Writing performance of kindergarten children from an emergent literacy perspective and its relationship to reading

The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between the writing performance of selected kindergarten students and their reading performance as measured by a group norm-referenced standardized reading test. An additional purpose of the study was to determine if there were any differences in writing performance based on gender and age. Students in selected kindergarten classes in a large midwestern urban school system were participants in the study. Five kindergarten teachers participated, each with two kindergarten classes--morning and afternoon. Writing samples and the California Achievement Test (CAT) score for reading were available from 89 students. A correlation analysis was run to show the relationship between writing and reading. A t-test and analysis of variance were used to determine differences between the writing of males and females and students based on age. An analysis of variance was calculated to determine if there were interaction effects between gender and age. Results of the statistical tests used to analyze the data were: (1) A low correlation between reading and writing existed. The hypothesis that no relationship exists between writing and reading performance was rejected. (2) A larger percentage of females than males was found in the more advanced writing stages. Some males were writing at the stage where writing was beginning to be readable, using much invented spelling. Some others were at a stage where writing was more like adult writing. However, there were more females than males in both of these stages. The hypothesis which stated there was no difference in the writing performance of kindergarten students based on gender was rejected. (3) The mean writing scores increased with each age group. Significant differences were found between the youngest and the oldest students. The hypothesis stating there is no difference in the writing performance based on age was rejected. (4) Age and gender were not combined factors that influenced writing performance. Although age was a factor and gender was a factor, the interaction effect was not significant. The hypothesis which stated there are no interaction effects between differences in writing age levels or gender was accepted.