How do I write . . . ? Scaffolding preschoolers’ early writing skills

Cabell, Sonia Q., Tortorelli, Laura S., & Gerde, Hope K. (2013). How do I write . . . ? Scaffolding preschoolers’ early writing skills. The Reading Teacher,66(8), 650-659.


This concise but packed-full article provides clear, useful information on early writing development, as well as teaching suggestions for scaffolding the writing development of young children at various stages in the developmental process. The authors outline four sequential stages of writing development and describe what kinds of writing behavior children may demonstrate during each stage. They then provide a brief but salient case study of a child at each of the four levels, and discuss specific ways each child could be provided with scaffolding that will “bridge” the transition to the next developmental stage. There is an extremely helpful table on page 854 that summarizes the instructional goals for each developmental stage, and then outlines instructional suggestions that correspond to three mainstays of the early childhood classroom: centers, journals, and Morning Message. I can envision early childhood teachers printing the page with this table on it and using it as their own scaffold—for instructional planning. Because it is keyed to instructional frameworks that are part of most early childhood settings, it has a ring of authenticity and usefulness that I think will resonate with early childhood teachers.

I only have one thing I could wish for in this article. That would be for the authors to extend the developmental sequence a bit further. Children in early childhood settings have a wide range of ability levels, as the authors state early in the article, which is part of the immense challenge of teaching in early childhood settings. I suggest that this variation is even wider than what the authors here account for in their developmental framework. I propose that at least two more stages be added. The authors provide information on these stages: Drawing and Scribbling, Letters and Letter-like Forms, Silent and Beginning Sounds, Beginning and Ending Sounds. Those work for me as far as they go, but I have personally worked with preschool children who were already beyond the Beginning and Ending Sounds stage. I would follow that stage with a stage called Matching Letters and Sounds, in which children try to achieve a one sound/one letter correspondence. I have documented this in a case study of a child who spelled “letters” as “LADRZ” and “John” as “GAN”. She used all caps just as I did here, and did not yet leave spaces between words. This stage represented this child’s development of full phonemic awareness. I would then add another stage, called Noticing and Replicating Patterns. To illustrate this stage, I would provide examples from a case study child who wrote “sgool” for “school” and “haws” for “house”. The child showed by her writing that she was noticing words in her environment and using what she noticed to predict how words were spelled. She had begun to put spaces between words and even made a few attempts at using punctuation marks. She was developing awareness of individual words and beginning to understand the idea of related groups of words, perhaps even sentences. She was realizing that at least in English, words are not always spelled as we might logically sound them out, but there are regularities and certain letter combinations that are often used to represent certain sounds. In the previous stage of Matching Letters and Sounds, the child almost trustingly relied on a one sound/one letter correspondence, but the child in the Noticing and Replicating Patterns stage has noticed that that kind of correspondence may not be relied upon all the time, and that sometimes we have to look at larger chunks of letters.

To scaffold a child in Matching Letters and Sounds to the next level, I propose judiciously showing the child examples of conventionally spelled words in naturally occurring contexts such as books and environmental print such as signs and wall charts. Ask the child what he/she notices about the words as you read and say them together. As the child seems receptive, and very sensitively, one might compare conventional words with the child’s invented spelling attempts, always praising the child’s reasoning very highly when a letter-sound correspondence is logical and sensible, not just when an invented spelling matches a letter in the conventional spelling. In my view, children’s invented spellings often make much more sense than conventional spelling does! This is probably the right stage to point that out, making sure that all comparisons between invented spelling and conventional spelling are done in ways that are sensitive to the child’s development and respectful of his or her thinking.

When a child starts writing using patterns like those I suggest for the Noticing and Replicating Patterns stage, I maintain that the child is showing us that she is noticing words and their regularities and irregularities, and that she may be ready to begin working on conventional spelling. As a literacy educator, I often am asked when it is time to begin working on conventional spelling and moving away from purely invented spelling. Prospective teachers often worry that if they wait too long, the child will never spell conventionally, which will be detrimental to later school success. Still, they don’t want to be developmentally inappropriate and cause stress by requiring conventional spellings too soon. My answer is always that if you observe a child’s writing closely, the child will tell you when he or she is ready for conventional spelling. Writing “sgool” for “school” or “haws” for “house”, adding a silent e when there is no need for one, or double consonants, or a number of other conventions that go beyond one letter/one sound correspondence are strong clues that the child is ready. The child is probably asking “How do you spell this word?” quite often at this point. To scaffold the child toward conventional spelling, move slowly and once again sensitively and respectfully, but now the child is ready to be shown many conventionally spelled words. This is the stage where word walls have the most benefit, and where activities using word families and “onset/rime” activities would help the child. Start with simple letter “chunks” like –at, -ing, and –ump, and gradually move up to some of the more irregular but repetitive chunks such as –ight or even –ought and –ould.

I know the authors intended to target their framework specifically toward preschool for this article, and I understand the need to keep the focus there. Even so, the framework as given in the article seems incomplete to me, and I am certain it would miss some children who might be found in preschools. With the addition of a couple more stages, the framework might be extended to kindergarten and early elementary grades, which would make it even more useful than it already is.

It has been a long time since I last felt strongly enough about an article to give it the Recommended tag, but I wholeheartedly do so for this one. There is plenty of useful, solid information presented in a clear, accessible form, plus real-life examples and plenty of classroom ideas. Even though I wish it went further, I intend to share this article widely with my colleagues and students, and have added it to my “keeper” file.