Original article: LINK
By Shelley K. Jones
Writing can help children express and understand their thoughts and feelings by sharing them with others. For example, a girl named Rose wrote about her grandfather’s life, which helped her deal with his death and understand his life better. She enjoyed this kind of writing because it was personal and meaningful to her. However, when writing became a strict school task with tight deadlines, Rose found it stressful and began to dislike it.
Many children don’t enjoy writing. Since writing is important in children’s lives, both in and out of school, this study aimed to understand what types of writing children do enjoy. The researcher believed that the type of writing, how it’s done, and how others respond to it greatly influences whether children like or dislike writing. The study was particularly interested in how authentic, real-world writing projects could motivate children to write. The research focused on two main questions:
- What kinds of writing do children like or dislike
- How does the authenticity of a class writing project affect children’s preferences?
An authentic writing approach
According to Jones, there are two types of writing education for children: ‘authentic writing’ and ‘schooled writing’.
Authentic writing:
- All writers, including children, express their thoughts, experiences, and lives through writing. This writing helps them interact with the world and make sense of their experiences [LINK].
- Children’s early writing experiences often happen at home, where writing is a social activity involving communication with family and friends. They might use different forms of expression, like drawing, along with writing, which makes the experience rich and meaningful [LINK].
- Authentic writing in a classroom context aims to replicate this real-world, meaningful communication [LINK]. It involves writing that has a clear purpose and is intended for a real audience [LINK]. This type of writing helps children develop their unique voice and allows them to connect with others through their writing [LINK].
Schooled writing:
- When children start school, they often encounter a different type of writing that focuses disproportionately on technical aspects, like spelling, grammar and neatness. This writing is usually done alone and is more about meeting external requirements than delivering evidence-based writing instruction and teaching about meaningful communication [LINK].
- This kind of writing is often less engaging for children because it lacks the interactive and creative aspects of the writing they did at home. It’s exclusively about producing a correct product for assessment rather than also expressing themselves or communicating with others [LINK].
Teaching writing only as a technical skill without making it meaningful or connected to real-world communication is ineffective [LINK and LINK]. Instead, a writerly education should also focus on helping children express themselves and communicate with others in ways that feel real and significant to them.
Findings and implications
This study provides possible insights and recommendations for teaching writing effectively based on interviewed children’s attitudes towards writing. Here’s a summary:
Children enjoy authentic class writing projects
- The study found that children are more enthusiastic about writing when it feels real and connected to their lives. When writing projects allow them to interact with others, share their thoughts, and see their writings acknowledged in a meaningful way, they enjoy it more [LINK].
- For example, children liked writing letters when they had a clear purpose and a real audience (someone who would actually read and respond to the letter) [LINK].
Imaginative writing is valued, but context matters
Many children also enjoyed creative writing, such as stories and poems, especially when they could share their compositions with others [LINK]. However, some children only enjoyed creative writing when it was done outside of the school environment, where they felt freer and less pressured.
Importance of social interaction
The study emphasised that talking about their ideas before writing helps children develop their thoughts [LINK and LINK]. Many children expressed that they would benefit from discussing their ideas with others before starting to plan and draft, but this was not always encouraged in school.
Drawing as an idea generation and planning strategy
Drawing can help children develop their ideas before they start writing [LINK]. Despite this, the study found that in many classrooms, drawing was not integrated into the writing process and was often treated as an afterthought.
Need for agency and flexibility
Children are more motivated to write when they have agency, such as generating their own writing topics or genres for a class writing project [LINK]. When children have little say in what they write about, their enthusiasm for writing can decrease [LINK].
Challenges with ‘schooled writing’
Writing tasks that are purely for teacher evaluation or lack real-world relevance can be less engaging for children [LINK]. When writing feels like a chore or is focused only on mechanics (like grammar or structure) without meaningful content, children are often less interested.
Balancing instruction with freedom
Effective writing teaching should balance direct instruction with opportunities for children to explore their own writing ideas [LINK and LINK]. Teachers should share their own writing experiences, successes and struggles to help children understand that writing is a complex and exciting process that takes time [LINK].
Integration and multimodal approaches
The study suggests bringing writing into different subjects and combining it with other forms of expression too, like drawing or drama, to make writing more engaging and meaningful.
Focusing on content and mechanics
The study argues that teaching writing should focus on meaningful content and the impact of good writing rather than just on technical aspects like grammar. For example, children might be more interested in learning to write well-crafted paragraphs if they understood how it could make their own writing more successful [LINK].