The debate about whether or not we should teach grammaris actually a pretty absurd one. The moment you engage in conversation with learners about writing, being a writer and their specific compositions, you will be talking about and teaching grammar. We teach grammar without even realising.
This is because you are bound to talk about and give instruction in things like:
Phonology – the interesting relationship between their spoken sounds and their written spellings.
Morphology – words and their word choices.
Syntax – the way they’ve chosen to arrange their words and phrases.
Semantics – the meaning(s) they are trying to share with others.
Pragmatics – the context and organisation of their writing.
Semiotics – their use of signs and symbols.
Metafunctions – the decisions they are taking and making.
Field – the content of what they are sharing.
Tenor – the relationship between them and their readers.
Mode – the technologies they are using and the choices they are making over how to present their writing.
Genres – the style, voice and conventions they’ve chosen to use or subvert.
Hopefully, this list shows you that grammar is more than the naming of parts or the adherence to conventions of punctuation. Grammar is a beautiful thing.
For us, this means you can teach about grammar as much as you like as long as your instruction is orientated towards helping learners craft more meaningful and successful texts (Young & Ferguson 2020, 2021a). Grammar ultimately is about developing children’s style and voice (Young & Ferguson 2021b).
Should we use linguistics to help us teach writing?
Now, if we are in agreement that it’s impossible to separate grammar from the teaching of writing, we can discuss whether it’s necessary for children to receive lessons in linguistics. Linguistics is the study of language and its structures and includes the study of grammar. When we study language, we can discuss and learn about things like:
Sociolinguistics – the social factors that might influence the writing we craft.
Dialectology – the influence dialect and geography can have on our writing.
Psycholinguistics – the relationship between ourselves and our writing.
Comparative linguistics – the similarities and differences between languages.
Structural linguistics – the structures and systems of language people use.
Again you can and should study language in a writing classroom. Part of good writing teaching is studying how other writers use language successfully and meaningfully (Young & Ferguson 2021a). Children should be invited to study your writing as a writer-teacher, they can discuss each other’s writing and they should study the manuscripts of recreational and professional writers.
Is the PAG test appropriate for assessing children’s ability to be writers?
So, hopefully, we’ve agreed that the study of language can help in our efforts to develop children as writers. So now the question really becomes about whether young writers need to be able to name and identify parts of language in a PAG test; something that represents only a tiny fragment of what is involved in the study of language. The answer is quite obviously no. The National Curriculum has given primary schools the responsibility to develop children’s writing and them as writers. While we’ve shown that the study of language can be helpful when teaching writing, linguistics actually has its own separate and very specialised fields of study. By all means assess children’s writing and their development as writers, but drop the need to assess their ability to be in some way ‘structural linguists’ by the age of 11.
Concluding thoughts
As we have shown, children are naturally studying grammar in the writing classroom whenever they read, share, talk about and discuss their own writing and the writing of others. Grammar is the study of how a language makes sense, and we cannot help but learn about and teach it in writing lessons, unless of course we are content for children’s writing to fail in its intention – to share meaning.
Giving names to things, and having a shared language in which to talk about writing can be pretty useful. But we don’t need to test children’s abilities to remember those names in a writing classroom.
Our view of grammar teaching is that it should combine the dimensions of structure and use. Structure is concerned with syntax (sentence construction) and this will be part of many writing discussions. In this context, we are not against the use of grammatical terminology, but we see it simply as a metalanguage which can assist in conversations about writing. ‘Use’ means considering what we want to mean (semantics), how we achieve clarity and how we achieve the effect we want to have (pragmatics). If we want children to write successful and meaningful texts, we should ensure that semantics and pragmatics are driving the writing, helped by an understanding of context and syntax.
We see grammar as a set of choices we can make when we craft writing. The grammatical choices we decide on are conditioned by both semantics and pragmatics. For example, in the context of writing in a particular genre, we ask children to think about ‘field’ (the content of what they want to share), ‘tenor’ (the relationship between them and their readers), and ‘mode’ (how they wish to present their writing). These considerations help them focus on the choices they will make to achieve meaning, clarity and effect, and to be clear about the reasons for their choices.
We recognise that grammar is ultimately teaching about style and voice. The cumulative effect of all the choices children can make when they write is to create style, whether it be (for example) a formal or conversational style, a personal or unique voice, a style associated with writing in a particular professional field (a historian or a scientist maybe), or a style related to a specific genre (poetic, narrative, expository).
We believe that we should not impose particular choices, but make children aware that there are possibilities and invite them to use them. Tell them these are things that can be done with language rather than what must be done. We believe that the feeling of confidence that comes from making their own choices adds to children’s sense of competence, independence and personal responsibility when writing.
We believe that assessment should reflect the way we teach. In a Writing for Pleasure approach (Young & Ferguson 2021a), therefore, we should be evaluating children as writers, and making grammar in its widest sense an essential part of such assessment. Our viewpoint on the grammar component of the current system of PAG testing is as follows: its conception of grammar is too narrow, with an unjustifiable and pointless emphasis on testing children’s ability to identify and name parts; it is prescriptive, and does not admit the possibility of stylistic variation; it allows no freedom for children to show a sense of personal creativity, and it impacts negatively on the way writing is taught in the curriculum, in the form of ‘teaching to the test.’
Lastly, we want grammar study to be enjoyable, thought-provoking, purposeful, and to arouse curiosity and interest in all of us. We want it to be dynamic rather than static and for children to see its personal relevance to the ways in which they want to share their meaning with others.
References:
Young, R., Ferguson, F. (2020) Real-World Writers London: Routledge
Young, R., Ferguson, F. (2021a) Writing For Pleasure: theory, research and practice London: Routledge
‘Those who do not understand the past are condemned to repeat it.’ – George Santayana
Our approach to writing – the way we think about it, the way we do it (or whether we do it at all) and, crucially, how we teach it – is a product of our own writing apprenticeships. The way our parents, our teachers and our peers exposed us to the written word cannot help but influence the way we expose our pupils to it. It is therefore vital that, as reflective practitioners, we take the time to understand these influences and how they manifest themselves in our pedagogies.
It was towards this end that eight teachers, including classroom practitioners and senior leaders, from Elmhurst Primary settled down in front of Zoom one Wednesday evening for the first meeting of the school’s Teacher-Writer Group (TWG).
All the research confirms that one of the most important aspects of teaching writing effectively is for teachers to speak from a position of understanding and experience. In short, for them to be writers themselves. Therefore, the TWG aims to help us develop our own writerly identities and consider how they do, can and should influence our teaching of writing.
Session
The first meeting was a genuine pleasure and a resounding success. In this article I lay out a summary of the structure we followed and the issues we discussed in the hope it can be of use to other schools who wish to set up their own staff groups.
The hour-long meeting followed a rough timetable of:
Discussion – 15 minutes
Writing time – 30 minutes
Sharing/reflection – 15 minutes
Ahead of the meeting, we shared (with permission) the first chapter of Ross Young and Felicity Ferguson’s brilliant new book, Writing for Pleasure: Theory, Research, Practice, which evaluates different styles and approaches to writing teaching. We framed our opening discussion roughly around the reflection questions found at the end of the chapter:
Did you enjoy learning to write? Why? Why not?
How many teachers can you attribute this to?
Do you think you are a good writer now? Why? Why not?
How does your experience with writing affect your view of how writing should be taught?
Which teacher orientation would you have wanted to be taught by most?
Which orientation(s) do you feel best represent(s) your personal theory of writing teaching?
We then moved onto a writing activity (shamelessly taken from the National Writing Project’s bank of prompts) which flowed well from this discussion. First, each person had a few minutes to jot down up to five moments when writing has been important in their life (the definitions of both writing and important were left deliberately vague). We then split into breakout rooms for five minutes to discuss these moments. It was lovely that all four pairs came back having found interesting areas of overlap.
We then had twenty-five minutes to choose one or more of our memories and write whatever we wanted. Not everyone decided to share their work – it was made clear at the start that there was no compulsion to – but of the pieces that were, we had one poem that was a rallying cry around the importance of the Writing For Pleasure pedagogy (you can read it at the bottom of the article) and another that was a rewritten version of the eulogy the person gave at their grandmother’s funeral, which genuinely beautiful. We closed with a further period of discussion and reflection on how we found the writing and where to go from there.
Reflection
As freeing as the period of writing was, it was the bookending discussions where the magic really happened. I was astonished at the range of topics we covered and how insightful the points made were. Below is a summary of what we discussed, along with questions I think it’s worthwhile every teacher pondering.
1) Writing can be a powerful tool for children to find their voices, free their imaginations and pursue their potentials. This came from the memory of one teacher who recalled a particular essay at the start of secondary school that they credit with igniting their passion for education and putting them on the path they have followed for the rest of their life. How can we give our children the necessary time, space, freedom and support required for this?
2) On the flip side, failing to provide children with this can have life-long consequences. It’s our duty to teach our them how to find their voices and how to make them powerful. I think the poem (below) is an inspiring rallying cry around this – I’d quite like to put it up by my desk! How well are we doing this now and how can we make sure it is always a priority?
3 ) As one teacher found as a child – and still now – writing doesn’t feel like a chore when it has the right balance of structure and personal ownership (they keep a daily journal on every holiday they take, which is a good example of this). Is this balance correct with the writing being done in our classrooms?
4) Two teachers both spoke of feeling ashamed as children when personal writing was discovered and/or criticised by adults because of the content. Are we unfairly expecting our children to always have us as their teachers in mind as their audience? We don’t have to like what the writing is about for it to be good writing.
5) One teacher made the important point about feedback on writing being daunting and unpleasant, especially when being handed back a piece covered in red pen. Another has also always remembered one throwaway comment about needing to ‘write more in future’. How are we giving feedback to children, is it in a hierarchical superior-inferior power relationship or is it more as fellow writers within a writing community? Are we the only people giving feedback or are we allowing children to meaningfully give it to each other?
6) How are we celebrating writing? One teacher still has a piece of work that was on display in primary school, this shows how meaningful that recognition was to her. Are we helping (all of) our children feel such joy and pride in their work?
7) Two teachers both talked about the cathartic experience of writing and how it helps deal with emotional times. Are we letting children tap into their own feelings and experiences in their writing or are we (even unintentionally) erecting a barrier between out-of-school experiences and in-school writing?
8) One teacher found her way into writing trough arts and crafts and has now used that link productively in her own teaching. Are we (a) giving children multiple avenues through which to engage with writing? and (b) reflecting on how our own experiences as writers can inform our pedagogy?
9) We almost all have next to no memories of learning to write and those we do have are largely negative. Why is this? How can we make sure our classrooms contain writing experiences and communities that are positively memorable?
10) One teacher talked about how short and arbitrary time limits set on writing tasks stifled her creativity as a child. Professional writers never (or rarely) write like this, so why are we asking our kids to? Are they ever able to start, set aside and return to writing like professionals? Could this be where personal projects fit in?
All of the teachers have since said how much they enjoyed the meeting and that left feeling enthused to get back into the classroom. We have a second session scheduled for after half-term and I for one cannot wait for it.
A poem composed by one of the teachers during the writing time
I wish I was taught how to become a life-long writer.
Maybe then it would feel more natural?
I wish I was taught to believe in myself.
Maybe then I’d view myself as a real writer?
I wish I was taught that my experiences matter.
Maybe then I’d be in a constant state of composition?
It’s never too late though,
I can begin right now.
And give my children the self-belief, the sense of community and the power to make a difference that I never knew I was missing.
This article originally appeared on the National Education Union’s website.
By Ross Young and Felicity Ferguson, founders of The Writing For Pleasure Centre and convenors of The United Kingdom Literacy Association’s ‘Teach Writing’ research group.
Last June, a National Literacy Trust survey recorded that, during lockdown, children were writing of their own volition and for pleasure at home like never before. It was cheering to hear from children themselves about how writing could make them feel better in such difficult times.
What is really telling in the findings is how children welcomed the conditions for writing created by lockdown: time, space and freedom. Time and space to think and write at your own pace and in your own way. Freedom to generate your own idea, to express it in whatever form you like, to write according to your own desires and wishes. This is exactly the position taken up by the UKLA’s Viewpoint On Writing: to develop as writers, children need to see writing as an act of social meaning making, a creative and communicative act of personal agency, and an extension of their identities.
The survey begs a serious question: how can we support children’s writing at home through our online learning provision? Well, let’s identify the essentials:
We want children to be taught something interesting and important about writing every day.
We want children to be writing meaningfully every day.
We want to find out how children are getting on and what they need instruction in next.
How are these three aims best and most easily achieved under current circumstances? We suggest a reassuringly consistent and daily routine of:
Mini-lessons: Teach children something about writing. Keep your instruction short. Concentrate on teaching just one thing before inviting children to try it out in their writing that day.
Writing time: Children need to be crafting meaningful writing every day. They also need to be set realistic but flexible deadlines. Deadlines should be set which give children ample time to generate ideas, plan, draft, revise, proof-read and publish and perform their compositions.
Class sharing: Children need an opportunity to talk about how their writing is going and to share it with you and their classmates. They also need to be able to tell you what they feel they would like instruction in next.
Top Tips
Ask children what they would like their class writing projects to be and who they would like to publish or perform their writing for. Generate writing ideas together and let children choose their own writing topics for a project.
If you can, deliver a mixture of live and pre-recorded mini-lessons. Keep these very short and very specific,10-15 minutes at most. You’ll know you’re teaching a good mini-lesson if, at the end, you can invite children to try out what you’ve taught them during that day’s writing time.
Early into a class project, share mentor texts with your class that match the type of writing they are trying to craft for themselves.
Make sure your mini-lessons change as children work their way through the writing processes. Focus your mini-lessons on generating ideas and planning at the beginning of a project before shifting your focus towards drafting, revision and proof-reading lessons.
Sometimes it might be nice to offer an opportunity for the whole class to have ‘writing time’ together online. You can be writing too. That way you can share any writing tips, talk together as you’re writing, answer any questions, give advice and even receive advice from your pupils too!
Give children plenty of opportunities to discuss, share, and get advice from their peers and from you in regular class sharing sessions. This could be done using live video calls and through commenting functions like Google Docs.
Move to a responsive teaching model. Don’t plan too far ahead and don’t plan too much. Put a mechanism in place where children can share what they think they need mini-lessons in most to write well at home, and then deliver these lessons to them.
Let children develop their compositions over many writing days and weeks. • Alongside their class writing projects, encourage children to pursue their own personal writing projects too.
After school one day in 2016, I scribbled the following into my notebook: when we shape our writing curriculum around genres, we give children access to the world and to the fundamental reasons we are all moved to write. For the past couple of years, I had been experimenting with the idea of merging three popular writing approaches, namely: genre teaching, writing workshop and a community of writers approach (Young & Ferguson 2021). The statement above was clearly a eureka moment, where everything started to fall into place. This little note went on to become an epigraph in the book I published with my colleague Felicity Ferguson. It’s a summary of our writing approach, an approach we’ve called Real-World Writers.
Every time I taught a Class Writing Project (which you can access for yourselves here), it was to give children another way in which to pursue the fundamental reasons we are all moved to write. Everything we did always came as a result of the children wanting to know more about how to entertain, reflect, persuade and influence, teach others and how to paint with words. These purposes still drive the resources and projects The Writing For Pleasure Centre creates with the children and teachers we work with today.
The reasons children are moved to write taken from Real-World Writers (2020 pp. 4–7).
The young writers I’ve worked with over the years have always known which genres will best serve their purposes, and how certain textual features and grammatical devices can work as a tool to enhance what it is they are so motivated to ‘get off their chest’ and share with others. I believe this can only come as a result of high-quality genre teaching.
What I realised at that time was how much I enjoyed introducing genres to my class. I don’t think anything brings me greater professional satisfaction than introducing and teaching about a genre and then seeing how children will choose to use it for themselves. Unfortunately, this kind of genre teaching is a very far cry from what has occurred in the recent past. Genre teaching has suffered a lot – harmed by how it was badly interpreted in The National Literacy Strategy. Poor genre teaching has resulted (justifiably by the way) in some terrible names being associated with it. For example: the conformity approach, the recipe approach, painting by numbers, the standardised approach, the ‘textual police’ approach and even the ‘strait-jacket’ approach (Young & Ferguson 2021).
Here are some things I’ve learnt about bad genre teaching:
Teachers too often see their role as being a genre ‘factory-foreman’ and their children as factory workers who all have to produce the same looking piece of writing. These teachers don’t invite children to use taught genres for their own purposes. Instead, they control the ideas for a writing project and children produce thirty largely identical pieces. In this way, the children learn little.
Teachers who don’t accept that genres change over time and according to circumstances, and that they are often manipulated and hybridised by young writers don’t do themselves any favours. The idea of ‘genre play’ through experimentation and exploration must be made available to children. Children should never be asked to simply and slavishly reproduce a genre.
Teachers too often fail to see that non-fiction texts can be enhanced when children are allowed to merge them with other more expressive genres. See our non-fiction Class Writing Projects for more information.
It is utterly possible that children know about and can already write successfully and creatively in the dominant genres of society. Lengthy and explicit teaching of linguistic ‘rules’ can sometimes contribute very little to children’s writing development.
Writing is too often judged as ‘successful’ just because of the inclusion of arbitrary ‘genre features’. This is wrong. In my view, it’s far more sensible to assess the piece in its own right and in terms of attention to purpose and audience – did the reader get out of it what the writer intended?
Children are too often taught a very large number of genres in a scattergun approach and without any kind of consideration for progression and with no kind of purposeful rationale.
There is often too little concern and attention given to children’s personal growth as writers.
I wanted my approach to writing to be different. I knew very early on (thanks to the work of Donald Graves) that children naturally love to write and they want to write what they mean. My job was to create the conditions and teach them important lessons about writing that could help them craft texts that were meaningful to them, successful according to their readership, and met or exceeded curriculum objectives. Luckily, the first two points naturally go hand in hand in achieving academic excellence.
It’s my conviction (and the research backs me up on this) that Class Writing Projects are most meaningful to children when they are given the opportunity to generate their own subject and purpose, write at their own pace, in their own way, with agency over how they want to use the genre, and with a clear sense of a real anticipated reader.
At the beginning of any new writing project, we would have ‘genre-study’ sessions. As a merry band of writers, we discussed genre conventions, we read a variety of good real-life examples of the genre in action (including pieces I had written). We considered what we might have to do to create a successful and meaningful text of our own, we all thought about who we wanted to write for, and importantly, what we were moved to write about most.
I encouraged my classes to manipulate and subvert any so-called genre conventions because – why not – and also because it’s fun. My job wasn’t to be the ‘genre police’ but rather to help them craft personally worthwhile and academically fruitful texts that their readers would appreciate and respond to. If this meant going against some arbitrary concept of a ‘pure’ genre – then so be it.
What was amazing (and what I’m so happy about when I visit schools who use our approach now), is how, once children have been invited to take their own germ of an idea and nurse it through to publication and performance, in a taught genre, the genre stays in their backpack of writing knowledge evermore. It becomes part of who they are and their writing repertoire. They can come back to it whenever they feel moved to use it. I saw this in my class’ Personal Writing Projects all the time. Children were undertaking their own projects at home and bringing them into school too. I even had parents coming up to the classroom after school to ask for a copy of one of our now famous Genre-Booklets so that they could write something for themselves at home. For the children, the genres had become something they felt they owned rather than something they simply had to rent for a while from their teacher. The children began to dictate what genres they wanted to learn about. Our Graphic Novel and Match Reportwriting projects came directly from children asking me during writing time if I had any good tips on how to write them.
If I may, I want to share a final anecdote dear to my heart. I’ll always remember Ben coming to see me during reading time to ask me if I knew how to write poetry for a funeral. He explained that he wanted to write something for his Grandpa who had just died. His parents suggested that he asked me – me being a writer. I told him how he could write a eulogy and that he could even use the things he already knew about poetry to help him. I’ll never forget how, when he was finished, he asked whether he could read it to the community of writers that was our classroom to see what his fellow writers thought of it, and I’ll never forget their kind and thoughtful responses he received from them. And so I end this love letter (which isn’t a letter at all), by simply repeating my opening line: when we shape our writing curriculum around genres, we give children access to the world and the fundamental reasons we are all moved to write. Surely, the goal for any world-class writing teacher.
Recommended further reading:
Bazerman, C. (1997). The life of genre, the life in the classroom. In Genre and writing: Issues, arguments, alternatives (pp.19-26) USA: Boynton/Cook.
Lancaster Literacy Research Centre are delighted to welcome Ross Young and Felicity Ferguson to discuss Writing for Pleasure.
About this event:
This talk will focus on their latest book which looks to explore what writing for pleasure means, and how it can be realised as a much-needed pedagogy whose aim is to develop children, young people, and their teachers as extraordinary and life-long writers. The approach described is grounded in what global research has long been telling us are the most effective ways of teaching writing and contains a description of the authors’ own research project into what exceptional teachers of writing do that makes the difference.
In the book, Young & Ferguson describe ways of building communities of committed and successful writers who write with purpose, power, and pleasure, and they underline the importance of the affective aspects of writing teaching, including promoting in apprentice writers a sense of self-efficacy, agency, self-regulation, volition, motivation, and writer-identity. They define and discuss 14 research-informed principles which constitute a Writing for Pleasure pedagogy and show how they are applied by teachers in classroom practice. Case studies of outstanding teachers across the globe further illustrate what world-class writing teaching is.
Their ground-breaking text is considered essential reading for anyone who is concerned about the current status and nature of writing teaching in schools. The rich Writing for Pleasure pedagogy presented by the authors is seen as a radical new conception of what it means to teach young writers effectively today.
Event schedule:
15:00pm – Welcomes & introductions (please enter the meeting with your ‘real’ name as your display name, and your camera switched on, to allow us to all put faces to each others’ names)
15:05pm – Presentation from Ross Young and Felicity Ferguson (please turn your camera off and mute your microphone during the presentation)
15:40pm – Discussion (please use the raise hand feature on Teams to indicate you would like to have a turn speaking and once asked to speak by an event facilitator, please un-mute your microphone and turn your camera on)
Presenter biographies:
Ross Young & Felicity Ferguson are the founders of The Writing For Pleasure Centre and authors of Writing For Pleasure: theory, research and practice. They are national representatives for The United Kingdom Literacy Association and the conveners of their international Teaching Writing Special Interest Group. The mission of The Writing For Pleasure Centre is to help all young people become passionate and successful writers.
My name is Samaira Islam and I am 9 years old. I have been in a Writing For Pleasure classroom for two years. It’s been exciting indeed and finding a talent that I never knew I had was awesome! Here is a little Q&A I made. ⬇
Q1. What is your favourite genre?
A1. That is a great question because it’s so hard! I’ll choose poems, because I just go ‘Few words, next line. Few words, next line’. I don’t really care about rhythm or rhyming. Sometimes, I find that I’ve rhymed somewhere, which is a coincidence!
Q2.What’s your least favourite genre?
A2. I wouldn’t say I don’t like a genre, but I often get tricky on following one thing: keeping it short. My class once entered a 300 word competition and I ended up doing 1972 words! I often tend to write long pieces, but it’s not common for me to write a short story! But nowadays, at least I know how to write short stories!
Q3. Are there any pieces you’re working on at the moment?
A3. I am handling two pieces of writing at the moment. One is about a girl who’s in a boarding school that holds the five elements (home project) and one about a teenager who lives in the 1900s in a village (school project). I also wrote a short story about a girl falling in a lake of rubies and seeing her dead mother and father.
Q4. Can you tell us about your writing process?
A4. My writing process is a bit confusing. I am a discoverer, but at times I like to use a box-up and vomitfrom my plan. And this is where the confusing bit comes. I seem to have perfect grammar and punctuation because I am really good at that type of English as well. So when I edit, I have nothing to do! But I go with the flow. I get the idea, start drafting, revise a lot, check my C.U.P.S (Capital letters, Use of vocabulary, Punctuation and Spelling). Then I publish very carefully. I am often worried about using a pen, so I find it easier when publishing with a computer or with pencil.
Q5. What’s it like to get a ‘hot topic’?
A5. When I get a hot topic, I write it down. Then I think of how I will be going through my drafting process (if I’ll plan it out, or be a discoverer etc.) and what my Distant Publishing Goal will be. Often, one idea can turn into thousands, and I don’t know which to choose!
Q6. How have you developed as a writer?
A6. I’ve always tried to produce good pieces. But I’ve managed to advance in it. I revise, I edit, I publish. One year ago, my manuscripts used to be in an old exercise book. This year, my compositions have been somewhere extravagant!
Q7. What’s it like to live your life like a writer?
A7. I often find the tiniest little diamond that sparkles and shines out of the entire stone. I wrote a memoir called ‘The Monstrosity Of The Iceland Onion Rings’ about disgusting onion rings. Look how tiny a moment that is! And another memoir was about knitted dolls I bought once.
Q8. What are your home writing habits?
A8. My home writing habits are a bit different from my school ones. I always like to use my laptop instead of hand writing the pieces. My laptop is in my mum and dad’s bedroom. I often type when I get home. I may try to start using a pencil and paper for my manuscripts instead of using software. That said, I’ve probably memorized the entire keyboard.
Q9. Do you write with your family?
A9. My family don’t write as much as I do. But they’ve found their new talent from something my teacher made. It was called Writing With The Family, and of course, the aim of the game was to write with the family.
Thank you for reading my blog. As a thank you, here are some top tips I’ve learnt during my time in a Writing For Pleasure classroom.
End of year rituals are as important as the settling in period in any writing workshop. This year my class and I are parting ways at Christmas after four terms together. We have been through a lot. I’m happy to say that despite our ups and downs, many of them have well and truly caught the writing bug.
For a while now I have been thinking what better way to remember our time together than with the gift of a personalised notebook in which to ‘squirrel away’ their thoughts and ideas (Young & Ferguson 2020).
I commissioned a keen artist in the class to sketch a front cover. She came up with this little red squirrel which shares her own writerly touches. These were reproduced and now adorn thirty pocket-sized notebooks ready to be given out next week.
Writers need a place to collect and scavenge; to store and gather. My only hope is that they continue living the writer’s life, and look back on our extended year together fondly.
My message to the children inside the notebook is heartfelt, and I truly believe I have learned just as much from them this year as they have from me.
We are excited to announce that The Writing For Pleasure Centre is teaming up with The UKLA to offer our teachers’ institute: What is it world-class writing teachers do that makes the difference?
This full day institute is limited to only 30 serving teachers and costs only £10 when bought alongside a Saturday ticket. This will sell out so please book now to avoid disappointment.
The day will start with a presentation unpacking research and case studies of the best performing writing teachers from across the globe. Delegates will then have an opportunity to review and discuss their own practice against the 14 principles of effective writing teaching derived from The Writing For Pleasure Centre’s own research.
After lunch, delegates will learn about the importance of action research before being invited to read and discuss examples of practice written by other writer-teachers. They will then consider what aspect of practice they would like to investigate when they go back to their own classrooms. The day will end with a Q&A session with Ross & Felicity.
What we know about the connection between reading & writing
If we want to attract children like bees to the idea of writing, we must treat our classroom as a field and fill it with the sweetest of nectar – good literature (Young & Ferguson 2020 p.91)
This is not an article about teaching reading. It is an article about writers’ relationships with reading (Young & Ferguson 2023). This is what we currently know, from educational research and from case-studies of exceptional writing teachers, about the interconnections between writing and reading in the classroom:
When young writers read, ideas for writing occur.
Children learn much about the craft of writing and develop an ‘inner ear’ for language if they are given regular, sustained and wide opportunities to read.
Children who read and listen to high-quality texts include more literary features and write better texts.
Children who read poetry include more imagery and other poetic devices in their own writing.
Young writers often develop strong affective bonds with the things they have read and use aspects of these texts in their own writing.
Children who write inresponseto the texts they have read significantly enhance their comprehension of those texts.
Children having ample time to read is fundamental to their writing development. (Young & Ferguson 2021)
We can therefore conclude, in agreement with Dombey (2013 p.30), that ‘children who read more write more and write better’.
Published authors, looking back on their own development as writers, overwhelmingly subscribe to this view, and as literate adults we might look at our own writing processes and see how what we read can be both an inspiration and a mentor, helping us improve our writing craft and technical fluency and encouraging us to tackle different kinds of writing. And how writing in response to the literature we read offers myriad opportunities, such as developing empathy, seeing our world through a different lens, connecting with and going beyond our own experience, taking on someone else’s writing style and voice and in the process enriching our own. It would therefore be foolish not to place high-quality texts at the heart of the literacy curriculum and – most importantly – not to put that literature firmly into children’s hands (Young & Ferguson 2020, 2021, 2023).
‘Book planning’ (also known as novel-study, basalisation, literature as a unit of study, the manufactured approach, the formalist approach, the analysis-paralysis approach or the echo approach) is currently a very popular way of teaching writing through reading schemes (Young & Ferguson 2021). However, in our view, the rationale behind its present manifestation is fundamentally flawed.
How has this approach misunderstood how a writer uses their reading, and how has it failed resoundingly to give such an apprenticeship to children?
Where book planning can go wrong in the teaching of writing
It is as if what could be a rich wildflower meadow of interpretation and response is instead turned into a field of artificially cultivated and identical crops (Young & Ferguson 2021 p.9)
A lack of dedicated writing instruction
Study any number of commercial reading schemes and you’ll find that, in the units which form their content, little rational or explicit connection is made between the reading of the text and how that could offer lessons in the craft of writing. No practical writing instruction is typically given, and there seems to be simply an assumption – or perhaps just an undefined hope – that the prescribed writing tasks tethered to the text will be successfully carried out without a need for teaching about writing. This goes against what we know children need to become successful writers. Writers need explicit, daily, and world-class writing instruction (Young & Ferguson 2021; Kim et al. 2023).
Essential components of writing pedagogy are missing
As far as writing instruction is concerned, it is simply not attended to. For example, the three most powerful teaching practices identified by research are typically missing. Teachers receive no guidance on how to teach about the processes involved in writing. There is nothing about strategy instruction and typically no subsequent suggestions for craft study and functional grammar teaching. Finally, there is no advice about how to set distant, product and process writing goals (Young & Ferguson 2021). Put simply, they are reading schemes which happen to supply a collection of writing tasks.
Reading instruction ends up dominating the writing classroom
In these units of work, writing is largely appropriated to serve reading and reading comprehension. The claim made by the authors of these commercial schemes that reading and writing are attended to equally is, in our view, simply not true. This is a problem when you consider that writing is probably the most cognitively demanding and complex thing children are asked to learn at school (Young & Ferguson 2022). Most worryingly, they promote the misconception that teachers can use the materials to teach writing effectively. Research has pointed this out as a major flaw of a book planning approach (Young & Ferguson 2021).
Children spend most of their time being taught the content for the assigned writing tasks, and not how writers write
An essential part of the book planning pedagogy is to subject children to a close and sometimes laborious ‘analysis paralysis’, reading of the text (Grainger/Cremin et al. 2005). Even a cursory look at some units of work is enough to see that what the scheme writers are pushing is the comprehension of the text that they have arrived at, and that it is their interpretation which is, in effect, the only one offered and taught. They put themselves between the child and the text. This happens because the scheme writer needs children to obtain enough ‘content knowledge’ of the book so that they can go on to successfully carry out the pre-devised writing tasks. For example, a teacher sets the class the task of writing a letter to Dumbledore. She asks them to write in role as Harry, who must persuade the wizard that another character, Snape, is evil. The problem with this task is that the teacher spends the lesson teaching and discussing the content (drawn from the book) that needs to be included in the letter. This writing lesson would be better spent teaching about the craft of writing (Young & Ferguson 2021).
Novels are not the bestmentor texts
Unless you’re teaching children to write a novel, it’s inappropriate to use novels as mentor texts for writing. This is not to say that teachers shouldn’t teach how writers use novels to learn about literary technique (Young & Ferguson 2023). However, children need to study mentor texts which match the genres they are being invited to use for themselves (LINK). For example, if the class writing project is to write information texts, children should study information texts. If they are going to craft short stories,they should read short stories as mentor texts. If, for whatever strange reason, they are being asked to write a diary entry, they should study diary entries (Young & Ferguson LINK, 2023).
Children don’t learn how writers really use their reading to inform their writing
In book planning, writing in personal response and using intertextuality are not made central pillars of the writing classroom, despite the fact that they are the cornerstones of how writers really use their reading to inform their writing (Young & Ferguson 2023). Intertextuality is the theory that what we write is influenced by our reading, the things we watch and listen to, the video games we play, and by our ‘life texts’. This means our reading identities, life experiences, culture, funds of knowledge and funds of identity have a profound influence on what we write, how we write it, and who we are as writers (Young & Ferguson 2021; Young et al. 2022). However, in our experience, personal response and intertextuality are largely not promoted in book planning schemes.
Writers spend a lot of time reading. They investigate the craft moves of other authors in a variety of books (Young & Ferguson 2023). They note and write down examples of good craft as they read, but children aren’t taught this discipline. Instead, it’s the teacher or scheme who mostly does this important work for them. Writers also consult their reading when they spot gaps in their craft knowledge. However, in the book planning approach, children are not taught how to do this for themselves. They do not learn self-regulation strategies and instead are dependent on their teacher. Book planning does not fairly or sincerely represent how writers read and write. Therefore, book planning, as an approach, is not an adequate apprenticeship in how to live a literate life.
Children don’t read and write as a community
In a community of writers, children collectively use their reading to find subjects for writing, and will share their ideas and compositions with one another (Young & Ferguson 2022b). You will notice that this opportunity is not offered by book planning schemes. Children are not invited to contribute to or devise their own writing projects as a whole class. We also know that multiple responses are probable across a writing community. Children bring their own knowledge and experiences to a text, and this diversity of response should contribute to and deepen their own and others’ understandings of it (Young & Ferguson 2021; Young et al. 2022). However, in the list of laborious and prescribed writing assignments set in book planning schemes, it is hard to find more than the casual and occasional nod to children’s own funds of knowledge and identities, and no acknowledgment that these are a crucial part of the response children will make in their writing. Writers of the units would do well to remember what Harold Rosen (2017) said about making and taking new meanings from a text: ‘this is only feasible in classrooms where there is space for the collaborative production of meaning, where the pupils’ experience is acknowledged to be necessary and relevant’. The book-planners’ authoritative interpretation of a text does not invite a class (including the teacher) to produce, through writing, a variety of new meanings, as a genuine community of writers would do.
Children are not asked to write authentically or purposefully
The explicit claim made by many material creators that their writing tasks are purposeful and authentic only reveals the extraordinary extent of their self-deception or misunderstanding (Young & Ferguson 2021). Nearly all the assignments are arbitrarily tethered to the text. They regularly appear contrived with no genuine future audience identified. In relation to progression across an academic year and across year groups, they appear to be incoherent. Finally, they are constructed for the purpose of teacher evaluation alone and thus offer little long-term value or learning. This goes against what we know from research makes for great writing teaching.
Children fail to learn about the reasons we are moved to write
Because in this approach children are directed to write in prescribed ways and on pre-selected topics related to the text being studied, they don’t learn about the reasons we are all moved to write in our real writing lives. For example:
Responding to something we’ve read for ourselves.
Communicating to others some of the original thoughts and ideas we’ve had
Thinking about and recording our own experiences.
Teaching others about something we know a lot about.
Writing to teach ourselves and understand a subject better.
Entertaining ourselves and others.
Giving an opinion and wanting to make changes to the world.
Writing in response to someone else’s interpretation of a book only represents a very small part of being a writer. However, it is given almost exclusive priority under a book planning approach.
These charts are a visual metaphor to illustrate a point.
Children are asked to take on the culture of the scheme writer and are not asked to share their own
In book planning, teachers or scheme writers choose the text to be studied. The favoured text is likely to be one which accords with their own personal and cultural taste, but this will not be shared by all children. The message many children receive is that their own cultures, attitudes, experiences, artefacts, and the funds of knowledge that they bring into the classroom daily have no part to play in how they are taught to be writers (Young et al. 2022). The book planning approach does not acknowledge that children’s own cultures and the books that they like must be allowed to shape and enrich the present and future writing they will share with others.
Children are not meeting reader-writer-teachers, only reading teachers
As part of the pedagogy, teachers are asked to highlight very specific aspects of quality composition in the book being studied, but are not asked to show and discuss with children how they might craft it for themselves (Young & Ferguson LINK, 2023). The writing classroom is therefore directed by reading teachers, and not by reader-writer-teachers who know how to write their own texts and can share their craft knowledge with their class. We know that craft knowledge is essential in world-class writing teaching (Young & Ferguson 2021).
Children have a mistaken conception of what a writer is
Finally, children grow up with a warped understanding of what a writer is. For example, they may believe that you can only be an author if you are formally and commercially published (Young & Ferguson2021). Because, in the book planning approach, children are meeting texts which are almost exclusively literary, they don’t understand that writers can be many and various: hobbyists, historians, scientists, activists, reviewers, columnists, journalists, diarists, biographers or memoirists, and of course themselves.
How to establish a more sincere approach to the reading/writing connection
Children don’t only show their comprehension when they write in response to the books they’re reading; they give something of themselves to the text too. A fair exchange of ideas is made between the reader and what’s read (Young & Ferguson 2020 p.91)
This will require a significant shift away from what currently happens. The key is to put literature, the reading of it and the writing in response to it, back into the hands of children while supporting them as writers. It means putting in what book planning indisputably leaves out: explicitly teaching the craft of writing, which includes showing children how writers behave and work with the texts they read (Young & Ferguson 2023). Below, we share what we believe needs to be changed so that teachers can begin to deliver world-class writing teaching using high-quality texts.
Start providing dedicated writing instruction
Stop delivering content or procedural instruction in how to complete a specific writing task. Instead provide genuine instruction in the processes, strategies and techniques writers employ when they craft texts (Kim et al. 2023).
Start applying the essential components of effective writing teaching
Book planning schemes fail to give teachers information or guidance on how to teach the processes involved in crafting writing. They also provide little or no advice on how to give strategy or functional grammar instruction, nor do they explain the importance of setting distant, process and product goals with the community of writers. Research suggests these three elements are essential to children’s learning in the writing classroom (Young & Ferguson 2021).
Don’t allow reading instruction to encroach on lessons about writing
Don’t fall into the trap of believing that lessons in reading or lessons focused on literary criticism and comprehension of a text are the same as lessons in the craft of writing. Put simply, book planning schemes are reading schemes with writing activities. This is not an adequate replacement for an explicit approach to teaching writing.
Start studying mentor texts that match the writing children are actually going to do
Teach how writers genuinely use their reading to inform their writing (Young & Ferguson 2023). For example by:
reading a variety of mentor texts.
admiring, noting down and copying their favourite craft moves by other authors.
reading genuine high-quality examples of the sorts of things they are looking to write themselves in the class writing project.
If children are going to write an information text, they should be reading other information texts. If they are writing short stories, then read great short stories.
Teachers should share the texts which helped them craft their own exemplar, and give their pupils an apprenticeship in how to do the same (Young & Ferguson 2023). Children’s own writing, both past and present, can be offered as mentor texts too. If teachers don’t provide a variety of texts like this, they run the risk of creating a culture in the classroom where children experience a sense of intimidation, inadequacy, imposter syndrome and failure if they feel they can’t craft texts to the same level as those written by highly experienced professional writers.
Stop using predetermined writing tasks or devising writing assignments on your class’ behalf
In the book planning approach writing tasks are decided upon by the scheme writer, the teacher, and by the content of the book itself. Do it differently. Devise projects together on the basis of personal and collective response, and teach children how writers use intertextuality whilst they read. Young & Ferguson (2020 p.95), influenced by Michael Rosen’s work, provide examples of how this can be done very practically through discussion:
Does this writing remind you of anything from your lives?
Does it remind you of anything else you’ve seen or read?
What do you have in common with this writing?
Why might the author have been moved to write?
Does anyone have any questions they would like to ask the class?
What’s the one thing I want to write about this book?
Cor, I would love to nick that for my writing…
I would love to have a go at writing something like this…
That’s reminded me of something… and I’m going to write about it…
Why don’t I draw, jot and dabble with ideas that come to mind as I’m reading or listening. Maybe it’ll turn into some writing….
Young & Ferguson (2020) suggest that children can and should generate writing ideas as a community of writers. Answers to the sorts of questions listed above will give a community of writers more writing ideas than they would ever know what to do with. Children can generate these writing ideas individually, in groups, or as a whole class – listing their ideas onto a large sheet of paper. The point being that children and teachers are utterly capable of conceiving their very own ‘book planning’.
Through such an approach, the teacher will get a collection of different written responses and perspectives, which, when shared, would, as Harold Rosen (2017) states, help children to see how a single text can carry many different values and meanings through hearing how others interpreted it through their writing. How much better than to receive thirty depressingly similar pieces written in response to a scheme writer’s preferred conception and comprehension of a book.
Children need to be writing as writers do, for genuine purposes and audiences
Children’s writing suffers if it lacks a genuine purpose and an anticipated audience beyond the teacher’s evaluation. Start assessing children’s ability to write meaningful and successful texts for an identified audience (for example, an information text for others to read on something the writer is genuinely passionate about) rather than their capacity to retain information about a book and regurgitate it in an arbitrary writing assignment.
Children need to start learning about writing from a writer-teacher
Popular schemes fail to advise on how teachers should write with and for their class. Instead, they only provide texts written by someone who won’t be present in the classroom to explain how they went about crafting it. As a result, children hear about writing almost exclusively from a reading teacher who can only critique and point toward examples of good craft, as opposed to a writer-teacher who can show from direct experience how such writing can be crafted.
Give more time to regular and sustained reading.
Scheme writers have not answered the question of what happens if a child doesn’t like the book they have designated for study. Such children can be subjected to a single book for six to twelve weeks! This is time which children might more profitably spend reading something they have chosen for themselves from the varied and high-quality selection in the class library, and letting their response feed into their writing. Ironically, time spent on teaching through a book planning scheme can seriously affect children’s access to independent and group reading time. And as we know, the more opportunities and time children get to read, the better readers and writers they become (Young & Ferguson 2021).
Continue to read aloud and talk about authors’ writing regularly
One of the main benefits of book planning is that children get to hear books read aloud with regularity. They are also encouraged to talk about books. This needs to continue with gusto.
Ensure children are receiving a rich writing diet
To give children a truly rounded apprenticeship in writing, scheme writers should emphasise that not all writing tasks they suggest should be tethered to books. They must provide teachers and children with an opportunity to write about and use their own thoughts, opinions, concerns, their local community, funds of knowledge, funds of identity and cultures – things that might not be found in texts but nonetheless are essential resources that writers use (Young et al2022. Teachers can do this by ensuring that children are aware of all the reasons we are moved to write (Young & Ferguson 2020).
Frequently asked questions & answers to them
Before you begin reading this section, answers to all of these questions hinge on what is meant by teaching young writers effectively. Many approaches, including book planning, have only a very partial and sometimes even a misguided understanding of it.
What are you saying? That literature isn’t important in the teaching of writing?
Absolutely not. We want children to be bathed in rich high-quality texts when they are in the writing classroom (Young & Ferguson 2023). This is because we know from research that children who read more write more and write better. But literature needs to be put firmly in the hands of children rather than appropriated so completely by scheme writers in terms of interpretation, comprehension and response – ‘this is how you should understand this book, this is what you should take from it, this is how you should write in response to it.’ What happened to multiple and collective responses deepening comprehension of the literature? What happened to trusting children with it? After all, it’s written for them.
My class produces great writing using a scheme like the ones you describe, so what’s the problem?
Writing done in the book planning approach may have good features copied from the literary text, but this cannot be compared to a true apprenticeship in being a writer. You must be sure that children have learned craft knowledge, strategies and techniques, both general and specific, which they will be able to use in the future as part of their repertoire as a writer. Book planning does not teach children to be lifelong self-directed writers who write with purpose, independence and with personal and collective responsibility, generating their own ideas and using the writing processes in ways that suit them. Book planning is too often product-focused and superficial since it does not develop or reveal the child as an agentic writer. Unfortunately, children learn to write without ever being asked to compose. The lack of a genuine purpose and audience and the fact that children are given no choice of topic or form misses the point of writing and why we are moved to write in the first place. Finally, and sadly, children leave school unable to take a germ of an idea and see it through to publication or performance independently (Young & Ferguson 2020).
If book planning isn’t effective in teaching writing, why is it so popular?
We’re not sure. However, teachers may have been persuaded that a close reading of a text can also be the perfect writing teacher. And maybe it’s popular because it appeals to the many teachers who are more oriented to reading than writing (Young & Ferguson 2021). If you are one of these, an approach which advertises itself as centering around literature and reading will be immediately sympathetic to you.
As far as the (much smaller) writing component is concerned, it will be liked because it’s all thought out for you in what is seen as a ‘comprehensive’ literacy pedagogy. Children are provided with something to write about and enough time is spent teaching the content knowledge to ensure they can complete the necessary writing tasks. Completing the assigned tasks seems to be more important than the deep learning about writing and being a writer which should certainly be offered in any approach which claims to be as much concerned with raising writing standards as it is with reading.
What do you mean I’m only teaching reading? Surely, if we are analysing a text, we are learning about writing?
Yes, you may be learning something about writing. You may not be teaching writing though. Analysing a text isn’t all there is to it. When is the craft that produces text to be taught and who is going to teach it? For effective writing teaching to be at its most effective it needs to be taught by a writer-teacher, someone who can demonstrate and give advice on techniques, strategies and problem solving. A text alone can’t do this. A skilled writer-teacher is a necessary partner in the process of teaching writing (Young & Ferguson 2021).
You don’t seem to think that the teacher’s or the scheme writer’s comprehension of the text is important – only the children’s. Why?
That’s not true. The teacher’s voice and their comprehension of a text is an essential one in any reading or writing classroom (Young & Ferguson 2023). We are not saying it isn’t. But why should they or the scheme writer get to have all the fun with the text and get to devise the subsequent writing projects which come as a result of reading it? How a community of young readers and writers explore and understand a text using their own lives, experiences and funds of knowledge is just as important as the adult’s (Young & Ferguson 2021; Young et al. 2022). Should there be only one interpretation? Why should a scheme writer dominate and direct the writing of children they have never met? In this way, pupils become subservient to their authoritative viewpoint and desire and can never challenge it without being judged as having failed to understand the text! They become consumers of text rather than legitimate producers. We believe the adult voice should only be one among many. This is for the benefit of everyone in the classroom – including the teachers themselves.
Dombey, H. (2013) Teaching Writing: What the Evidence Says UKLA Argues for An Evidence-informed Approach to Teaching and Testing Young Children’s Writing Leicester: UKLA
Grainger, T., Goouch, K., and Lambirth, A. (2005) Creativity and Writing: Developing Voice and Verve in the Classroom London: Routledge
Kim, Y.-S. G., Wolters, A., & Lee, J. won. (2023) Reading and Writing Relations Are Not Uniform: They Differ by the Linguistic Grain Size, Developmental Phase, and Measurement, Review of Educational Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543231178830
Rosen, H. (2017) The politics of writing. In Harold Rosen Writings on Life, Language and Learning 1958–2008, Richmond, J. (Ed.) (pp. 347–361). London: UCL IOE Press
Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2020) Real-World Writers London: Routledge
Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2021) Writing For Pleasure: theory, research and practice London: Routledge
Young, R., Govender, N., Ferguson, F., Kaufman, D. (2022) Writing Realities Writing For Pleasure Centre: Brighton
Young, R., Ferguson, F., (2022) The Science Of Teaching Primary Writing Writing For Pleasure Centre: Brighton
Young, R., Ferguson, F., (2022b) No More: I Don’t Know What To Write: Lessons That Help Children Generate Great Writing Ideas For 3-11 Year Olds Writing For Pleasure Centre: Brighton
Young, R., Ferguson, F., (2023) Reading In The Writing Classroom: A Guide To Finding, Writing And Using Mentor Texts With Your Class Writing For Pleasure Centre: Brighton
Being a writer-teacher involves teaching and demonstrating, from a position of expertise, the processes, procedures, craft knowledge, strategies, and techniques writers use to create successful and meaningful texts. It also involves crafting writing just for yourself. Finally, it’s about role-modelling for children the environment and behaviours of a writer and how to live the writer’s life.
I immersed myself in writing for pleasure, and I brought my pleasure into the classroom. The effect was palpable.(Kaufman cited in Young & Ferguson 2021)
Below is a table which summarizes what educational research and case studies from the world’s most exceptional teachers of writing conclude about the link between effective instruction and being a writer-teacher.
Teaching and demonstrating
Crafting and role modelling
Teachers write to gain a better understanding of the processes, procedures, and craft knowledge children require if they are to produce meaningful and successful writing. If you need more guidance, see our handbook Real-World Writers or our Class Writing Projects.
Teachers write to build up a repertoire of useful and responsive writing-study mini-lessons. If you want more information, see the writing-study mini-lessons examples which accompany our Class Writing Projects.
Teachers write to produce excellent mentor texts which help students better understand the goals for a class writing project. In addition, they undertake their own writing within the class writing project and write alongside their pupils towards publication or performance. If you need guidance on writing mentor texts, see our Class Writing Projects or our handbook Real-World Writers.
Teachers write in order to show how writers use their own reading as inspiration and mentor. To read more about the connection between reading and writing teaching, please see the writing-study mini-lessons in our Class Writing Projects or our handbook Real-World Writers.
Teachers write to better understand how to build a community of writers in their classrooms – a community which reflects how writers live and work together. For more insights into building a community of writers, see our handbook Real-World Writers.
Teachers write to ensure they can read, think, and talk authentically to children about writing and being a writer from a position of empathy and expertise. For more, see our handbook Real-World Writers.
Teachers write to share their own writing goals and ambitions. They write to showcase the enjoyment and satisfaction they feel when writing beyond the purposes of school. For more on personal writing projects, see our handbook Real-World Writers.
Teachers write in order to give effective pupil conferences whilst children are in the act of writing. For more on pupil-conferencing, please see our handbook Real-World Writers.
Children do not just learn about writing from their teacher, they also learn about what it means to be a writer.(Young & Ferguson 2021)
Being a writer-teacher is more than simply demonstrating or undertaking ‘shared writing’. It’s about being a role-model and giving children an apprenticeship in how to live the writer’s life. For example, writer-teachers have their trusty writer’s notebook within touching distance at all times and find themselves in a constant state of composition.
Don’t overload children by modelling multiple processes in a single writing session. For example, a writer-teacher will just model an idea generation technique and that will be it.
Don’t model for long periods of time. Try to keep your mini-lessons to less than 15 minutes.
Model one process, procedure, strategy, technique or literary feature before inviting your class to try it out for themselves during that day’s writing time. For example, showcase how you crafted some character-description in your short story before inviting children to try the same with their own stories.
There is no greater feeling than having children enter your classroom every day seeing themselves as a close-knit community of apprentice writers. They know that every day, when they enter the writing workshop that is your classroom, it’s going to start with you giving them a valuable writing lesson – a writing lesson from their very own writer-teacher.(Young & Ferguson 2020)
Teach writing-study and functional grammar mini-lessons from your perspective as a writer. Show examples from your own writing journal. For example, show your class how you’ve usefully and genuinely used fronted adverbials in a piece you’ve written before inviting them to give it a try during that day’s writing time.
Don’t focus disproportionately on modelling the drafting process. Model all aspects of a writer’s process including: generating ideas, planning, drafting, revising, proof-reading and publishing/performing. There are also processes such as: playing, abandoning, reimagining, returning, and updating which you should model too. For example, you might discuss how you’ve gone back to a piece of writing you started crafting months ago. Or you might explain how you’ve written a quick ‘discovery draft’ to use as a plan for a more formal first draft.
You don’t have to be ‘the sage on the stage’ and only write live in front of your class. Instead, you can share your writing (at its different stages), and invite children to ask questions about your process and discuss what you’re trying to achieve. For example, you might write quietly at your desk before school and share what you’ve been working on with your class later that day.
Just as it would be difficult to teach children the tuba if you’ve never played one, so it is difficult to teach children to be writers if you never write. Become a writer-teacher who writes for and with pleasure and use your literate life as a learning tool in the classroom. Children gain from knowing that their teacher faces the same writing challenges that they do.(Young & Ferguson 2020)
Write amongst your class with regularity. Choose a table to sit at and write with the children for five minutes at the beginning of writing time. Let the class know that you’re not to be disturbed during this time because it’s important to you. You might not always want to share what you’ve written but it’s good to regularly talk with the other young writers at your table and ask their opinion on your piece. You can offer to give them advice in exchange!
Write mentor texts which match what children will be trying to achieve in their class writing project. Write mentor texts away from the pressure of writing live. For example, write them for pleasure at home or with colleagues after school in a writing group. You can then share these texts with your class and invite children to discuss their strengths and weaknesses. These sorts of discussions can be useful when devising your product goals/success criteria for a class writing project.
Writer-teachers are better able to advise and give feedback because they understand from personal experience the issues children encounter when writing.(Young & Ferguson 2020)
Share what you’ve been working on outside of school in your personal time. This shows them how you live the writer’s life beyond school and children will see that they can too. Apart from enhancing your teaching practice, writing recreationally can improve your mental health and well-being and can become an intoxicating and pleasurable part of your life.
Talk about your writing with children. Tell them a bit about your own writing struggles and ask your class for their advice and suggestions. Show that you are there to learn from them too. It’s important to discuss your own excitement, enjoyment and satisfaction when your writing is going well. This can promote what’s called situational motivation in the writing classroom. For example, tell children when you’ve been inspired to write because of something they’ve said or written themselves.
Offer your own writerly advice and talk writer-to-writer with children when pupil conferencing. For example, when children run into difficulties, share how you solve those typical writing problems yourself and encourage them to try it out for themselves.
Discuss with your class what everyone’s favoured writing processes might be. For example, use the processes shared in our book Real-World Writers: discoverer, planner, vomiter, paragraph piler and sentence stacker.
Share with children the different routines and disciplines famous writers have. You might like to use this website to help you.
Think about the relationship between your reading and writing and discuss with your class the concept of intertextuality. For example, make sure you have your writer’s notebook to hand when reading and write when you feel inspired to do so.
Participate in writer-teacher groups to better understand how writers talk, share and craft socially. You can then reflect on whether this experience matches how you expect children to write in the community of writers that is your classroom. For example, you could join a NWPUK writing group.
Teachers who perceive themselves as writers offer richer classroom writing experiences and generate increased enjoyment, motivation and tenacity among their students than non-writers. (Cremin & Baker cited in Young & Ferguson 2020)
References:
Young, R., Ferguson, F. (2020) Real-World Writers: a handbook for teaching writing with 7-11 year olds London: Routledge
Young, R., Ferguson, F. (2021) Writing For Pleasure: theory, research and practice London: Routledge
