Reading which informs the project
Statements about the teaching of writing over the past 40 years:
Harold Rosen (for LATE) 1969: STUDENT-DIRECTED; EXPRESSIVE
“Does any writing ever arise from the pupils’ suggestions? Is the task identical for all pupils? … Does the writer believe anyone cares? About what?”
(Language, the learner and the school. ISBN 0-14-08-0094-8)
Donald Graves 1978: EXPERIMENTATION; CONFERENCING
“The problem of writing is no writing.”
Brian Johnston 1983: WITHHOLDING JUDGEMENT
Writing develops when writers are encouraged to experiment and reflect on the specifics. Writing is inhibited when writers are forced to mimic the judgemental language of assessment.
(Assessing English. ISBN 0-335-15999-0)
Natalie Goldberg 1984: TEACHERS OF WRITING SHOULD WRITE
“Teachers should practise what they teach … the importance of seeing creativity as not just the province of personal, imaginative writing, but as a force infusing all kinds of writing.”
(US NWP. Cf also Cremin 2006 on teachers’s own extended literacy in ITE)
Arnold 1991: SELF-ESTEEM; MEANING; MULTI-MODALITY; COLLABORATION
“A dynamic approach … may involve other symbolic activities like drawing, movement, drama, model-making and play activities, alone and with others… Writing is too rarely esteemed for the intrinsically rewarding benefits it can confer on those who experience its self-developing and self-affirming potential. ”
(Writing Development. ISBN 0-335-15195-7)
Csikszentmihalyi 1994: INTRINSIC MOTIVATION; CREATIVITY
“… a person who is too involved with achieving goals external to the activity itself, and whose main concern is winning, cannot pay undivided attention to what they are doing.”
(The Domain of Creativity)
Wood and Liebermann 2000: VOICE, OWNERSHIP AND AGENCY
Of the US NWP: “In the end we came away convinced that affiliation with the NWP changes how teachers think about their professional identities, responsibilities and, therefore, how they go about their work.”
(Teachers as authors: IJLE Vol 3, issue 3)
Griffiths 2007: DANGERS OF MEASUREMENT
“Wastelands are manufactured by measurement…Measurement destroys wildness both actually and conceptually..”
(‘Wild: an Elemental Journey’ 2007 p. 348)
John Yandell 2008: IDENTITY; BELIEFS.
“Writing should be seen as part of teachers’ professional identities, shaping discourse from the positions of their beliefs.”
(The case for a National Writing Project: Richard Andrews)
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Also worth watching the discussion from Santa Barbara, US, between George Hillocks, Peter Elbow and Charles Bazerman from the US National Writing Project: 'What have we learnt about writing in the last 50 years?' Click on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrcq3dzt0Uk
•When students attend to improving content and purpose, discussing details and feelings, writing improves more than when they attend to the forms and structures.
(George Hillocks, Chicago)
•To grow, young writers need a teacher who cares about what they want to say, and low stakes writing opportunities in which they can invest emotionally.
(Peter Elbow, Massachusetts)
Harold Rosen (for LATE) 1969: STUDENT-DIRECTED; EXPRESSIVE
“Does any writing ever arise from the pupils’ suggestions? Is the task identical for all pupils? … Does the writer believe anyone cares? About what?”
(Language, the learner and the school. ISBN 0-14-08-0094-8)
Donald Graves 1978: EXPERIMENTATION; CONFERENCING
“The problem of writing is no writing.”
Brian Johnston 1983: WITHHOLDING JUDGEMENT
Writing develops when writers are encouraged to experiment and reflect on the specifics. Writing is inhibited when writers are forced to mimic the judgemental language of assessment.
(Assessing English. ISBN 0-335-15999-0)
Natalie Goldberg 1984: TEACHERS OF WRITING SHOULD WRITE
“Teachers should practise what they teach … the importance of seeing creativity as not just the province of personal, imaginative writing, but as a force infusing all kinds of writing.”
(US NWP. Cf also Cremin 2006 on teachers’s own extended literacy in ITE)
Arnold 1991: SELF-ESTEEM; MEANING; MULTI-MODALITY; COLLABORATION
“A dynamic approach … may involve other symbolic activities like drawing, movement, drama, model-making and play activities, alone and with others… Writing is too rarely esteemed for the intrinsically rewarding benefits it can confer on those who experience its self-developing and self-affirming potential. ”
(Writing Development. ISBN 0-335-15195-7)
Csikszentmihalyi 1994: INTRINSIC MOTIVATION; CREATIVITY
“… a person who is too involved with achieving goals external to the activity itself, and whose main concern is winning, cannot pay undivided attention to what they are doing.”
(The Domain of Creativity)
Wood and Liebermann 2000: VOICE, OWNERSHIP AND AGENCY
Of the US NWP: “In the end we came away convinced that affiliation with the NWP changes how teachers think about their professional identities, responsibilities and, therefore, how they go about their work.”
(Teachers as authors: IJLE Vol 3, issue 3)
Griffiths 2007: DANGERS OF MEASUREMENT
“Wastelands are manufactured by measurement…Measurement destroys wildness both actually and conceptually..”
(‘Wild: an Elemental Journey’ 2007 p. 348)
John Yandell 2008: IDENTITY; BELIEFS.
“Writing should be seen as part of teachers’ professional identities, shaping discourse from the positions of their beliefs.”
(The case for a National Writing Project: Richard Andrews)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also worth watching the discussion from Santa Barbara, US, between George Hillocks, Peter Elbow and Charles Bazerman from the US National Writing Project: 'What have we learnt about writing in the last 50 years?' Click on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrcq3dzt0Uk
•When students attend to improving content and purpose, discussing details and feelings, writing improves more than when they attend to the forms and structures.
(George Hillocks, Chicago)
•To grow, young writers need a teacher who cares about what they want to say, and low stakes writing opportunities in which they can invest emotionally.
(Peter Elbow, Massachusetts)