NATE’s National Writing Project Four Years On (2009-2013)
In Our Own Hands
Simon Wrigley explains how teachers all over the UK have gained
from joining the National Writing Project to help develop their
own language and creativity, and that of their students.
This article was first published in NATE's magazine, 'Teaching English', 2013.
Jeni Smith and I founded NWP UK in 2009 in order
to improve writing for teachers and their pupils. We
wanted to share and develop what we had learnt from
over twenty years’ experience of writing groups and
workshops: that writing is learnt only partly through instruction. Writers of all ages also benefit from partnership, practice, experiment and reflection.
Writing progress in the UK had stalled, as Richard Andrews reported in 2008 when he advocated a national
writing project. The teaching of writing had become overly concerned with structures, too assessment
driven, and did not allow sufficient space for individuals to write in new ways which were meaningful to them.
With the 2013 introduction of a KS2 grammar test, the assessment of writing has become even more atomised:
pupils are graded by their ability to write without regard to how interesting, imaginative or thoughtful
their writing might be. So the need for a more holistic view of writing hasn’t gone away. It has increased.
A further difficulty for teachers of writing is that publishers rush to create and supply materials to support
the latest assessment target. There is no shortage of books which will supply straightforward solutions for
anyone puzzling over the difficulties of grammar and spelling. Gwynne’s online grammar quiz will tell you
instantly how competent you are. And several schemes offer the necessary elements for successful writing in
bite-sized chunks, which are conveniently linear and de-contextualised. Most of these try to neutralise the very complexities which make writing worth reading. So ‘getting it right’ can become more important than ‘getting it true’.
This can sideline deeper curriculum experiences, as senior leaders remorselessly chase those results which
will declare the fastest gains in discernible progress and standards. But it seems that few are interested in
questioning how writing is changing or the processes by which young people become authors of their own destinies as well as those the state may prescribe.
And where are teachers’ voices in all this? Who is speaking up for the profession, or collecting evidence to
show that there are other ways of approaching writing, that there are other things writing can do for us, and
that many young writers are sold short and disengaged by the dominant orthodoxies about structures, rules
and conventions? What is writing after all, and what is good writing? Who decides?
We suggest that one answer lies in our own hands: hands with pens in them, or hands with fingers which
tickle key-boards and then press ‘send’ or ‘post’: NWP hands.
(The rest of this article will be posted shortly)
In Our Own Hands
Simon Wrigley explains how teachers all over the UK have gained
from joining the National Writing Project to help develop their
own language and creativity, and that of their students.
This article was first published in NATE's magazine, 'Teaching English', 2013.
Jeni Smith and I founded NWP UK in 2009 in order
to improve writing for teachers and their pupils. We
wanted to share and develop what we had learnt from
over twenty years’ experience of writing groups and
workshops: that writing is learnt only partly through instruction. Writers of all ages also benefit from partnership, practice, experiment and reflection.
Writing progress in the UK had stalled, as Richard Andrews reported in 2008 when he advocated a national
writing project. The teaching of writing had become overly concerned with structures, too assessment
driven, and did not allow sufficient space for individuals to write in new ways which were meaningful to them.
With the 2013 introduction of a KS2 grammar test, the assessment of writing has become even more atomised:
pupils are graded by their ability to write without regard to how interesting, imaginative or thoughtful
their writing might be. So the need for a more holistic view of writing hasn’t gone away. It has increased.
A further difficulty for teachers of writing is that publishers rush to create and supply materials to support
the latest assessment target. There is no shortage of books which will supply straightforward solutions for
anyone puzzling over the difficulties of grammar and spelling. Gwynne’s online grammar quiz will tell you
instantly how competent you are. And several schemes offer the necessary elements for successful writing in
bite-sized chunks, which are conveniently linear and de-contextualised. Most of these try to neutralise the very complexities which make writing worth reading. So ‘getting it right’ can become more important than ‘getting it true’.
This can sideline deeper curriculum experiences, as senior leaders remorselessly chase those results which
will declare the fastest gains in discernible progress and standards. But it seems that few are interested in
questioning how writing is changing or the processes by which young people become authors of their own destinies as well as those the state may prescribe.
And where are teachers’ voices in all this? Who is speaking up for the profession, or collecting evidence to
show that there are other ways of approaching writing, that there are other things writing can do for us, and
that many young writers are sold short and disengaged by the dominant orthodoxies about structures, rules
and conventions? What is writing after all, and what is good writing? Who decides?
We suggest that one answer lies in our own hands: hands with pens in them, or hands with fingers which
tickle key-boards and then press ‘send’ or ‘post’: NWP hands.
(The rest of this article will be posted shortly)