The purpose of this blog post is to explain the difference between teaching emerging writers how to write and what to write, keeping in mind that they are both essential parts of writing and neither should be ignored.
If you’ve ever worked at a Title I bilingual school, you may relate to the following scenario: You enter a bilingual kindergarten classroom, and panic when your carefully planned writing lesson flops—half the students can’t even hold a pencil properly.
This wasn’t in the training manual, right?
The truth is, after watching students scribble, draw, and eventually craft stories successfully in Spanish, I realized there’s a rarely-discussed tension in our teaching: are we only showing kids what to write and forgetting to teach them how to write?
Teaching reading and writing in unison is the bedrock of equitable early literacy. Here’s what I’ve found about the art of teaching writing—possibly the most difficult of the four domains of language
When “How” and “What” Collide
In my experience, most bilingual programs don’t split writing instruction into two separate templates. Few focus only on how to write—mechanics, letter formation, and spelling—while most emphasize what to write—ideas, stories, and content, ignoring the how.
Rarely do they bring both together in a meaningful way. Why?
In some classrooms, writer’s workshop becomes little more than art time, where students draw and talk but do not connect their ideas to written language. I once had a teammate who evaluated writing progress by how detailed the pictures were—forget about any writing. True story!
Meanwhile, phonics lessons often turn into isolated spelling drills, focusing on decoding and memorizing words, completely ignoring the skill of encoding.
Too often, teaching moments are lost because these two strands—mechanics and meaning—are kept apart.
I have seen classrooms where students spend weeks tracing letters or copying words, but never using those skills to express their own thoughts. Conversely, I have watched children tell rich stories aloud while drawing beautiful pictures, but with no guidance on how to turn those stories into written sentences.
Unfortunately, both are completely ineffective.
Writing instruction is especially challenging in bilingual settings, where students may not have a strong oral language in their native language, which significantly limits their writing skills.
If we do not bridge the gap—if we do not connect speaking to writing, phonics to real writing, and writing to real ideas—students miss the opportunity to grow as both thinkers and writers. The classroom must be a place where decoding, encoding, speaking, and storytelling all happen together, every day.
Why Bilingual Writers Need More Than the Basics
In my years teaching bilingual kindergarten, I’ve seen firsthand that many students arrive without the language foundation we might expect. It’s not uncommon to hear “Me play” or “Juice” in August, rather than full sentences or stories. This isn’t just a quirk—it’s a real barrier when we ask children to write.
Many haven’t had enough experience using language to express complete thoughts, let alone narratives. The shift from dialogue-rich TV to digital devices and apps has only made this challenge more pronounced. Children are spending less time engaging in and practicing real conversations, and their speaking skills are suffering as a result.
Another surprising reality: for some five-year-olds, simply holding a pencil is a new experience. Fine motor skills, like pencil grip, coloring, or even attempting to write a letter, can be daunting.
Before we can expect them to write words or sentences, we must first teach them how to control these basic tools. I often start the year showing students how to draw a person, a house, or a dog—skills that lay the groundwork for writing letters and words later on.
But the most critical gap I see is in connecting the mechanics of writing to meaningful communication. Imagine teaching a child the letter ‘M’ before they can say, “My mamá cooks.” What’s missing? The message. If students only learn letter sounds and formation, but never learn to express their own ideas, their writing will always fall short.
That’s why bilingual writers need more than just the basics—they need daily opportunities to use language, build sentences, and share their stories.
- Language exposure matters: Many students haven’t practiced full sentences at home.
- Conversation skills are declining: Digital devices are replacing real dialogue.
- Fine motor skills can’t be assumed: Pencil grip and drawing are new for some children.
- Meaning comes first: Teaching letters without teaching to compose a message leaves a gap.
For bilingual learners, integrating “how to write” with “what to write” is essential. Only then can students move beyond the basics and become confident, expressive writers in any language.
How to Write: Integrating Phonics, Dictation, and Handwriting
In my bilingual kindergarten classroom, every day should be a careful mix between teaching how to write and what to write.
The heart of my daily routine is always pairing phonics with both decoding (reading) and encoding (writing). I never teach letter sounds in isolation—students must use them in both reading and writing activities, right from the start. This dual focus ensures that children see the direct connection between the sounds they hear, the letters they see, and the words they create.
Each morning, we begin with a dedicated phonics lesson. The time used to teach phonics at the beginning of the year should be long, and then short during the second semester.
First, we practice phonemic awareness orally, then move to identifying letter names and sounds. We introduce high-frequency words and explain how to sound them out and blend each of the letters to create the words.
Immediately after, students practice encoding: the children listen to sounds, identifying and writing initial vowel sounds in words, moving to writing syllables and words later on. This daily routine helps students internalize the mechanics of both how to read and write.
As the year progresses, I expand our phonics work to include syllables, blends, and the specific rules of Spanish. In the second semester, I always introduce El dictado—a structured dictation routine that I will talk about in a different post. El dictado not only boosts spelling and writing fluency but also gives students regular, meaningful practice in encoding, capitalization, punctuation, and spacing.
El dictado is not copying; it requires listening, talking, thinking, and applying phonics knowledge to produce written words and sentences in a routine process that includes self-correction.
Handwriting, or calligraphy, is another essential part of our daily practice. I teach students how to hold pencils, form letters correctly, and space their writing. Legible handwriting is not just about neatness—it supports reading and writing development by making students’ work understandable to others.
I encourage students to take risks in their writing. Early attempts may look like “code” that only I can read, and that’s perfectly fine. I celebrate these efforts because they show students are applying their phonics knowledge, even if their writing is not yet conventional. Over time, as students gain confidence and skill, their writing becomes clearer and more independent.
This everyday work—integrating phonics with both decoding and encoding, dictation, and handwriting practice—creates a strong foundation for both reading and writing in the bilingual classroom.
What to Write — and Why “Pictures Only” Should Be Banned During Writer's Workshop in Kindergarten
In my bilingual kindergarten classroom, I have a firm rule: “pictures only” is not allowed. Even when they must start the year drawing and writing scribbles, I eventually tell the students that they aren’t allowed to draw if they haven’t written a complete sentence (even if it’s in the early days of development). If I don’t stop drawing pictures, it becomes an art class all year, and no writing gets done. Allowing “pictures only” sends the message that writing is optional or that it’s something to be attempted only when you’re “ready.”
Pictures still have their importance because, at the beginning of the year, for every picture drawn, there should be a sentence—even if it’s just a spoken sentence.
But students must also try to write something every day—even if it’s just scribbles, random letters, or their best attempt at a word. This rule is not about perfection; it’s about building the habit of connecting spoken language, thought, and written expression. I know that for many children, especially those who are just learning to learn their letters or language, this can feel intimidating at first. But students must see themselves as writers from the very beginning, no matter their skill level.
An important part of the Kindergarten writers’ workshop should be dedicated to narrative writing. A personal narrative is when you write about yourself. This is also the tool we use to get students to practice speaking and writing in complete sentences.
I teach students that complete sentences have many parts, but for starters, they need to be able to draw an image and say a sentence that includes the “who“, the “where“, and the “what they are doing“.
For example, if I see the picture of two people and I ask: “What is happening in your picture?” The response shouldn’t be, “It’s my mom and me.” That is not a complete sentence.
As the year progresses, most students will tell me about the “who” and the “where”, or the “who” and the “what they are doing”, but always forget one.
If you think about it, the “who” is the subject, and the “where and what they are doing” are the predicate. Also, without the “what they were doing”, the sentence doesn’t include a verb, which shouldn’t be missing from a sentence.
Five year olds don’t need to know all of this, as long as they get used to include all three when speaking—and later writing.
At the beginning of the year, the adult in the room should be listening to students speak during Writer’s Workshop as the class draws and writes.
I admit that this is the hardest part of the writing workshop. It requires “time”. In a class with only one teacher and 22 students, it may take two or three days to stop by each seat and ask “what’s happening in your picture?” and then guide them to say all three components of the sentence. Having someone else in the room with you to help with that is crucial, and yet sometimes, impossible.
As your encoding lessons progress during the phonics block, the act of attaching even a single letter to a picture is a huge step forward. It shows the child is making connections between sounds, symbols, meaning they’re applying what they learned.
Soon, you can start developing personal narratives that have a beginning, middle, and end. You can teach students to use transitional words and provide more details and feelings in their stories.
When should Writer's Workshop start? When should we start teaching "what to write"?
If we wait until students know all their letters and sounds before expecting them to write, we miss out on critical growth opportunities. Writing is not just about forming perfect letters or spelling every word correctly. It’s about communicating ideas, taking risks, and learning from mistakes. Every spelling that comes from the child listening to their own voice is a building block toward real literacy.
In any bilingual Kindergarten classroom, I should be able to decode what all students are writing before Winter Break. That way, when we come back in January, students are ready to develop ideas in different ways.
The second semester is the time to develop other writing genres like: persuasive, informative, opinion, fiction, and research.
Every child should write every day in every classroom. We celebrate learning and development of both how students write and what they write about. In a matter of weeks, the scribbles and random letters should become words, sentences, and stories. The journey from learning to hold a pencil to confident writing is messy, but it’s also joyful—and it’s the heart of true learning.
It is incredible when children begin to use their reading and writing abilities in all subjects, participating in more elaborate projects, and giving their opinion on different topics in writing.
Let’s get ready to prepare children for success!
In conclusion:
In bilingual kindergarten classrooms, effective writing instruction requires a daily blend of explicit phonics (how to write) and creative composition (what to write)—never choosing one at the expense of the other. Prioritize oral language, integrate reading and writing, and embrace both the messy and magical moments of early literacy.
A few useful writing resources:
- BUNDLE: K-1 Opinion Writing in Spanish Pages and Prompts
- BUNDLE Spanish Reading and Writing Morning Work K-1 (Lectura y escritura)
- BUNDLE: Spanish Directed Drawing and Writing Stories
- Bundle Monthly Writing Sentences in Spanish Pages K-1 [escribiendo oraciones]
- Complete Bundle: Spanish Mini-Books, Trace, Write, and Color