Abstract
In this paper, we report on the first phase of an initiative we undertook to develop a classroom tool to document and describe children’s emergent writing. Here, we describe the process through which we developed an analytic framework to assist us in identifying patterns in young Indigenous and non-Indigenous children’s graphic representations in response to three formal tasks. Participating children lived in 11 northern, rural communities in two Canadian provinces. The resulting patterns, consistent with those described in the literature on children’s emergent writing, suggest the need to explore further how children use the verbal mode while representing meaning graphically.
Highlights
Researchers working within an emergent perspective of writing understand young children as meaning makers, capable of producing a variety of socially situated textual forms that reflect their basic understandings about writing (Harste, Burke, & Woodward, 1982; Kress, 1997; Sulzby, 1985)
As researchers participating in a partnership project to support the oral and written language of northern rural and Indigenous children through play, we wanted to build on these recent assessment frameworks to create a tool that will assist participating rural and northern teachers in documenting their students’ graphic representations during classroom writing activities
Rather than selecting participants from urban centres, we chose to work with an underrepresented group of children, Indigenous and non-Indigenous children living in northern rural communities
Summary
Researchers working within an emergent perspective of writing understand young children as meaning makers, capable of producing a variety of socially situated textual forms that reflect their basic understandings about writing (Harste, Burke, & Woodward, 1982; Kress, 1997; Sulzby, 1985). Researchers have sought to create organizational frameworks for understanding aspects of young, English-speaking children’s written representations (e.g., Mackenzie, Scull, & Munsie, 2013; Rowe & Wilson, 2015). These studies tend to be urban-centric and focus primarily on children’s written responses to formal tasks administered in a one-on-one setting. As researchers participating in a partnership project to support the oral and written language of northern rural and Indigenous children through play, we wanted to build on these recent assessment frameworks to create a tool that will assist participating rural and northern teachers in documenting their students’ graphic representations during classroom writing activities.
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