KidwatchingDocumenting Children’s

Literacy Development

Gretchen OwockiYetta Goodman

HEINEMANNPortsmouth, NH

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HeinemannA division of Reed Elsevier Inc.361 Hanover StreetPortsmouth, NH 03801–3912www.heinemann.com

Offices and agents throughout the world

© 2002 by Gretchen Owocki and Yetta Goodman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or byany electronic or mechanical means, including information storage andretrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by areviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review, with the exception of thereproducibles found in the appendix (pp. 95–122), which may be photocopiedfor classroom use only.

The author and publisher wish to thank those who have generously given per-mission to reprint borrowed material:

“Getting to Know Your Child” and “My Child as a Language Learner” areadapted from Whole Language Catalog: Forms for Authentic Assessment by LoisBridges Bird, Ken Goodman, and Yetta Goodman. Copyright © 1994. Pub-lished by McGraw-Hill. Reprinted by permission of the authors.

“Child’s Concepts of Reading” and “Child’s Concepts of Written and PictorialRepresentation” adapted from Whole Language Catalog: Supplement on AuthenticAssessment by Lois Bridges Bird, Ken Goodman, and Yetta Goodman. Copy-right © 1992. Published by McGraw-Hill. Reprinted by permission of theauthors.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataOwocki, Gretchen.

Kidwatching : documenting children’s literacy development / Gretchen Owocki, Yetta Goodman.

p. cm.ISBN 0-325-00461-7 (alk. paper)1. Language arts (Early childhood). I. Goodman, Yetta M., 1931–.

II. Title.

LB1139.5.L35 O85 2002372.6—dc21 2002004350

Editor: Lois BridgesProduction: Vicki KasabianInterior and cover photographs: Joel BrownCover design: Catherine Hawkes, Cat & MouseAuthor photo: Alan FlurkeyTypesetter: Publishers’ Design and Production Services, Inc.Manufacturing: Steve Bernier

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper06 05 04 03 02 VP 1 2 3 4 5

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To the thousands of children

and many hundreds of teachers

who taught us the power of kidwatching.

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Contents

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S vii

P R E F A C E ix

Chapter 1 What Is Kidwatching? 1

Chapter 2 Sociocultural Knowledge and Experience 15

Chapter 3 Print Awareness 27

Chapter 4 Books and Book Handling 37

Chapter 5 Talk 48

Chapter 6 Oral Reading and Miscues 61

Chapter 7 Writing 77

Appendix Reproducibles 95

B I B L I O G R A P H Y 123

I N D E X 129

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the teachers and writers who contributed to the kid-watching and print awareness guides at the University of Arizona—Bess Altwerger, Ann (Marek) Anderson, Lois (Bird) Bridges, JaneDisinger, Nancy Earle, Kenneth Goodman, Wendy (Hood) Good-man, Don Howard, Debra Jacobson, Mary Kitagawa, Carol Woodley,John Woodley, Jackie Wortman, Robert Wortman—and all the otherwhole language teachers who continue to inform our thinking.

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Preface

I am the teacher who is committed to discovering what eachof my students knows, cares about, and can do.

I am the teacher who wants to understand each of my stu-dent’s ways of constructing and expressing knowledge.

I am the teacher who helps my students connect what theyare learning to what they already know.

I am the teacher who respects the language and culture mystudents learn at home, and who supports the expansion ofthis knowledge at school.

I am the teacher who knows that there are multiple paths toliteracy, and who teaches along each child’s path.

I am the teacher who is committed to social justice and tounderstanding literacy as a sociocultural practice.

I am the teacher who believes that each child can teach meabout teaching, language, and learning.

I am the teacher who believes in the interconnectedness oflanguage, learning, and life.

I am the teacher who supports children in writing I can! ontheir wings.

I am a kidwatcher.

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Kidwatching: Documenting Children’s Literacy Development is a guide-book for preschool, kindergarten, and primary teachers and parapro-fessionals wishing to develop and refine their kidwatching (literacyevaluation) practices, and for anyone interested in developing newunderstandings about how children think and learn. The primarygoals of kidwatching are to support and gain insight into children’slearning by (1) intensely observing and documenting what theyknow and can do; (2) documenting their ways of constructing andexpressing knowledge; and (3) planning curriculum and instructionthat are tailored to individual strengths and needs. This book willhelp you learn to kidwatch and, specifically, to develop your knowl-edge about how children come to know literacy.

In Chapter 1, we answer the question “What is kidwatching?”and provide a description of the tools, techniques, and processes kid-watchers use as they observe and interact with children. Chapters 2through 7 address particular areas to kidwatch: sociocultural knowl-edge and experience; print awareness; books and book handling;talk; oral reading and miscues; and writing. Each chapter provides adescription of how kidwatching enhances teaching and learning;guidelines and suggestions for kidwatching; and practical tools andresources for documentation and analysis. Rather than a set of di-rections, you will find a set of potentials to choose from, shape, andadapt to meet your specific needs and interests. Kidwatching looksdifferent from person to person; classroom to classroom; and year toyear because each group of children is unique, each educator isunique, and teachers are continually developing and refining theirpractices.

Whether you are a paraprofessional, teacher, or teacher re-searcher, it is likely that your interest in kidwatching stems from adesire to enhance your teaching and improve student learning. Kid-watching helps you with this by guiding you through the following:

� learning about children in terms of their identities, experi-ences, interests, attitudes, family language and literacy prac-tices, and familial and cultural backgrounds

� documenting what individual students know and can do

� using what you learn about individual children and generalpatterns of development to plan curriculum and instruction

� assessing how the class is doing in terms of meeting curriculargoals (whether established at the individual, classroom, state,or national level); reflecting on whether the classroom instruc-tion, materials, physical environment, and social environmentprovide a variety of ways to meet these goals, in keeping withwhat is known about child development

� involving students and families in the evaluation process

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As you engage in kidwatching, you will find that you are revalu-ing children. To revalue is to notice and build on what learners cando, and to help them value and reflect on the knowledge they have(K. Goodman 1996b). Value is at the heart of words such as evalua-tion and revalue. Rather than viewing some children as “low” or “be-hind” or “lacking in skills,” kidwatching teachers view all children ascreative, capable learners—on their way to “achieving control overthe conventions of language—always ‘in process,’ always movingforward . . . ” (Flurkey 1997, 219). When observing through a kid-watching lens, beginning kidwatchers are always amazed by the in-tellectual curiosity and learning ingenuity of their students. Theylearn that while every child needs support in some areas, every childalso has strengths.

Each chapter promotes revaluing by suggesting ways to partnerwith children to document and reflect on their knowledge. The doc-umentation is used to highlight and discuss with children theirstrengths, interests, and approaches to learning; help them identifytheir productive (and nonproductive) reading, writing, and learningstrategies; and determine next steps in teaching and learning. Suchprocesses provide important information for parents, future teachers,and permanent school records. Thus, in kidwatchers’ classrooms,children are empowered to evaluate and revalue themselves.

The Origins of Kidwatching

Kidwatching has been around for as long as the teaching profession,but the 1930s gave rise to a particularly innovative child-studymovement that led to its eventual expansion and refinement. Manyeducators by the 1930s had begun to carefully observe children, re-flecting extensively on their oral and written language use. Althoughthese educators did not refer to themselves as kidwatchers, they werekidwatching—using children’s demonstrated strengths and needs toinform curriculum and instruction.

Yetta’s work from the 1970s and ’80s served to popularize theconcept of kidwatching by giving it definition and helping teachersand researchers learn to use it to structure and enhance their work.As her work with kidwatching and kidwatchers has evolved overthe past thirty years, so too has the concept (see Y. Goodman 1996a,1996b; Martens 1997; O’Keefe 1996; Owocki 1999; Whitmore andGoodman 1995).

Before We Begin: A Thought About Standardized Testing

Many parents, educators, and administrators are currently dismayedby the heightened national emphasis on standardized testing. First,pressure to do well on standardized tests often changes how and whatwe teach. Because standardized tests focus on low-level skills, simple

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facts, and demonstrations of skills in isolation, many teachers feelpressured to focus their instruction in these areas. Second, although“good” test results are valued by many, standardized tests do not serveinstructional purposes. They do not help teachers plan meaningfullearning experiences because they cannot reveal the competenciesthat children demonstrate in familiar, everyday home and school set-tings. Many young children are easily distracted during testing situ-ations, have anxiety about the process, do not easily follow verballymediated test directions, and have no experience with testlike ac-tivities (Hills 1999; Meisels 1995; Salinger 1998). Third, many stu-dents’ language and cultural experiences differ vastly from thosespecific kinds that would help them do well on tests. Any time astate or country full of children is held up to a single model of suc-cess, we risk losing our focus on supporting all children. Finally, testsreveal little about children’s approaches to learning and ways of con-structing knowledge.

Kidwatching offers a solution. It provides a framework for en-gaging in systematic, yet very personalized, data collection in allareas of literacy. High-quality kidwatching gives you the informationyou need to teach effectively, to work with child study teams, and toshare detailed, concrete information with families and administra-tors. Students benefit from your in-depth understandings of theirknowledge and ways of knowing, and parents prefer the rich assess-ment information over scores from multiple-choice tests (Neill 2000).

Kidwatching can also be used to strengthen school reform. Theclassroom-based assessments provide more helpful profiles of indi-vidual students than standardized tests, and can be used to constructschoolwide systems of assessment that actually support student learn-ing (Neill 2000). Groups of teachers, administrators, and familymembers working together can use kidwatching techniques, alongwith knowledge about their particular students, contexts, and com-munities, to develop a common set of principles and evaluation prac-tices that are in tune with local needs and interests. “Students comefrom many cultures and languages. Instruction and assessmentshould connect to the local and the culturally particular and notpresume uniformity of experience, culture, language, and ways ofknowing” (Neill 2000, 138). Focusing on practices that place chil-dren in the safe nest of hands formed by teachers and families helpsassessment maintain its ideal function—to support student learning.

Reproducibles, found full-size in the appendix, are shown in smallerversions in the text.

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c h a p t e r 5

Talk

��

“Mona, do you want to stir the bubbles?” Monastirs as her grandmother reads aloud a bubblerecipe, adding one ingredient at a time. “We’recooking bubbles,” Mona says with satisfaction.Later, using a wand to blow and catch bubbles,she shouts, “I catched-ed one! I catched-ed abubble!” Her older sister responds: “You caughtone? How did you do that?”

Children are language learners by virtue ofbeing born into human society. They con-struct knowledge about language as they use itto engage with the people and objects in theirenvironments and to make sense of their sur-

roundings (Halliday 1975). Mona’s example,and others in this chapter, illustrates that ex-pansion of oral language and extension oflearning happen simultaneously within thehighly contextualized settings of early child-hood worlds. It is under the influence of theirown daily talk and actions, as well as the re-sponses of their family and community, thatchildren expand and fine-tune both their lin-guistic and their conceptual knowledge.Most language development scholars and re-searchers agree that children control most fea-tures of the grammar of their mother tongueby the time they come to kindergarten.

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Why Talk?

Kidwatchers are interested in children’s orallanguage for two major reasons. First, theyknow that it is the primary symbol systemthrough which children learn about the world.As we will see, children use talk to facilitatetheir own thinking and learning in all subjectareas, and to jointly construct meaning andknowledge with others. Second, kidwatchersvalue children’s talk because it is a windowinto their knowledge and thinking. Observ-ing and documenting children’s talk revealstheir knowledge of language functions andforms, their interactional competencies, andwhat they know about the world aroundthem. The more teachers listen to childrentalk, the more they see how talk works handin hand with reading and writing to developall aspects of language and thinking. As youdocument, keep in mind that talk in the class-room also involves listening. When we con-sider talk, we also consider the listeningcapabilities of children as they attend to theirpeers and the adults in the community. In thischapter we first explore the ways in which talkfacilitates development. Then, we describethe ways in which kidwatchers document andevaluate children’s talk and listening, and usewhat they learn to sensitively support theirdevelopment.

A Medium for Thinking and LearningHarry (age five) and Karla (age four) arewriting and drawing together. Harry writes“M-O-M.”

HARRY: That spells mom, I think.KARLA: If that’s the way you think you spellmom, then spell mom.HARRY: You know what? I think that’s reallyhow you spell mom. You know why? Because atkindergarten today we had to spell mom, and Ithink I remember how to spell mom. M-O-M.[then, pointing to each letter as if to confirm whathe is saying] Mah . . . oh . . . mom.

Oral language is a medium through whichchildren expand their concepts of the world,

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including their literacy concepts. Throughlanguage, children come face-to-face withtheir own ideas and, therefore, open them upto new levels of consideration. “Languageenables the child to make his idea into a thing,an object, an entity that he can refine, con-sider, shape, and act on . . . ” (Lindfors 1991,9). For example, Harry has been taught tospell mom at kindergarten but uses oral lan-guage to reconstruct for himself how it isspelled and why it is spelled that way. Bybringing his ideas to a talking place, he is ableto shape and reflect on them and, therefore,to shape and expand his thinking.

According to Vygotsky (1978), oral lan-guage plays a central role in children’s in-ternalization of all cultural knowledge andmental processes. Children learn as a result ofinteracting socially and transforming the lan-guage and actions of their social experiencesinto tools for independent thinking. Trans-formation is not akin to copying, mimicking,or imitating but instead involves a process ofinternalization, in which children select, re-construct, and modify the communicative andproblem-solving tools of their society to meettheir own needs. To be a successful languageuser, Harry must modify and reconstruct theinformation he experiences socially (includ-ing information about spelling) to make itunderstandable and workable for him. His“mah . . . oh . . . mom” (like Mona’s “catched-ed” overgeneralization) is evidence that chil-dren are active sense makers, inventing theirown ways of saying things as they are figuringout how language works.

Vygotsky believes that private speech(speech not directed at others, but oftentaking place in the presence of others) is atransitional medium for internalizing socialexperiences—a tool that helps children grad-ually develop control over complex concepts.Initially, “children solve practical tasks withthe help of their speech, as well as their eyesand hands” (Vygotsky 1978, 26): as they spell,they make sounds aloud; as they compose,they provide oral narratives; as they listen tostories, they say what they are thinking; as

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they encounter difficult text, they read aloud.“Sometimes speech becomes of such vital im-portance that, if not permitted to use it,young children cannot accomplish the giventask” (26). Private speech is a tool for inter-nalizing socially learned processes and trans-forming them into tools for independentthinking.

While all of children’s talk is of interestto kidwatchers, their questions and wonder-ings are particularly significant. Questionsand wonderings are an ideal point at whichnew learning can take place. Consider thesituation in which four-year-old Miguel asks,“How come cheese is not sticky, but it sticksto this [tortilla]?” At such a point, the childhas searched for and initiated what he wantsto know, and placed himself in a position touse talk to revise his growing theory of theworld (Lindfors 1991). An adult who takesinitiative at the point of a question or won-dering is likely to find a child in his or herzone of proximal development—the placewhere personal curiosity is aroused and mean-ingful learning can take place. But, let us rushto say that input from another person is notalways needed in order for learning to occur.As important as the social environment is,sometimes when children question andwonder, just the act of thinking—personalinquiry—results in changing conceptions(Oakes and Lipton 1999). We do not teachchildren all that they know. As activethinkers and language users, they are alwayslearning by sorting out the tensions betweensocial conventions and their own inventions;always trying to make sense of the world andmaking many discoveries and connectionsthrough their own mental processes.

A Medium for Jointly ConstructingKnowledge

ANGIE: I just wrote B-E-A-I-G-I-E-W-E.KARLA: I know what you wrote. This is yourname—this . . . Is this your name?ANGIE: No.KARLA: What is—um, it is your name, but it’snot—but you’re not—pretending—it’s not—

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ANGIE: No, it’s not my name! I know. It’s A-N-G-I-E.KARLA: Oh yeah. But some of those are in yourname, right?ANGIE: Yeah, like A, G, I, G, E, right?KARLA: Yeah, and then this E [pointing].

So far, we have placed our focus on the roleof language in supporting individual chil-dren’s processes of constructing knowledge.Another important matter to consider is therole that language plays in supporting chil-dren in jointly, or collaboratively, construct-ing knowledge. Classroom literacy events areoften characterized by children formulatingand testing ideas and hypotheses socially—aprocess that is highly facilitative of their de-velopment. For example, talking with Angiegives Karla the opportunity to sort out thenotion that there is a difference between un-ordered (random) letters being used to spell aword and letters that are purposefully ordered.To this point, Karla has not yet incorporatedthis understanding into her writing. Angiebenefits from the exchange, too. As she listensto clarify what Karla knows, she gains experi-ence with taking the perspective of anotherperson. The talk in this event is a tool forthese children to bring their implicit under-standings and personal knowledge to a meet-ing place where they can construct newunderstandings together.

Each classroom literacy event is an op-portunity for children to construct knowledgetogether—to articulate and share informa-tion about their hypotheses and ideas, to seehow others respond to them, and to see howothers approach literacy-related tasks. Chil-dren’s ordinary conversations and talking-through procedures teach them to recountand reinterpret events, to display their abil-ities, to share the process of how they dothings, and to encounter and understandthe logic behind different points of view—processes that are essential for ultimate suc-cess in reading and writing (Graves 1989).Harry’s, Angie’s, and Karla’s talk experiencesillustrate that “children benefit from learning

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situations that allow them to explore and toexperience in their own ways the symbolicand social medium they are learning” (Dyson1989, 271).

Interactions with Children

Kidwatchers take quite seriously their role infacilitating children’s talk. Skillful kidwatch-ers learn to listen to children’s language andto use it as a platform for supporting theirthinking. Kidlistening is integral to kidwatch-ing. Rather than focusing on language in-struction separately from social interactions,kidwatchers focus on helping children expandtheir uses of language as a tool for thought andaction. The following sections describe someof the typical talk strategies teachers use tosimultaneously support children’s linguisticand conceptual growth, to ensure that onemutually builds on and nourishes the other.

Let Children Do the TalkingAs Hannah is reading a short story to herteacher, she pauses to reflect on her thinking:

HANNAH: I can read the word because, but Ican’t remember how to spell it.TEACHER: Yeah. Hmm. Why do you thinkthat is?HANNAH: Maybe because when I look at it—it’s already there, and so, like, I just have to—all I have to do is remember what it looks like.But when I have to spell it, I have to think ofall the letters, all by myself.

The best way to simultaneously supportchildren’s language and conceptual growth isto encourage their talk. As we have seen, talkis a valuable tool for thinking, learning, andjointly constructing knowledge. In the exam-ple, Hannah is the talker, with the teacherplaying a supporting role. As such, it is thechild’s questions and thoughts that drive theinteraction. Unafraid to let children takethe lead in classroom learning, kidwatchersgenuinely listen to their talk and thought-fully respond to their ideas. Through listen-ing and responding, they learn what children

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know, what’s hard for them, and what’s easy,enabling themselves to sensitively build onchildren’s conceptualizations.

If you reread Hannah’s example andKarla’s example in the previous section, youwill notice that their talk is exploratory—characterized by a hesitant, fragmented verbalconstruction and reconstruction of ideas(Barnes 1993). Karla seems uncertain of whatshe wants to say and how to say it, and almostsounds as if she is thinking aloud. Hannahseems forced by her language to clarify forherself what she is thinking. “The struggle tocommunicate with someone who only halfunderstands can contribute to the clarificationof the speaker’s own thinking . . . students’own efforts to express their understandings area major means of enhancing learning” (Barnes1993, 344). Often, when children strugglewith language, teachers supply the tough ex-pressions for them. Yet, “the struggle itself isimportant for both the child’s thinking andfor his languaging. If we can hold our tongues,we do the child a service. There is no surerway for him to become the master of idea thanto render it expressible” (Lindfors 1991, 268).

Jointly Negotiate ConceptsAt recess, Evan is playing with a small toy, butwhen his fingers become too cold, he brings itinside to his teacher, Christian Bush.

EVAN: [opening and closing his hands] My handswere too cold to play with it. Now, they’reevaporating.CHRISTIAN: [taking one of his cold hands be-tween her warm hands] Let’s see . . . what otherword could describe what you are feeling—because, remember what evaporation means?EVAN: [looks up for a moment, as if thinking]Oh yeah. [thinks some more] Vibrating. They’revibrating.CHRISTIAN: Vibrating. Frostbit. Thawing.

Another way to support children’s lin-guistic and conceptual development is tojointly negotiate concepts with them. Jointnegotiation is characterized by meaningful

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activity in which the teacher and child worktogether toward a goal or solution, with theteacher using language that is just beyondwhat the child might use independently.Teachers “speak at the level where . . . chil-dren can comprehend them and [they] moveahead with remarkable sensitivity to [the]child’s progress” (Bruner 1983, 39). Suchcommunications help children learn how toextend their language into new contexts andsettings. Joint negotiation makes sense be-cause it occurs within children’s zones ofproximal development. Teachers follow andlead at the same time, listening to childrenand inspiring uses of language that are justbeyond what they might use on their own.

Encourage ReflectionChristian is teaching her students how towrite a script.

CHRISTIAN: Now, tell us what a script is,Max—and I’m asking Max because he’s al-ready had experience with this.MAX: It’s a piece of paper where you writedown what you’re going to do in the puppetshow. Because, if you don’t write it, you’regoing to mess up and you have to start over andover again.CHRISTIAN: Max, do you remember when youwrote down what each person was going to say?Why was that important?MAX: Because if you don’t write it out, peoplewon’t know what to say and they will talk at thesame time.

A third way of supporting children’s lin-guistic and conceptual development is to en-courage reflective dialogue. The goal is to raiseissues and pose questions that help childrento reflect on what they know, and to relatenew concepts and ideas to those they have de-veloped already. In teaching scriptwriting,for example, Christian does not simply tellher students what to do. Instead, lettingMax take the lead, she helps them analyzethe format of a script and think about why itsparticular form is important. Christian under-

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stands that children learn not through doingonly, but through reflecting on doing (Adel-man 1992). If she wants them to internalizethe concepts she is teaching, they need toreflect on why and how they work. To en-courage reflection, Christian typically askschildren questions about what they know,how they know, how they learned it, and whythings work the way they do. Asking suchquestions not only prompts children to visit,revisit, reflect on, and share their thinkingprocesses, it also shows them that these think-ing processes are important.

Provide Substantive ResponsesWhich column contains the substantiveresponses?

Column A Column B

I liked your What kind of practice did demonstration. it take to get ready for

this demonstration?

You listened You seemed very inter-well today. ested today. What caught

your interest?

Your pictures Your pictures helped me are great. enjoy your story. How did

you think to includethe little anchor?

Another way to simultaneously support chil-dren’s linguistic and conceptual developmentis to provide substantive responses to theirdemonstrations of knowledge. Clearly, theresponses given in column B are more sub-stantive than those in column A. They pointto a particular strength or competency, ratherthan being general in nature or focused onpraising the child, and they prompt childrento talk and think further. In addition to a spe-cific focus on children’s actions, the teacher’slanguage focuses on their thinking. Kidwatch-ers attempt feedback that is primarily substan-tive because it keeps student language goingand fosters its further development. Substan-tive responses show children that teachersare aware of their developing competencies,acquaint children with the descriptive terms

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used by adults, help them reflect back on thework they have done, and, overall, serve tokeep their language going.

A Rich Talk Environment

If we want children’s language to come to lifein the classroom, we have to provide a richenvironment for learning. Christian is a first-grade teacher who has arranged to do justthat. Enter her classroom at almost any timeof day, and you are likely to notice that it is alively place for inquiry, collaboration, think-ing, teaching, sharing, laughing, and learn-ing. The children’s talk tells it all:

“Pee pi po pum. Who’s that walking on mybridge? I’m going to eat you up.”

“How do you spell bite?”“B-I-T.”“How do you spell are?”

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“That’s the easiest word in the world! R!”

“Cheetahs can run 70 miles an hour. Miles.M-I-L-S.”

“No, Max, it’s M-I-L-Z.”“Z? Don’t just think that Z makes the same

kind of S.”

“Once when I was little I had to stay in a hospi-tal and I had the ‘monia. And I was like threemonths—five months old and they had to putme in a crib and . . . ”

Observing Christian’s students at workand play, it is easy to see that they are simul-taneously making discoveries about languageand the world. In such an environment,knowledge about one feeds knowledge aboutthe other, and mutually, they spiral towardhigher planes.

What is Christian’s role in arranging suchan environment? First, in collaboration with

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her students, she enacts a curriculum that in-spires their interests. Using district and statematerials as general guidelines, she lets chil-dren’s questions, wonderings, and knowledgedetermine the specifics of what they will do.If Christian were to do all the deciding, thecurriculum would belong to her, and the chil-dren would need to do little talking, think-ing, and learning. As it stands, they want toshare their knowledge and use language toquestion, inquire, and think.

Second, Christian ensures that her stu-dents find a variety of reasons to use languageto explore curricular concepts. Dependingon the conceptual goal (let’s say it’s to com-pare their community and region with oth-ers), she may encourage them to tell stories,retell events, report information, request in-formation, explain how to do something, planan event, or pose a problem. As the functionalneed to use language arises, Christian teacheselements of form. On myriad occasions, shedemonstrates the language that learners use toorganize and inquire about the world. For ex-ample, when the children expressed an inter-est in performing puppet shows, she taughtthem how scripts are organized. When groupsneeded a way to efficiently share what theywere learning, she showed them how to use achart to organize information. When theywanted to tell others about stories they hadread, she demonstrated the use of story webs.When they were collecting information aboutfamilies, she taught them how to conduct aninterview. The quality and range of opportu-nities children have to use oral languagesignificantly affect their progress and devel-opment as talkers, listeners, and learners (Barret al. 1999).

Third, the physical environment in Chris-tian’s classroom promotes socialization. The fur-niture is arranged to support whole-groupmeetings (a large rug with a stool), small-group work (a class library, work centers, ta-bles, beanbag chairs, pillows, and empty floorspace), and pairs working together (plenty ofinviting nooks and crannies, and a computerwith two chairs). Depending on the children’s

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needs, they quickly find appropriate spaces inwhich to work together.

Fourth, Christian believes that a sense ofsafe community is essential if learning is tooccur to its fullest potential. In order for thesocial environment to promote talk, childrenmust find themselves in a community that iswelcoming of many language possibilities.Children, regardless of language or dialectsspoken, regardless of conceptual understand-ings, and regardless of facility with language,are encouraged to take the risks associatedwith using talk to try out new ideas and tobuild knowledge together. Christian helps herstudents feel safe by fostering a classroom cul-ture in which all children are seen as compe-tent to read, write, and talk. From day one,she responds to children claiming they “can’t”with, “Well, show me what you can do, so Ican help you grow,” or “Could you pretend to[write or read]? That will give us a place tobegin.” Children who are hesitant to talk arehelped to develop strategies for group partic-ipation: “Tell us what you drew.” “If you can’tread what you wrote, then tell us about it.”When a child says something that is treatedas “out of whack” by other children, Christianresponds with, “Wait. Everyone sees thingsdifferently. Let’s listen so we can see in a newway.” Throughout the year, she makes a pointto help students understand that languageand literacy develop over time; children donot write or draw or talk like adults, nor doesshe expect them to do so. Christian’s focus ison developing a classroom culture in whichlearners take risks with language and actively,sensitively listen to what others have to say.

Finally, with Christian’s help, her stu-dents have learned that there are twenty-nineexperts in the classroom, each with unique andimportant knowledge. Children as well asadults have funds of knowledge that enrichthe classroom community. For example, Evanand Cayla know how to spell lots of hardwords and can read almost any print in theclassroom; Max and Mark know how to orga-nize a script and put together a puppet show;Kiara knows how to fix the classroom pencil

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sharpener, and is even good at unclogging thetiny ones brought from home; Jake knows lotsabout insects, and for that matter, knows lotsabout just about everything. In a classroomfull of experts, where children have a say inwhat they learn and how they learn, languageand concepts are inextricably linked and growin new directions together.

Guidelines for Observation and Documentation

There is no question that talk has a tremen-dous impact on what and how children learn.If we want to develop appropriate educationalexperiences for children, we must listen tothem talk. Observations of children’s talk in avariety of settings help teachers develop in-sight into their language and conceptualgrowth and evaluate the ways in which thetalk environment promotes or detracts fromlearning. Teachers document talk primarilythrough anecdotal records, field notes, and au-diotapes. Depending on the teacher’s purpose,brief quotes are documented on sticky notes orclipboards (accessible around the room) andlonger stretches of talk are recorded and thentranscribed or listened to at a later time. Thefollowing sections comprise a framework toconsider when evaluating talk and the talk en-vironment. The items for evaluation focus onobserving children (1) as they talk and listenin different situations and settings; (2) asthey explore different language functions andforms; (3) as they demonstrate different in-teractional competencies; and (4) as theydemonstrate language and conceptual knowl-edge about various aspects of the world. Theitems should not be viewed as absolutes butshould be altered and carefully selected to suityour evaluation purposes.

Observing Talk in Different ContextsKidwatchers observe children as they talk andlisten in different situations and settings toidentify the learning contexts in which theyseem most comfortable, and those in whichthey need most support. Figure 5–1 listssome important groupings and kinds of talk/

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listening to consider. You may use this as ananecdotal note-taking form on a case-by-casebasis with any child who seems to be strug-gling in the talk environment, or as a tool forevaluating the overall quality of talk in yourclassroom. Either way, make a plan to observefour or five instances of each category onthe form, and then develop a set of questionsor use questions such as those listed in thefirst two sections of Figure 5–2 to focus youranalysis.

Observing Language Functions and FormsAnother important lens for evaluating talk isin terms of the functions it serves in facilitat-ing communication and learning. Functionsrefer to the reasons or purposes for using lan-guage, such as to report information or express

_____ Whole Class _____ Individual Child: ______________________________________

Self-Talk

One-to-One with Adult

One-to-One with Peers (record peer names)

Self-Chosen Peer Group (list names)

Teacher-Chosen Peer Group (needs-based; children who seldom talk in groups; children who talk often; etc.)

Small Instructional Group (observe across changes in subject matter)

Whole Group

Play Settings

FIGURE 5–1 Talk Contexts

Reproducible, see p. 109

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a point of view. The goals in evaluating chil-dren’s functional uses of language are to en-sure that (1) classroom talk serves as a tool forchildren to construct and express knowledgein a variety of ways, and (2) children’s lan-guage learning constantly reaches out to meetnew challenges. Figure 5–3 lists some specificlanguage functions that foster classroom learn-ing. One way to use Figure 5–3 is as a quickcheck to ensure that your classroom providesopportunities for children to construct andexpress knowledge in a variety of ways. Wesuggest that you use the list to make your ownchart of the functions that are most importantin your classroom. Another way to use Figure

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5–3 is as a tool to document the knowledgeand growth of each child, or of particular chil-dren who may need extra support in the areaslisted.

With every function comes a set of lan-guage forms, or structures that take their shapedepending on the purpose and meaning of thelanguage. For example, “Let’s pretend” and“Once upon a time” are forms conducive tocreating imaginative worlds. “First . . . next. . . last . . . ” and “Here’s how I do it . . . ” areforms conducive to explaining how to do ormake something. If children are exploring avariety of functions, rest assured that they areexploring a variety of forms. Just “create the

FIGURE 5–2 Questions for Evaluating Talk

Questions for Documenting and Supporting Individual Children’s Growth• How comfortable is the child speaking with the teacher, one other child, small groups? How

does this change across contexts and subject matter?• How is the child using talk as a tool for learning and thinking? How does this change across

contexts?• In what situations and settings does the child benefit most from language use?• If the child speaks two languages, how does language use vary across contexts and subject matter?

Questions for Evaluating the Talk Environment• Which settings, situations, and experiences promote exploratory talk and which do not?• Who is doing most of the talk in various settings? How does this affect the quality of learning

for all children?• Whose talk is valued/whose questions do we pursue as a class? What is the nature of these

questions?• What evidence do I have that children who do not talk much are learning, listening intently,

expanding their functional uses of language, and developing their interactional competencies?• In any given setting, how does talk relate to what children are reading and writing, and to

other classroom learning experiences (Wells 1990)?• What questions do children ask? What do their questions indicate about their views of what is

important? Who do they ask?

Questions for Teacher Self-Evaluation• How do I jointly negotiate concepts with students? How do I encourage them to use language

to reflect on their ideas and thinking? What is the nature of my questioning? What is thenature of my feedback?

• What functions and interactional competencies do I value? What topics do I value? Is theclassroom environment conducive to exploring a variety of functions and topics?

• How do I support children in expanding their functions and interactional competencies?• How would I characterize my own talk in various situations and settings?• Have I learned to value new kinds of talk? Have I learned to value quiet listeners?• How do I support all of my students in using language to learn, including bilingual students?

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context and the rest will follow” (Short,Harste, and Burke 1996, 10).

When examining the functions listed inFigure 5–3, it is important to recognize thatoral facility with each of these supports writ-ten facility. For example, children who learnto report information or explain how to dosomething have important knowledge forwriting nonfiction text. Children who can tella cohesive, logically sequenced story have im-portant understandings for structuring a storyin writing. Children who learn to freshly de-scribe a feeling or sensory experience becomesuccessful poetry writers. At times, teachersact as scribes, to demonstrate how oral lan-guage changes as it is transformed to writtenforms.

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Over time, teachers watch for children toexpand and fine-tune their uses of languagefunctions and forms. Figure 5–4 shows anadapted version of Figure 5–3, developed forobserving individuals. Even if you just checkoff the items for individual children, or takebrief notes, parents find conversations aroundsuch forms useful in understanding the kindsof language that are supportive of schoollearning. Also, parents may offer insights intochildren’s thinking and language uses thathave not been visible to you in the schoolsetting.

Observing Interactional CompetenciesAlong with monitoring children’s explorationof language functions and forms, kidwatchers

Place a check by the functions that are regularly present in your classroom. Place a star by thosethat occur in various contexts and settings. Indicate the extent to which languages other thanEnglish are used to serve the varying functions.

____ Sharing stories

____ Retelling events

____ Reporting information

____ Explaining how to do or make something

____ Expressing language and literacy knowledge

____ Building productive learning relationships with peers and adults

____ Creating imaginative worlds (during play; through writing or drawing; while singing)

____ Taking social action

____ Planning events

____ Enjoying language for its aesthetic value (poetry; language play)

____ Describing sensory experiences (sights, smells, sounds, touches, tastes)

____ Expressing feelings, empathy, emotional identification

____ Expressing points of view

____ Taking leadership

____ Asking questions; requesting information

____ Building collaborative relations

____ Responding to peers’ and teachers’ questions and requests for information

____ __________________________________________________________________________

____ __________________________________________________________________________

FIGURE 5–3 Oral Language Functions: ClassroomObservation

Child’s Name: ____________________________________________ Date _________ Age ____

Shares stories

Retells events

Explains how to do or make something

Creates imaginative worlds (during play; through writing or drawing; while singing)

Plans events

Enjoys language for its aesthetic value (poetry; language play)

Expresses feelings, empathy, emotional identification

Takes leadership

FIGURE 5–4 Oral Language Functions: IndividualObservation

Reproducible, see p. 110 Reproducible, see p. 111

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monitor their interactional competencies.Figure 5–5 lists a set of competencies thatsupport children’s learning and interacting ina classroom setting. Because each child andeach group is unique, it is a good idea to adaptthe list to meet the needs of your particularstudents. As you develop your own form, youmay wish to leave space to record anecdotesand examples. This will be particularly help-ful if you plan to use it on a case-by-case basiswith children who are struggling in the talkenvironment, or if you plan to share detailedinformation with parents.

In general, over the course of the year,kidwatchers document children’s interac-tional competencies to ensure that they are

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developing their capabilities to use languageto learn, and that they are demonstrating em-pathy and careful attention to the feelingsand views of others. They collaborate andconference often with children and parentsas they document and reflect. Not only doesthis bring to light (for all of you) the compe-tencies that are conducive to classroom learn-ing, it also helps you in understanding thecompetencies children may be demonstratingat home but not in school. Locating instancesof success outside of school helps you bringsuch instances into the classroom.

Observing Knowledge DemonstratedThrough TalkWe have discussed ways of observing chil-dren’s functional uses of language, as well astheir interactional competencies. We also be-lieve it is important to observe and documentthe general knowledge children demonstratethrough talk. As we have said all along, kid-watchers regularly ask:

1. What does the child know aboutlanguage?2. What evidence is there that develop-ment is taking place?3. When a child produces unexpected orunconventional language, what does it tellabout the child’s knowledge?

These questions may be extended intocontent areas. For example, as part of a classinquiry focused on insects, you might ask:

1. What scientific language does the childuse to construct and express knowledgeabout insects?2. What evidence is there that the child isdemonstrating more sophisticated uses oflanguage in the talk about insects?3. When the child uses language aboutinsects unconventionally, what does it tellabout the child’s knowledge?

Learning any content involves learning thelanguage needed to construct and expressknowledge about that content. Talk is anideal medium for monitoring children’s con-

Child’s Name: _________________________________________________

_____ Participates in group talk activities (discussions, poetry reading, dramatization, play,shared writing).

_____ Elaborates coherently on self-selected topics.

_____ Elaborates coherently on instructional topics.

_____ Asks peers questions (for assistance; about language; about content).

_____ Asks teacher questions (for assistance; about language; about content).

_____ Responds appropriately to peer questions, elaborating when relevant.

_____ Responds appropriately to teacher questions, elaborating when relevant.

_____ Participates and takes turns appropriately in conversations.

_____ Leads conversations.

_____ Builds on what others say.

_____ Uses appropriate nonverbal behavior (gestures; facial expressions; ways of indicatinglistening).

_____ When talking, holds the attention of others.

_____ Speaks clearly and audibly; uses comprehensible speech.

_____ Feels comfortable speaking before a group.

_____ Shows awareness of listener needs (recycles, repairs, clarifies).

_____ Listens when others speak (in one-to-one settings, small groups, large groups).

_____ Uses effective strategies for interrupting.

_____ Demonstrates understanding of oral directions given in a variety of settings.

_____ Talks about language.

_____ Adapts language to changes in setting.

_____ ________________________________________________________________________

_____ ________________________________________________________________________

FIGURE 5–5 Interactional Competencies

Reproducible, see p. 112

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ceptual and linguistic growth in all contentareas.

An Environment That RecognizesDifference

Part of your growth as a kidwatcher will in-volve making continual efforts to learn aboutlanguage differences that may be a result ofchildren’s membership in varying languageand cultural groups, and to clarify and analyzeyour understandings, attitudes, and percep-tions about these differences. “As teachers ofchildren from different cultural backgrounds,we need to understand that our particularlanguage and literacy socialization in largepart contributes to how we interpret and gen-erate classroom activities. The more we learnabout the diverse experiences and needs ofour students, the better prepared we will beto question existing practices and create edu-cationally and culturally appropriate activi-ties for all of our students” (Faltis 1997,27–28).

Kidwatchers make a conscious effort todeconstruct the implicit assumptions they mayhave developed, and to consider the role theseassumptions play in creating conditions forlearning. Following is a set of linguistic andcultural characteristics to consider as a start-ing point for reflection. Any of the items inthe set may vary across individuals within yourclassroom community. Your task is to con-sider what these variations mean to you, andhow they influence your interactions withchildren. Children demonstrate varying

� orientations toward public performance(feelings about speaking in front of agroup; feelings about publicly demon-strating knowledge)

� patterns of turn taking (overlapping vs.clear-cut turns; ways of using pauses;perceptions of what constitutes an inter-ruption; echoing)

� question/answer practices (levels offamiliarity with being asked questions to

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which the adult already knows the an-swer, e.g., “What color is this?”)

� sensitivity to language variation (tenden-cies to switch from one language or di-alect to another; views of “low-status”dialects; capacities for speaking languagesother than English in the classroom)

� uses of gesture and eye contact to showattention, understanding, emotion, andinterest

� views of adult and child roles (expecta-tions in terms of how much talk thechild does; how much talk the adultdoes; what the child has license to say)

� orientations toward competition andcollaboration

� ways of giving and receiving help

� ways of telling and interpreting stories

� word choices for conveying meanings(“That’s dangerous” vs. “Get off thatrail”)

If you are interested in further reading, ourlist draws from the work of Erickson (1986),Faltis (1997), Heath (1983), Lindfors (1991),McWhorter (2000), Phillips (1983), Ruiz(1991), Smitherman (1999), Taylor (1983),and Wolfram, Adger, and Christian (1998).Their work has helped us to understand theimportance of teachers valuing language di-versity as a resource (rather than seeing it asa problem) and working to make their class-rooms a place for all children to use languageto its fullest potential—for communicating,learning, and thinking.

Student Self-Evaluation

As with any aspect of knowledge, it is impor-tant that students learn to evaluate their ownuse of talk. As teachers work with children inthis area, they discuss with them what theyneed to do to make their communication suc-cessful. Figure 5–6 provides a list of items toconsider for student self-evaluation.

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Conclusion: Using What You Learn

Before children enter school, most of theirlanguage is celebrated. Families, caregivers,neighbors, and peers are excited by youngchildren’s attempts to communicate and

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seldom correct their grammar or phonology,but do respond to misconceptions about theworld: “That’s a plane, not a birdie.” Intu-itively they know that communication, ratherthan correctness, is the purpose of using lan-guage. Sometimes, however, when childrenmove into schools, certain aspects of languagelearning are frowned upon and actually dis-couraged. Some children are not permitted totalk until their “work” is done; some are cor-rected each time they use language unconven-tionally. In some classrooms, the teacher doesmost of the talking. Some children learn veryearly that it is better to use language as littleas possible in certain settings, notably—andregrettably—in the classroom.

Kidwatchers value talk. They know thatembedded in a talk-filled classroom are thesocial supports that are central to the liveli-hood of the learning environment. Participat-ing in talk helps children focus their thinking,make their implicit understandings more pre-cise, and internalize cultural knowledge. Ithelps children articulate and refine their hy-potheses and ideas, share information, andget feedback on their current knowledge andways of knowing. In a classroom in whichchildren have agency to talk and collaborate,they not only develop language, they developtheir ability to use it as a tool for learningabout the world.

• When is it easiest for me to talk? What makes iteasy?

• When is it easiest for me to listen? What makes iteasy?

• When is it hard for me to talk/listen? What makes ithard? What can I do to change this?

• With whom do I like to talk?• Who is a good talker in our classroom? What makes

that person good? What makes me a good talker?• Who is a good listener? What makes that person

good? What makes me a good listener?• What kinds of things do I like to talk about? How can

I use this to support my learning?• Why do people talk? Why is it important that we talk

in our classroom?• How does my talk and listening help my group/our

class have good discussions? What do I say thatisn’t helpful?

• How am I doing with sharing what I know or amlearning with my classmates? With my teacher? Withmy family?

FIGURE 5–6 Questions for Student Self-Evaluation

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