children writing themselves

I. Title: “Children Writing Themselves: A Glimpse at the Underbelly”

II. Author: Margaret Yatsevitch Phinney

III. Author’s Purpose for Writing: The author seeks to understand children’s social interactions during writing as well as to find out how students use writing to cope with social dynamics in the classroom.

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?
The children showed patterns in interaction including:
· Authors have rights to their own stories
· Taking turns during social interactions
· Using dramatic devices to test out their relationships with others
· Fictionalizing themselves in their writing
· Limited right of their fictional character’s “persona”

V. Author’s Inquiry Questions:

VI. Authors Methodology
a. Who is being studied? Kindergarteners, in particular 5 close girlfriends
b. Over what length of time? One school year
c. What data is being collected? Transcripts of conversations between the girls.
d. How is it being analyzed? Through the authors’ interpretation.
e. Any other interesting or pertinent data?

VII. How the author collected information: she doesn’t specify exact methods (videorecording, audiorecording, etc.) but it was through observation.

VIII. What the author discovered or conclusions/implications? The author discusses the need for understanding the social implications of writing inside the classroom. Narrative writing often takes on and deals with many social issues. It is apparent in the study that, for these girls, peer pressure was readily apparent. We, as teachers, need to find ways to help them deal with these pressures. It is also important to work towards increasing a child’s self esteem.

It is also important to mention that her study was based on one set of five girls. This study might have different conclusions if there were boys being studied and/or a different set of girls.