Promoting Early Writing Skills through Morning Meeting Routines: Guidelines for Best Practices

Abstract

Observational studies suggest that early writing instruction rarely occurs in early childhood classrooms, despite the importance of supporting young children’s writing development. Morning Meeting Time (MMT) routine is a typically occurring large group activity in early childhood classrooms that is interactive and familiar to teachers and children. Because it is interactive, occurs daily in most preschool classrooms, and is comprised of regular routines that can easily be modified, MMT provides a meaningful context for promoting young children’s writing development. This article describes the characteristics of MMT, discusses the rationales for infusing interactive writing instruction into MMT, and provides seven research-based guidelines for adding writing to MMT in early childhood classroom environments.