Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8

Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8 provides practitioners with the knowledge and skills they need to support young children as they learn to write. This fully updated second edition offers new guidance on all aspects of writing, from building children’s vocabulary and creating multimodal texts to providing support for children who find writing particularly challenging. All chapters have been revised and updated with increased emphasis on engaging with families and catering for children from diverse communities. A new chapter focuses on the Draw, Talk, Write, Share (DTWS) pedagogical approach to teaching writing.

The book discusses the role of oral language in early mark-making and writing in detail and explores the key relationships between "drawing and talking," "drawing and writing," and "drawing, talking, and writing." Each chapter also features practical strategies and samples of writing and/or drawing to illustrate key points, as well as reflective questions to help the reader apply the ideas to their own setting. Further topics covered include:

• progressions in children’s writing
• writing in the pre-school years
• developing authorial skills
• developing phonological awareness, phonics, and spelling
• handwriting and keyboarding skills
• teaching writing to plurilingual learners
• assessing writing

Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8 is a contemporary and unique resource that will help early childhood educators, early years schoolteachers, specialist practitioners working with very young children, and students enrolled in Early Childhood or Primary Studies courses to boost their confidence in teaching young learners as they become writers.

Noella M. Mackenzie is an Associate Professor (adjunct) at Charles Sturt University, Australia. She is an experienced literacy educator and researcher. Noella’s research, which is largely focused on the learning and teaching of writing, is informed by her ongoing work with classroom teachers and early childhood educators.

Janet Scull is an Associate Professor at Monash University, Australia. She is an experienced tertiary literacy educator with a rich background in practitioner research. Janet’s research explores language and literacy acquisition processes and practices that support the continuity of children’s learning across early childhood settings and the early years of schooling.