Customer Reviews

Never Too Early to Write: Adventures in the K-1 Writing Workshop

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4 star:		(1)
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Do children have to know how to spell and read before they are taught to write? No, contends Bea Johnson emphatically in Never Too Early to Write-a gem of a book which describes both a writing program and a way of thinking.

Each chapter is chock-full of advice, tips, anecdotes, and, thoughtfully, samples of actual student work. In Chapters 1 and 2, Johnson makes the argument that kindergartners and first graders should be taught to write. To support her contention, she explains in detail the many benefits in doing so. One of the most important is that when students write, they are using letters and punctuation. Indeed, they are immersed in them. This, in turn, imbues the strange squiggles and marks with meaning. They are not so mysterious nor foreign anymore. They have a purpose. They can communicate thoughts, feelings, ideas. Other benefits include: enlarged vocabulary, enhanced phonetics and spelling, increased familiarity of sentence patterns and word discrimination, additional opportunities to think critically and creatively, and even increased self-esteem.

At this point you may be thinking, that all sounds well and good, but how am I going to fit this into my already crowded day? The answer: Integrate the writing experiences into your other subjects. "Writing," asserts Johnson, "shouldn't be a once-a-week activity done on Friday afternoon, 20 minutes before the busses arrive." Johnson also contends that you "will discover incredible truths" about your teaching if you have your students write in the content areas. How? By having students write about the lesson, you will have immediate feedback-in black and white-about what they learned
and didn't learn.

Chapter 3 delves into seven stages or benchmarks of writing: from scribbling to random lettering to conventional spelling. It is important, declares Johnson, that children should not be taught at a level beyond their capabilities.

In the next chapter, Johnson discusses "The Rules." Although they are an "ideal" and you won't be able to follow them all the time, they should, she states, at least be in the back of your mind. In a nutshell, an effective writing classroom is informal, open to experimentation, content oriented, supportive, affirming, and encourages "table talk." The teacher "provides students with the tools, time, and structure to write."

"The Big Four" are discussed in Chapter 5. They are: Dictation, Drawing, Scribbling, and Temporary Spelling. There are a plethora of benefits to dictation, notes Johnson. First and foremost, the student "realizes immediately that his spoken words have meaning and can be written down" (emphasis mine). As the teacher or volunteer writes, the student is able to observe: left-to-right progression, punctuation, phonics, sentence structure, and more.

"Drawing," writes Johnson, "becomes the child's rehearsal stage of writing." These illustrations are snapshots, so to speak, of the child's thinking. Scribbles are the beginning stages of writing. Here the child experiments with word and sentence formation, symbols, holding the writing instrument and more. As educators, we should not overlook these attempts. Rather, we should "take advantage of the learning potential" of them by asking the student what he or she has written. Temporary spelling, notes Johnson, "is children's first attempts to write words using their best judgment about spelling." She then goes on to discuss the three stages of temporary spelling as well as the benefits described in research findings.

In Chapters 6 through 15 Johnson discusses in detail ten writing strategies. Among them are: Individual Language Experience Stories (ILES); Journal Writing; Draw and Write; Pattern Stories; Class Newspaper.

Johnson rounds out the book with a chapter on communicating with parents (which includes sample parent letters) and a chapter on conclusions, questions and answers.

If you are interested in trying a writing workshop in your kindergarten or first grade classroom, this concise, approachable, highly useful volume that will help you accomplish your goal.

Reviewed by the Education Oasis Staff

I am very excited about this book and this program. I began using this program in just two months ago. The setting is a first semester, half-day kindergarten program. Over 30% of my students are English Language Learners, nearly 10% receive speech services, 5% are hearing impaired, and nearly 10% receive other special education services. Most are considered low-income. If this program produces results for us, it can work for anyone.
The strategies in Never Too Early To Write are designed to lead each individual student to her full potential. Students express their own thoughts, feelings, and concerns. A teacher cannot help but connect with the children. Every student wants to be loved and respected as a unique person. Journal writing allows for a private moment with each student. Each child is working on skills that are meaningful to her. Once a concept is mastered, there is another to focus on.
The reasons for beginning the program are clear, but the side effects were the most impressive. Writing is FUN! It is fun for me. It is fun for the paraprofessionals in the classroom. It is fun for the volunteers. It is fun for parents to see their children progress. Most importantly, it is fun for the students; they love it.

I am a writing teacher for Primary teachers and students. This book is a wonderful resource for teachers whom I train that are reluctant to start writing in Kindergarten. Real writing, not handwriting, but stories. I was at a workshop with Mrs. Johnson last summer and know that she has the experience and knowledge base to learn from!

I would recommend this book to any kindergarten teacher. For those new to the profession, it offers wonderful suggestions for writing activities that don't take much preparation time and don't require special supplies or materials. For experienced teachers, this book will spice up the existing writing program.
I am a kindergarten teacher and have used ideas from this book for the last two years. The natural language Bea uses makes it enjoyable to read and easy to understand. Her philosophy that children don't need to be pushed in order to grow as writers makes a lot of sense. The writing activities in this book have helped produce many happy, self-confident students who love to write and a happy teacher who has gotten to know her students better than ever before.

I am so glad I found this book. I wanted something all inclusive specifically for kindergarten. I have read enough of those k-5 or worse k-8 books, where once finished with chapter 3 there is nothing else for us!
Bea uses practical, but cleaver ideas that we can all imitate or talior to our needs and personalities. This book does not make you feel like you have to go "buy" things to make your classroom better. She uses what most of us already have and illustrates beautifully how to make it work better.
I highly reccommend this book to anyone who teaches young children. She has helped put new life into my classroom!

This book is about a teaching to write curriculum that is wideley used in Northern Italy schools.We call it Ferrero-Teberoski. I use the same method to allow my fifth graders write in English, a language they are learning as EFL.Letting them write in English allows me to gear my teaching to kids with different abilities and it also let students having whatever ability to feel proud of his/her accomplishments, and hence improves their self-assureness. I would encourage EFL and ESL teachers to read this book and make this method part of their curriculum.

This book provides general guidelines for school teachers on how to start a writing program in the classroom or for teachers looking to try a different teaching approach. The first few chapters are devoted to proving, with academic citations and several pages of student samples, the benefits of a writing program tailored to the abilities of younger children. This is not a new idea; Montessori preschools have been teaching young children to write before they can read for decades. Excluding the thesis-like chapters, the author's teaching advice could have been condensed into an on-line article or a FAQ pamphlet. Although the author has a few creative ideas on how to encourage writing in a classroom or group, she emphasizes journal writing and/or drawing. Even with the author's recommendation of ignoring punctuation and spelling, my son dislikes journal writing--so this book was of no help to me. The only tip I found in the book for a reluctant writer was on page 32--"go back to your desk and think a while;" the author claims students are usually motivated by seeing his/her peers writing in their journals and will think of something to write unless they're feeling sick. This might be true for group writing, but does not help tutors or home-schoolers working with students one on one. Another problem--there's no index.

This book has an excellent overview of writing with early learners. It also has great activities and strategies for engaging students in learning to write. Wonderful!

I love this book. I read it front to back in one night. It is a great resource for k-1 teachers.

This is a very easy read that will help student writing. It gives you a purpose and a method to teaching writing. I'm not sure I'll be able to use all the techniques she suggests, but what I do use will certainly help my students.