ABSTRACT
Graves (1981) noted that young children’s writing “resembles spontaneous play” (p. 7). Play writing demonstrates children’s confidence in an ability to communicate in print long before they use writing conventions. As demonstrated with writing samples, intentional writing-writing with a focus on function or purpose-comes well before attention to form or conventions (Rowe, 2008; Wohlwend, 2008). In fact, Calkins (1994) reports “ninety percent of children come to school believing they can write” (p. 62).
