates ranged from 2004 to 2018). We coded standards for the domains of writing skills addressed (transcription, composition, and/or writing concepts) in two stages, human coding and computer-assisted coding, and we coded some standards as addressing multiple domains. Results indicated that more than half (53.7%) of early writing standards addressed transcription. Composition was addressed in 38.4% of the standards and writing concepts in 26.6%. Within the transcription category, 95.4% of the standards addressed handwriting, and only 12.3% addressed spelling. More standards addressed handwriting specifically than all composition skills combined. The early learning standards across states varied considerably in how well they aligned with the Common Core for the early elementary grades (K-2). Early childhood standards rarely asked young children to create their own texts, whereas the Common Core includes expectations for composing in multiple genres. Early learning standards provided little guidance for comprehensive writing instruction that integrates writing skills across domains, and indicated potential misalignment in how writing is conceptualized and taught in preschool and elementary contexts. Early writing skills are among the strongest predictors of later reading and writing achievement (Aram, 2005;Kim, Al Otaiba, & Wanzek, 2015; National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). Even after controlling for socioeconomic and home literacy factors, differences in early writing skills tend to be stable over time, such that children who begin at a disadvantage are unlikely to catch up to peers who begin with stronger writing skills (Abbott, Berninger, & Fayol, 2010). Unfortunately, national test results have indicated that 72% of fourth graders and 76% of eighth and 12th graders do not achieve the proficient level in writing (Malkus, 2014;Persky, Daane, & Jin, 2003;Salahu-Din, Persky, & Miller, 2008). The genesis of writing skills in early childhood and the relative stability of early performance to later achievement highlight the need to develop sensitive and comprehensive approaches, guided by learning standards, to supporting children's writing across this period.Conceptualizations of writing in early childhood have clear implications for how early writing is supported and measured in classroom contexts (Ng,

show abstract

Section: Writing Development Across Early Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready, Set, Write: Early Learning Standards for Writing in the Common Core Era

Tortorelli

Gerde

Rohloff

et al. 2021

Reading Research Quarterly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A language is a tool for interacting and communicating to express and convey the contents of thoughts. In learning Indonesian, writing skills are crucial so students can convey thoughts, ideas, feelings, and opinions through writing (Parra & Calero, 2019;Thomas et al, 2020;Thompson & Childers, 2021). Specifically, learning to write explanations in the fifth grade of elementary school should be carried out based on the right steps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self Regulated Development Learning Model Based on Local Culture to Improve Elementary School Students’ Explanatory Writing Skills

Kharisma

Hartati²,

Damaianti³

et al. 2022

JCT

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study aims to develop a learning model to improve elementary school students' explanatory writing skills. This development research used the Plomp model (preliminary research, prototyping phase, and assessment). Data collection techniques were carried out by interview, observation, and documentation study. The data collection tool employed was a written test sheet for students’ explanatory writing skills. After conducting a needs analysis, it was found that the explanatory writing material is new in elementary school. Thus, the students' explanatory writing skills in this study were very low. The teacher then needed a model focusing on the students' development in explanatory writing skills. This research, therefore, produced a learning model of self-regulated strategy development based on local culture to improve the explanatory writing skills of elementary school students. This model can motivate and increase students’ confidence in writing by choosing several strategies provided and measuring, analyzing, and activating early abilities, thereby increasing students’ content knowledge. The results also revealed an increase in students’ explanatory writing skills. Moreover, this special model pays attention to how to write explanatory in elementary school. Further, this model cannot only be used in elementary schools but can also be used at higher school levels. Therefore, future researchers are advised to conduct research by testing the effectiveness of learning models with similar themes at higher school levels.

show abstract

“…According to Thomas et al (2020), inspecting children's early writing skills, especially for those who have been identified as at-risk for later literacy difficulties, is essential to understanding potential differences in the early writing of the children. In line with this, from 2009 until 2019, Malaysian schools have a program called Literacy and Numeracy Screening (LINUS), which helped to screen students with difficulties in literacy for both Malay language and English language as well as numeracy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Problems in Writing among Year 2 Pupils in a Malaysian Primary School

DAWAWI

Yamat

2022

JELTAL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This preliminary study aims to identify the problems in writing faced by Malaysian Yea 2 pupils in a primary school. A document analysis design was employed to gather qualitative data from 75 participants who were purposively selected due to accessibility. The main instruments used in this study are the reports from English School-Based. The pupil’s essays and worksheets were then analyzed. Findings revealed that 58.67% of the students are only at Band 3 in the School-Based Assessment (SBA) for writing skill performance which indicates that they were only at a satisfactory level. Analysis of the pupils’ work revealed a clear problem with writing skills; where 36 out of 72 (50%) pupils were not able to write simple sentences properly. This implies that early intervention is needed to cater to this issue.

show abstract

The early writing skills of children identified as at-risk for literacy difficulties

Cited by 29 publications

References 53 publications

Ready, Set, Write: Early Learning Standards for Writing in the Common Core Era

Ready, Set, Write: Early Learning Standards for Writing in the Common Core Era

Self Regulated Development Learning Model Based on Local Culture to Improve Elementary School Students’ Explanatory Writing Skills

Identifying Problems in Writing among Year 2 Pupils in a Malaysian Primary School

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About