We defined ourselves as a class of writers. I relished our classroom culture and told anyone who would listen. -Leung & Hicks
Description of the principle
Effective writing teachers hold high achievement expectations for all writers. They see all children as writers and, from the first, teach strategies that lead to greater independence and ensure all children remain part of the writing community. They make the purposes and audiences for writing clear to children for both their class and personal writing projects. They teach what writing can do. They also model and promote the social aspects of writing and peer support in their classrooms.
What Writing For Pleasure teachers do
- These teachers hold high achievement expectations for all their writers.
- All children feel like independent writers who are achieving their writing goals with regularity. They are praised for the goals they achieve.
- They ensure that all their writers remain part of the writing community.
Reviewing your practice: questions to consider
- How do you articulate that every child can write authentically, that all children belong in the community, all children can achieve and that all members have something worthwhile to say?
- Are you unlikely to confine less experienced writers to decontextualized writing exercises or tasks but rather support these writers through group teaching or by allowing them to work collaboratively with a peer?
- How do you have high expectation for both class and personal writing projects?
- How do you have high expectations for student attainment during their lesson(s)?
- How do you have a good understanding of the learning needs of all children?
- How do you support children’s efforts and writing through your manner, comments and actions?
Examples from the classroom
I’m A Writer Too!
Book-making In Nursery
Supporting resources
- eBook: Supporting Children with SEND to be great writers: A guide for teachers and SENCOS [LINK]
- eBook: A teacher’s guide to writing with multilingual children [LINK]
- Our children as writers survey [LINK]
- Our writing development scales and assessment toolkit [LINK]
- eBook: The BIG BOOK of writing mini-lessons: Lessons that teach powerful craft knowledge for 3-11 year olds [LINK]
- eBook: A guide to pupil-conferencing with 3-11 year olds: Powerful feedback & responsive teaching that changes writers [LINK]
Suggested further reading
- Young, R. (2023) How do we develop writing fluency? [LINK]
- Young, R. (2023) The Science of Special Education Podcast: Providing research-based writing instruction [LINK]
- Young, R. (2023) Suggested writing practices for children with behavioural or emotional disorders [LINK]
- Young, R. (2023) Getting writing instruction right for children with SEND [LINK]
- Young, R., Ferguson, F., (2023) The cognitive and motivational case for inviting children to generate their own writing ideas [LINK]
- Young, R., Ferguson, F. (2023) Evidence-based writing instruction for children with SEND [LINK]
- Young, R., Ferguson, F., (2020) They won’t have anything to write about: the dangers of believing pupils are ‘culturally deprived’ [LINK]
- Young, R., Ferguson, F., (2019) 10 ways to make every child a writer Teach Primary article [LINK]
- Islam, S., (2020) That’s the way I work: One child’s experience of a Writing For Pleasure pedagogy [LINK]
This chapter explains how Real-World Writers is an inclusive approach and can support inexperienced writers, children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and children with English as an additional language (EAL). It discusses how drawing, playing and telling stories to and with an adult are good sources of idea generation for early writers. Early writers can struggle with the demands of the writing process, and so this chapter gives teachers practical advice on how they can encourage young, inexperienced writers to use drawing as a form of planning, focus on composition and transcription separately and use invented spellings whilst they draft.
The chapter then discusses how to give advanced writers specific support and instruction by, for example, encouraging them to actively subvert and manipulate class writing projects, think about the psychological and philosophical background to their narrative writing and experiment with chronology and different perspectives. Finally, the place of personal voice in non-fiction writing is considered.
This chapter looks at the importance of all children being apprenticed in the craft of writing. Discussion is had about how enduring research-informed writing practices are good practice, irrespective of individual or additional specific educational needs, including children who may have English as an additional language. The authors then explore how an inclusive environment can invite all children into the community of writers, where they can access full literacy and authentic and purposeful writing projects alongside their peers. The instructional power of responsive mini-lessons, setting writing goals, co-regulation, and pupil conferencing are highlighted as effective ways in which to build the self-efficacy, motivation, and self-regulation of pupil-writers who may feel excluded from the writing classroom. The importance of a writer-teacher’s relationship with their pupils and their educational expectations of them are also considered. Finally, examples of effective practice from the classrooms of high-performing teachers are presented.
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