ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the multifaceted role of the Early Years practitioner in building children's belief in themselves as writers and teaching writing skills. It explains how practitioners can help children to co-construct their learning within a 'negotiated classroom'. The chapter shows that how the ORIM framework can support practitioners as they help children to become confident writers. It considers the place of handwriting in the context of early writing development. Rose and Rogers acknowledge the complex role of adults working with young children by proposing seven key dimensions that define the 'plural practitioner'. There are: Critical reflector, Carer, Communicator, Facilitator, Observer, Assessor and Creator. The ORIM model was developed as a framework to support parents' involvement in their child's early literacy development, to make explicit some of the 'literacy iceberg' that is submerged and unseen. The model recognises that children need: Opportunities, Recognition, Interaction and Modelling.
