TED talk: 18 March 2017
Norwich 2017
Our right to write:
the power of writing
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaNKKRQrJzE&t=4s
Listen to Jeni Smith, Emily Rowe and Georgia talk about writing together
- and learning writing from the inside out.
Our right to write:
the power of writing
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaNKKRQrJzE&t=4s
Listen to Jeni Smith, Emily Rowe and Georgia talk about writing together
- and learning writing from the inside out.
It has become common to teach writing 'from the outside in'. Attending to and practising written codes and conventions, structures and genres - this has become an accepted part of any child's familiarisation with the culturally dominant forms of language. However, unless accompanied by opportunities for children to explore their own language and their reasons for using it, such approaches are likely to exclude children from the personal and social dynamics of language, as well as overlook the fact that language belongs to all of us, and that, on arrival at school, children need to build on the considerable language(s) that they have already learnt. (cf Britton, Rosen et al) Real learning requires the exercise of freedom rather than mere imitation of other people's words. Approaches which fail to acknowledge this, misrepresent language as only authorised and fixed. In fact language is constantly evolving and being renewed through the rise and fall of different usages, the testing of language boundaries, the flow of culture. Language is another area where it is useful to have a 'growth' model, rather than a 'fixed' model. Hence the emphasis here and elsewhere on learning writing 'from the inside out'.
In 1988, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Dan Kirby and others published a book called 'Teaching Writing 'from the inside out'' . As the 2017 TED talk by Jeni, Georgia and Emily illustrates, such approaches are of enduring relevance.
The preface to the 3rd edition, published in 2013, is worth a look. You can find some of it free online, but I'll just quote an extract:
Our view of writing hasn't changed fundamentally over the years: it still happens from the inside out ...
... currently, the rash of high-stakes tests and other evaluation inanities have captured our attention. We don't have much respect for standardized, high-stakes testing of writing because those evaluations don't normally measure what they claim to measure. Such tests quantify errors and the teaspoons of writing, without paying much attention to individual students' progress and development, authentic content, and evidence of real voices in students' writings ...
... Judging teachers' effectiveness by tracking how closely they follow a somewhat arbitrary and limiting curriculum, by whether they teach for 'the test' - a test that generally does little to improve writing instruction and students' abilities to write well - is nothing the authors of this edition supported in 1981, and is nothing the authors of this edition support now. Probably never will.
Authentic writing ... and working with teachers as they become better writers themselves improve writing instruction. Engaging with real teachers as they learn how to teach writing more effectively, with real students so they become better writers, will win out over restrictive curricula and hollow test scores every time. We are also realists, however, who understand the current climate and the demands placed on teachers. We know that you can't ignore high-stakes assessments.
Kirby et al are quoted in a paper in the 2006 Cambridge Journal of Education Vo7 36 No. 3 entitled 'Creativity, Uncertainty and Discomfort: Teachers as Writers' by Teresa Cremin (also available online).
Simon Wrigley
10.6.2017
In 1988, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Dan Kirby and others published a book called 'Teaching Writing 'from the inside out'' . As the 2017 TED talk by Jeni, Georgia and Emily illustrates, such approaches are of enduring relevance.
The preface to the 3rd edition, published in 2013, is worth a look. You can find some of it free online, but I'll just quote an extract:
Our view of writing hasn't changed fundamentally over the years: it still happens from the inside out ...
... currently, the rash of high-stakes tests and other evaluation inanities have captured our attention. We don't have much respect for standardized, high-stakes testing of writing because those evaluations don't normally measure what they claim to measure. Such tests quantify errors and the teaspoons of writing, without paying much attention to individual students' progress and development, authentic content, and evidence of real voices in students' writings ...
... Judging teachers' effectiveness by tracking how closely they follow a somewhat arbitrary and limiting curriculum, by whether they teach for 'the test' - a test that generally does little to improve writing instruction and students' abilities to write well - is nothing the authors of this edition supported in 1981, and is nothing the authors of this edition support now. Probably never will.
Authentic writing ... and working with teachers as they become better writers themselves improve writing instruction. Engaging with real teachers as they learn how to teach writing more effectively, with real students so they become better writers, will win out over restrictive curricula and hollow test scores every time. We are also realists, however, who understand the current climate and the demands placed on teachers. We know that you can't ignore high-stakes assessments.
Kirby et al are quoted in a paper in the 2006 Cambridge Journal of Education Vo7 36 No. 3 entitled 'Creativity, Uncertainty and Discomfort: Teachers as Writers' by Teresa Cremin (also available online).
Simon Wrigley
10.6.2017