Kindergarten Teachers’ Use of Writing Scaffolds to Support Children’s Developing Orthographic Knowledge

ABSTRACT

Orthographic knowledge is information about the writing system stored in memory that children draw upon to read and write. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the ways in which kindergarten teachers use verbal scaffolds to support children’s development of orthographic knowledge during writing instruction. This case study of four teachers over four weeks in a suburban school district included observations, semi-structured interviews, and surveys. Findings indicated that teachers regularly used a wide range of scaffolding strategies during writing instruction; however, teachers tended to use more high-support than low-support scaffolds. Teachers employed scaffolds more often in the independent writing context. This study represents a first step in closely observing the verbal scaffolds kindergarten teachers use to build children’s orthographic knowledge during writing instruction.

KEYWORDS:

• Writing
• kindergarten
• spelling
• orthographic knowledge

Acknowledgments

We thank the district leaders, principals, teachers, and children who made this study possible. The first author is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Lynchburg and can be reached at [email protected] or 434-544-8508.

Disclosure statement

The first and second author have intellectual property rights for the curriculum teachers used in the district in which this study took place.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.