Boys as writers: perspectives on the learning and teaching of writing in three primary schools

Boys' attitude to writing is widely perceived as an issue in English primary and secondary schools. Prior research has identified a link between negative attitudes to writing and lower achievement and raised the issue of the stereotyping of boys as underachievers in literacy. The study reported here suggests that if we are to understand the problems associated with the underachievement of boys, we should take into account boys' perspectives on their experiences as literacy learners. In this study, boys aged 8–11 drawn from three London schools in the UK, were interviewed in small groups annually over 3 years of their primary schooling. The boys' teachers were also interviewed separately. These interviews generated insights into the teachers' views of the boys and the boys' views of themselves as literacy learners, especially as writers. The data indicated the boys were highly sensitive to the social situation in the classroom. The boys responded best to their literacy learning when their teachers treated them as individuals, valued their ideas and incorporated strategies for developing learner agency into their daily classroom practice. This article concludes that a teaching approach that includes consulting children about what helps or hinders their learning and a fresh teacher focus on gender issues would increase gender awareness.     

We read,we write: reconsidering reading–writing relationships in primary school children

The extent to which children's reading experiences influence their writing production is not well understood. It is imperative that the connections between these literacy practices are elucidated in order to inform the development of stimulating curricula and to support children's development. This paper presents new data and key findings from a project investigating relationships between children's free choice reading and volitional writing in Key Stage 2 (9–10 years). The data were collected in two primary schools in northern England, using mixed methods. Quantitative data were collected using an online reading survey taken by 170 children, and qualitative data were provided through independent writing journals maintained by 38 participants. Through analysis of the data using a multiliteracies approach, we demonstrate that the writing that children choose to do is influenced by the texts they encounter as readers in terms of content, text type and linguistic style. The child readers in this project encountered texts in different media and created texts in a range of genres. By examining a sample of children's written texts from the data set, we show that children's interactions and transactions with texts as readers and writers are complex and multiple. Children creatively work across media, and in doing so the boundaries of traditional text genres and styles are redeveloped and redesigned. These findings highlight the importance of providing children with opportunities to freely choose and create texts and recognising the wide variety of text experiences that children bring to their classroom learning.     

Children's patterns of composition and their reflections on their composing processes

This article reports on an Economic and Social Research Council‐funded study into secondary‐aged writers' compositional processes, both as observed in a naturalistic classroom setting and as gathered through post hoc reflections. The sample comprised 38 children drawn from Year 9 and Year 11 who were observed, using an annotated timeline, responding to a writing task in the classroom and were subsequently interviewed, using stimulated recall. The initial analysis of the pause and writing patterns observed during the writing task revealed different writing profiles for different writers, and subsequent analysis suggests tentatively that writers of different proficiency may present differing writing profiles. These patterns of composition are then illustrated further through use of the interview data, indicating the writers' awareness of their own composing processes. Finally, the article considers the pedagogic and theoretical implications of these findings, in particular the need for further confirmatory research.     

Teachers as writers: learning together

This paper reports upon the insights gained through working with teachers as writers at their own level. As part of a two‐year research project into the development of children's voice and verve in writing, a group of fourteen teachers' reflective journeys as writers were documented. Two other groups of teachers and one group of student teachers also took part in writers' workshops across the same period. The data encompassed: questionnaires, observations and teacher commentaries on their own writing, as well as interviews. A number of issues emerged, including: the tension between public and private writing and the security of the writing environment; authenticity in modelling writing; the importance of re‐reading writing at the point of composition; the significance of choice and autonomy in writing and the potency of drama as an ideational and reflective tool. The consequences for classroom practice are also considered. It is argued that in order to enhance the teaching of writing, teachers and student teachers need real opportunities to write at their own level and reflect upon the process.     

Brownjohn,Hughes, Pirrie,and Rosen: What Rhymes with Oral Writing?

This article looks at the work of four writers who have had considerable influence on the teaching of poetry writing to primary school children. Each writer is considered in terms of their merits as a contributor to wider questions about writing, and in comparative terms with each other. Links are made between these writers' explicit and implicit philosophies and approaches. Finally, the article considers how far discussions about voice and form within children's writing are necessarily exclusive of each other.     

Teachers as writers: learning together with others

In the context of renewed interest in teachers' identities as writers and the writers as artist‐educators, this paper reports upon the findings of “Teachers as Writers” (2015–2017). A collaborative partnership between two universities and a creative writing foundation, the study sought to determine the impact of writers' engagement with teachers on changing teachers' classroom practices in the teaching of writing and, as a consequence, in improving outcomes for students. The project afforded opportunities for writers and teachers to work together as learners in order to improve student outcomes. The study involved two complementary datasets: a qualitative dataset of observations, interviews, audio‐capture (of workshops, tutorials and co‐mentoring reflections) and audio‐diaries from 16 teachers; and a randomised controlled trial (RCT) involving 32 primary and secondary classes. The findings reveal that the teachers' identities and assurance as writers shifted significantly. The Arvon experience also led to pedagogic shifts which the students reported impacted positively upon their motivation, confidence and sense of ownership and skills as writers. However, these salient dispositional shifts did not impact upon the young people's attainment. The professional writers gained new understandings which substantially altered their conceptions of writers' potential contribution in schools.     

Assessing the relationship between different types of student feedback and the quality of revised writing

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study comparing the effects of peer-editing to self-editing on improving students’ revised drafts. The study involved two intact classes (experimental and control groups) of an English course. The experimental group practiced peer-editing while the control group engaged in self-editing. After receiving sufficient training in their respective type of editing, both groups wrote a graded argumentative essay in two drafts. Results of a MANCOVA test carried out on the graded essay written by the two groups showed a statistically significant difference in revised writing in favour of peer-editing. A random sample of seven peer-edited and self-edited essays was analyzed to determine the differences between peer-editors’ and self-editors’ ability to notice errors, revise, and improve them. Results revealed that while peer-editors and self-editors had more or less the same noticing ability, writers who engaged in self-editing revised more errors than writers who received peer-feedback. In contrast, writers who engaged in peer-editing improved their revised drafts more than self-editors did. Differences in revised writing performance between the two groups are attributed to the use of language learning strategies, peer interaction, and engagement with language. The paper concludes with implications for classroom teaching/learning and recommendations for future research.     

'Playing the Game called Writing': Children's Views and Voices

Teachers' perceptions of their changing practice in the context of the National Literacy Strategy have been well documented in recent years. However, few studies have collected pupils' views or voices. As part of a collaborative research and development project into the teaching and learning of writing, 390 primary pupils' views were collected. A marked difference in attitude to writing and self‐esteem as writers was found between Key Stages 1 and 2, as well as a degree of indifference and disengagement from in‐school writing for some KS2 writers. A strong desire for choice and greater autonomy as writers was expressed and a preference for narrative emerged. This part of the research project ‘We're Writers' has underlined the importance of listening to pupils’ views about literacy, in order to create a more open dialogue about language and learning, and to negotiate the content of the curriculum in response to their perspectives.     

Teacher practices for teaching writing in Greek primary schools

Developing writing skills is a central part of the education curriculum in many countries, yet numerous children have difficulties in producing written texts. To our knowledge there is no systematic study examining the ways in which Greek teachers adapt their writing instruction strategies to accommodate the children’s needs. The aim of the present study was to identify the approaches teachers employ while teaching writing in Greek primary schools and to examine the nature and frequency of these different aspects of teaching writing. We replicated and extended the Dockrell et al. (Read Writ Interdiscip J 29(3):409–434, 2016) study, using the Not so Simple View of Writing framework. One hundred and three teachers responded to an online questionnaire, which consisted of questions regarding their academic qualifications and their specific teaching practices. The majority of the sample felt prepared and enjoyed teaching writing. However, almost all of the teachers found teaching writing challenging and half of them reported that supporting struggling writers was difficult for them. Overall, teachers reported more work at word level, occurring almost weekly, than at text level. Differences between Grade levels they taught were also evident for specific domains of writing. Recommendations for future research and implications for educational practice are discussed.

     

Talk in the primary curriculum: seeking pupil empowerment in current curriculum approaches

At the time of writing, primary English education is, once again, at a crossroads. Within the context of a continuing focus on underachievement in writing for key groups of learners and a large body of research, which suggests that classroom talk is a powerful means of improving children's success in all areas of the curriculum including writing, this article considers two current approaches to talk in the primary curriculum – Talk for Writing and Towards Dialogic Teaching. In doing so, it critically analyses these texts through the theoretical lens of education as social reproduction with a view to identifying their ideological assumptions about the purpose of talk in the curriculum. Discussion considers how such assumptions may influence classroom practice and contribute to the teachers’ understanding of the role of oracy within the primary classroom. The article concludes that whilst both texts might suggest a socially reproductive approach to education, both have the potential to empower the learner through the skilful implementation of oracy as the foundation of teaching and learning.     

Places,spaces and local customs: honouring the private worlds of out‐of‐school text creation

This paper examines the nature of the out‐of‐school writing practices of three primary‐aged children aged 9–10. In particular, it explores the writing these children chose to undertake at home including ‘for school’ writing, completed at home. The study's findings reveal the ways in which these three, developing young writers engage and interact with writing and how this differs to writing for school, completed at home. To better understand the implications of national surveys that reveal a causal relationship between writing for enjoyment and positive writing attainment this research sought to expose the range and versatility of the children's home and volitional writing practices. The children in this case study were not selected because they were writers but merely that they engaged with writing away from school. The study employs an ecological paradigm (Bronfenbrenner, 1979 ) to explore the participation and interaction of the children with their writing practices within the complex environment of home. The paper makes the case for teachers to be more curious about the private worlds of out‐of‐school text creation to better appreciate the provenance of home writing events and artefacts.     

Along the Write Lines: a case study exploring activities to enable creative writing in a secondary English classroom.

This article arises from a four week study of a class of 14‐15 year old students. The study explored students’ perception of themselves as writers and the effects of a variety of teaching and learning strategies on their creative writing responses. The aim of the project was to enhance the students’ creative writing, whilst ascertaining whether there were particular activities or types of writing that would lead to students perceiving more satisfactory outcomes in their writing. It answers the research question: What do I observe, and what do my students say, about the experience of different classroom based creative writing tasks?     

Science in a school of social priority

The National Literacy Strategy Framework (DfEE, 1998) requires primary children to, ‘become increasingly conscious of the writer's intentions’ (p.7) and The National Curriculum for English (1999) states that children should, ‘use and adapt the features of a form of writing, drawing on their reading’ (p.28). Developing a process approach to writing, where children are supported as they draft and redraft texts, was the aim of a university funded school-partnership project between Sycamore Junior School, in the City of Nottingham, and Nottingham Trent University. The article describes how Years 3 and 4 children developed an understanding of narrative structure and became reflective writers, as they responded to each other's work, during writing workshops.     

A comparison of childrens’ statements about social relations and teaching in the classroom and in the outdoor environment

Two teachers from a school in Copenhagen were allowed to move their third grade teaching into a forest every Thursday for three years. Thus 20% of the class's regular teaching took place in an outdoor environment. The purpose of the present study was to ask the children how they experienced lessons in the classroom and the forest settings. Therefore, two almost identical questionnaires including a total of 26 statements adjusted to each context were completed by the children four times from 2000 to 2003. Further, in the forest questionnaire three specific statements were added about the outdoor environment plus one question about their choice of playmates during breaks at school and breaks in the forest. Ten statements were categorized as ‘social relations’, 14 statements as ‘teaching’ and finally two related to ‘self-perceived physical activity’. A significant difference (p < 0.001) was found between the school/classroom and the outdoor environment when scores from all four questionnaires (2000–2003) were summed. The categories ‘social relations’ (p < 0.001), ‘teaching’ (p < 0.001) and ‘self-perceived physical activity’ (p < 0.001) all showed significant differences. It is concluded from the present case study that the combination of classroom and outdoor teaching, over a three-year period had a positive effect on the children's social relations, experience with teaching and self-perceived physical activity level.     

Handwriting automaticity and writing instruction in Australian kindergarten: an exploratory study

Accumulating evidence indicates handwriting automaticity is related to the development of effective writing skills. The present study examined the levels of handwriting automaticity of Australian children at the end of kindergarten and the amount and type of writing instruction they experienced before entering first grade. The current study involved 177 kindergarten children enrolled in 23 classrooms from seven government-funded primary schools in Western Australia. Individual child level data (e.g., handwriting automaticity and word-reading skills) were collected and teachers were asked to complete a survey assessing the amount of time and types of writing activities developed in their classrooms (e.g., teaching basic skills and teaching writing processes). Hierarchical linear models were conducted to examine total variance attributable to child and classroom levels. Results showed a total variance of approximately 20% in children’s handwriting automaticity attributable to differences among classrooms when gender and word-reading skills were controlled for. Large variability was noted in the amount and type of writing instruction reported by a subset of participating teachers. Handwriting automaticity was associated with the teaching of revising strategies but not with the teaching of handwriting. Implications for writing development and writing instruction are discussed.     

Using Film Text to Support Reluctant Writers

This article is the result of working with several schools concerned with improving achievement in boys' writing. It begins by describing a range of effective teaching and learning strategies, observed in my role as a Literacy Consultant, which had a positive influence on writers especially boys. The article goes on to explore how a small group of boys, described by their teacher as ‘reluctant writers’, were encouraged by the use of film text to make the most of their preferences for action‐driven narratives to improve story writing. It suggests that ‘slowing down’ this action in the author's eye gives pupils, and boys in particular, an opportunity to consider detail to enhance composition in the same way that a film director uses camera angles to capture the viewer's attention.     

Markers of cognitive change during the transition to conventional literacy

In the present study I applied theoretical reasoning concerning transitional knowledge to a problem in literacy development. The impetus for the study was the idea that there are times in early literacy development when asynchronous relationships obtain between children's knowledges and strategies about reading (comprehension modality) and their knowledges and strategies about writing (production modality). Integrating their reading and writing knowledges and strategies into more comprehensive and flexible literacy knowledges and strategies is problematic for children during these developmental periods. Yet such an integration is necessary for the acquisition of conventional literacy, which is defined here as being able to write and to read back stretches of extended discourse that are also readable to literate adults with some knowledge of invented spelling. Two asynchronous ormixed-level relationships between the sophistication of children's narrative compositions and their readings of those compositions were hypothesized as indices of transitional knowledge or knowledge reorganization. These relationships consisted of writing behaviors and products that seemed much more sophisticated than children's readings of them belied, and vice-versa. A longitudinal data set composed of 46 children each of whom composed six stories over a two-year period was examined using these indices to select children presumed to be in transition and then to analyze the developmental patterns exhibited by these children. Detecting children who are in transition from emergent to conventional literacy has critical implications for classroom research and instruction. These implications are discussed.