Children typically come to the classroom with a vast amount of knowledge about how to communicate thoughts and ideas. Classroom activities encourage them to use oral communication skills to explain and express feelings and opinions about their everyday lives, including events unique to their cultural and linguistic backgrounds. And although children come to school knowing what writing is used for, what it looks like, and how it is used in different contexts, it is often taught in a way that does not acknowledge what children bring with them into the classroom. This study looks at the results of an attitude survey, a number of children’s writing samples collected over a two-year period, and transcripts of interviews with children exploring their feelings about writing and their writing abilities. Findings illustrate that children do know what it means to be a good writer and why it is important. Additionally, children have opinions about the writing they do both in school and after school. We hope that our results will add to the continuing discussion of the ways educators introduce writing to their students, as well as how they perceive their students as writers.
