As we all know, phonics instruction provides children with the ability to decode—mapping graphemes to phonemes—while writing requires them to encode, or reverse this process by segmenting words into sounds and selecting letters to represent them. This encoding process demands a deeper application of phonics knowledge, highlighting gaps in phoneme awareness and letter–sound correspondences. Writing, especially spelling attempts, pushes children to actively analyze sounds and patterns in words, thereby reinforcing reading skills. Recent research confirms that spelling and writing tasks are not simply outcomes of phonics instruction but predictors of later reading achievement (Ouellette & Sénéchal, 2017; Treiman et al., 2023).

Research shows that early invented spelling plays a unique role in literacy growth. Treiman et al. (2023) found that children’s invented spellings predicted later decoding skills, even after accounting for phonological awareness and letter knowledge. Similarly, Gillon and MacDonald (2002) demonstrated that explicit phoneme–grapheme instruction improved not only spelling performance in children with speech impairments but also generalized to new words and pseudo words. These findings suggest that writing and encoding tasks provide a critical practice field for consolidating phonics learning in ways that support reading development.

The relationship between writing an phonics learning is influenced by other skills such as phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and instructional design. For instance, a meta-analysis by Graham et al. (2018) confirmed that spelling instruction significantly improves both spelling and reading outcomes, underscoring its reciprocal benefits. Moreover, Ehri (2020) emphasized that writing tasks help learners bond spellings to pronunciations in memory, strengthening orthographic representations essential for fluent reading. Interventions in preschool and primary grades that combine phoneme awareness, letter–sound instruction, and writing practice show the strongest long-term outcomes for literacy development (Lonigan et al., 2018).

It is clear from the research that phonics and writing should not be taught in isolation. Encoding activities—such as invented spelling, dictation, and word building—give children opportunities to practice and internalize phonics rules. As Graham and Santangelo (2014) note, explicit spelling instruction not only improves children’s writing but also bolsters reading development. Teachers should intentionally integrate reading and writing tasks, using both as complementary avenues for practicing phoneme–grapheme mappings. When children are taught to write with phonics, they build the automaticity and orthographic memory that underlie lifelong literacy.

As an elementary teacher you can strengthen literacy instruction by weaving writing into daily phonics lessons. Consider some of these activities:

1. Dictation: After teaching a phonics pattern, have students write short dictated sentences that include target words. This requires them to apply decoding knowledge in writing and provides immediate feedback on grapheme–phoneme mapping (Ehri, 2020).
2. Word-Building: Provide letter tiles or whiteboards for students to construct and manipulate words. Ask them to spell and then read the same word, reinforcing the reading–writing connection (Graham et al., 2018).
3. Invented Spelling Journals: Encourage younger learners to use invented spelling to express ideas in writing. Research shows that invented spelling predicts later reading and spelling achievement (Ouellette & Sénéchal, 2017).
4. Phonics-Linked Writing Prompts: Offer short writing tasks tied to the phonics focus of the week (e.g., writing a silly story using words with “ai” or “ee”). This makes practice meaningful and contextual.
5. Review through Writing: Instead of reviewing phonics only by reading word lists, ask students to write them, trace patterns, or compose short texts that use cumulative patterns (Lonigan et al., 2018).

Ehri, L. C. (2020). The science of learning to read words: A case for systematic phonics instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(S1), S45–S60. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.334

Gillon, G. T., & MacDonald, P. A. (2002). Phonological awareness training in preschool children: A comparison of immediate and delayed intervention. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(1), 86–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.94.1.86

Graham, S., & Santangelo, T. (2014). Does spelling instruction make students better spellers, readers, and writers? A meta-analytic review. Reading and Writing, 27(9), 1703–1743. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-014-9517-0

Graham, S., Harris, K. R., & Santangelo, T. (2018). Research-based spelling instruction: The past, present, and future. Reading and Writing, 31(9), 1819–1843. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9857-1

Lonigan, C. J., Purpura, D. J., Wilson, S. B., Walker, P. M., & Clancy-Menchetti, J. (2018). Evaluating the components of an emergent literacy intervention for preschool children at risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 166, 41–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.011

Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2017). Invented spelling in kindergarten as a predictor of reading and spelling in Grade 1: A new pathway to literacy, or just the same road, less known? Developmental Psychology, 53(1), 77–88. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000179

Treiman, R., Decker, K., & Kessler, B. (2023). What do children’s invented spellings reveal about literacy development? Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 54(2), 393–405. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_LSHSS-22-00161

Storymaking provides opportunities for young students to feel empowered to make decisions about the materials and topics of their stories, engage in shared meaning-making, and utilize their linguistic resources (Justice & Assaf, 2025). I describe storymaking as an innovative approach to early literacy instruction. Storymaking aligns with emergent writing, where children’s initial engagement with written text typically includes experimenting with symbols, marks, and early text production, blending drawing, scribbles, and oral storytelling into forms of self-expression. This approach recognizes that young learners naturally draw upon a wide range of semiotic resources to make sense of their world and to communicate their ideas (Serafini & Gee, 2017).

Authentic writing is real writing for real people and real events. It is writing that students want to do. Students exercise choice and express their unique voices. Authentic writing is original, meaningful, and purposeful. It is the kind of writing that evolves organically based on the purpose, the audience, and the message. Authentic writing goes beyond school writing or writing that is meant to please a teacher or a parent (or anyone else with the power to grade or evaluate). Authentic writing is communicative and has many genres. Authentic writing will have an impact on others- to persuade, contemplate, understand, create, and question. Authentic writing enables students to experience the power and purpose of writing. It has the potential to motivate disengaged students who have been “schooled” or who have come to think that writing is only about getting a grade, passing a test, or pleasing the teacher. A real audience is key to authentic writing. Responsibility comes with authentic writing because what a student writes will impact others. Therefore authentic writing requires students to write ethically, honestly, and originally.

How do I nurture students’ writerly identities in my classroom?

Before I share ways to nurture students’ writerly identities, it is important to first discuss WHY we should nurture writers’ identities. Supporting the shaping of and caring for students’ identities as writers will position them not just as students in a school or classroom, but instead as authentic, capable and intentional writers who are part of a larger community of writers and thinkers. Encouraging students to cultivate and articulate their writerly identities helps them connect with their personal lives and lived experiences. Nurturing students’ writerly identities can support students’ investment in their learning and their growth as writers. I am borrowing Bonny Norton’s (2013) use of investment to expand on cognitive theories of motivation. If students invest in their identities as writers, they do so because “they understand they will acquire a wider range of symbolic (positioning as knowing) and material resources which will increase the value of their cultural capital and social power” (p.1). In other words, investment goes beyond individual notions of motivation and considers the social construction of self and the need to spend time and effort extending and flourishing in one’s identity. Investment works if one’s identity is positive and seen as an attribute- not as a negative character trait.

For example, have you ever heard a student say, “I’m a really good soccer player” or “I’m an artist.”? This naming of one’s identity lends itself to investing in that identity- maintaining the reputation and status of the positive feelings and positive attention one gets from that identity. On the other hand, have you ever heard a student say, “I’m not a writer” or “I have nothing to write about.”? If students don’t believe they are capable and that their lives don’t matter in the act of writing and thinking, then they will not want to invest their time or take the risks of writing (because let’s face it- writing is hard and highly complex). If we nurture students’ writerly identities, then we support their unique and capable abilities and promote the investment (and intrinsic motivation) in their identities as writers- a highly regarded social status in the class, in the school, and in their homes and communities.

So now back to the question, how do we nurture students’ writerly identities? The first step in nurturing writers’ identities is to start calling your students writers and identify their strengths and abilities as writers. You can create expert lists of students who are excellent at describing or outstanding at creating metaphors or the best editors in the class. Allow this list to grow as students grow in their writing abilities. Next, call on students to use their unique abilities to mentor and support other students during peer conferencing and writers’ studio. For example, if a one of your students shares that he is working on a poem and needs help with his sensory language, request that the metaphor expert (Javier) conference with the student. Call out the students’ abilities and ask them to use their skills in authentic writing opportunities.

Start the school year by engaging the students in a writing unit about their lives, their families, and their cultural backgrounds and practices (include languages, values, heritage, racial backgrounds, etc). Atwell describes using one thought-provoking activity called heart maps (Atwell, 2002) where students list or “mine” things, people and ideas they hold in their heart. Atwell suggests asking questions like “What has stayed in your heart? What memories, moments, people, animals, objects, places, books, fears, scars, friends, siblings, parents, grandparents, teachers, other people, journeys, secrets, dreams, crushes, relationships, comforts, learning experiences are in your heart? What’s in the center of your heart? What’s at the edges of your heart? What’s in your heart? As students identify topics important to them and their lives, they are encouraged to begin writing about those ideas in their writers’ notebook. Jotting down thoughts or images that come mind as they think about who they are as a human and a member of their family and community. For every topic and idea, students should be given time to talk about their lives with others- to share, laugh, celebrate and take risks. As a teacher, you must discuss guidelines for such sharing and compliment students who take risks outside of their comfort zone.

Throughout the year, invite students to develop pieces (usually starting with personal narratives or stories) about their lives and their interests. Continue to name and position your students as writers in your classroom and create authentic opportunities for them to write and publish their writing. See more about creating authentic writing opportunities for your students.

References
Atwell, N. (2002). Lessons that change writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Norton, B. (2013). Investment, identity and language learning. TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/investment-identity-and-language-learning/

As an advocate for nurturing writers in all classrooms Pre-K thru college, I think the first step to starting a writers’ studio is to recognize that every learner in your classroom is a writer. What does it mean to be a writer? A writer is any person who is alive and has stories to tell about his or her experiences, emotions, opinions, and beliefs. In other words, being a writer is about expressing one’s voice and using writing to find one’s voice! Writing is both self-reflective and transformative. There’s been a great deal of research on understanding the importance of identity and helping learners express and shape their writerly identity (i.e. Gardner, 2013; Ivanic, 2004) and more studies need to further examine what this looks like in a classroom, in the space of a writers’ studio.

Below are a few steps I recommend to start a Writers’ Studio:

Step one, call your students writers. Explore what they think a writer is and have them identify different writers from around the globe – sports reporters, novelists, analysts, nurses, moms, dads, teachers, doctors, poets… the list goes on and on. Then, invite learners to describe different writers in terms of what they do, who they write for (audience) and what seems to drive their passion and interest in being a writer.

By naming your learners as writers (and they naming themselves as writers) you create a space where writers exist and live together.

The next step is to explore what writers actually do and how thoughts and ideas make it to a piece of paper or a computer. Learners can brainstorm what writers do by studying and reading about famous writers’ practices, interviewing writers, and eventually mimicking or taking on these writers’ ways of living and being. Search your community and invite writers in to your classroom. Interview them about their craft and their practices.

As you and your learners identify who writers are and what writers do, then you are tasked with creating a space including materials, equipment, general guidelines for being a writer, and a schedule to support writing. I like to think of it as a studio- a creative, safe, buzzing space where writers think, study, write, share, and design writing.

A Writers’ Studio.

References
Gardner, P. (2013a) Writing in context: reluctant writers and their writing at home and at school. English in Australia, 46(1), 71–81.

Ivanic, R. (2004) Discourses of writing. Language and Education,(18)3, 220–245.

Last night my graduate students and I discussed the article “10 Things every literacy educator should know about research” by Duke and Martin (2011) published in the Reading Teacher. Duke and Martin discuss what research can do, what research is, and how to tell the difference between the terms research-based and research-tested. Additionally, Duke and Martin emphasize how essential research is to the teaching profession and how as educators we must be critical consumers of how research informs our practices. My graduate students, who are all practicing teachers pursuing their masters degree in reading education or developmental education, articulated how easy it is to dismiss or simply ignore “research” as a classroom teacher. While they all embrace the importance of research- especially since they are in graduate school attempting to advance their knowledge and expertise in literacy education- they feared that most teachers and administrators have little interest or need for research. Instead most teachers typically read what Duke and Martin refer to “gray matter research.” These are instructional ideas or practices found on pinterest postings or on websites like teaching ideas http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/ that should be research-based.

The questions we pondered last night included: “How do we help other teachers and administrators see the value of research? How do we get them to care and become interested in new practices and approaches that benefit students and have been explored by credible research?” These are indeed important questions and while we didn’t come up with the correct answer- we all agreed that we needed to invite other teachers to learn with us through both published research and through our students. We cannot force teachers to act differently nor can we simply close our doors. We need to model how we question our teaching and our students’ learning. Share articles and invite other teachers to help us understand this thing we call literacy teaching and learning. How are you inviting other teachers to think about literacy learning? What research have you read that make you wonder and better understand your current practices?

References
Duke, N.K, & Martin, N.M. (2011). 10 Things every literacy educator should know about research. The Reading Teacher, 65(1), 9-22.

Recognizing the critical role teachers play in increasing students’ literacy achievement, research indicates that providing teachers with generative, school-based, sustained professional development positively impacts instruction and subsequently improves learning (Skerrett et al., 2018). GPD is an approach to enhance teachers’ learning and pedagogical practices while increasing students’ achievement (Flint et al., 2018). Through GPD, teachers develop and implement evidence-based literacy lessons and assessments, engage in action research, and reflect on their teaching and learning. Numerous studies highlight that through GPD, teachers learn new instructional practices, develop confidence, adopt additive views of students, and improve student achievement outcomes (Author; Flint et al., 2018).

            Arnetha Ball’s work with professional learning communities in South Africa plays an important role in understanding GPD and teacher learning. In her longitudinal study, Ball (2009) coined the term generative change to describe teachers’ process of ongoing learning. She explained that learning becomes generative when teachers make connections with their students’ lived experiences and design instruction based on the relationship between professional knowledge, personal knowledge, and knowledge gained from students. Ball (2009) acknowledges the importance of teachers’ life stories and professional experiences along with tapping into metacognitive awareness and exploring one’s shifting ideologies as essential to the process of generative learning. Leaning on generative learning theories and the research on GPD, in my research I seek to understand what teachers learn and how they adapt and implement instruction based on the relationship between their identities, professional experiences, and knowledge gained from students.

Abstract of Research

In this qualitative, case study I uncover the ways in which four, foundation phase teachers (Prek-2) shifted in their knowledge and pedagogical practices of explicit vocabulary instruction while participating in a year-long, co-designed, generative professional development project in rural South Africa. Teachers learned how to integrate explicit vocabulary instruction (Crosson et al., 2019) with shared reading that provided opportunities for their multilingual students to: 1) Develop their conceptual knowledge; 2) Identify word parts and meanings; and 3) Explore new words with others. Qualitative methodology guided the data collection and analysis of this study. I collected eight teacher interviews, two focus group interviews, eight classroom observations, and multiple instructional artifacts (lesson plans, student work) to document teachers’ generative learning and pedagogical practices specifically related to vocabulary instruction. Constant comparative analysis (Glasser & Strauss, 1967) helped me identify emerging themes and document shifts in learning. Findings indicate that teachers’ life stories and knowledge gained from their students shaped their learning and implementation of vocabulary instruction. Teachers made explicit connections to students’ lives outside of school and implemented a variety of language scaffolds such as repeating, visuals, videos, acting out, using students’ mother tongue, and partner share during shared reading time to help students’ build their vocabulary knowledge. They noticed students’ strengths and their own self-efficacy as teachers and leveraged their life experiences to negotiate the curriculum. Noticing students’ abilities, especially retaining, and utilizing new vocabulary words, shaped how the teachers viewed their effectiveness and motivated them to continue learning.

At TCTELA Annual Conference 2016 in Austin I was inspired by Varian Johnson’s writing schedule. Varian suggested creating a schedule to write everyday- even if it is for 10 minutes create a space to write and think. Other writing teacher bloggers such as Two Writing Teachers https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/challenges/ challenge us to document our lives by writing short story or event each week then building those stories into what they call A Long Story Slice of Life Challenge.

Saturday January 23, 2016
Jacqueline Woodson inspired me and a few hundred other teachers by sharing her insights and practices as a writer, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. She reflected on how precious and unexpected life can be and how important it is to take action. She announced, “Don’t wait to take action to change the world.” In my life, taking action starts with a becoming critically aware of the world around me and opening spaces for my family, my friends, and my students to question their roles and responsibilities as future educators and citizens. Sonya Nazaro did just that when she sought out to learn about the lives of children migrating from South and Central America. Sonya wrote several New York Times articles on this issue and a best selling book titled Enrique’s Journey– describing the life of one boy in search of his mother. After hearing Woodson and Nazaro talk about the actions they took to improve our society, I wonder what can I do to support these young people as they enter the U.S., more specifically as they enter Texas. As teachers and teacher educators, we can bring the stories of these young people to life by reading about them in our classrooms honoring their struggles and finding ways to push back against stereotypes about immigration in the U.S.