Lyndsay Moffatt  PhD

It is another busy day in Room 102. Dylan runs up to me with a piece of paper, folded, stapled and taped. "Here!" he says as he hands it to me, stopping briefly to register my appreciation for his gift before heading off to create some more "notes". 

 

I have been visiting Mrs. Henderson's kindergarten classroom for several weeks, and early in my visits Dylan decided I was a good recipient for his gifts. Since that time he has made me numerous notes and pictures. Most of these notes have print on them, sometimes his name, sometimes indecipherable letters, sometimes other words or his friends’ names.

 

One day I noticed that many of his drawings and notes had the unmistakeable block letters “LMFAO” on them.  When I asked what those letters meant, Dylan explained it was from a song he liked called “Sorry for Party Rocking”.

 

Dylan doesn’t just write personal notes, he also creates what we might recognize as posters or public notices that he tapes around the classroom. One day he spent most of his afternoon “choice time” (a time when the children choose what activity they would like to do)  making drawings to sell me, making sure the price was in the actual drawing.

 

All of Dylan’s writing feels spontaneous, joyful and meaningful. Dylan’s response to print literacy has been exactly what educators around the world hope to see:  a seamless integration with his own communication needs and an easy adoption of this new sound symbol system into his day to day life.

 

But how did Dylan get here? What might be some of the keys to his budding affection for the alphabet and print? And how might we support him as he grows and moves into new interests, new communication needs or new literacy landscapes?

 

As a classroom researcher, I cannot comment on Dylan’s home experiences. From our time together, all I can guess of his life at home is that he has someone who also likes the band LMFAO and the song “Sorry for Party Rocking” as it seems doubtful that Dylan would have been able to decipher such information about bands or song titles on his own.

 

Besides that, Dylan and I don’t really talk about home, instead we talk about what is front of us, or possibly what happened at recess. Dylan is five years old and our conversations sound like those many adults might have with five year olds.

 

D:I need to untape this I need to untape this

LM:You need to untape this?

D:Yeah

LM:Okay I'll help you untape it

 

However, as a classroom researcher, I do have the privilege of being allowed to observe how Dylan’s teacher, Mrs. Henderson, works to create a classroom where Dylan’s spontaneous, joyful writing is possible.

 

There are many things that Mrs. Henderson does that encourage and support Dylan’s identity as a writer and as a reader. Many of the things she does have been recommended by literacy educators and researchers and for decades, and yet, having spent time in other kindergartens and primary classes, I know that these things are not universal to all early years classrooms.

 

This paper will explore some of the things that Mrs. Henderson does to support young readers and writers. But of course, Mrs. Henderson is not the only person responsible for creating the space in her classroom.  Other people and things have also had roles to play in shaping the kind of interactions she has with her students and the kind of culture of learning that these five year olds experience.

 

In the following pages, I will also outline some of the other people and things that also seem to have an effect on Dylan’s and his classmates’ experiences of literacy learning in Room 103.