This is the first in a series of #WritingRocks chats where we explore writer-teachers’ Examples of Practice published on the Writing for Pleasure Centre website.
First out of the door is writer-teacher Tobias Hayden @TobiasHayden, who generously shares his experience of: ‘Creating a Writing for Pleasure Pedagogy’ in his classroom. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to collaborate and draft the questions with him in advance of the session and I am grateful for his time and energy. His comments throughout the chat have been highlighted in bold. You can access the original discussion on Twitter by clicking on the hyperlinks that precede each question slide.
BIG Thanks to these wonderful people for their participation in the discussion:
@TobiasHayden @lit4pleasure @sam_creighton @one_to_read @thewritingweb @katehitchings1 @smerchant13 @Marcelavb3 @navangovender1@NurSen2019 @HerschlebKaren @Halfwayupagain @natwalk87 @mikejc90 @kashleyenglish @WritingRocks_17
- Looking forward to the discussion and looking at other practitioners in future. I think it’s a great model, and a good way to promote class-based action research. Makes it accessible to teachers.
- I completely agree that this is a really valuable professional development opportunity for everyone who actively participates and those who come across your Example of Practice and the resulting discussion. I’ve also really enjoyed collaborating with you.
- Routines are massively important: write every day, follow the same pattern for the lessons, make sure the children write and value what they want to write about. It sounds simple (and it is in a way!) but so powerful.
- Writing every day is 100% vital, same a reading every day (and talking every day). It builds culture and value and confidence.
- “Culture and value and confidence” = quality principles.
- AMEN!!
- Our classrooms simply have to teach children to how to take on the discipline of writers. There is a psychology to writing and we must follow the cognitive science behind setting up daily writing routines.
- Having consistent structure helps. Children feel they know what is meant to be happening at any given time & so are more confident to engage. Clear expectations & support for collaboration & talk is powerful too, it creates a buzz & lets them be independent from me.
- I aim for a community feel in the classroom, with everything available that writers might need. It is also, I hope, an equitable set up, with freedom for children to choose how they embark upon the writing process. I am here to learn more this evening!
- “Equitable set up” – love it!
- It’s an aim – I haven’t quite cracked this yet but it comes down to really, really knowing the children.
- What sort of things do you do/provide to make it equitable? I have such a huge range that I’d love to have that as the aim.
- Mostly, the provision of lots of stuff, sometimes on walls and sometimes on desks – chrome books, papers, stimuli, paint colour charts, notebooks, vocabulary cards, discussion prompts, sentence starts, sentences borrowed from texts – and they love gel pens!
- And then you have the child who just needs a pencil, paper, lots of time and quality discussion.
- And then you have the child who just needs a pencil, paper, lots of time and quality discussion.
- Best thing is honest discussion with your class about what they feel they need from you to produce their most successful and meaningful writing – talk to @Marcelavb3 and @TobiasHayden about this as they are ABSOLOUTE experts in this kind of responsive teaching.
- I can’t recommend this text enough for producing a focused *and* creative writing environment.
- These chats are brilliant but get expensive fast with all the recommendations!
- Will order it now.
- It’s a peach!
- By giving the children an agency over the organisation of the classroom and allowing them to have responsibility in dealing with their writing stations, writing guides, publishing materials and sharing their writing.
- I wonder how much of this ‘setting up routines’ is about both scaffolding (i.e. something to be removed eventually) and building a culture of independent writers?
- I agree what has been said so far. I also believe autonomy is important for children. Once they connect with the purpose and understand why they are writing they also need certain degree of autonomy/freedom.
- Learners create texts based on texts they are studying. When we study editorials they incorporate all those text features into their own writing.
- I was always a big fan of a ‘writers’ workshop’-style approach which did promote predictable routines, but that also left plenty of wriggle room to nurture writer agency.
- Yes, I always question whether I have the balance right between routine and freedom.
- Although perhaps one, in a sense, enables the other.
- This is actually true!
- I think having a routine structure gets rid of the cognitive load of trying to figure out what is going on, freeing up all your thought on the actually process of your writing, allowing for more exciting and creative results.
- This is so true – children appreciate routine and predictability. This isn’t to say that you have to be rigid. Being reassuringly consistent doesn’t have to mean rigidity.
- I think it depends on the writing goals for each opportunity. A loose structure was always – mini lesson/modelling, writing, conferring/conferencing, sharing.
- Involving the children in the construction of the environment is crucial I feel. I have discovered that what you think might be the best and most useful resources get left in the writing area unless they’ve built them themselves.
- That’s interesting. Obviously, it will vary class to class but what resources has been most useful to your children out of those you’ve constructed together? #WritingRocks
- This is SO true! It’s important that any resources or working-wall posters, checklists, success criteria and/or rubrics be co-constructed and ideally produced by the children themselves. It’s through this process that children understand their use.
- I agree with this; one of the best resources we have are jotters, where the children collect sentences, thoughts and phrases themselves. I discovered that some of them love to take notes and it helps focus.
- A 1000 times yes!
- How long do the children in your class write for on an average day? Bearing in mind there’s no such thing as an ‘average’ day!
- The short answer is not enough but definitely more this year than ever before and I’m seeing a real difference in their attitude towards writing as a result
- I’m so happy to hear this!
- The start of this year has been so positive for writing in my classroom. It makes me so proud of the kids. A long way to go still but it’s been such a great journey to share with them
- This is a beautiful thing!
- Agree 100% with the quote here. I think a key thing is being humble enough (actually it’s the king of teaching!) to write with your kids and say ‘You know what…this writing stuff is hard but blooming thrilling’. That’s gold standard!
- Definitely, modelling trying something and explaining why you think it doesn’t work and how you change approach can be so liberating for kids. People are scared to make ‘mistakes’ in writing but it’s that exploration that uncovers the greatest ideas.
- This! This!!!!! The mistakes, the trials, the pain of writing all worthwhile as your writing thinking and practice gets honed. What a thrill!
- Always write from scratch to model. I can’t ‘fake’ the thought process authentically. Whilst editing, I ask them to discuss other options and weigh up the choices.
- Focusing on the pieces of writing being produced rather than the children as writers. 2) Focusing purely on NC objectives with no regard to children’s own interests and contexts. 3) Lack of teacher confidence in/knowledge of writing.
- You’re so right. It’s number three which results in 1 & 2 too – in my experience and reading of the research. It’s a systemic problem that we need to work hard to break…! Catch 22.
- But it is breakable and you are breaking it :). For me, it is one of the key changes to make our education system, who have a huge impact on so many levels.
- Showing a pristine piece of teacher writing, leading the children to obsess about product rather than processes.
- The main barrier I’ve found when I visit schools is the massive misconception of what a #WritingForPleasure pedagogy actually involves! It’s not a hippie-free-for-all. We are talking about the pursuit for world-class writing teaching.
- The Common Misconceptions About Writing For Pleasure Debunked
- The key is showing learners that we are fallible as adults – we are all learning. This can be difficult at times as some might struggle with releasing some form of control?
- One of the greatest barriers to Writing for Pleasure approach is to think that as teachers we must impose our chosen topics for the children to write or they won’t have anything to write about.
- How writing approaches built on using stimuli are damaging children’s writing development.
- See Ross and Phil’s latest article. Published today!
- They won’t have anything to write about… The dangers of believing pupils are ‘culturally deprived’
- This is one of the founding principles of TheWritingWeb, where ‘we know that everyone can write and has something to write about, because we know that everyone has something to say.’
- https://thewritingweb.org/home/why-blog-on-the-writing-web/…
- Like in many subjects if the teacher is not passionate or not confident about writing or I would go as far as passionate about words that might be a problem. Also it important to get excited about what children write.
- Yes, teachers seeing themselves as writers is so powerful in instilling that same confidence in the children. I definitely agree. It’s an (understandably) tough journey for some teachers though, who were ‘turned off’ writing young.
- Y1-Mirabelle, Poems to Read Aloud, Dear Earth, Silly Billy, Amazing, Beegu, The Colour Monster, Morpurgo’s animal stories, Du Iz Tak, The Shark in the Dark (child brought it in for the class), The Lost Words, Maps (large picture book), The Wonder Garden, Grandma Bird
- Lack of great texts would be a barrier. Children need to experience, live and enjoy great text to appreciate the power of writing.
- I’d say seeing, discussing and reading texts that actually match the kind of texts they are looking to craft themselves. This is a HUGE problem I’m seeing at the moment – particularly with a book-planning orientation towards writing.
- Book planning orientation can be tricky. Teachers need to know the book really well, and perhaps also see at what level/degree the class engages with the book. Balance their interest with great piece of writing.
- Teens send a thousand texts a day- they are “writing for pleasure” more than I did! I channel that into a classroom practice by making writing collaborative and performative with lots of opportunities for quick peer feedback and affirmation.
- I agree – we are living in a time (esp *this* time) where we are more reliant as individuals on reading and writing than ever before. I love the creativity, rigour and positivity of your classroom practice.
- Very important that the crafting of writing be a highly-social process. This is a beautiful thing.
- We were writing short stories in which the children were deeply invested. There was loads of speech, incorrectly punctuated in early drafts. I taught how it could be correctly done with inverted commas, commas etc. What an easy win! The grammar was USEFUL!
- I think I’m right in saying that decontextualised grammar teaching has a negative overall effect. Ross? I found it to be entirely pointless before I even knew about the research. We should trust our instincts more.
- It’s also boring and rubbish. Like saying ‘Here’s how you should swim’ without a pool to practise in.
- Or a clever demonstration if making mistakes and editing.
- I’ve been working with some boys in Yr 11 and it’s horrible to see the negative impact decontextualised grammar teaching has had on their willingness to express themselves in writing. I don’t think grammar is an odd bod. Most (all?) new concepts make most sense when learnt in context.
- You’re correct Tobias – routinely shown to have a negative impact on the quality of children’s writing. For more info see here.
- Yes! Repetitive practice just doesn’t transfer.
- We choose what we would like to write about, stress that we can write. I try to make it clear that we do know and have plenty of things to write about. It is lots of talk and valuing every pupil’s contribution.
- I have them up on the wall behind me and refer to them all the time. The children do too. Some of them could give you a pretty tight definition of self-efficacy, self-regulation etc. This is one way of giving attention to them and children respect the fact you do.
- That’s a good idea.
- When they understand that you are interested in what motivates them and want to give them choice etc. It really sits in contrast to the way they’ve been taught for the most part up to that point. That in itself is motivating I have found.
- Do you give the children complete choice of what to write about ? Or a choice between a few options ?
- Neither – I teach ideas generation as a vital part of the writing process. It’s important for the children to be able to weigh up what is a viable choice for them to write about at that time, this informs their subsequent writerly choices, as described here: They won’t have anything to write about: The dangers of believing children are ‘culturally deprived’
- I’d love to hear more about how teachers build up children’s:
- confidence
- feelings of competency & success
- motivation
- desire to write
- feelings of independence
- ownership, agency & personal responsibility
- writer-identity …in their classrooms…
- By championing each child in my class, learning about them, investing in them, reading and responding to their writing (largely through peer conferencing) and using the best tools in my kit to support them throughout their writing process.
- Value what the children write, value what they want to tell you. Listen!
- Allow them to share their writing, how they want and with the audience they want. Empower them to write and do not alienate them from their own writing.
- And joy comes from sharing and being validated and knowing your voices, stories, words, experiences, communities matter …this sounded less idealistic and more poetic in my head…
- I think more structured opportunities for goal setting, reflection, and self-assessment help learners realise that they are their own most important audience.
On Wednesday 2nd December, we will be reflecting on how Marcela Vasques @Marcelavb3 Sets Up Personal Writing Projects in KS1. It would be great to see you there!
