Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8

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.

"The second edition of Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8 is a truly important contribution to our understanding of writing in early childhood. The chapter authors couple research-based insights about what young children are learning about writing with innovative ideas for supporting young children’s joyful participation as writers."Deborah Wells-Rowe, Carolyn M. Evertson Professor in Teacher Education, Vanderbilt University, USA"This book is a must-read for anyone interested in teaching writing. Grounded in deep and informed understanding of what it means to become a writer, this book situates writing within the context of diverse communities and diverse writing modes, and explores writing development from birth through to middle primary school."Debra Myhill, Professor Emerita of Language and Literacy Education, University of Exeter, UK"Specialists in early years literacy education bring extensive and varied knowledge and experience to the wide-ranging chapters in this new edition, successfully melding research and practice. The resource is both scholarly and accessible; it contains valuable insights for practitioners and others supporting the development in young writers of this most complex act."Judy Parr, Professor Emerita, University of Auckland, New Zealand"Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8 provides us with a comprehensive account of how to best foster children’s written expression, accompanied by sage advice to guide our efforts in doing so. I cannot recommend it too highly!"Peter Afflerbach, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, USA

• ForewordChapter 1: Introduction to Understanding and Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8Chapter 2: Drawing and writing: Journeys, transitions and milestonesChapter 3: Discovering writing birth–2 yearsChapter 4: Writing in the preschool yearsChapter 5: Developing authorial skills: Child language leading to text construction, sentence construction, and vocabulary developmentChapter 6: Developing spelling skillsChapter 7: Handwriting, keyboarding, or both?Chapter 8: Assessing writing: Practices to support young writersChapter 9: Teaching writing Chapter 10: Draw, Talk, Write, and Share (DTWS)Chapter 11: Young children creating multimodal stories in their home, school, and digital spacesChapter 12: Supporting plurilingualism in young writers Chapter 13: When learning to write isn’t easy