Innovation in Examining Children’s Development of Written Composition Across Preschool

• In Event: Advances in Writing Development and Assessment from Preschool to Elementary Grades

Abstract

Background: Despite the importance of writing to emergent literacy, little is known about the development of children’s compositional skills (Quinn & Bingham, 2019). This is especially troubling given the rigorous composing demands evident in the Common Core State Standards at Kindergarten entry (Tortorelli et al., under review). It is critical to understand the development of this important literacy skill over the preschool year. Research often addresses composing by looking at children’s decontextualized writing products, however, preschool-aged children are often writing unconventionally and using a combination of writing, drawing, and oral language to create their messages. Thus, developmentally, it is more theoretically sound to examine the changes and developments in children’s writing processes in order to understand change over time.
Method: A diverse sample of 472 preschoolers (M age = 55m beginning of the year) were assessed three times during the preschool year using a writing assessment that captures both transcription (i.e., handwriting and spelling), writing concepts, and composing (Kaderavek et al., 2009; Kim, 2020). Because oral language is a key feature of early composing (Kim, 2020), the composing assessment asked children to supply oral language outputs in addition to written products. Composing was coded according to the degree to which children were able to ‘match’ oral and written outputs to each other and the task context.
Results: Growth curve modeling was used to determine change over time in children’s approaches to composing. Preliminary results suggest growth over time in composing. This growth is impacted by initial concepts of print and transcription skills. Classroom differences will be further examined. Preliminary analyses provide considerable information about the development of early writing composition suggesting that most children begin preschool with limited composing skills and develop differentially based on initial related skills and classroom opportunities and supports.

Authors

• Margaret Ferguson Quinn, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
  Presenting Author

• Gary E Bingham, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ryan Bowles, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author