Early writing: Mark my words

Careful planning will give children the first-hand experiences they need to start learning about writing, says Julian Grenier

One of the most important conclusions of the recent report on the early years by the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Employment was, 'The vast majority of professionals believe that numeracy and literacy in the foundation stage should be introduced informally, especially through play, games and informal conversation.'

A consensus is beginning to emerge: children's ability to learn how to write will actually be inhibited if they are subjected to over-formal teaching of letter shapes and sounds in their early years. This view is perhaps most powerfully expressed by the American National Association of State Boards of Education, which says that worksheet-based teaching of basic literacy is 'shockingly unstimulating to children and fails to extend their thinking'.

In its references to writing, the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage emphasises the importance of practitioners providing a rich environment that will engage with children's early interest in making marks and writing.

Resources that support children's early interest in writing will allow them to play with familiar writing scenarios: there will be message pads near telephones, forms to fill out, paper for shopping lists, diaries and notebooks.

Children will also have plenty of paper, in large and small sizes, and plenty of different materials to make marks with and write, ranging from ordinary pencils and pens to large paint brushes and marker pens.

But practitioners should realise that providing resources is only one part of their role. Children will not learn about writing simply by coming into contact with well-stocked and well-organised writing and mark-making areas. They will also need carefully planned first-hand experiences.

Many will be able to draw on their experiences of seeing adults using writing for different purposes at home, from notes jotted down to writing essays for college or presentations for work. These experiences are supplemented when practitioners make children aware of how and when they write for different purposes: writing observations, putting signs up, or making lists of things to remember. Visiting the school office, or a local travel agent, or a post office, will give the children even more first-hand experiences to use in their play.

In addition to providing these resources, it is essential that practitioners recognise children's learning, and use this recognition when interacting with them. For example, a child might use dynamic actions with a pencil to make meaning. A series of rapid lines across a page may represent a car's movement.

Sometimes you can hear children talking as they make marks and can tune in to what they mean. Sometimes you can gain further clues if you have a shared experience, such as a recent bus ride. A useful interaction style is to try, sensitively, to converse with the child about exactly what she or he is doing.

You could use comments like 'I'm really interested in all those lines going across the page'.

Careful observation can also show when children are beginning to make marks on the paper to stand for words they are thinking, or saying. Maybe there will be one mark or cluster of marks on the page for each word in a familiar and rhythmic song like 'Humpty Dumpty'. You could show that you recognise what a child is doing by saying the words of the rhyme while rhythmically pointing to each cluster of marks.

In general, once children can use their own systems of representation fluently, they can benefit from being taught directly about conventional writing. But encouraging children to develop their own systems for making meanings is the most important role of the practitioner in the Foundation Stage. As Barry Sheerman, chair of the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Employment, comments, 'Some people believe that the earlier you start children reading and writing and doing formal instruction the better. All the evidence that we took, from every side, goes against that argument.'

Julian Grenier is deputy head of the Woodlands Park Nursery Centre, part of the London Borough of Haringey's Early Excellence Network

Further reading n The Art of Childhood and Adolescence by John Matthes (Falmer Press, 1999) gives a fascinating account of children's developing drawing and writing.

Case study: Nicolina Nicolina is at the very beginning of the Foundation Stage - she has just had her third birthday. Growing up in a multilingual household where English, Croatian and Azari are spoken, Nicolina brings diverse experiences of language and communication to Woodlands Park Nursery Centre. Her parents say that she loves climbing and dancing when she is with her family, and that she has begun to be interested in letter shapes. She knows that 'N' can stand for Nicolina, and has also noticed that 'Z' is like 'N' but the wrong way round.

Her interest in how things turn around is also illustrated by the many observations by staff of her early writing at nursery, which describe how she creates lines of circles arranged like writing. Furthermore, her awareness of how objects look when they are flipped over has been deepened by the way she often chooses to make butterfly pictures, folding her paintings in half to print symmetrical images.

Jenny, Nicolina's key worker, builds on these important home experiences in her planning. She plans lots of experiences around going up and down, using PE apparatus and soft play equipment. Nicolina sends cars, balls and lentils down old bits of guttering that Jenny sets up. Crates in the garden, Duplo bricks in the nursery room, and wooden blocks enable Nicolina to explore making different types of towers. Jenny also plans for Nicolina to dress up and dance with her friends. Jenny ensures that resources are available for Nicolina to make symmetrical pictures of butterflies and rainbows at quiet points of the day, so that they can talk together about what she is doing.

Ten key points These points are intended to be possible starting points for discussion at a staff meeting, or with parents and carers.

1. Do you plan first-hand experiences of writing in real contexts for the children through visits to offices, shops and post offices?

2. Are children able to help themselves to a range of well-organised resources for making marks in all areas of the room? For example, have you tried notepads in the home corner, clipboards in the construction area and register sheets for the children to fill in?

3. Are children's marks and early writing treated as serious attempts to convey meanings? Are they displayed as respectfully as the conventional writing of older children would be?

4. Are there opportunities for parents and carers to discuss how you support children's mark-making and early writing?

5. Do you provide resources for mark-making and early writing outside? These could include pads of parking tickets, and big bits of card to create road signs.

6. Are you able to spend time observing children to observe their individual ways of representing ideas with marks, drawings and early writing?

7. Are you able to relate the early writing of bilingual children to the written script of their home language?

8. When children want to achieve something particular, like writing their name, are they helped and taught directly?

9. Are children encouraged to make their own signs, for example to label a model or to create a sign in the outdoor area?