The Daily Writing Program and

Vygotsky

Brian Martel

Edu 511

The Daily Writing Program

The DWP consists of 5 phases.The kindergarteners progress through

the phases at their own pace according to their zone of proximal development.

Vygotsky

Three zones of developmental ability

Actual Developmental_________________________Level of Potential

Level Development

Zone of

Proximal

Development

The DWP works in the children’s zone of proximal development.

The Daily Writing Program Phase 1

The children begin by writing their names on the whiteboards using a model that includes their name in upper and lower case letters. The children are encouraged to use the model less and less.

The Daily Writing Program Phase 2

The children copy three words out of our alphabet books and/or words they find in or around the room.

The Daily Writing Program Phase 3

The children choose three words to write about the pictures on the class whiteboard.

The Daily Writing Program Phase 4

The children write a sentence about the picture on the class whiteboard.

The Daily Writing Program Phase 5

The children are given paper with different silly pictures like the one to the right. They must use sentences to write a story about the picture.

Vygotsky

Conventional “story writing” is broken up into smaller, more simple tasks throughout the 5

phases.

Hand-over-hand, special writing utensils, and other fine motor strategies are used to help

penmanship.

Scaffolding

Vygotsky

The children bring their work to the teacher who assesses what their zone of proximal development is and models a strategical

dialogue to the child.

Formal Conversation

Vygotsky

Phase 3

When the children bring their whiteboards to the teacher, the teacher will help them make improvements on their spelling by modeling a thought process. For example, the teacher might say, “I see you wrote N-I-S but when

you say ‘nose’ I don’t hear I say ‘i’. What letter says ‘o’?”

An Example of Formal Conversation

Vygotsky

Obviously the written language is at the core of many of our adult activities, and the list of examples in which the basic skills the DWP

builds are used could fill reams upon reams of paper. Or power point upon power point!

Authentic Activities

What About Piaget?

What is exploration’s role in the DWP?

and

How do children interact with each other during the DWP?

Questions he might have about the DWP