ED.236 571 . AUTHOR' TITLE- INSTITUTION SPONS AGENCY PUB DATE GRANT NOTE PUB TYPE EDRS PRICE DESCRIPTORS DOCUMENT. RESUME CS '007 359 r . Sulzby, Elizabeth Beginning Readers' Devel6bing Knowledge about Writtbn, Language: BRDKAWL Proje-,t. 1980-82. Final Report for tite Period Septdmber 1980-August 19e,2. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, Ill.. National Inst. of Education (ED), Washington, pc: 82 je NIE-G-80-0176 :Repsrts Research /T,echnical (143) / MF)04/PC28 Plus Postage. .4 *Beginning Reading; Classroom Research; Kindergarten Children; Language Experience Approach; '-*Language Processingl PrereaSing Experience; Primary Education; *Prior 4Lerning; Reading Readiness; Reading Re's arch; *Reading kills; Teacher Role; igriting Research; *Writing ls; *Written Language .\ .IUNTIFIERS Reading W it ng Relationship a / . ABSTRACT ... a:/ The product.of a two-year study inirestigAing the literacy behavior of nine kindergattpn students and their classmates, ,. this report'first explains the impetus aqd the,theoretical . foundations for the investigation and describes its subjects and' c-.. setting. It then presents the methodologx and the data collected froth several related studies: (1) observer-child interviewslthat elicted information on students' generaj. knowledge about written language; (2) obsermations of and discussions with the nine case study children 1 1 as they first tolCI, then dictated, then wrote two mersions.of an . event; (3) records of students' efforts to adapt\their writing to. adult and child.readers; (4) observatiOns 0f-children's writing on a recently shared event; (5)end-of-the-year.interviews investigating , general writing anowlpdgeLand (6) two follow up studies on the . . children's reading:and wrifitg progress in the/first grade. After m Ag_the data,,the report produced a number of conclusions, v' Iiicludng-the following: literacy devslops prior 0 conventional reading and writing, all children do not follow tbe same , ,developmettal sequence in learning to 'read al0'write, and the teacher's model of literacy has important implications for children's development. Extensive appendixes contale copies of testing instruments and-tralscripts of observer -chi1d\interviews. (MM) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * <3. from the original document. *********-***********************************************1*************