Examining the effects of kindergarten writing instruction on emergent literacy skills: a systematic review of the literature

ABSTRACT

The importance of teaching kindergarteners to be effective writers has been emphasized in recent years. The purpose of this article is to provide a systematic review of current experimental and/or quasi-experimental studies investigating writing instruction in the kindergarten setting. Framing the literature within three philosophical approaches, we identified instructional strategies related to increases in emergent literacy outcomes and gaps in the literature. The results from 15 intervention conditions from 2010 to 2020 indicated the overall effect size for kindergarten writing instruction was g = 0.37, 95% CIs [0.09, 0.64], suggesting that kindergarten writing instruction enhanced children’s early literacy outcomes. The findings from this article provide important instructional implications for kindergarten writing instruction.

KEYWORDS:

• Writing instruction
• kindergarten
• early literacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The overall effect size was calculated based on 15 intervention conditions by excluding the three outliers.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna H. Hall

Anna H. Hall is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Clemson University specializing in early childhood writing instruction.

Qianyi Gao

Qianyi Gao is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Iowa.

Ying Guo

Ying Guo is an Associate Professor in Literacy at the University of Cincinnati.

Yanli Xie

Yanli Xie is a Ph.D. research assistant at the University of Cincinnati with experience in experimental design.