Children\'s Mathematics

oped their understanding and practice to support children’s own early writing, they

will more readily understand how to support children’s mathematical graphics.

It is important to point out here that these teachers had already expressed their

interest in children’s own written marks and in mathematical graphics. We invited

teachers to tell us a little ‘about what this means for the children’ in their setting or

class. Teachers’ responses show a wide range of understandings. Of those we inter-

viewed, almost 70 per cent appeared confused by the term ‘emergent writing’ and

what this meant in terms of practice. Explanations of their practice included:

• Children copy over or trace. We use ‘Jolly Phonics’.


• They need help with spelling and copying writing.


• Near the beginning of the reception class they do need to write over the teacher’s
  writing.


• Their first job is writing over the teacher’s writing. I support this with dot-to-dot
  and tracing. I think fine-motor control is really important.

The remaining 31 per cent of teachers responded with comments that suggest

they do have an understanding of emergent writing and are putting this into

practice:

• Right from the beginning letting them teach us what they can do – emergent
  writing is the stage when the marks connect with meaning.


• Their own marks are very important – I respond to the content of what they have
  written and give lots of positive praise.


• Emergent writing is about the children making marks – they start with a scribble
  or a bit more and they read and tell you about what they’ve written.


• We have a language-rich environment: children have their favourite letters. I write
  a question on what they’ve written, responding to the content.


• Any marks they make on paper tell me something.


• (Emergent writing means) children’s pretend writing – any of their marks on
  paper. Their scribbles and what they tell you about them, tell you a lot.

These findings illustrate the varied perceptions of what teachers understand about

emergent literacy. This confusion seems to be widespread, for example, whilst New

Zealand has embraced an emergent or ‘process’ approach to writing (McNaughton,

1995), elsewhere it appears that the extensive research and literature published in this

field has not always led to high-quality practice that reflects understanding of this.

Perhaps because young children’s writing does not ‘look like’ the standard writing and

spelling of older children, it has so often been misunderstood. This is also the case with

early mathematical graphics. One misunderstanding is that there is no teaching

involved but, as Smith and Elley point out, ‘it is not enough to provide the motivation

for the children to write and then to leave them to get on with it. We do not advocate

a laissez-faire attitude to writing instruction’ (Smith and Elley, 1997, p. 142). We are in

accord with this view in terms of supporting children’s mathematical graphics. We

argue that teaching in this way involves: ‘constantly assessing and providing suitably

challenging activities, demonstrating standard forms and “asking questions which

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