Writing child study - Employment

Child’s pseudonym: Nadjib
Child’s age and grade: 7 years old; 2 nd grade
Writing Profile
View of self as author/writer and attitude towards writing (reported identity in interview and observed)
Observations/examples
Nadjib says from our writing interview that he likes
to write and its fun, but from my kidwatching notes I
can see a pretty big disconnect from what he says
about writing and what actually happens when it’s
time for him to write. He also told me he thinks the
reason to write is to get ideas from his head onto
paper but I also notice he has trouble doing this
because when he sits down to write a story all he can
write is a few sentences.
Interpretations
Although Nadjib says he likes writing and that its fun for him
I see a disconnect when it’s actually time to put words on
paper. He gets frustrated and can’t think of anything to write.
Buckner poses the idea that writing fluency is just as
important as reading fluency. It helps the writer get thoughts
onto paper and minimize forgetting ideas. Nadjib told me this
is what writing is for, to express ideas but he has trouble doing
this. Buckner says, “Being able to think and write at the same
time—getting words on a page, writing a paragraph, a page, or
even a couple pages in one writer’s workshop—is an
important skill for students to develop” (2005, p. 6). This
statement describes writing fluency and the importance of it.
Nadjib has a hard time writing anything more than a couple
sentences, he writes sentence by sentence pausing for a long
time between them to think of what to say next. When he gets
a couple down, and puts his pencil down saying that he’s
finished. I can see that writing is very frustrating for him and
does not seem “fun” like he says it is. This is why I think
working on his fluency would help him enjoy writing more
because it would enable him to write easier, faster, and help
transition the flow of thoughts in his head into making
sentences out of them. Buckner confirms by ideas about
fluency in stating, “When I think about my most reluctant
writers, I realize they are the ones who don’t write fluently.
They have trouble thinking of what to write, or how much to
write, or forget what they wanted to write” (2005, p. 7).
Recommendations
The way I would address writing fluency for Nadjib would be to start him with a writer’s notebook. The act of note
booking will help him practice writing, in whatever form he wants. Buckner poses the idea, “It’s the act of writing—
the practice of generating text and building fluency—that leads writers to significance” (2005, p. 7). By simply
practicing writing he will become more comfortable the idea and also learn what he likes to write about most. Buckner
explains many different strategies for writing in a writer’s notebook that would work well for helping generate ideas
to write about. My favorite one that would work well for Nadjib is the one where she has students put their name or a
family members name on the top of a notebook and write about it, how they got the name, what they like or don’t like
about it, or write about a nickname. I know Nadjib would like this strategy because he talks about his family a lot. I
would have him begin his writer’s notebook by writing about something in his comfort zone first. Then, I would move
to something more out of his comfort zone which may include writing a list of words down like best experiences,
favorite words, or favorite action heroes and then write an entry about them.

General Observed Writing Behaviors: Consider Turbill and Bean Chapters 3-4, how would you describe the
child’s knowledge and engagement with writing? What does the child think writing is (e.g.: as production? As a
process? A combination?).
Observations/examples
Interpretations
From observing Nadjib and the answers I got from
his writing interview, I would have to say his
revisiting approaches to writing instruction are a
combination of all three: writing as a production,
writing as creativity, and writing as a process. I can
see different parts of his writing that match each
revisiting approach. The coding of his interview also
strengthens my argument by him scoring a 7 on both
mechanical and process focuses.
Recommendations
I can see that Nadjib engages with writing as a combination of
all three revisiting approaches of writing as a production,
writing as creativity, and writing as a process. Turbill & Bean
state, “Another characteristic of writing as production is that
students need to be given a topic and ideas for writing” (2006,
p. 23). Whenever I try to get him to write he never knows
what to write about. He will sit there and sit there until I give
him some sort of idea or topic. I can tell that he is used to
having teachers give him a simple topic or writing prompt
when he writes.
My reasoning to think he writes as a creativity is because as
Turbill & Bean explain, “Creative writing approaches focus
mostly on imaginative or fictional writing to the exclusion of
nonfiction, expository, and other kinds of writing” (2006, p.
27). I can try my hardest to get him to write something other
than fiction but it simply will not happen. He gets really
fidgety and can’t concentrate which ends up in both of us
frustrated. He also fails at understanding how to incorporate
spelling, grammar, and punctuation into his writing. This is
another aspect of writing as creativity, as Turbill & Bean state
in Chapter 3.
The results in coding his writing interview also indicate that
he is split between a mechanical focus and a process focus. He
scored a 7 on mechanical focus meaning he sees the” ability to
spell the most frequently used words in English” (Turbill &
Bean, p. 23) because he says his dad writes down words he
doesn’t know how to spell or he looks at the word wall. This
points some of his revisiting approach as writing as
production. He also scored a 7 on process focus indicating he
is focused on meaning. Turbill & Bean also propose that
writing as a process means “Their ideas come from their many
experiences of life around them” (2006, p. 27). This is
strongly related to how he only wants to write stories about his
family and it’s very difficult for me to get him to write about
anything else.
I think to get Nadjib to start thinking about writing more on the terms of the writing process I need to help him
become more familiar with it. I printed off a copy of the writing process for him so he can physically see it as we went
through the process checking off each step as we go. Chapter 4 of Turbill & Bean confirm my reasoning behind this
by saying “Effective writers need to have an understanding of the process of writing, including an understanding of
why it is important to learn to spell, punctuate, and understand appropriate use of grammatical features” (2006, p. 39).
If he sees an end or a purpose for writing instead of always just writing something to make the teacher happy, I think
it will really help him put more thoughtfulness into his writing.

Knowledge about genres and functions of writing (reported in interview and observed): What purposes does the
child set for her/himself as a writer? What do observed behaviors show you what he/she knows about genres and
functions/purposes of writing?
Observations/examples
Interpretations
Nadjib says the purpose of writing is to get smarter.
I’ve noticed that he doesn’t fully understand genres
of writing partly because he didn’t understand
genres in reading. To help him understand the
difference between genres, we read some poems and
a fictional story book. After we were done, I made
sure he understood that poems were much different
than stories and explained to him the different genres
by giving him the definition of fiction: any story that
has events that are not factual but rather imaginary.
Then I explained to him that nonfiction is exactly
opposite. When asked what genre he thinks his story
is he said he didn’t know but after given the
definition of fiction and reading the fictional story
book he was able to connect that his story too, was
fiction. So this told me that he did understand what
fiction was so I showed him a book of nonfiction to
really help him understand different kinds of writing
and how that story was different than fiction and
poetry.
Recommendations
Buckner states, “They do not naturally think about what they
know as readers to help them write for an audience of readers”
(2005, p. 78). I think this is important to Nadjib’s writing
because he doesn’t see the connection between reading and
writing for an audience and how they go hand in hand. In
other words, he knows there is a reason why people write (to
get smarter) but he doesn’t understand a clear purpose.
Buckner articulates, “Understanding the elements of different
genres enables writers to develop their writing appropriately”
(2005, p.75). It is important that Nadjib understands what is
needed in a fictional story so he is able to make his story be
the best that it can be. This includes developing his characters,
the problem in his story, and also what steps will be taken in
order to solve the problem. These are all elements we worked
on in the prewriting phase. After we figured out that his story
was fiction, we did an exercise from Buckner relating to genre
strategy and made a three column chart to help him think
about what he knows as a reader to help him write. The first
column was what I can expect as a reader, the middle was
features of fiction (title, characters, problem, and solution) and
the last column was how this helps me as a writer.
This exercise hits both on understanding genres and also
connecting reading with writing to help him understand that
the purpose of writing is to create something that someone
else is able to read and “get smarter” as he would say it.
I think the exercise I used from Buckner regarding the three column chart was a little too advanced and difficult for
Nadjib to understand its purpose. A better choice for trying to show him how reading and writing is connected might
be to use Fletcher & Portalupi’s (2001) technique on using literature during a workshop mini lesson. They say reading
aloud a book like An Angel for Solomon Singer by Cynthia Rylant that shows time passing by illustrating four
seasons onto one page through one short sentence. I would explain how the author slows down important parts (like
when Solomon met Angel) and then sped up parts that didn’t need to be detailed (p. 79). By demonstrating how an
author in a book we read together uses a specific technique in her writing it would potentially show Nadjib that
reading and writing is connected. I could use this technique in several genres as well to show how there are different
techniques that are used throughout all different genres.
Use of writing process: before writing (consider prewriting and brainstorming activities…possibly some
drafting).
Observations/examples
From my experience with Nadjib’s writing in the first
part of the semester I knew Nadjib was going to have
Interpretations
Since I knew it was going to be difficult for Nadjib to come

trouble coming up with a topic. I told him he could do
anything he wanted, he could make a comic book,
write a story, a poem…just anything he can come up
with. He wanted to write a story about his family
which wasn’t a surprise to me because from the writing
interview and from previous experience with
kidwatching, I knew this was probably coming. I also
observed even with having a topic, usually it was still
hard for him to come up with a story line, characters in
the story, or the setting. Normally he would have no
setting present in the stories he writes.
Recommendations
up with a story line for the story because usually all I can
get out of him is a couple sentences, I printed him off a
graphic organizer to help him organize and generate ideas
because Gretchen said in the beginning of the semester they
were a great teaching tool.
One was a web with the topic in the middle and anything
related to the topic went in the surrounding boxes. I did this
just to get him thinking about unique things about his
family. Buckner says, “people do not see themselves as
writers because they believe they have nothing valuable or
of interest to others to say” (2005, p.9). This is why the first
graphic organizer was so important. It got him thinking
about specific things that his family does so he could see
that if I was interested in these things then anyone else
reading his writing will be too. The next graphic organizer
had boxes for characters, setting, a problem, events, and a
solution. I knew this was an important prewriting strategy
because from previous stories he has written, he only
includes one character, fails to include much detail, and
doesn’t have a beginning middle and end. This tells me he
needs help with building elements in the story and further
exercises with helping him think about these elements in
greater detail. Once we got it all filled out I had him begin
to write his story. Basically when he was done writing the
story all I had was a duplicate of the last graphic organizer
in a different format. Buckner explains, “…students keep a
notebook like a journal—they write in it and that’s the end
of it—your students’ work will improve” (2005, p. 35). The
story Nadjib wrote about his family going to the park I
found out was something they actually do. This makes his
story like a journal of personal experiences. Since it was
pretty basic and only had a beginning, middle, and end with
no detail I knew it was a good start and in the revision
process we would have a good chance to add some details
and make it meatier.
The next step I am going to take is going to come from Buckner’s ideas for adding detail and expanding topics. It
works simply like this: write as many three-word phrases as you possibly can about the topic in three minutes
(Buckner, 2005). I think this will encourage him to think deeper about his story and see how he can fit more detail into
what he already has written. Another thing that would work great for Nadjib that I found out about after we were
already past the revising stage and working on typing the final draft would be to incorporate Hindly’s idea of using
slow motion from her video we watched in class. In this, I would tell him to think about a specific part of the story and
write about it as if it is happening in slow motion. This would help him really think about that one part of the story in
great detail and help him see that detail is important for the reader to be able to imagine what’s going on his story.

Use of writing process: during writing (consider drafting, revising and editing).
Observations/examples
Since I noticed from his other stories he has trouble
adding detail about different elements within a story it
came as no surprise to me that this story was no
different. His first draft of his story was this:
me my brother go down the slide at the same time
won of us will get hrut my mom and dad come help
us up We go home my dad das exercises we play out
side and play with the leves
As you can see his story had no punctuation, few
capital letters, and some misspelled words. I also
noticed Nadjib fails to include any dialogue into his
writings.
Recommendations
Interpretations
Since his story really only consisted of what he put down on
the graphic organizer I knew he needed to expand on his
ideas a great deal. Buckner expresses, “If a reader is to be
able to see the story in his or her head, then someone has to
create that image, and that someone is the writer” (2005, p.
46). I could clearly see that Nadjib wasn’t able to see the
story he was writing in his head so I knew he needed some
help getting there. We used Buckner’s idea for expanding
topics. I encouraged him to write as many three-word
phrases as he possibly could about the topic in three
minutes. It was hard for him to just use three words because
he was so worried about only using the three words that he
couldn’t focus on the point of the activity so I changed it a
little and just had him write phrases, not mattering how long
they were. The phrases kind of ended up as sentences but
that was ok, the point was to expand his ideas for his story
and add detail into his writing.
To address the punctuation and capitalization I first started
off by asking him how to correctly form a sentence. What
would it need? He knew a capital letter went in the front and
a period went at the end. Then we went through and fixed
those parts in his story. It seems to me like he knows all the
different parts in making a story like punctuation,
capitalization and spelling but he doesn’t think about it all at
the same time while he is writing. This is normal though for
beginning writers. It’s kind of like learning to drive, you
have so much to think about all at once and you aren’t used
to delegating out your attention. Students this age are used
to focusing on one thing at a time, like the things we teach
in mini lessons.
The last thing that I did with him was work on taking out
unnecessary work and agreement of tenses. I had him read
me his story out loud and listen for parts that didn’t really
go with what his story was about or that didn’t make sense.
This worked really well because when he got to the end he
said, “Oh, the last two parts shouldn’t be there.” By reading
it out loud to me he could hear the story and it really helped
him understand what was in it that needed to be changed
and what parts didn’t read the way they would be spoken.

To address his spelling errors I will use a strategy in the Buckner text: Reading backwards. I will have his read his
story backwards and circle the words he knows are spelled wrong or thinks are spelled wrong. Then I will have a book
handy and have him try to find that same word in the text to find the correct spelling for it. This process will help him
see how he spelled the word wrong. If I had more time with Nadjib I would have allowed more time in the prewriting
stage with exploring the setting and characters more before he wrote his first draft to really paint a picture in his head
of how his story looks. This would allow him to incorporate more details right from the beginning and not have to
work so hard with adding details during the revision stage. Again, if I had more time I would have done several other
methods of expanding his topic other than the one I did from Buckner. Time simply wouldn’t allow it so I had to keep
moving onto working with the tense so it all agrees and working with punctuation and capitalizing letters. A method I
would use to help with adding detail to his characters would be to use Fletcher & Portalupi’s lesson for physical
description of a character. They say, “Perhaps the easiest way for young writers to begin developing the characters in
their writing is to attend to the physical traits of those characters” (2007, p. 46). I would read them a story and have
them make a list of the physical traits that come to mind from the story. Then, have them look at their list and by using
that as an example try to write about their characters as descriptive as the list they made. Also from Fletcher &
Portalupi, I would use their lesson for using details to describe the setting. I would have them draw a picture of the
setting in their story and then have them write about what their picture looks like to help them see what the mental
picture they are writing about should look like. The last thing I would work on with Nadjib would be to add some
dialogue into his writing. Using Fletcher & Portalupi’s (2007) lesson on getting your characters talking, I would have
him listen to me read an excerpt of dialogue and have him make a chart. On one side it would be what he has learned
about the character and the other side would show what piece of dialogue showed him that. By seeing this side by side
comparison it will really help him see how dialogue strengthens a story. Then I will have him work on adding
dialogue into his own story (p. 106).
Use of writing process: after writing (consider publishing and sharing writing).
Observations/examples
When It was time to publish Nadjib’s story he seemed
very uninterested. He was tired of working on the same
story over and over again each week so I tried to add
some interest in it by asking if he wanted to type it
instead of writing it out by hand. He loved this idea
because it was something that he didn’t do all the time
and it also incorporated easily seen real life knowledge
into school work. After we got it all typed out, I told
him I would print him a copy so he could bring it home
and share it with his family.
Interpretations
Hicks explains, “I often talk with teachers who feel that
they are doing the writing process, yet their students seem
uninterested in writing” (2009, p. 7). Like those teachers, I
felt the same. We were going through the writing process
and when I was in school I was excited to publish a piece or
writing because it meant it was worked on thoroughly and
was my best piece of writing I could do. Nadjib seemed
exact opposite. By bringing technology into the process it
immediately interested him because it’s something he is
around and using 90% of the time when he’s home. Using
technology made him feel like what we were doing actually
applied to his life and was something he would use in the
future. In addition, I think it’s extremely important to get
students writing digitally as early as possible. I know
schools simply don’t have it in their budgets to allow every
student to type their writing every time they write but since
I have a computer and am working with only one student,
it’s within my power to allow him to get more experience
with this. Hicks also proposes, “… if we engage students in
real writing tasks and we use technology in such a way that
it complements their innate need to find purposes and
audience for their work, we can have them engaged in a
digital writing process that focuses first on the writing, then

Recommendations
on the writer, and lastly on the technology” (2009, p.8). By
focusing on his innate need to find purpose in the activities
we do together helps tremendously in his cooperation and
interest. I told him I would print him off a copy of his typed
final draft of his story because sharing is the last stage in the
writing process. Since we weren’t in a classroom setting I
wanted him to be able to share it with someone other than
me, I thought his family would be perfect because he talks
and writes about them constantly. Also, when you put so
much time and effort into something it’s only fair to be able
to keep it.
In the future when I’m a teacher I will work hard on trying to find a way to tie technology into writing because as I
have seen with Nadjib, it helps a lot with cooperation and engaging the students. A way I would incorporate
technology into writing would be to always have the students type their final draft for the publishing stage of the
writing process. I also think if I would have thought of typing his story from the beginning when we started writing it
would have created more interest in his writing throughout the whole writing process. So, if I were to do this over
again with Nadjib I would have explained how we would be typing it at the end because it would have givin him
something to work for instead of just going through the writing process with no reward to come from it except for
having someone else listen or read his story.
Evidence of learning (invented, approximated, developed): Whole Text Level, Sentence Level & Word Level
Observations/examples
Word Level
__25_ % invented spelling (provide specific examples
with analysis)
From writing samples I generated over the course of
the semester, I observed that Nadjib had 322 words
spelled correctly and 82 words that were invented
slepping. He uses a number of different spelling
strategies but the two I believe he uses the most are
transpositional and spelling as it sounds. Some
examples of transpositonal misspellings include:
Hurt/ hrut
Lion/ loin
Park/ prak
Examples of spelling as it sounds include:
One/ won
Watches/ washis
Speak/ spek
I also observed that he doesn’t play it safe regarding
Interpretations
Word Level
I would place Nadjib in the independent category on
Oglan’s sliding scale because Oglan states independent
spellers, “Feel comfortable using functional spellings, use a
variety of textual sources to confirm spelling, ask questions
about spelling, are willing to help others, display a sense of
self-confidence, self edit work, and are usually called on by
others for assistance” (2000, p. 33). Although I am not able
to see if other students call on Nadjib for assistance while
spelling because I didn’t see him in a classroom setting, I
could see other qualities of an independent speller in the
time I worked with him. For one, he had only 25% of
invented spelling. Oglan says, “A low SLS (60 to 65
percent) may be related to the complexity of vocabulary the
student used” (2000, p. 41). This is not the case with Nadjib
because he used very complex words for his age such as
“exercises.” He told me in the interview that he uses the
word wall for assistance while spelling. This shows me that
he knows where to find sources to confirm his spelling. He
would also will erase words sometimes and spell them
correctly which shows me that he is self editing.

word choice when he writes. He uses a wide
vocabulary and not just commonly used words like
words he would find on a word wall in his classroom.
For an example, he used the word excited and spelled
it correctly. From all my observations of his spelling, I
would place him in the independent speller category on
Oglan’s sliding scale. In his writing interview when
asked what he does when he doesn’t know how to spell
a word he says he looks at the word wall to see if it
was on there.
Sentence Level
Something I observed from Nadjibs writing is that he
neglects to use punctuation and capital letters. When
we were on the revision phase of the writing process I
asked him if he knew how to make a complete
sentence or what the elements that make a sentence
are. He told me that a sentence needs a capital letter
and a period. I also noticed that he doesn’t have very
strong cohesion between sentences and in result; his
story lacks a meaningful whole text. An example is:
The mouse go find the loin. The mouse is going to
run from the owl.
He also fails to include pronouns such as it, he, she,
and we. This is shown from several stories he wrote
with me including his story about going to the park and
the story about the lion and the mouse.
Whole Text Level
In Nadjib’s story about his family at the park, he had
two sentences at the end that didn’t make any sense to
the rest of the story. These are:
My Dad das exercises We play out side and play
with the leves
I asked him when he was all finished if there was
anything in his story that he didn’t think should be in
there and he said no. I also asked him if he had ever
been through the writing process he told me that he
hadn’t. He didn’t even know what it was. After giving
him a printed version of the writing process and
crossing off the steps as we went through, we got to the
revising part and it said “take out unnecessary work.”
When hearing this and looking at his story he decided
that the last two lines of his story were unnecessary
and didn’t go with the rest of it.
The last thing he did to tell me he was an independent
speller was used functional spellings without stopping to
think about it for a long time which in result, demonstrated
self-confidence and comfort while using these spellings.
An example if a spelling strategy he displayed while using
these functional spellings was transpositional. Oglan says
traspotitional strategies are when, “Words are spelled wrong
using all of the correct letters, but the letters are in the
wrong order” (2000, p. 34). I included the word watches in
transpositional because when he says watches, he says
incorrectly as washes. So from the way he says it washis is
actually spellings it exactly as it sounds.
According to Oglan, the spelling as it sounds means
“Students rely on the sounds they hear that are close to the
actual sound” (2000, p. 34). This would explain why he
spelled one, won. Simply because that’s how it sounds
when you say it.
Sentence Level
Since he knows what elements to use to form a complete
sentence but doesn’t use those elements when writing, this
makes me think he doesn’t know how or when to use them.
I believe this could be from a variety of different factors.
One could be that he doesn’t know how to make his brain
think of everything at once, or how to multitask when
writing. Another thing could be that he doesn’t understand
when you take a breath or break when you’re speaking, you
should add a comma or period. This is a very tricky thing to
grasp for beginning writers.
Turbill & Bean state, “Sentences in and across paragraphs
are knitted together into a meaningful whole text by the use
of these ties” (2006, p. 19). My example of his sentences
from the story we made from The Lion and the Mouse
shows how his sentences aren’t tied together and in result,
the story becomes quite confusing and loses meaning.
Another thing he does when writing is fails to include
pronouns. He always restates the noun instead of referring
to it as a pronoun and as Turbill & Bean (2006) state, failure
to do this results in losing meaning at the whole text level
(p. 19).
Whole Text Level
First of all, I have come to the conclusion that Nadjib is a
visual learner. In chapter 7 of Ray he explains a story of a
student named Levi who sketched a picture at the bottom of
his sheet of paper and then went on to write the poem. He
says, “He was also still very reliant on his drawing to help
him frame his thinking before writing. This was something
we had nudged many of the children away from because we
felt they were ready to let their writing lead their thinking
more” (2004, p. 129). This idea also pertains to Nadjib’s
way of thinking. After I gave him a printout of the writing
process and had him cross off the steps as he went it began
to help him see a purpose and rational behind everything we
were doing. It helped motivate him to look critically at his
work to see what he can change like when he decided to

I also noticed that when I have Nadjib reread his work
out loud to me and when he comes across a part that is
syntactically incorrect; he will pause for a fraction of a
second and read not what was on the page, but how it
should have read.
take out the last two sentences that didn’t play into what his
story was about. All in all, it helped him think about his
writing on the whole text level. It also got him more
familiar with the writing process as he said he had never
been through it before.
One of the questions Ray poses is “When she reads what
she’s written does she read it so it sounds like literature?”
(2004, p. 131). This question got me thinking about when
reading aloud to me and Nadjib comes across a part of his
writing that is syntactically incorrect, he will pause and read
what he should have written. I think this is him editing his
work unconsciously. He knows it’s written incorrectly but
doesn’t make an effort to go and change it afterwards. He
also did this before I gave him the print out of the writing
process so it makes be believe it’s tied into him not seeing
an end point or not seeing a need to change anything
because he wasn’t seeing a clear audience.
Recommendations
My recommendation for helping him spell words right that he is spelling as they sound I would do lessons that
concentrate on double vowels like “ea” and “ai” because he struggles with words like speak, eat, leaves, chair, and
field. I know he understand the silent “e” rule because he spells words that use that rule correctly and even puts an
extra “e” on the end of some words that he is hesitant on spelling like lion. In one piece of writing he uses the
tranpositional spelling first, then spells it correctly, and then puts an “e” on the end. I would leave his transpositional
spelling strategy alone because he is so close to spelling it right with all the correct letters but isn’t sure where they go.
My assumption is confirmed by Oglan when he says, “When children spell words with all the correct letters present
but in the wrong order, it indicates that the child is about to internalize the correct spelling” (2000, p. 38).
Since I haven’t seen Nadjib use a pronoun at all with my time working with him it leads me to believe that he doesn’t
know what they are. My recommendation would be to present a mini lesson on pronouns, what they are, and how he
can use them. I think this would benefit him and strengthen his writing greatly.
Nadjib knows that a capital letter and punctuation is what constitutes a sentence in English, but he struggles with
knowing how and when to use them. This is very challenging to define easily for students. I think the easiest way to
help him with including these in his writing would be to practice writing sentences. Single sentences and thoughts.
Writing several complete thoughts that are unrelated and concentrating on using a capital letter and punctuation I think
will help him understand when to include a capital letter and punctuation. Writing unrelated sentences doesn’t force
him to make a connection between the sentences and that might potentially be where he gets confused. A step beyond
writing unconnected sentences could be to have him write a story about a wordless picture book. The pages could in
theory indicate when to use punctuation but encouraging him to make the pages and sentences into a story could help
him see how to connect those sentences.
For the whole text level of his writing instead of asking him if he thought there was anything in his story he didn’t
think should be in there when I was trying to get him to realize that the last two sentences didn’t make sense with his
story I think it would have been a lot more beneficial if I would have asked why he included those sentences. Ray
claims, “We believe that being asked again and again to explain their writing teaches them to think about how and
why they are writing things in certain ways” (2004, p. 132). I did actually ask him the why and how questions
sometimes but I never really got an answer out of him other than “I don’t know” so I kind of shied away from it. After
reading Ray, I know I was on the right path but I needed to follow through with it even though I wasn’t getting
answers because he states, “…we know that at first they don’t have much to say in response, but over time they’ll
come to see themselves as people who should be able to answer that question, and they’ll grab hold of their decision
making more specifically” (2004, p. 132).
Since he is a visual learner I should have him draw a picture and then write a story. Giving him something to look at
will help him see the story in his head and I think by doing this, his stories would have better results and detail.
Another option would be to use a spinoff of Steeds idea of a descriptive report. This has two benefits for him. One, it
would challenge him to write something other than something he has personal experience with (which is what he
basically only wants to write about) and two, it would allow him to see visually what he is writing about. Steed (2002)

has the students write about their class turtle. She has them write a report about turtles which would be made into a big
book and placed in their classroom library for visitors to read (109-118). My spinoff would be to have Nadjib write a
story about a class pet and concentrate on the detail he see’s in real life of that animal. I think this would be a very fun,
exciting, and engaging activity for him that he would enjoy with in return have many educational benefits as well.
Summary Summarize results: describe significant features of text/reading connections; clearly identify strengths; state
final conclusions. Write this section as if you are addressing the child’s parents in a report card.
Dear Parents of Nadjib,
Nadjib is doing very well with writing. I consider him an independent speller because he is writing with 25% invented
spelling which is very good for a second grader considering he isn’t only spelling common words he knows but more
difficult words as well without hesitation. There are two types of strategies he uses when he uses this invented spelling.
He uses transpositional and spelling as it sounds. The reason he is using spelling as it sounds it because he doesn’t quite
understand how to use combination of vowels when they appear in the middle of a word. For an example, he struggles
with words like chair, and speak. He spells them how they sound: char and spek. Vowel concentrations are going to be
our focus for the next couple of weeks. The transpositional spelling strategy he uses isn’t much of a problem because
what he does is mix of the letters in words like hurt/hrut. This just means he is about to internalize the correct spelling of
the word and it is shown throughout some of his stories where he will use the transopsitional spelling and then spell it
correctly in the next sentence. Another thing he struggles with is using punctuation and capital letters when writing a
sentence. He knows that sentences require those two things but has trouble remembering all those components while
trying to get ideas down on paper. The thing I am going to try with him to help this is journaling. Every day I will have
him write in a journal because this will help his fluency while writing, the act of getting ideas down on paper. With
having better fluency in his writing and practicing more it will also build up his confidence as a writer. He completes
writing assignments when asked but I can tell he is struggling with getting ideas from his head to paper. This will all
come easier to him when he develops more fluency. Another thing I noticed he fails to do is use pronouns like he, she,
they, and us. One thing I will do in class is to teach him what pronouns are and how to use them. I will have him write a
story concentrating on using he or she instead of always repeating the full name of the subject of the sentence. I think it
would be beneficial for you to encourage Nadjib to write at home concentrating on sentence level compnants such as the
use capital letters, punctuation, and using pronouns. All in all he is progressing very well as a writer but could use some
help in thinking of himself as a writer that writes for the purpose of other people reading his work. This will all come
with practice!
Sincerely,
Jenny Meis
Classroom Writing Program Description: What structures will you put in place for your writing program? How
will you organize time, choose materials, and work with students? Describe you writing program in detail.
First and foremost I will have a place for writing notebooks in my classroom. I think they are the most valuable thing
to aid in learning to write. It presents a personal reason to write instead of always having the students write for the
teacher. Going hand in hand with this I will also make sure I display the students writing. Displaying it also gives it a
larger audience for the student to write for. Writing in the writing notebook everyday about anything they want helps
them clear their minds about what might be bothering them and also helps with their writing fluency and practicing
getting their thoughts into sentences (Buckner, p. 23).
For going through the writing process in my classroom I would set it up like Fletcher & Portalupi does with some
ideas that jump in from Buckner. I think they do a great job addressing all the different elements in a story and give
many ways to teach each element so if one approach doesn’t seem to be going well I could switch to a different one
the next day. To start off with prewriting, I would have them think of a topic. This will come easy for some students

ut also be very difficult and frustrating for others. One way to start off with thinking about a topic would be to have
the students write a list of things they like a lot or think they are experts on in their writing journals. Buckner
proposes, “This is an easy, reasonable task even for students who struggle as writers. It is a strategy that can be used
again and again for generating idea topics” (2007, p. 19). Buckner also explains that this can be a strategy that can be
used to think deeper about the topic in the revision stage. The next phase of the writing process would be to draft! This
is where they will write their first draft of their story. I will encourage them to use invented spelling so they don’t
concentrate on how to spell words because I know that takes away from the fluency of their writing and might cause
them to forget some of the ideas they have in their heads.
The next thing I would do with my students would be to work on character development. Fletcher & Portalupi has
several fantastic ways to work on developing characters. They say, “Perhaps the easiest way for young writers to
begin developing the characters in their writing is to attend to the physical traits of those characters” (2007, p. 46). I
would read them a story and have them make a list of the physical traits that come to mind from the story. Then, by
looking at how detailed the list they made about the story I read to them was have them try to write a very descriptive
paragraph about their character/characters that they can include into their story. My next mini lesson would be to
incorporate Buckner’s exercise for writing strong grabber leads. I would have them write 5-10 different ways to say
the first sentence of the story that they think will grab the reader’s attention. Then, they would pick the one they like
the best. The next mini lesson I would do would be to help my students understand how stories have a beginning,
middle, and an end. Fletcher & Portalupi explain that a good story had a beginning, middle, and an end. To explain
this concept, I would read a story to them and have them try to guess what the beginning was, the middle, and the end.
Then, I would have them write their own beginning, middle, and end for their stories. I realize this might be a tough
concept for younger students to grasp and if they don’t seem to be getting it, I would do separate mini lessons on each
the beginning, middle, and end.
The next stage would be conferencing. This would take place with me or with peers. They would meet with me for
around 7-10 minutes (or however much time works within our writing time). While I’m conferencing with students
they will be conferencing with peers. Every time I change students they will too. They will switch 3 times and then
continue on with silent reading.
For the revision stage I would concentrate on adding detail. I agree with Fletcher & Portalupi when they suggest,
“Young students often draw the main elements of their stories without situating them in a larger context” (2007, p.
43). For instance, a student’s story is about someone who broke their leg and they draw a picture of a person with a
broken leg. From this drawn person, we see nothing but the main character and an empty landscape. I would sculpt my
mini lesson about using details to describe setting a little differently than Fletcher & Portalupi do. I would use my
hypothetic student’s example of a person who broke their leg and draw a picture of just that student with a broken leg.
Then draw another picture of that same students and his/her broken leg but put them lying beneath monkey bars on the
playground. Then I would ask the student how the second picture tells them more about what’s happening in the
picture. After that, I would have them each draw a picture of something happening to their main character and tell
them to make a strong background scene. After they have a picture, I would have them write a paragraph about their
picture explaining what is happening and then they can include it into their story. This will also come in handy when
their work gets published in the room and they already have artwork to go along with their story. The next thing I
would have them work on would be adding dialogue to their writing. Using Fletcher & Portalupi’s lesson on getting
your characters talking, I would have them listen to me read an excerpt of dialogue and have them make a chart. On
one side it would be what they learned about the character and the other side would show what piece of dialogue
showed them that. By seeing this side by side comparison it will really help them see how dialogue strengthens a
story. Then I will have them work on adding dialogue into their own stories.
Conferencing again.
The nest stage is the editing stage. To address spelling I will do a strategy from Buckner that has to do with reading
backwards. I will have them read their stories backwards and circle the words they think are spelled wrong or think
are spelled wrong. Then I will have a spelling workshop they would use different ways to find the correct spellings.
One would be to use books they have in their desks and have them try to find that same word in the text to find the
correct spelling for it (Buckner, 2005). Another thing I would do would have them keep personal dictionaries like I
had in grade school along with a word wall I would have posted in the classroom. This personal dictionary will have
words they have previously spelled wrong in pieces of writing, word wall words, or any other word we as a class

come along that I think would be good to have in their personal dictionaries. The next thing they would be able to do
would be to ask a peer to see if they know how to spell the word. The last thing I would have them do if it absolutely
come down to it would be to ask me and then I would direct them to a place where I know they can find the word.
Other things we would have mini lessons over would be how to construct a proper sentence—grammar, punctuation,
and capitalization.
For the publishing part, I will either have them write their final product, make a book, make a poster, or do whatever
needs to be done with that specific piece of writing (Whitmore, 2003). I would also make sure I do my best to allow
computer use to happen in this stage because I think it’s important to today’s society and also it helps keep the
students engaged.
For the sharing stage of the writing process I will have my students get into groups or pairs to share with each
other their writing. In addition, a few of my students share their stories or pieces of writing in our classroom’s author
chair with the whole class each time a piece is finished. That way they really feel their work is special because not
every one’s work is shared with the whole class. Then, sometimes we will catalog their writing into our classroom
library, sometimes they will take them home, and then sometimes the writings will get hung up in the classroom
(Whitmore, 2003).

Works Cited
Bukner, A. (2005). Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook. Portland, ME:
Stenhouse.
Fletcher, R. & Poralupi, J. (2001). Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Fletcher, R. & Portalupi, J. (1998). Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8. York, ME: Stenhouse.
Fletcher, R. & Portalupi, J. (2001). NonFiction Craft Lessons. York, ME: Stenhouse.
Hicks, T. (2009). The Digital Writing Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Oglan, G. R., & Elcombe, A. (2000). Parent to parent: our children, their literacy. Urbana, Ill.:
National Council of Teachers of English.
Ray, K. W., & Cleaveland, L. B. (2004). About the authors: writing workshop with our youngest
writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Stead, T. (2002). Is that a fact?: teaching nonfiction writing K-3. Portland, ME.: Stenhouse
Publishers.
Turbill, J., & Bean, W. (2006). Writing instruction K-6: understanding process, purpose,
audience. Katonah, N.Y.: Richard C. Owen Publishers.