The good news is that as a child breaks the alphabetic code, consolidates an understanding of how the code works with the other processes for reading, and has enough reading practice with easy material so that many words and patterns are recognized automatically, the child will combine this decoding ability with her perfectly good phonological, syntactic, and meaning-processing circuitry to read English easily.

Many teachers still do not realize that beginning reading and writing are almost the same thing, identical processes unfolding in four identical phases in what for some children is a two-year journey in kindergarten and first grade on the road to skilled reading — a two-year journey to breaking the code.

Chapter 8 shows how to set up a kindergarten writing program that is as important for learning to read as reading instruction itself. You'll hear the voices of the best kindergarten teachers in the nation as they invite you into their classrooms to visit powerful learning environments for literacy learning and to see how to teach reading through writing. They'll share their favorite literacy techniques and strategies. The chapter includes schedules that show time for teaching writing explicitly and also times for creating play-based instruction to increase not only oral language but written language as well.

Developmental spelling plays a huge role in beginning reading, and tracking its development may be one of the most powerful ways to assess how well beginners are developing as readers. Tracking developmental spelling is at the core of good assessment-driven instruction for beginning reading.

Adult underwriting is the corrected version of the child's writing, but as Eileen Feldgus would say, it's done “in a praise mode.” I recommend writing the adult version at the bottom of the page below the full version of the child's writing as opposed to writing the adult version directly under each child’s word, to keep the integrity of the child's version intact.

“Read the kid writing.” Then the teacher prompts by saying, “Now try the adult writing” and offers encouragement such as “Wow, you are such a good reader!”

“My goodness! You can read the adult writing!” This process connects writing directly with beginning reading instruction.

When teachers use the terms kid writing and adult writing sensitively, they convey to children that children aren't expected to write like adults and give them confidence to do productions in “kid spelling.”

Kid Writing made writing a mainstay of the kindergarten experience and provided teachers supportive structures so children were joyfully writing and reading all day long — meaningfully, in response to literature, in documenting science observations, in writing notes to solve social issues, and in scores of other meaningful writing opportunities. Feldgus and Cardonick discovered for themselves that for many children, “writing is the gateway to understanding how reading works.”

Source: Breaking the Code: The New Science of Beginning Reading and Writing, by J. Richard Gentry, Ph.D., Heinemann, 2006. Portsmouth, NH. www.heinemann.com