Adding Words to Our Writing

Children have been busy working on detailed drawings, books, and messages all year.  They have done observational drawings, and made pictures and books about experiences.  They have recorded information that they have learned, and created fictional books and drawings.  

In preschool, our major focus is not on writing words, but more on the composition and structure of our drawings and stories, as well as the habits that will help children to become strong writers as they grow and move through school: organizing thoughts, reflecting, striving for clarity, connecting and synthesizing.  

We teach children to work with care and persistence, to plan, to make multiple drafts, to edit, to change and add details--all skills and habits that writers must have in order to produce quality work. (These habits are very important in many other domains of learning as well.)  We also work on story structure: stories have a beginning, middle and end. Stories follow a storyline, have characters, and very often have a conflict and resolution.  Children quite capably do all of this work with pictures alone.

Illustrations of a great story about birds.
(Look out for this drawing later in the blog to see some additions!)

But some children are developmentally ready to add words to their work and we want them to be able to do that independently, in the same way that children are able to sit down and create a picture story independently.  So some children in the Sky and Trees Class have begun to use what we often call “invented spelling.”  It may seem foreign, but it is just what we want them to be doing!  

Thinking about the sounds in a word.

The way it works is that a child will want to write something and a teacher may work with that child to say the word and ask, “What sounds do you hear?”  When a child says a letter or sound, the teacher might respond, “Put it down!” and the child proceeds to write the letter he or she hears.  

Saying a letter sound and writing it.  

It may not always be the right letter.  For instance, a child might be trying to spell jaguar. As she says it, the sounds she hears might be G-A-G-W-R.  Now gagwr certainly is not the correct spelling but it contains all the right sounds in this word.  This work is actually really terrific phonics practice and will help children to continue to develop a strong knowledge of letters and sounds.  

Beginning the word LEGO, using invented spelling.

Very soon, many children do not need any help from an adult to use invented spelling and they will be able to write lots of words on their own.  Some children may only write one letter, often the first sound, for each word.  

Do you see the Bs and Rs for the word ROBBER?

Other children may put beginning and ending sounds.  Children may not put spaces between words, so it may look like a long string of letters.  

What is this story about?
"Little Red Riding"...and you know what will come next!

Some children may not be ready at all to write words using invented spelling, for a host of reasons, including worrying about “getting it right.” At this point, all of this is okay.  

Book Title: The Robin's Nest

The joy and excitement of being able to develop and convey a story is very powerful!  One child was able to write these sentences (among others) independently using invented spelling: “The bird never left her nest again.  And they hugged each other.”  Imagine how limiting it would be  if she had to rely on knowing how to spell all of those words or how long it would take to ask how to spell each word.

As the teacher, I do not want to hold all the power and I want children to feel that they are capable of working independently without me telling them how to spell each word.  And one of the great joys of using invented spelling is that children are also often able to read what they have written and share the words with someone else.  

A child reading back her writing. 

Reading a word.  

If you are unable to read what your child has written using invented spelling, you might say, “Will you read me the story?” or “Tell me what is happening on this page.”  

Remember the photo at the beginning of the blog?
Can you read the word "Blue Jay" that is now part of the story?

Invented spelling is something that children will use in kindergarten and beyond, along with learning how to spell words correctly. If a child asks if something is spelled correctly, you can just say, “You put down the sounds you know and you wrote jaguar! For right now, that is how you can write all by yourself!” (And make it very exciting--it is!)  Children will learn how to spell words correctly, but they cannot possibly correctly write all of the details and rich storytelling language that is in many of their stories if they are to rely on adults and proper spelling.  The process would be too slow and they would lose interest.  We do encourage invented spelling and it will not hinder children’s spelling development.  Spelling is a whole other topic and area to tackle that will come later.  

By now,  you may even be able to read this page!
(If not, look below for the translation.)

So, you may see some work with words that puzzle you, but know that if children are ready and interested, we are encouraging them to use invented spelling as they write!

Answer: BDGi=bad guy!!!