How do you inspire writers?

How do we inspire... Writing for meaning and pleasure? Ideas from educators, working with children across the globe. Collated by Martin Waller with contributions from educators around the world

This is a crowd-sourced presentation...

Global responses received - including educators from the UK, USA and Australia

Many thanks to... Kevin Mc Laughlin Susie Arnott Primary School Teacher Bill Lord Fiona Johnson Literacy Advisor Mrs Davies Primary Teacher Primary TeacherD. Weston James Mansell Rachel Orr Primary Teacher Primary Headteacher David Mitchell Primary Deputy Headteacher Andrew Lambirth Professor of Education Bev Evans Primary Teacher ‘Fibe’ Primary Headteacher Marlise Witham Elementary School Teacher HikingArtist.com For illustrations used in this resource

The issue ‘of’ writing? Or issues ‘with’ writing? Literacy Policy and Policy LiteracyThe rocky road of teaching writing...

And there’s no magic formula...

But writing for pleasure... does lead to increased motivation to write....

Not motivation by fear... Which leads to...

How do we develop writing for pleasure while raising writing achievement?

1. First and foremost... subject knowledge and enthusiasm! Developing, reﬂecting and evaluating your teaching toolkit...

2. Play with Language The English language is complex... Writing as an act of creative design.

2. Play with Language “They need time too. Time to redraft and, yes, be allowed to make errors in transcription as they become absorbed in their compositions - knowing, depending on their age and experience, that further down the line they will need to proof read. Children become aware that there is a process to writing - it is rarely completed in one sitting. - Andrew Lambirth (via blog)

3. Talk for writing... (Rachel Orr via blog) Young writers ﬁnd it helpful if creative and thinking processes involved in writing can be made explicit and explored through talk. Oral rehearsal through storytelling allows oral drafts to be composed before the children touch pens (Andrew Lambirth via blog) - Think it - Read it back - Am I happy with it? - Write it down...

4. Allow for speaking, listening and drama... Children like to work and play together - they do it every day in their own lives. Process drama into writing as it has the power to bring children into dramatic scenarios that demand that inﬂuence how texts are written (Andrew Lambirth via blog) The links between drama activities and writing are not always made clear (Bill Lord via blog) Collaborative writing and peer assessment can be used to support writing development.

5. Use quality texts... “Texts teach what readers’ learn” (Meek, 1987) ‘Recommended’ texts are not always best suited to a particular class or school. “Books must be enjoyed in their entirety not just as snippets” (Kevin Mc Laughlin via email) Select texts that children will enjoy and will want to engage with.

5. Use quality texts... “Read to the children so that they have examples of good stories. Studying fragments of grammar such as adverbial phrases is all very well but not if children haven’t come to enjoy stories as a whole in the ﬁrst place” - D Weston (via blog)Image by HikingArtist.com

6. Integrate children’s popular culture... ...and the desire to write increases.

6. Integrate children’s popular culture... Focus on Holy Trinity Rosehill Primary School The ‘Brer Rabbit’ project had the stories collected by Joel Chandler Harris as the focal point. Brer Rabbit project explored storytelling through oral, written and multimodal texts. Exploration of the ‘roots’ and history behind the stories and traditions. Children able to see the links between traditional and ‘new’ storytelling.

6. Integrate children’s popularculture...Collaboration with ‘The Wren’s NestMuseum’ in Atlanta (USA). Children met with the relatives of Joel Chandler Harris.Children also took part in aninteractive storytelling session with atraditional story rambler... Live from the USA!

6. Integrate children’s popular culture... Focus on Holy Trinity Rosehill Primary School

7. Recognise and integrate digital technologies... Digital technologies have changed the way we communicate and the way we all live our lives. Children write a lot more than we think... in ways that are not ‘traditional’ but we do not live in a ‘traditional’ world Audience is key and digital technologies provide audiences for children to write in traditional and new ways.

7. Recognise and integrate digital technologies... Focus on Holy Trinity Rosehill Primary School Writing for a real audience and purpose...

7. Recognise and integrate digital technologies... Focus on Heathﬁeld Community A short term experiment of ‘blogging’ led Primary School to a whole-school strategy for engaging writers. Boys engaged in the writing process. Blogging starts as early as Reception. Some children made two years progress in one academic year - 6.6 APS Progress per pupil. ‘SATS’ Level 5 scores have gone from 9% to 63%. Contributed by David Mitchell

7. Recognise and integrate digital technologies... Focus on Heathﬁeld Community Primary School Contributed by David Mitchell http://heathﬁeldcps.net/

8. Use meaningful contexts with children... Writing does not happen in a bubble... Making literacy mean something to children can be achieved through context driven projects. Literacy events (Heath, 1983) can be used to stimulate creative thinking and the writing processes. Thinking outside the bubble is key... Develop links across the curriculum in a meaningful way.

8. Use meaningful contexts with children... Focus on Earl Soham Community Primary School Context driven project based upon ‘James and the Giant Peach’ by Roald Dahl. Children wrote and chanted magical spells, completed science experiments and reports as part of developing writing within the project.

8. Use meaningful contexts with children... Focus on Earl Soham Community Primary School

9. Develop a love of reading... “If you ask many authors what they recommend for aspiring writers they simply say read” (Bill Lord, via blog) Children require lots of exposure to texts through reading and class story-time (Andrew Lambirth via blog) Make time for shared reading and discussion of class novels. Give the children time for free reading and includes lots of different texts - stories, non-ﬁction and even comics!

10. Make writing time as pain-free as possible... Give the children time to write and have patience (Bill Lord, via blog) Don’t impose “only one chance” writing where children have to do it all in one go. Real authors edit and re-write (Susie Arnott via blog) Model writing with clarity of what is expected (Bill Lord, via blog) Write with the children - a community is built up (Andrew Lambirth, via blog)

11. Write anywhere and everywhere... Take learning outside and let children write when and where they want. Develop sensory literacy rooms/areas within school to listen to and read/write stories (Bev Evans via email) Theme areas according to the texts that you are studying. Use technology to capture and reﬂect on learning as it happens.

12. Audience is key... Having a meaningful audience is critical (Marlise Witham, via blog) Children need to understand that you write in different ways for different audiences and purposes. Writing can be given a real audience through publication online. Children can also create their own books for a particular audience and purpose.

13. Every picture tells a story... A good illustration can sometimes evoke much more of a response from budding writers than any words. (Kevin Mc Laughlin via email) Look at the image and experience scenes through oral descriptions. Then move onto writing. Use of video can also be used to stimulate creative writing process - especially in relation to vocabulary. Once children have experienced of writing in such a way it transfers into their ‘normal’ writing.

Flickr has many fantastic photographs thatcan be used in schools...

And remember to maketime to write yourself...

This crowd-sourced presentation is available Other blogs of interest: online: Bill Lord’s Blog: www.lordlit.comwww.changinghorizons.net Andrew Lambirth’s Blog: http://lambirthsprimaryeducationworld.blogspot.com Kevin Mc McLaughlin’s Blog www.ictsteps.com Bev Evan’s Blog http://technostories.wordpress.com David Mitchell’s Blog http://mrmitchell.heathfieldcps.net/ Heathfield CPS Blogs: http://www.heathfieldcps.net/

http://www.changinghorizons.net	614
http://feeds.feedburner.com	3
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	1
https://portal.ioe.ac.uk	1

How do you inspire writers?

by Martin Waller on Feb 15, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

4 Embeds 619

Statistics

How do you inspire writers? — Presentation Transcript