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Writing in early childhood education is centered around the development of young students practices with putting pen to paper. The teaching of writing for students in preschool sets the foundation of reading and writing those students will carry with them for the rest of their lives. The early emergent writers, students in the scribbling phase, are impressionable and their teachers interactions with them are typically their first and will impact their first social experiences regarding writing.

Issues
The teaching of writing at such a young age revolves around students mimicking their parents when they write and comes out in the forms of scribbles. The scribble phase is important for students because it is the process of writing physical marks, understanding what these marks mean to the student, and the first step in the student understanding how the written word is used.

An issue arises when teachers attempt to focus on handwriting and spelling in the classroom because the scribbles or drawing are seen as "lacking conventionality" and letter forms and spelling abilities seem foundational for the students to write. In these cases, the students are not encouraged to understand their scribbling but rather are expected to focus on skills that they are not developmentally prepared for. The change in focus has the potential to confuse the student as they are not ready to comprehend the focus on handwriting or penmanship.

The time spent in a preschool classroom on writing is another issue that affects the students development with writing. In a study done in 2012, a large group of preschool classes were observed. It was found that writing was an underrepresented activity in the classroom and, in some cases, non-existent. It was also found that teachers did not always have a plan of how to integrate writing into classroom activities. In another study in 2017, the average amount of time spent on writing in a preschool classroom was three and a half minutes and there were a large number of classrooms that had no writing support at all. The study also found that in most cases, teachers were focusing on rote skills such as letter formation, name writing, and spelling. The time spent on writing in these classrooms is an issue because students need to be practicing the skills that they are developmentally ready for consistently in order to be able to move to the next level of writing in higher grade levels.

In the past, writing has been taught to young students by using the strategy of coping. This practice has been used for a multitude of reasons and one of them being that school curriculums and requirements by school districts put pressure on teachers to pass their students to the next grade level so they often resort to copying rather than letting the student develop in the writing process properly. The practice of copying is harmful to the student because instead of helping the student capture their own ideas by writing them down, they instruct the student to cope a word or letter that they do not understand the meaning of. The focus of these classrooms is on copying rather than composing. Copying has been viewed an as instructional activity and a logical precursor to independent writing which is problematic because it teaches the students that copying is not plagiarism but rather a required task in the classroom. When students are taught this way they do not learn the proper steps in development so when they are unable to copy something because they do not see the meaning behind it, they are written off as bad writers.

Strategies for Improvement
In order to improve the standards and practices of teaching writing to preschool students, different strategies must be used that center around the developmental process and encouragement of the students throughout that process.

In the first scribbling phase of writing it is critical that teachers encourage their students to opening engage with writing activities rather than focus on correctness and conventionality. The teachers are tasked with noticing and supporting the scribbling rather than overlooking or discouraging it because that sends a negative message to the student. There are many steps that can be taken in order to achieve this, including the idea of interactive writing. Interactive writing is when the teacher works with the students to help them understand the purpose of their writing and what it means to write. This process involves the teacher to write and when doing so think out loud so the students can understand the teachers composing process (e.g., “Should we use ridiculous instead of silly? We can change it if we want to because authors often revise as they write”), as well as their encoding process (e.g., “I’m putting spaces between the words so everyone can read what we’ve written”). Eventually, the students gain more confidence so the teacher writes less as the students write more. Then the students are able to receive their own pen and paper to shift the responsibility of writing onto them when they are ready. This method of teaching supports the students development through a steady process that builds on each step and allows the students the support to form new ideas that are important to them.

There are a collection of three strategies that can also be used to help support students in their scribbling phase and those are noticing, asking, and validating. Noticing is when a teacher recognizes a students scribbles as a writing phase and gives the student the space to be comfortable with their skills as they develop. Asking is when the teacher engages with the student by asking questions that help the student understand writing as a form of communication. The student can begin to piece together the what, how, and to whom they write as well as gaining skills in how to explain and evaluate their own work. Validating is encouraging the students process of scribbling and praising their efforts without making assumptions about the work. These three strategies all work together in a step by step process to support the student in laying their foundation for their literacy skills.

Writing materials being present in a preschool classroom is a first step towards making writing a present and consistent activity in a students daily education. However, it is not enough to simply put the materials out and expect students to engage with them in a way that will benefit their development. Teachers must be enthusiastic about the use of the materials and why they are being used. Additionally, writing materials should not be limited to a writing center but rather used in all areas of the classroom setting. Writing should be incorporated through play in the classroom because writing and play can both involve motivation, interests, and personal choices of the student. The students should be encouraged to mix these activities in order to help their writing development in everyday tasks such as having a play grocery store and having the students write their grocery list. Even if the lists are written in scribbles, this action still encourages the preschooler to apply writing to everyday activities they see their parents do and therefore build their understanding of the importance and purpose of writing.

The steps for encouraging students can be summed up with these guidelines: build writing into your daily schedule, accept all forms of writing, explicitly model writing, scaffold children’s writing, make writing opportunities meaningful, have writing materials in all centers, and make writing a way to connect with families.

Importance
For students in preschool the importance of their development of literacy skills could effect them for the rest of their academic careers. It is the responsibility of the teacher to guide these students in the process that supports their discovery and understanding of what it means to write. Teachers influence their students in this stage in what they say and how they say it which then shapes the learning opportunities that are available for their students. Writing at this stage is so critical to a students development which is why activities that support each student need to me implemented in the daily life of a student. Therefore, teachers need to act as a support system for their students whenever they need help with their composing of scribbling and understanding their connection to writing and how it functions in the world around them.