Date of Award
2-1-1990
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Educational Specialist
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
Dr. Joan Horn
Keywords
acquisition, child development, child language, classroom observations, daily journal writing, developmental stages, developmental writing levels, early reading, emergent literacy, first grade students, graphic analysis, in-service sessions, invented spellings, journal feedback, kindergarten, kindergarten students, language, language usage, literacy education, parent orientation session, parent survey, pre and post writing samples, primary education, reading readiness, teacher written responses, writing development, writing instructor., writing readiness, written language, young children
Abstract
The lack of daily journal writing opportunities for kindergarten and first grade students was addressed through a series of in-service sessions designed to encourage teachers to provide daily opportunities for journal writing as required by county guidelines. In order to make the activity more effective, teachers were asked to give students written feedback. A parent orientation session provided parents an overview of the goals and objectives of the daily journal writing project. Success of the project was measured through classroom observations, reviews of students’ journals, comparison of students’ pre and post samples and a parent survey. Results indicated that students were provided with daily journal writing opportunities with teachers writing responses twice weekly. Students showed significant gains in developmental writing levels. Parental reactions to daily journal writing and invented spellings by students were positive. Appendices include survey used, developmental stages of children's writing and graphic analysis of pre and post writing samples.