Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preschool and Kindergarten

Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover's book is a `must read' for all early childhood educators. I also recommend it to parents of young children as well as primary grade teachers who want to know more about how young writers develop.
Although Ray and Glover admit that the skills of writing are complex, they assert that they can and should be supported in even the youngest children--as soon as they can hold a crayon! Even before children can write their names, they can develop ideas and stories using oral language that can be supported by even the simplest of illustrations. Ray and Glover explain, in great detail and using student-created examples, how to support this kind of writing in developmentally appropriate ways.
Interestingly, in their "Afterword," Ray and Glover admit the need for further observation, research and explanation regarding the development of writing in preschool children. I appreciate their acknowledgment of possible shortcomings, and I certainly hope to see more from these thoughtful educators. However, at this point in time, this book provides plenty of information for teachers to currently support writers who are "already ready."

"Already Ready" by Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover is a very teacher-friendly, easy to read book with a clear message.Preschool children given the appropriate encouragement, modeling, and materials, are ready to write at much earlier ages than we have traditionally thought before. This book documents the writing process of very young writers through pictures and written teacher observations. I was struck by the sophisticated composition taking place in these classrooms of very young students. The mental process occuring for all writers is explained in a clear fashion. This book validates the writing process rather than the writing product in isolation. Although I teacg fourth grade, I found this book insightful.

This is a great book that emphasizes the importance of nurturing young writers. I enjoyed the manner in which the authors provided student writing samples for teachers to evaluate. Further, the authors used those samples to demonstrate and explain the attributes of early writing. As a teacher, I found it enjoyable to read this book as it is straightforward and easy to understand. I also found that I did a lot of highlighting as there were many strengths of this book. In particular, I like that Ray and Glover emphasized what it means for a child to be a writer. It may not be what adults would naturally think of as writing, which is why the student samples are critical. I would highly recommend this book for teachers of early primary literacy.

Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preschool and Kindergarten opened my eyes to a new way to encourage writing in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. Allowing kids to "make" books is ingenious. The biggest "ah ha" I had is when 3 and 4 year olds are creating illustrations in their books, even without words, and then they are allowed to talk about them in a manner that sounds like storytelling, they are writers! Ray and Glover explain in depth the complex thinking that young writers go through and it is the same process we go through as adults. The only difference they say is preschool and kindergarten writers are less experienced. However, through reading aloud, having conversations about the read alouds, side-by-side teaching, and sharing these young writers will gain valuable experience. This book has a lot of vignettes and examples of the books young writers have made. Seeing is believing!!!

Katie Wood Ray makes this a book that is easy to read and offers many examples of how her ideas can work in a classroom. She focuses on how preschool children can see themselves as writers and how important this self image is. If you are looking for a book that gives encouraging ideas of how to make your preschool classroom a place where children are excited to write and taking risks in their writing then this book is exactly what you are looking for. If you are studying the development that a child takes through the writing process and the different stages of spelling and phonics/phonemic awareness then this may not be the text that you want to pick up.
One of the things that I loved about this book are the examples and visuals Katie Wood Ray gives of preschool writing. If you are new to education you may not see the writing preschoolers do as real writing. Wood Ray combats this idea saying that she believes anyone, regardless of age, who is creating or making a product that they believe is writing and has a message is writing and their writing should be valued.
Preschool teachers who are looking for new ideas or who are attempting to tell others about what they are doing in their rooms may want to pick up this book.