Matteson, David M. & Freeman, Deborah K. (2005). Assessing and Teaching Beginning Writers: Every Picture Tells a Story. Katonah, NY: Richard C. Owen Publishers.

Matteson and Freeman’s book Assessing and Teaching Beginning Writers caters to both academic and teaching audiences with the intention of addressing early childhood educators and administrators. The book’s main feature is the Early Literacy Continuum (ELC) which is intended as an ongoing form of assessment in the early childhood classroom. This book incorporates guiding questions at the beginning of each chapter for the user as a form of reflective practice and utilizes a straightforward approach in addressing literacy experiences. The chapters in this book are short and concise.

The first section of the book begins with a story about a boy named Michael and his prekindergarten literacy experience. It then moves to theoretical perspectives in early literacy development appropriate to assessment and instruction, and then, addressing the characteristics of emergent readers and writers. This section does not address the theoretical perspectives evidenced in Lowenfeld’s research (Creative and Mental, 8th Edition) on the developmental stages of drawing, but does stress the importance of student-teacher dialogue and characteristics of emergent readers and writers.

The second section, chapters four through seven discuss how to use the ELC, how to develop students’ drawings (work), how to develop students’ oral language, and choosing teaching objectives, all of which serve as a guide to further early childhood literacy learning. The ELC is a unique assessment tool and helps teachers facilitate teaching objectives. The student work section assessment scoring is predicated on the assumption that there are predetermined meanings that can be visually evidenced (objects mean one thing), but if a teacher is willing to acknowledge this, using the ELC for student work scoring can be effective. Implementing the ELC as presented in this book will help teachers foster literacy in all its forms, while understanding that literacy is a developmental process.

This book is foundational in its approach to assessing literacy in early childhood classrooms. If you are a teacher that is looking for quick answers to pre-K and kindergarten literacy issues, this is not the book for you. This book requires its reader to invest in the learning process through reflection and action, requiring time and consideration of the book’s content as it can be incorporated into the classroom.

References

Lowenfeld, V. & Brittain, W. L. (1987) Creative and mental growth. 8^th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Pages: 110     Price: $18.95     ISBN: 1572747412

Reviewed by Heidi Mullins, Lecturer, College of Education-Art Education, University of Houston