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Children and Writing -Some Recent Revelations

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I recently had the pleasure of participating in a UKLA (United Kingdom Literacy Association) Zoom presentation by Ross Young from Writing for Pleasure. Ross shared some of his research findings about how UK children currently feel about writing. Here are some of my take-aways from Ross's inspiring and informative discussion. Ross is a researcher, educator and writer based in the UK. Sadly, children’s sense of autonomy about writing is diminishing. 88 % of young writers interviewed, want more choice. They believe teacher-controlled writing topics make writing harder and less motivating. They possess a passion for their own writing ideas and wish to explore their own funds of knowledge. If they are encouraged in this direction research indicates they are 8 times more likely to pursue writing beyond the classroom requirements. Too many schools in the UK approach writing from a plug and play perspective where the teacher delivers prescribed lessons curated by someone beyond the school ...
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Taking Similes from Stale To Spectacular -Alan j Wright

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  Famed British author, George Orwell had this to say regarding  similes  in his 1946 essay,  Politics and the English Language. 'Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.'   Orwell argued aginst stale, overused figures of speech. He felt they required zero mental effort and lacked the precision both the reader and writer deserve. The job of the writer is not to be an echo, but to be a tool for clear, fresh ideas, Orwell contended. Dead and dying similes should therefore be avoided, wrote Orwell. He was all for clarity and sense when it came to similes. Armed with this information, this valuable author insight, I have regularly alerted inexperienced student writers to Orwell's wise words. Young writers are often keen to use similes, so let's help them avoid stale and cliched examples in their writing.  Please avoid providing lists of hackneyed simile examples and inviting the young writer to choose one. T...
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Line Breaks In Poetry- Alan j Wright

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 It is important to keep in mind that line breaks in poetry are important to free verse poetry poems as they are to end rhyme in couplets and staanzas. when writing poetry the aim should be to keep the words that belong together on the same line so they don't feel displaced.  In the poem, the poet may wish to emphasize a word or phrase so they may create a line to place the selected text all by itself in order to highlight it for the reader. By doing this the poet can create suspense or surprise within the poem. They are inviting the reader to notice that word, that phrase.  Main Types of Line Breaks • Lines that end with a clear grammatical pause or punctuation mark, which slows the rhythm and offers closure are referred to as e nd stopped line breaks. •  Lines that run an incomplete thought or sentence over to the next line without punctuation   are called, enjambment. Such line breaks  create forward momentum for the poem.  Why Poets Use Line...
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Assisting Young Writers to Create Meaningful Memoirs

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  Young writers are inexperienced at writing memoir, but there are some significant actions teachers can take to significantly support and enhance the writing they produce… Memoir is detection, the sifting through a million lived moments in order to identify the most memorable ones.  The memoir writer rebuilds a part of their life, piece by piece to share with a reader.  The spark for the memoir might come from the colour of a favourite pencil, the secrets held safely by an old teddy. A first pet.  It might involve adventures in your neighbourhood, the sounds, shapes and smells of your first house, that special tree, your first disappointment, an incident, an accident. A place that holds a story. Just as home is the place we know best, our families are at the centre of the stories we often hold dear. Some of the experiences the writer is having right now may remain with them forever as memories. The challenge for the writer is to capture them in their writing…  ...
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The Importance of Volition in Writing

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Volition is the need, desire, urge or the internal compulsion to write.’ Ross Young and Felicity Ferguson Writing For Pleasure The growth of volition is fed by a growing knowledge about writing, informing the writer that what they are doing is both pleasurable and desirable. Volition can also be achieved through writing something so strongly and clearly that it energizes the writer and they persist in the hope of replicating the original sense of accomplishment.   As teachers we are charged with responsibility to assist young writers to learn how to write. Equally we must work to instil within them a desire to want to write. We must assist them to develop a mindset that the benefits that flow from writing outweigh the time and effort they invest in producing those words.   As teachers we must convince young writers of the intellectual, social and personal rewards that can be derived from writing. The pay off must be enticing to the writer. If we are to be effec...
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Alerting Young Writers to the Value of Rehearsal- Alan j Wright

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  Writing has a dimension that extends well beyond the page and the pen.      While the words spill across the page, the ideas driving them frequently arise well away from where the writing eventually takes place.      As author, Jane Yolen notes in her book, Take Joy, ‘Writing is not always done on the page.’      Experienced writers devote a significant amount of time to the preparation for writing. They may at various times, read, research, discuss, draw, plan, think, brainstorm, either individually, or in concert.       From these pre-writing activities they may simultaneously launch into rehearsal of words and ideas in locations well away from their favoured writing location.      Rehearsal is an impressively portable concept. It can be conducted anywhere, anytime- in the car, in the shower, in a café, at the beach, the airport, or just before you drift off to sleep. It can be activated whi...
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Assisting Young Writers to Launch Their Writing With Confidence

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The writer sits down to face the blank page, only to be greeted by the dazzling whiteness of the paper. The pen is tightly gripped as the writer stares at the empty page. There is hope that time will deliver the wondrous words desperately sought. The empty lines beckon inviting the young writer’s words. The challenge remains- How to begin? If you have experienced this feeling, you will have greater empathy for your students and those feelings that sometimes overwhelm them as beginning writers. They often have a broad idea regarding their writing, but have little idea where, or how, to begin. They want to produce something that effectively conveys a message but remain unsure of how to begin the process. 'I know what I want to write about, but I don't know how to start.' We need to recognize that it is at this point we can provide meaningful support to allay such writing anxieties. Teaching students how to think of something to write, provides a way forward. This p...
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Developing Agency and Volition Among Young Writers

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  Some of my earliest memories of writing are entwined around the weekly writing topics I was given in primary school. We wrote every Thursday afternoon, immediately after the lunch break. It wasn't even called writing. Our teacher referred to it as 'composition time.' We wrote for about twenty minutes in absolute silence in our 'composition' books.  At the end of the allotted time, we handed in our written responses, then waited an entire week to receive feedback for our labored efforts. It consisted of a mark out of ten and a page of red ink comments and slashes across the page. Then we sat and waited for the next teacher topic to be thrown our way. We wrote one day a week for twenty minutes. It wasn't much of a writing program by today's standards. It wasn't much of a way to learn writing back then either. I'm surprised we learned to write at all on such a starvation diet. I was just lucky enough to be the kind of kid who was driven to write in pl...
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