Support for Young Writer's Agency

 

Young writers can experience a great sense of agency surrounding their writing ideas and processes, but this does not guarantee they will derive a sense of pleasure from their writing.

Young writers need support in the form of mindful instruction so they learn how to best  apply that growing sense of  agency. Agency needs the company of intention for the writer to prosper.

Without that explicit instruction, writing will not thrive. Knowing they can write is important, but knowing how to proceed with that writing is just as important. 

Agency needs the solid support of self-efficacy and self-regulation. When coupled with these components, agency becomes a vital motivating force, leading to increased engagment and performance.


So, when teachers inquire into writing processes and demonstrate how to set process goals, the agentic writer has an all-important writing roadmap to follow. A roadmap highlighted by a more proficient writer.  The influence of a teacher/writer is  used to positive effect. 

Teachers can provide the mindful instruction into the topic harvesting strategies writers use to generate ideas for potential writing projects. Alerting young writers to the myriad sources for ideas is vitally important. The teacher heightens possibility and alerts the writer to new areas worth exploring for potential writing treasure.

Following this, time needs to be set aside for young writers to engage in generating writing ideas individually and in groups. This time is critically important to future writing success. This is where a writer’s notebook can prove invaluable. The writer uses the notebook as a collection zone for lists, possible topics and some rudimentary planning. This further enhances the young writer's sense of agency. This is agency in action.

The young writer needs time to identify for themselves, topic, genre ,purpose and audience. They can also be nudged to set their intended process goals and deadlines for project completion.

 The writer is now well placed to enact their individual agency to choose the writing project that best suits their needs. This way agency, self-efficacy and self-regulation are working in concert. The relationship between these elements is therefore strengthened. 

Agency is thus harnessed in order to teach the young writer how to manage their individual writing lives. They begin to see what a writing project requires and the actual process they must embark upon to successfully complete said project in a meaningful way. The power of agency is fully realized through such mindful actions.


Alan j Wright

Twitter (X) @alwriting

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/livinglifetwice




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not every thing has a
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers to gain i
Read more

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intention of drawing t
Read more

Answering Questions Posed by Young POETS

Image
UPDATED, May 2020 As a frequent visitor to schools I have the great pleasure of working with groups of young, enthusiastic poets and their teachers. When I arrive in a classroom, young poets are often pre-loaded with questions, and most keen to have them answered.  I try to answer as many as I can, but we frequently run out of time, and the poetry caravan moves on to the next classroom. So I am here to answer some of those questions -right here, right now. So here goes: When you were little did you love writing? The short answer is yes. I have always enjoyed words and language. I can't recall a time when I wasn't doing some kind of writing. When did you write your first poetry book? I have had poems published over the years, but it wasn't until 2014 that I had an entire book of poems (an anthology) published. When I looked back through all my notebooks I realized I had hundreds of poems from which to choose. So, 'Searching For Hen's Teeth-Poetry From The
Read more

Slice Of Life Story-The Trials Of A Left Handed Writer

Image
Amazingly I learnt to write using my left hand. An achievement against the prevailing beliefs of the day. My very first teacher saw it as her mission in life to ‘fix’ the poor, wretched little boy suffering from what she clearly diagnosed as left handed disease. She must have thought, 'This child must be re formatted! If he remains left handed he will be forever condemned to writing in a scrawl that no one will be able to read. Ugly hand, ugly hand.' ...They tried to say it couldn't be done, it mustn't be done. They took the pencil out of my left hand and placed it in my right hand. It felt unnatural. It felt weird. It was not right. More to the point it was not left. I was not about to conform. At least they didn't try tying my hand behind my back. Watch me I said. I may be an oddball, left handed scribbler but I am a determined oddball. I mean how boring would the world be if everyone wrote with their right hand? So I dug my toes in –and my hands to
Read more