Promoting Student Ownership Of Writing Ideas

 

Promoting Student Ownership Of Writing Ideas 

-Without Choice, You Won’t Get Voice

 

Upon discovering some young writers have endured a regular diet of teacher selected topics and genres, sentence starters, and story leads stretching across their short writing lives, it is hardly a surprise to hear they subsequently exhibit difficulty and anxiety when asked to self-select writing topics. It is little wonder they suffer a crisis of confidence when asked to rely on their own thinking and ideas.  They perceive the request as daunting because their independent thinking capabilities have been stifled and undernourished. 

They have been denied important opportunities to develop motivation and initiative as writers. They remain inexperienced in the art of decision making and the critical thinking that surrounding choice and voice. Cognition will not take place where the young writer perceives the notion of topics resides solely with the teacher. They remain unaware that writers regularly make decisions of this kind. Nobody knocks on my front door each morning to tell me what I should write about that day. That’s a decision for me and I am happy to own that…

In this classroom scenario the teacher has assumed control and responsibility for the thinking that precedes writing. Reliance on the teacher to inform them of the direction their writing will take shuts down any opportunity for the developing writer to engage in rehearsal. Rehearsal cannot take place, since the writer usually doesn’t know what he or she will be writing that day. Choice and rehearsal are starved of oxygen. Dependency is entrenched. The teacher owns it all.

The justification for such an approach is frequently framed as ‘I have to give them topics and sentence starters because they can’t think of their own.’  This suggests there is no established goal or expectation of growing independent thinkers. No developmental pathway has been identified where the writer is encouraged and supported to practice making informed choices about their writing intentions. An investment opportunity has been ignored in the name of controlling writers, rather than growing them.

Writers who learn to choose writing topics and genres for themselves learn to make significantly better choices. They become practiced at making informed decisions and display a stronger sense of ownership and responsibility for the writing that flows from this. Independent writers view their efforts with greater pride. They tend to persist in their written efforts. They are no longer writing for someone else. Being in charge of the thinking that goes before the writing is empowering. Gadd & Parr, 2016) found effective teachers involve students in the selection and construction of writing tasks whenever possible. Perry and Drummond (2002) contend that ‘when students have choices, they are typically more interested in and committed to activities, and committed learners are more likely to increase effort and persist when difficulties arise.’(p. 306).

Teachers who assist young writers to make their own topic choices automatically inherit a greater workload. They must work mindfully to assist individual writers with the specific help related to making such choices. Growing independent writers takes time and effort. The rewards are well worth the effort.

How Is Independent Writing Nurtured?

Pre-Writing

Providing adequate time for young writers to regularly engage in a range of pre-writing activities such as informal discussion, thinking, making lists, brainstorming, drawing, preliminary planning, think, pair share, reading, researching, questioning, wondering, mapping, musing, and taking notes all form part of that critical pre-writing part of the process we need to share. Think of pre-writing as an investment in the activation of the writer’s prior knowledge.

The Articulation of Intentions

When children engage in such activities and share their writing intentions it serves as a stimulus for all those involved. The more we articulate our intentions, the more likely we are to follow through with those plans. Student writers begin to trust their own voices and choices. Teachers who have strong teacher-writer voices assist this process immeasurably. The modelling and the related messages are powerful in promoting a genuine sense of agency for the inexperienced learner.

Utilizing The Influence of other writers

The influence of published authors, trusted mentors,  the writing of peers and teacher modelling further assists the adoption of new and enticing topics. The teacher can support the inexperienced writer to read the writing of more proficient writers with a critical eye. This is the beginnings of learning to read like a writer. The young writer is encouraged to ask- What is this writer doing that I would like to do in my  own writing?

Teachers must work to validate the personal experience and specialized interests of each student in order to guide and support the growth of well thought out writing projects.

The Modelling We Deliver

Demonstrating and modelling how we connect to the world around us is a vital lesson for our students. We need to demonstrate how we see the potential in things for writing each and every day. We need to demonstrate how we harvest ideas and how we excavate memories. This is where thinking gets its spark. Ownership of ideas begins to flourish. We stop telling kids and begin to nourish thinking around potential writing ideas. Energy returns to the writing classroom.

Monitor the Growth of Independence

Across time teachers must monitor and record the topics and genres young writers are focusing upon. This monitoring action allows the teacher to deliver more focused support for each writer. Over time, the young writer begins to more easily select writing topics and also starts to identify why they wish to write about this particular topic or idea. Being able to articulate the reasons behind their choices marks a critical stage in writing development. 

Build Student Capacity and Self Belief

The capacity to exercise keen judgment in the selection of writing topics is a process evolving over time. They may initially write about the same topic for extended periods of time. The role of the teacher is to coax the young writer to move out the known to the less well known. This can be done by nudging the writer to write about the safe topic using a different genre. The teacher may also highlight examples of other writers bravely venturing into a range of topics and genres in the hope of encouraging some risk taking among the group. It takes some writers more time to trust their own decision making processes. When a hesitant writer takes that next brave step, teachers must be ready to validate and celebrate each courageous act.  

Use Mindful Support

We grow writing confidence through our own mindful support and actions. The investment is so rewarding. The ultimate goal of growing independent, self-directed writers is a most worthy pursuit. Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement. Let’s begin by ditching those sentence starters!

 

'When we incorporate choice, students own the learning process. We honour their agency and empower them to become the life-long learners we want them to be. At some point, they will leave the classroom and they won’t have someone right there, right there by their side in control of their writing life. They will have to take charge and make decisions about their own learning. This is why student choice is so critical.'

Alan j Wright

Igniting Writing- When a Teacher Writes, Hawker Brownlow publisher