Abstract
Given the interrelated role of writing and the development of early literacy skills, recommendations have been made to increase instructional writing experiences in K-2 classrooms. In an effort to increase the amount of writing in the primary grades that leads to later literacy success, it is important that teachers engage in instructional practices that align with how early writing skills develop in young children. To this end, early childhood teachers and teacher educators can benefit from an enhanced understanding of the writing instructional practices teachers have engaged in and the associated challenges they have experienced as they respond to the expectation to increase writing experiences in their classrooms. Thus the purpose of this study was to examine how five K-2 teachers perceived, implemented, and reflected on writing instruction in their classrooms. Using a case study design, researchers examined interview, survey, and observational data, resulting in an in-depth description and analysis of the writing instructional experiences of these five teachers. Qualitative analyses identified two meta-themes related to writing instruction: opportunities and obstacles. Implications for K-2 teacher preparation and professional development are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
All names in this article are pseudonyms.
References
Applebee, A., & Langer, J. (2006). The state of writing instruction in American schools: What existing data tell us. Albany, NY: Center on English Learning and Achievement.
Aram, D. (2005). Continuity in children’s literacy achievements: A longitudinal perspective from kindergarten to school. First Language, 25, 259–289.
Atwell, N. (1987). In the middle: Writing, reading and learning with adolescents. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, Boynton/Cook.
Berninger, V., Rutberg, J., Abbott, R., Garcia, N., Anderson-Youngstrom, M., Brooks, A., et al. (2006). Tier 1 and tier 2 early intervention for handwriting and composing. Journal of School Psychology, 44, 3–30.
Billen, M. T., Wilcox, B., Bahr, D., Shumway, J., Korth, B., Yates, E., et al. (2011). Instruction and physical environments that support process writing in elementary classrooms. In T. Morrison, L. Martin, M. Boggs, & S. Szabo (Eds.), Literacy promises (pp. 101–116). Commerce, TX: Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers.
Brandt, D. (2001). Literacy in American lives. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bridge, C. A., & Hiebert, E. H. (1985). A comparison of classroom writing practices, teachers’ perceptions of their writing instruction, and textbook recommendations on writing practices. The Elementary School Journal, 86, 155–172.
Cahill, S. M. (2009). Where does handwriting fit in? Intervention in School and Clinic, 44(4), 223–228.
Calkins, L. M. (1994). The art of teaching writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Calkins, L. M. (2010). Units of study for primary writing: A yearlong curriculum. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Cecil, N. L. (2003). Striking a balance: Best practices for early literacy (2nd ed.). Scottsdale, AZ: Holcomb Hathaway.
Clay, M. (2001). Change over time in children’s literacy development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2011). Common core standards for English language arts. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org.
Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (Eds.). (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8 (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: NAEYC.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. C. (2007). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Craig, S. A. (2006). The effects of an adapted interactive writing intervention on kindergarten children’s phonological awareness, spelling, and early reading development: A contextualized approach to instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 714–731.
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cutler, L., & Graham, S. (2008). Primary grade writing instruction: A national survey. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 907–919.
Diamond, K. E., Gerde, H. K., & Powell, D. R. (2008). Development in early literacy skills during the pre-kindergarten year in head start: Relations between growth in children’s writing and understanding of letters. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 467–478.
Dickinson, D. K., & Neuman, S. B. (2005). Handbook of early literacy research (Vol. 2). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Dyson, A. H. (1993). Social worlds of children learning to write in an urban preschool. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Dyson, A. H. (2001). Writing and children’s symbolic repertoires: Development unhinged. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (Vol. 1, pp. 126–141). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Elliott, E. M., & Olliff, C. B. (2008). Developmentally appropriate emergent literacy activities for young children: Adapting the early literacy and learning model. Early Childhood Education Journal, 25, 551–556.
Farnan, N., & Dahl, N. (2003). Children’s writing: Research and practice. In J. Flood, J. M. Jensen, D. Lapp, & J. R. Squire (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts (2nd ed., pp. 993–1007). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fletcher, R., & Portalupi, J. (2001). Writing workshop: The essential guide. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. In C. Geertz (Ed.), The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays (pp. 3–30). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Gerde, H. K., Bingham, G. E., & Pendergast, M. L. (2015). Reliability and validity of the Writing Resources and Interactions in Teaching Environments (WRITE) for preschool classrooms. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 31, 34–46.
Gerde, H. K., Bingham, G. E., & Wasik, B. A. (2012). Writing in early childhood classrooms: Guidance for best practices. Early Childhood Education Journal, 40, 351–359.
Gilbert, J., & Graham, S. (2010). Teaching writing to elementary students in grades 4–6: A national survey. The Elementary School Journal, 110, 494–518.
Graham, S., Harris, K. R., MacArthur, C., & Fink, B. (2002). Primary grade teachers’ theoretical orientations concerning writing instruction: Construct validation and a nationwide survey. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27, 147–166.
Graves, D. (1983). Writing: Teachers and children at work. Portsmouth, NH: Heinmann.
Hall, A., & Grisham-Brown, J. (2011). Writing development over time: Examining preservice teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about writing. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 32, 148–158.
Hall, A. H., Simpson, A., Guo, Y., & Wang, S. (2015). Examining the effects of preschool writing instruction on emergent literacy skills: A systematic review of the literature. Literacy Research and Instruction, 54, 115–134.
Hammill, D. (2004). What we know about correlates of reading. Exceptional Children, 70, 453–468.
Haward, S., Peterson, N., Korth, B., Wimmer, J., Wilcox, B., Morrison, T. G., et al. (2014). Writing instruction in elementary classrooms: Why teachers engage or do not engage students in writing. Literacy Research and Instruction, 53, 205–224.
International Reading Association, & National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1998). Learning to read and write: Developmentally appropriate practices for young children: A joint position statement, adopted May, 1998. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSREAD98.PDF.
Jalongo, M. R. (2000). Early childhood language arts (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Martin, L. E., & Thacker, S. (2009). Teaching the writing process in primary grades: One teacher’s approach. Young Children, 64, 30–35.
Mayer, K. (2007). Emerging knowledge about emergent writing. Young Children, 62(1), 34–40.
McGrath, C. R. (1996). Writing: The most powerful tool. Writing Teacher, 9(5), 30–31.
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Mo, Y., Kopke, R. A., Hawkins, L. K., Troia, G. A., & Olinghouse, N. G. (2014). The neglected “R” in the time of the Common Core. The Reading Teacher, 67, 445–453.
National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and College. (2003). The neglected “R:” The need for a writing revolution. Mt. Vernon, IL: College Entrance Examination Board.
National Early Literacy Panel. (2008). Developing early literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/documents/NELPReport09.pdf.
Neuman, S. B., Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (2000). Learning to read and write: Developmentally appropriate practices for young children. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
Norman, K. A., & Spencer, B. H. (2005). Our lives as writers: Examining preservice teachers’ experiences and beliefs about the nature of writing and writing instruction. Teacher Education Quarterly, 32(1), 25–40.
Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42, 533–544.
Puranik, C. S., Lonigan, C. J., & Kim, Y. (2011). Contributions of emergent literacy skills to name writing, letter writing, and spelling in preschool children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26, 465–474.
Reutzel, D. R. (1997). Integrating literacy learning for young children: A balanced literacy perspective. In C. H. Hart, D. C. Burts, & R. Charlesworth (Eds.), Integrated curriculum and developmentally appropriate practice: Birth to age eight (pp. 225–254). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Ritchey, K. D. (2008). The building blocks of writing: Learning to write letters and spell words. Reading and Writing, 21, 21–47.
Schickedanz, J. A., & Collins, M. F. (2013). So much more than the ABCs: The early phases of reading and writing. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Simmerman, S., Harward, S., Pierce, L., Peterson, N., Morrison, T., Korth, B., et al. (2012). Elementary teachers’ perceptions of process writing. Literacy Research and Instruction, 51, 292–307.
Smith, F. (1994). Writing and the writer. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Strickland, D., & Townsend, D. (2011). The development of literacy in the elementary school. In D. Lapp & D. Fisher (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts (3rd ed., pp. 46–52). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis.
Templeton, S., & Morris, D. (1999). Questions teachers ask about spelling. Reading Research Quarterly, 34, 102–112.
Tolchinsky, L. (2006). The emergence of writing. In C. A. MacArthur, S. Graham, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Handbook of writing research (pp. 83–85). New York, NY: The Guildford Press.
Tompkins, G. (2012). Teaching writing: Balancing process and product (6th ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Watanabe, L. M., & Hall-Kenyon, K. M. (2011). Improving young children’s writing: The influence of story structure on kindergarteners’ writing complexity. Literacy Research and Instruction, 50, 272–293.
Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (2001). Emergent literacy: Development from prereaders to readers. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (pp. 11–29). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Wilcox, B., Morrison, T. G., & Wilcox, R. T. (2008). Trends and issues in 54 years of NRC publications: 1952–2006. Presentation at the meeting of the national reading conference, Orlando, FL.
Zumwalt, K., & Craig, E. (2008). Who is teaching? Does it matter? In M. Cochran-Smith, S. Feiman-Nemser, & D. J. McIntyre (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (3rd ed., pp. 404–423). New York, NY: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Korth, B.B., Wimmer, J.J., Wilcox, B. et al. Practices and Challenges of Writing Instruction in K-2 Classrooms: A Case Study of Five Primary Grade Teachers. Early Childhood Educ J 45, 237–249 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-016-0774-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-016-0774-1