Writing journeys
NWP believes that we are all writers, with our own stories to tell and our own voices to tell them in (see background and principles).
If you have just joined an NWP writing group, you will be starting a new stage of your writing journey. Use the prompts below to record where you are now - as a writer and as a teacher. Revisit your notes in 6 months or a year, and reflect on what has shifted in your writing and teaching practice. Then share your findings with your group - or post them on your group pages. This adds to our evidence of the effects of working in this way.
Treat your pupils or students as writers: give them a journal each and the freedom to write regularly. Respond first to their ideas, their intentions, their processes and their reflections. Multiply the good effects of this by training the whole class to be response partners who listen attentively to each other's writing, feeding back their feelings, and saying what interests and puzzles them. If you then ask your young writers to reflect at 6-monthly intervals on their 'journey' as writers, using the prompts below, this will confer further seriousness and build momentum.
If you have just joined an NWP writing group, you will be starting a new stage of your writing journey. Use the prompts below to record where you are now - as a writer and as a teacher. Revisit your notes in 6 months or a year, and reflect on what has shifted in your writing and teaching practice. Then share your findings with your group - or post them on your group pages. This adds to our evidence of the effects of working in this way.
Treat your pupils or students as writers: give them a journal each and the freedom to write regularly. Respond first to their ideas, their intentions, their processes and their reflections. Multiply the good effects of this by training the whole class to be response partners who listen attentively to each other's writing, feeding back their feelings, and saying what interests and puzzles them. If you then ask your young writers to reflect at 6-monthly intervals on their 'journey' as writers, using the prompts below, this will confer further seriousness and build momentum.
My writing now
It is useful to reflect on where you are now – as a writer and as a teacher of writing. By reflecting again in 6 months or a year's time, you will be better able to see your writing ‘journey’ on your own, with the group, and with your pupils. This is one way in which NWP collects evidence about the effects of belonging to a writing group.
Where are you up to? Give yourself about 30 minutes and try and write freely for about 500 words.
The following prompts are to provoke your thinking – you don’t have to answer them all.
a) Reflect on your writing now.
b) Now think about yourself as a teacher of writing.
c) Include one anecdote – more if you are inclined - a story from the year so far, that sums up something about writing and teaching writing that is important to you; that puzzles you; that is a moment of celebration.
It is useful to reflect on where you are now – as a writer and as a teacher of writing. By reflecting again in 6 months or a year's time, you will be better able to see your writing ‘journey’ on your own, with the group, and with your pupils. This is one way in which NWP collects evidence about the effects of belonging to a writing group.
Where are you up to? Give yourself about 30 minutes and try and write freely for about 500 words.
The following prompts are to provoke your thinking – you don’t have to answer them all.
a) Reflect on your writing now.
- Where and when do you like to write/ have you written?
- What materials and locations do you find most conducive to writing?
- Why do you write? And how do you write?
- With whom have you shared your writing? What kinds of help/responses do you value?
- Are there pressures in your life that force you into writing silence?
- Are there impulses that help you, push you to write?
- Which writers do you admire? Have any particularly influenced your own writing?
- How might you improve your writing conditions?
- What do you like most about writing?... and about what you have written?
- What are you aiming for now? What are you hoping for from joining a writing group ?
- (Later: What have you valued most? How has belonging to a writing group informed the way you now teach writing?)
b) Now think about yourself as a teacher of writing.
- What are your considerations in supporting pupils as writers? How do you like to position yourself with your pupils – eg as instructor/ demonstrator/ facilitator/ partner/ consultant/ reader? How do you position your pupils with each other as writers?
- What have you read and valued about the teaching of writing? (Google Peter Elbow. Visit nwp.org.uk)
- What questions do you have about the teaching of writing? Are there aspects which you enjoy/ find difficult?
- What has changed in your practice of teaching writing? ... what has stayed the same?
- What has pleased you most about recent teaching of writing?
- What are the things that have prompted change / affirmed practice / challenged you?
- What are the things that you are still wanting to do / that will be your next move?
c) Include one anecdote – more if you are inclined - a story from the year so far, that sums up something about writing and teaching writing that is important to you; that puzzles you; that is a moment of celebration.