I suggest guidelines for observing young children's developing control over their thinking and text‐making knowledge as they compose (i.e., dictate) a text for other children to read. Strategically controlling one's thinking processes in order to accomplish a task is called metacognition (Flavell, 1978). It is an important knowledge significantly related to proficient reading and writing among older students. I present evidence of distinct, observable differences between at‐risk and not‐at‐risk preschoolers’ knowledge of what a literary piece should be like and how to monitor the product to make sure it meets the needs of an audience. These differences are also related to the children's emergent reading level. Guidelines for observing such differences are presented, implications for the classroom are discussed, and cautions relative to both observations and instructional interventions are suggested.