A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post introducing you to Denise Gealer, a former colleague and recent author. At the time, Denise promised to write a guest post, which she sent to me this week. In this post, a veteran educator of young children, shares a program that combines both reading and writing skills in an enjoyable way. I love the simplicity of this program and believe it would be an easy way for a parent to jumpstart their child’s literacy skills prior to Kindergarten. I hope you enjoy this post from Denise…

A love for reading is contagious! But how to instill that in a young child? My first teaching assignment (at the age of 40!) was in an inner city classroom. I was teaching 60 kindergarten children a day. Not all at once, thank goodness. It was a half day program and I had an assistant in the morning. These children were living in a pretty hostile climate which affected their receptivity to engaging socially and educationally. The door opened for them when they soon realized I truly cared about them. I grew to love them, really- and it happened every year. Teachers are like that. Parents are children’s first (and most important) teachers.

Reading aloud to children is one of my very favorite things to do. Making voices for characters and reading with expression drew them in. They could tell I loved reading! When I read a book I had written, A Bug House for Katie, they had lots of questions about writing. They wanted to be authors too! How, I asked myself, could kindergarten kids write when they could read only a few words?

Every child seems to access reading skills in a different way. Sometimes we need to get creative to light up that particular part of their brain. Why not start with writing? I did some research and discovered there was a program, “Journal Writing in Kindergarten.” Necessary skills are simply knowing the alphabet and the letter sounds. Here’s how it works: The child thinks of what they want to tell and thinks of the words. They write only the first letter of the word and then make a line to represent the rest of the word. That might well be the whole story, for starters. But when they are able to “read” that word/story to you, WOW! Of course the adult lavishes praise and the “author” shines. Motivation is so powerful! Here’s an example of a more advanced beginner story:

I l_____ t____ g___ s______ When the author reads, while pointing to each word, the adult writes underneath each word. This one is, “I like to go swimming.”

A bit of a conversation about swimming takes place and if the child is inspired to continue, great! If not, it’s still a story and they are encouraged to illustrate it. A plain piece of paper is fine. Lined paper comes later. The pictures are an important part of every story in the primary years! Ask the author to read it to their friends at the table, to any adult who happens to stop in, hang it up, show it off, praise the child’s story. Call them an author! And a READER! They just wrote and read a story!!

Are you thinking, “Hmmm… it doesn’t sound like much to me…” but it really is. What has happened is that the child is now believing that they can read and write. It started with writing, then reading. Does it really matter which came first? It was fascinating to see how they quickly improved, writing longer stories and then incorporating words they knew. Even punctuation! But one step at a time. I must admit, I was a bit surprised at the impact this technique had on my young students and I made Journal Writing in Kindergarten” the culminating project for my M.Ed in Early Childhood Education, completed while teaching in the city.

Remember to check out Denise’s two adorable picture books, A Bug House for Katie and What Should I Dream About?