Emergent writer as emergent `reader':Juliet makes her mark IIJohn Trushell

Abstract

Writing and reading develop concurrently and inconcert: real reading of texts, in a range of media,informs real writing. This article considers theinfluence of a variety of such reading on the writingof a four-year-old girl during a six-month period.

Developing literacy

Juliet is a four-year-old growing up literate in WesternEurope in the 1990s. She is growing up in an urbanenvironment, surrounded by print technology ± asfound in illustrated books and comics, but also onhoardings, shopfronts and signs ± and by theanalogue and digital technologies of audio cassetteand compact disc, radio, cinema, television, videocassette and computers. As Ferreiro and Teberosky(1983) observed, to imagine that a child in thiscontext would not have attempted to understandthis environment ± and would not have developedideas about print and other technologies ± would beabsurd.

Her parents read with Juliet: a book at bedtimeeach night and a comic ± such as the `Fun to Learn'Tots TV ± at the weekend. Some evenings, Juliet andher parents may read a book to the accompanimentof an audio cassette or compact disc, for example,Mog's Amazing Birthday Caper/Mog's Alphabet Adven-ture (Kerr-Kneale Productions/Harper CollinsAudio, 1996) or Les Trois Petits Cochons (Nathan,1987). Some weekends, she may read a CD-ROM`Living Book' ± such as Little Monster at School(Random House/Broderbund, 1994) or Kiyeko et lesVoleurs de Nuit (Ludimedia/Ubi Soft, 1995) ± or playan adventure game ± for instance, Darby the Dragon(Broderbund, 1996) ± with her parents on theircomputer.

Juliet's exposure to broadcast media is more limitedand incidental: some radio, to which the family listenin mornings and evenings; but less television which ±as her parents have not owned a TV since Juliet'sbirth ± she has seen and heard at the homes of friendsand relatives. However, Juliet has watched andlistened to animated and `live action' features: onvideo cassettes at her maternal grandparents' homein France ± Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains (Disney,

1938) and La Belle au Bois Dormant (Disney, 1959)are particular favourites ± and at the cinema inEngland, for example, Hercules (Disney, 1997) andThe Borrowers (Polygram, 1997).

So, Juliet has been introduced by her parents to arange of communication technologies ± print, ana-logue and digital ± and has been encouraged to sharetheir pleasure in reading, as advocated by Meek(1992). However, Juliet's parents ± both of whom areteachers ± do not share Meek's reservations concern-ing discrete strategies for developing of children'sphonological awareness, but believe that strategies forthe development of such:

spelling-sound decoding skills result in betterreading outcomes because alphabetic coding isthe critical subprocess that supports fluent reading(Stanovich and Stanovich, 1995).

Serendipitously, at nursery school, Juliet has partici-pated in a literacy programme which developsawareness of phoneme-grapheme correspondenceswith such materials as alphabet friezes, flashcards,work-sheets, books, and audio and video cassettes.Juliet's parents have endeavoured, complementarily,to develop Juliet's phonological awareness, particu-larly her awareness of initial consonant letter-soundsand consonant blends in English ± i.e. the `onset' ofwords (see Wray, 1994, for discussion) ± in herreading of selected illustrated print materials and inher writing.

Initially, Juliet was encouraged to write in `adult-controlled contexts' (Czerniewska, 1992). Teachersand parents `scaffolded' literacy events and imposed`accountability procedures' that certain tasks becompleted for their particular purposes (see Hall,1987; Snow, 1983): for example, the tracing of large-shaped dotted or shaded print-script letters to labelpictures at nursery school, and the copying of hername from models on to such correspondence asbirthday cards at home. Effects of this encouragementhave been that Juliet has come to inscribe her mark ±and other characters ± spontaneously (see Trushell,1998).

While Juliet's spontaneous emergent writing cor-responded with those literacy events `scaffolded'

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by adults ± she shaped her own name in `found'greetings cards and as labels on her pictures ±subsequently she has written for her own pur-poses, and aspects of Juliet's `reading' may bediscerned in the format and the content of heremergent writing.

Writing on the wall

Juliet is well-acquainted with illustrated alphabetfriezes: she has one in her bedroom, and another atnursery school by which she has learnt the LetterlandAlphabet Songs (Collins Educational, 1996). She isacquainted also with an unillustrated alphabet wall-chart: featured in the CD-ROM `Living Book' LittleMonster at School [Screen 5] is a wallchart besidewhich stand two little monsters; and, when clicked,the monsters sing the alphabet while each letter on thewallchart is high-lighted.

Juliet, having re-`read' Little Monster at School duringJuly, created a letter chart for mounting on the wall(see Figure 1) and performing the monsters' alphabetsong.

Notably, while Czerniewska has observed that chil-dren's `use of letters from [their] own first names. . .is very common in [their] early writing' (1992), thestock of letters from Juliet's name has been sup-plemented with letters ± S, õÃ and A ± from the nameof her friend at nursery school, SõÃan, to provideletters for this wallchart. Incidentally, the inclu-sion of the number 4 marks the age which Julietattained at her recent birthday. The alignment of

these characters in five lines ± although wavy ±demonstrates not only `an awareness that writingrequires a particular organisation' (Wray, 1994) butalso conformity with the model of a wallchartprovided on the screen of Little Monster at School.

Letters selected from the stock provided by `Juliet'and `SõÃan' were deployed again as a caption beneaththe drawing of Blanche Neige (see Figure 2), theeponymous heroine of the animated feature whichJuliet watched in France during August. while Julietread aloud the letters sitestst as `princesse' and`princess', intriguingly, these selected letters are tobe found on the book covers and title-pages of the twoversions of Snow White (Tarantula Books, 1994; Lady-bird Books, 1995) which had been read to an avidJuliet in England.

The later drawing of (La) MeÂchante, or wicked woman(see Figure 3), depicts a witch with a wand. `LameÂchante' was the term used in French conver-sations with Juliet to denote both the wicked queenin Blanche Neige and the wicked fairy in La Belle auBois Dormant. Notably, the letters miet TbP ± drawnfrom the stock provided by her first name butsupplemented with m, T, b and P ± are alignedalthough `bracketing' the drawing. While Juliet hadno model for the word `meÂchante', the first letterinscribed is m: initial letter recognition is a skill whichthe Letterland programme instils by alliteration, e.g. bythe medium of the Letterland Alphabet Songs,``̀ Mmmm. . .'' that monster Munching Mike. . . munch-ing mouthfuls merrily' (Collins Educational, 1996);and Juliet's command of initial consonant letter-sounds in English has been developed in her reading

Figure 1 Alphabet wallchart

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Figure 2 Princess/Princesse (Blanche Neige)

Figure 3 (La) MeÂchante

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of selected materials at home. Fortunately, thephoneme-grapheme correspondence m is similar inEnglish and in French (unlike, for instance, thecorrespondence g). Thereafter, the variation of lettersconforms with Clay's `generative principle' (1975)whereby emergent writers alternate and/or varyletters to produce `writing'.

Juliet's identification of the marks sitestst and mietTbP as, respectively, `princess'/`princesse' and`meÂchante' demonstrate the development of `signconcept' (Clay, 1975) insofar as the marks she hasinscribed may represent a person, an object or an idea.Moreover, an inference could be drawn ± from themarks inscribed by Juliet ± that criteria for selectionare being exercised: while one could conjecture thatsitestst discloses an erroneous association of`princess'/`princesse' with `Snow White' (or theennoblement by association of `Juliet' and `SõÃan'),the inscription of miet TbP for `meÂchante' wouldindicate that Juliet is developing a command of initialconsonant letter-sounds.

Brought to book

Juliet has encountered ± in the course of her reading ±prose, poetry and songs in centre-justified text: theprose in Laurent De Brunhoff's Babar books (forinstance, Babar et sa fille Isabelle); and the poems andsongs in Tots TV, for example, the `Goodbye' poemson the back cover of each issue which begin,

I'm a Tot, je suis une TotTilly, Tom and Tiny. . .

Juliet, in September, created a sheet of centre-justifiedtext (see Figure 4) to hold while singing a variety ofsongs. Notably, the marks on the songsheet weredrawn from the stock of letters provided by herfirst name ± J, and a t and a reverse t ± and a varietyof letters/marks consistent with the `generativeprinciple'. Arguably, as with the alphabet wallchart,Juliet's interest was not in writing-content but inmarks formatted to provide a `stage property' for herplay activities.

However, formatting marks became the play activitywhen, at Christmas, Juliet fastened together fourblank sheets of A4 paper with transparent adhesivetape to form a book. The pages of the book were filledwith:

. a drawing of a girl in an `adventure playground ±as provided at the nursery school attended by Julietand SõÃan ± and, on the reverse, three rows of letter-sequences (comprising A/e, e, i, M, N and s)recalling the wallchart (see Figure 1);

. a drawing of snow falling on a girl on skis ± Julietwas anticipating skiing at Christmas ± and, on the

reverse, five rows of letter-sequences (comprising i,H, and s);

. a drawing of a `good' wolf and a girl seated out-side a straw house with a smoking chimney (seeFigure 5) and, on the reverse, eight rows of shapes± circles, squares and triangles ± recalling aworksheet from nursery school; and

. a drawing of a woman with a child above whichwas written SAM (see Figure 6).

While certain of the drawings ± a girl in a playgroundand a girl skiing ± could be considered as vignettes, thedrawing of the wolf outside the straw house with thesmoking chimney recombines elements of the storyLes Trois Petits Cochons and ± with the inclusion of agirl, and Juliet's assurance that the wolf is `good' ±could be considered as a narrative manqueÂ. However,Juliet's drawing of the woman and child wereintended to represent her playfellow Sam ± a four-year-old boy whose birthday is the same as Juliet's ±and his aunt. The inscription of `Sam' providesfurther evidence of a developing `sign concept' (Clay,

Figure 4 Songsheet

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1975) insofar as the marks Juliet has inscribedrepresent a person.

Juliet's nursery school has provided no model for thename `Sam' as labels on cloakroom hooks or class-room trays, but Juliet is familiar with `Sammy Snake[who] says `̀ sss. . .''' in the Letterland Alphabet Songs(Collins Educational, 1996) and who is depicted with

captions on the Letterland alphabet frieze. Moreover,the name `Sam' is a member of that order ofmonosyllabic names ± including Jim, Pat and Tom ±which Juliet has encountered in her reading ofchildren's literature.

Notably, Juliet first wrote `SAM' with an M includ-ing a superfluous ascender: later, when `reading'the book to her mother, she noticed the error andre-wrote `SAM' ± beneath her first attempt ± with acorrect M.

Literacy developments

These `snapshots' of Juliet's developing literacyprovide corroborative evidence for the contendedrole of first names in the development of phoneme-grapheme correspondences, both in reading (seeMeek, 1982) and in writing (Czerniewska, 1992).There is evidence that Juliet:

. supplemented the stock of letters from her namewith letters from the name of her friend SõÃan ± asindicated by the distinctive õÃ in the alphabetwallchart (see Figure 1) ± which she has read atnursery school; and

. utilised her supplemented stock of letters ±reordered ± to caption a picture with the name ofher friend Sam.

Juliet's awareness that her stock of letters ± providedby the first names of herself, her friends and fictionalcharacters ± may be combined to produce new wordsshould be developed (Browne, 1993). Moreover, asJuliet forms new words, an adult may translate, whenappropriate, these words into conventional ortho-graphy and spelling, thus expanding her stock ofletters (see Trushell, 1998): for example, the trans-lation of the caption sitestst as `princess' and `SnowWhite' (see Figure 2) would be appropriate, but thetranslation of the caption miet TbP as `meÂchante' (seeFigure 3) could set a precedent inconsistent with herparents' preference, initially, for developing aware-ness of consonant letter-sounds and consonant blendsin English.

There is evidence that Juliet is marshalling her stockof letters and experimenting with page arrangement ±for example, in the arrays of the alphabet wallchartand the centre-justified text of the songsheet (seeFigure 4) ± consistent with the `inventory principle'(Clay, 1975) whereby children list or order aspects oftheir literacy knowledge. While conceding that thepurpose of both wallchart and songsheet appears tohave been expressly the creation of `stage properties'for play, these `properties' and the book demonstratea rudimentary notion of `page and book arrangement'(Clay, 1975) which could be refined. Such refinementof children's hypotheses about writing and reading ±which may not conform with the conventional

Figure 5 A Straw house

Figure 6 SAM

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writing/reading system (see Ferreiro and Teberosky,1983) ± would be preferable to the refutation of theirhypotheses as inconsistent with the complex andelaborate set of rules by which the writing/readingsystem may be taught conventionally in school (seeHall, 1987).

Although Juliet's book is merely a collection ofrandom pages, certain pages indicate some inclina-tion to record or anticipate events ± playing in an`adventure' playground and going skiing ± and todepict a variation on a familiar theme, Les Trois PetitsCochons or the Three Little Pigs (see Figure 5). Theseinclinations could be developed: for instance, Julietcould be encouraged to report events and relatestories for an adult to transcribe ± a form of `pro-cedural facilitation' (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1982)for the composition of sustained autobiographicalor fictional texts ± which Juliet could illustrate andcollate. Such facilitation could extend Juliet's notion of`page and book arrangement' in particular, and herliteracy development in general: not merely herwriting, for the autobiographical and fictional textswould provide material for reading.

Advocates of adult transcription have contended thatchildren are `highly motivated to read what they havewritten' while conceding that `time would not permita teacher to write in this way for children very often'(Goddard, 1975). However, as shown by studies ofparental involvement in children's writing (see, forexample, Browne and Grindrod, 1991), parents maygive greater time and encouragement than would bepossible for a teacher to give to individual pupils in aclass of thirty. Provided with guidance by schools,parents may participate in a scheme for `writing athome' concurrent and in concert with an existing`reading at home' scheme.

Juliet regularly leafs through her first book: herfurther books ± transcribed by her parents ± willmake for better reading.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to express his gratitude to Juliet,SõÃan and Sam ± and their respective families ± and tothe nursery school attended by Juliet and SõÃan.Thanks are also due to Ian Kemp, Arrow Design ofBromley, for his assistance with processing thegraphics.

Notes

BEREITER, C. and SCARDAMALIA, M. (1982). From conversationto composition: the role of instruction in a developmental process.In Glaser, R. (ed.) Advances in Instructional Psychology, Volume 2.Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1±64.

BROWNE, A. (1993). Helping Children to Write. London: PaulChapman Press.

BROWNE, A. and GRINDROD, R. (1991). Parental involvement inwriting. In Harrison, C. and Ashworth, E. (eds.) CelebratingLiteracy: Defending Literacy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 197±208.

CLAY, M. (1975). What Did I Write? London: Heinemann.CZERNIEWSKA, P. (1992). Learning about Writing. Oxford: Black-

well.FERREIRO, E. and TEBEROSKY, A. (1983). Literacy before Schooling.

London: Heinemann Educational Books.GODDARD, N. (1974). Literacy: Language-Experience Approach.

London: Macmillan.HALL, N. (1987). The Emergence of Literacy. Sevenoaks: Hodder and

Stoughton.MEEK, M. (1982). Learning to Read. London: Bodley Head.SNOW, C. (1983). Literacy and language: relationships during the

pre-school years. Harvard Educational Review, 53/2, 165±189.STANOVICH, K. and STANOVICH, P. (1995). How research might

inform the debate about early reading acquisition. Journal ofResearch in Reading, 18/2, 87±105.

TRUSHELL, J. (1998). Juliet makes her mark. Reading, 32/1, 29±32.WRAY, D. (1994). Literacy and Awareness. London: Hodder and

Stoughton.

Print

DE BRUNHOFF, L. (1987). Babar et sa fille Isabelle. Paris: Hatchard.HAMILTON, J. [ill. DUFF, L.]. (1994). Snow White and the Seven

Dwarfs. New Lanark, Scotland: Tarantula Books.WALT DISNEY Co. (1995). Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Loughborough: Ladybird Books.

Media

Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains (Walt Disney Company, 1938).Darby the Dragon (Broderbund, 1996).Hercules (Walt Disney Company, 1997).Kiyeko et les Voleurs de Nuit (Ludimedia/Ubi Soft, 1995).Les Trois Petits Cochons (Nathan, 1987).Letterland Alphabet Songs (Collins Educational, 1996).Little Monster at School (Random House/Broderbund, 1994).Mog's Amazing Birthday Caper/Mog's Alphabet Adventure (Kerr-

Kneale Productions/Harper Collins Audio, 1996).The Borrowers (Polygram, 1997).

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:John Trushell, Department of Education andCommunity Studies, University of East London,Longbridge Road, Dagenham, Essex, RM8 2AS.

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