Aims & principles

Evidence based partnership project set up to research creative approaches to teaching writing.

Teacher action research was central to the curriculum development

This was a multi-layered project - encompassing both curriculum development & management

The research focused on enquiry, empowerment and impact

A core principle was the value placed on talk and its role in writing and creativity

The project focussed on integrated units of work and creative planning and teaching

Summary

The two year research and development project ’Creativity and Writing’ (2004-6) emerged from concerns expressed by head teachers in a South-East England consortium about a perceived lack of imaginative involvement in writing. As one commented, ’I can’t persuade the staff to take risks in writing, to step away from the conventional toolbox approach’.

The project, funded by the seven schools, was co-ordinated and supported by researchers from Canterbury Christ Church University; it sought to enable teachers to develop their own and their pupils’ creativity in writing.

Fundamentally it also sought to track the relationship between the teachers’ development as writers and their efficacy as professionals, creatively teaching writing.

In Practice

Initial Phase

The project involved both initial and summative audits to capture perceived attitudes and evidence of practice. These included teachers’ questionnaires, children’s writing surveys, samples of children’s writing and teachers’ commentaries on the writing.

Starting with an audit some form of pupil perception survey provides interesting insights that staff can share and use as a basis for curriculum development and innovation.

The main findings in this phase included:

• teachers’ lack of confidence and hesitancy to be autonomous in their practice.
• Children’s understanding of the nature and purpose for writing was skewed.
• The predominant model of writing was the ’toolkit’ which assumes that once children have command of a range of specific tools then their competence as writers is assured
• The formation of a Project Focus Group (two teachers from each school case studying three children in their classrooms).

Development Phase: project focus in Year One
A key feature of this project was the reflective practice of the teachers involved. The team worked with the project focus group and sought to explore their development as writers, they all wrote in writing workshop sessions and composed their own narratives for sharing with a child audience. The Project Focus Group documented their learning journeys as writers and undertook writing histories.

The focus in year 1 was to increase autonomy and dialogue in writing.

The team worked with the Project Focus Group and the staff of each school through group staff meetings and consortia development days, to motivate and encourage a more flexible, creative and integrated approach to teaching writing in the context of the Literacy Strategy and National Curriculum

The schools focused on planning creatively for 2-3 week units of work based around one book/text

The Project Focus Group case studied three children in their classes observing and documenting their response to introducing a more creative approach to writing.

Development phase: project focus in Year Two
The focus in year two of the project was to move planning forward by developing integrated units of work. These units were designed to encompass open-ended activity and provide opportunities for an extended process of composition

The Project Focus group and some whole staff teams explored literacy across the curriculum, using drama to explore history, for example.

Three more children selected to study in relation to their own school’s particular development focus.

The Project Focus continued to write at their own level and explored the implications of insights gained for their classroom practice

Each of the schools selected an area of their own development which was explored and developed under the umbrella of the main research and development work. These included:

Sutton Valence Primary School worked to integrate music, art, drama speaking and listening into the study of traditional tales; this led towards long term writing goals.

Coxheath Primary School explored the effectiveness of using and developing speaking and listening skills/drama activities to help support fiction and non-fiction work in literacy and across the curriculum.

Madginford Park Junior School focused on planning more creatively and planning for creativity in literacy.

St. Peter & St. Paul CEP School explored a wide range of drama techniques across the curriculum.

St. Margaret’s CEP School also focused on a creative approach to literacy across the curriculum and in particular sought to exploit links between writing and other subjects.

Marden Primary School examined working around picture fiction and planning creative units of work of 3-4 weeks in length.

Brunswick House School explored how drama and speaking/listening activities can enhance a final written product and how literacy work can be linked productively to other subjects.

Evaluation Phase
Final audits
Celebratory conference
Publication of ’We’re Writers’ anthology

Partnerships

This project involved:

Three tutors from Canterbury Christ Church University: Teresa Grainger, Andrew Lambirth and Justine Earl
7 primary schools from the Tonbridge area of Kent

• Sutton Valence Primary School
• Coxheath Primary School
• Madginford Park Junior School
• St. Peter & St. Paul CE School
• St. Margaret’s CEP School
• Marden Primary School
• Brunswick House School

A Project Focus Group of 14 teachers (2 from each school), these teachers acted as agents of change within the school.

Juliet Hawke, a Local Authority primary Excellence Project (PEP) head was attached to the research and development project.

Outcomes

The project reflected on the skills of the skills of the creative teacher:

Creative teaching is an art. One cannot teach teachers didactically how to be creative; there is no fail safe recipe or routines. Some strategies may help to promote creative thinking, but teachers need to develop a full repertoire of skills, which they can adapt to different situations.
- Joubert (2001)

Core findings
Choice and space lead to professional autonomy. The time for teachers to work together gave ownership and support for developing new and challenging practices.

Teachers involved in creative writing processes opened up a willingness to share something of themselves with their pupils and newly found risk taking and capacity to experiment

• Passion and affective engagement increased
• Teachers adopted a learner-centred focus
• Writing skills were developed in the context of children’s authorship with a focus on meaning making.
• Increased confidence to teach writing

"I love it- the challenge and the journey - it makes feel live- I have written two stories since "

"I never realised how much time for thinking, incubating ideas and just generally letting thoughts crystallise is needed"

"Composing needs generational time- real time for ideas to develop- for man and the children"

"There is so much uncertainty in writing- I need to support the children more- it’s not a linear process"

"Writing has both pleasure and pain in it- we need to share it more so the pleasure increases- feedback is central"

More extended units of work were used in flexible and imaginative ways
Working in extended units means the learning is much deeper and there is time for the unexpected and for developing a more creative approach"

"Using more creative approaches and longer units has relay engaged my reluctant boys- their writing has improved drastically- now they WANT to write and it’s worth reading".

More use of drama and discussion
Teachers perceptions of their own creativity increased
"I feel much less tied down by objectives and text types- now I am teaching writing not bits of information! "

"I feel more involved myself and I guess that shows-I share my ideas and plan for much more collaborative work"

"We are much more able as a school now to plan with creativity in mind- we leave spaces unfilled and don’t try to ’cover’ everything- rather we explore"

More choices offered to writers
"I trust the children so much more and go with them,- they need to lead more- it motivates them and fosters their creativity"

Children had more positive attitudes to writing
Children recognised that their teachers were writers
Children’s sense of purpose in their writing increased

 

Resources

Teachers wanting to think about writing in the context of current thinking about creativity will find the following resources useful:

Teresa Grainger (2005) Creativity and Writing Routledge Falmer

Grainger, Goouch and Lambirth, (2004) Creative Activities for Character, Setting and Plot 5-7

Grainger, Goouch and Lambirth, (2004) Creative Activities for Character, Setting and Plot,7-9,

Grainger, Goouch and Lambirth, (2004) Creative Activities for Character, Setting and Plot 9-11

QCA (2005) Creativity Find it Promote it!

Andrew Lambrith (2005) Planning Creative Literacy Lessons David Fulton

---

Comments on We’re writers: developing teacher and pupil autonomy

Be the first to comment on this project