Wow Writing: An Emergent Writing Program for Kindergarten Students

Abstract

Wow Writing is an original writing program for kindergarten students, designed for classroom use half way through the academic year. Wow Writing encourages young students to take their writing to the next level by examining the overall quality of different writing samples before producing their own work. This approach gives children ownership of their learning because they are making discoveries on their own and determining as a class what makes their writing stand out. The goals and expectations of each writing lesson are clearly defined through three levels: below expectations, meets expectations, and exceeds expectations. Teacher-created writing samples exemplify what student work looks like at each level, which children discuss in-depth. These visualizations not only help students to understand what their writing should look like, but also give children a source of intrinsic motivation by encouraging them to consistently go above and beyond what is expected of them. Each writing lesson is differentiated to meet the varied needs of diverse learners, and includes differentiated learning centers and activities to encourage students to practice the focus of the lesson in different educational settings.