The Role of Rehearsal In the Development of Young Writers

Writing ideas swirl round in my head. I live with them for days, sometimes weeks, before they emerge on the page. I frequently wake up thinking about the possible shape of my writing for that day. I woke up thinking about my writing this morning. Later in the morning over a welcome cappuccino, I talked about my ideas –further sorting out took place. -Rehearsal for the writing to follow.



I understand rehearsal is critical to my writing. I willlingly embrace it. I know it assists me to clarify my ideas; find my direction.  Playing with words and ideas in the head is such a critical part of the writing process. Think of it like a tumble drier with thoughts and ideas rolling around and around until they are ready to be taken out. Warm and fresh.


Mind you, there are times when all that emerges is a single sock of an idea –along with a bit of fluff attached. It looks and feels incomplete. It is writing in need of further consideration. But that’s okay; it may just require further shaping to align the mind’s vision with the raw text laid  upon the page, ready for further polishing. 

I find myself constantly reminding young writers that while they produce a significant amount of their writing within the classroom, it is beyond the classroom,well away from actual writing that most of the ideas they dream up, spring to life.  I want inexperienced writers to fully understand this important distinction. 

I am also keen to challenge the notion that has developed in schools across decades, that a writer just finds a topic and immediately launches into the writing. Well, that might happen occasionally, but experienced writers frequently set about a range of pre-writing strategies prior to the actual drafting of their ideas.

Let's provide young writers with a little breathing space to sort out their thoughts and ideas. Space to sort out more precisely what they want to write about and how they want to write it. That way we offer them an alternative approach. 

Rehearsal needs to take place, so that when your young writers walk through the classroom door each morning, they have a vision of their very own writing focus for that day. 

Writers, like actors prepare for the performance that follows. It is another example of the writer as thinker. This is an achievable goal. I have watched the awareness levels of young writers rise significantly when this behaviour becomes part of their writing practice. The resultant words are superior to those arising from cold start writing. They  produce writing pieces more closely approximating conventional writing. 

Carl Anderson in 'Assessing Writers' writes, 'Rehearsal involves two different kinds of work: finding topics to write about and developing a topic before starting a draft.'

I know I need to continue making students aware of their thinking and its potential for alerting them to ideas, issues and the influence of the world in general. 

Modelling my own rehearsal processes provides powerful demonstrations of how this works. Hopefully, my own mindful actions foster the development of such behaviours in the young writers I am aiming to teach. These are writers undergoing construction. They deserve to be provided with strategies that set them up to be successful in their writing endeavours. 

Alan j Wright
Education Consultant, Author.



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