Children are expected to learn to write before they really understand what it means to be a writer. To them, writing may seem like something that belongs to the adult world, like driving a car or operating an oven.
If teachers don’t acknowledge this experience, it can have a detrimental effect on pupils’ confidence and willingness to try. However, if we encourage them to incorporate writing into their everyday play, we can help them to start to see writing as something that is accessible to them.
Play turns any activity into the property of the child. It removes the fear of failure and has the potential to take writing into a special world where the child is in charge, and where their activities are effortless, yet also very important.
There are four elements that we need to consider in our provision to make this happen effectively.
1. Authentic scenarios
Adults do not practise or learn to write; they have already mastered the art. We need to create chances for children to role-play that this is true for them, too.
Children see adults writing for lots of different audiences and purposes: a note for a loved one, a list for shopping, invitations for a wedding, a text message to a friend, an email for work, a list of instructions and so on.
During role-play scenarios, provide children with opportunities and reasons to write. This will improve their confidence while helping them to recognise that we write for meaning and audience.
For children to do this effectively, we need to consider their environment; children will not want to write a shopping list if they cannot visit the “shops”, or write an invitation if there is no “party”.
In short, our environments should be dripping in opportunities to write that feel real and important to the child.
Read more:
2. Careful and creative resourcing
When it comes to writing, adults use many different objects to write with, and different surfaces to write on: pens, pencils, Post-its, paper, the back of envelopes. Children need these tools of the trade if they are to make progress and adults need to be well-equipped to supply these as the need arises.
A child will lose the motivation to draw a plan of their Lego model if the large bits of cardboard and colourful marker pens aren’t in reach, and it’s difficult for adults to ask children to jot down a role-play telephone message if they don’t have a notepad in their pocket.
I’ve found that wearing a bum bag or a greengrocer’s apron full of mark-making materials is a great way to ensure children’s play can be easily extended in the moment. Writing stations in each area can also work well.
3. Interactions
When a child makes an adult a “cup of tea” in the early years, any educator worth their salt will ask for a touch more milk or maybe a biscuit to go with it - that’s how we move the play forwards and get children to build on learning.
We need to do the same thing with writing. It’s crucial that we find meaning in all children’s attempts at writing, and that we interact in the same way we do with role play.
Ask the child what their writing says, or guess what it says if the child seems hesitant. You could also write your own response, and talk about what you’ve both written on the page.
This takes a level of creativity and skill: a few wiggly lines might not look like very much at all, but on closer inspection it’s simple to show the child how their lines may represent the beginnings of a letter “L” or “N”, depending on the message.
Over time this will uncover a clear path of development that helps children become happy to keep trying.
4. Quality phonics instruction
Children will already be following a structured programme in their phonics sessions, but there is still room for short, sharp moments of phonetic instruction during their play. These will be opportunities where they feel happy to practise new skills and consolidate learning by starting to make meaning on paper.
For example, if children happen to be playing doctors, you might encourage them to write a prescription for medicine; this will give you the opportunity to remind children of the letter “M”. Equally, if children are scoring goals in the garden and pretending to play for Liverpool, this would be a prime time to revisit the letter “L”.
These are just a few ideas; there are lots of teachable moments within well-resourced and planned provision to enable you to drive phonetic awareness forward in a way that makes sense to children in the context of their play.
We know that every child is different. Just as some will “bum shuffle” or “commando crawl” before walking, the path to becoming a competent writer is unique for each child.
However, managing that tipping point between “I can” and “I can’t” through creating opportunities to incorporate writing into play is key to helping every child thrive in this area of the curriculum.
Angela Cogan is an early years advisory teacher in Wiltshire
