Blogs
Getting the balance "write"
10 Jan 2013
Network Adviser Judy Clark introduces our latest network theme, "Writing: a balanced approach"
Having been immersed last term in the multifaceted world of reading, we turn our attention this New Year to writing. So long for many schools a number one priority on the school improvement plan and, as we well know, forever lagging behind reading in terms of national attainment. Whilst government focus has been very much on reading following our dip in international comparison surveys, policy and debate concerning writing improvement has seemed somewhat overshadowed - a sleeping giant perhaps. Ofsted’s Moving English Forward again acknowledged writing as the poor man of literacy regarding attainment and the report linked this to “weaknesses in the teaching of writing and gaps in the subject knowledge of some English coordinators in primary schools”. As for secondary it is that gender gap which still remains key.
Nothing new here; writing lags behind reading attainment and boys’ writing lags behind girls - this we know. How to address this is the question the sleeping giant has been pondering. Before leaping into a range of solutions to add to our action plans, Moving English Forward sensibly called for the Department for Education to “publish research on the teaching of writing, drawing on national and international publications, to include the effective teaching of spelling and handwriting, and how boys can be helped to become successful writer”.
All well and good but I feel a sense of déjà vu. Richard Andrews’ excellent report back in 2008, Getting Going: generating and shaping and developing ideas in writing drew together the challenges and the call for a National Writing Project for Teachers was made strongly. Back in 2008 Andrews summarised the challenges that needed facing in order to have a successful writing curriculum by 2015 and a National Writing Project would have exemplified what this might look like in practice:
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recognise fully the place of writing within multimodality
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re-engage and motivate disaffected or unengaged young people by a) bringing the genres of schooling closer to the genres of the wider social world and b) giving writing a range of real purposes
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at the same time, use the power of writing to explore depth in thought, reflection and feeling
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recognise the place of creativity and imagination in non-literary forms of writing, as well as in literary forms
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recognise and exploit the fact that writing and reading are reciprocal
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investigate the similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses of speaking and writing in different contexts and for different functions – and thus re-establish the generative link between speaking and writing
Getting Going 2008
However here we are in 2013 and the sleeping giant is beginning to awake. At the end of last term the DfE published What is the research evidence on writing? An interesting read but one which reinforces much of what we already know as teachers; the importance of purpose and audience, active learning, oral work, 
visual media and use of ICT. Compare this to Andrews’ call to arms in 2008 and I’d suggest our challenges still remain the same yet unfulfilled and unsupported. The hope is for a balanced, creative and research-informed move in policy, practice, curriculum and support to help address these accepted challenges. My worry? That the giant is taking us down a very different route.
Research shows that the contextualised teaching of grammar has a significantly positive effect on writing development (Myhill et al, 2011). However, one look at the new Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) test for Key Stage 2 with its 46 grammar and punctuation questions in 45 minutes and the seemingly rational premise that we have an issue with writing shows that the research on how to address this and build our practice accordingly appears to have been bypassed. The danger once more is that assessment and accountability measures will drive our approach to ‘improving’ writing and these measures will shift the balance away from those real challenges we need to address in writing development in 2013 and beyond, and drive us back towards a 1950s/60s type model where such things as the formal teaching of grammar were hoped to improve the quality of writing.
Our theme this term seeks to get the balance right. To explore those challenges for writing development and to help address and exemplify the progress and good practice made by schools in tackling writing. We will of course be looking at the effective teaching of those basic SPAG skills, but will be balancing this alongside engagement, enjoyment and the place of thinking, reading and talking into writing. In the absence of a National Writing Project for Teachers, we as a community of creative practitioners still have the power to drive and mould writing development in our schools and help create pupils who are enthusiastic, skilled and purposeful communicators for life.
Our first point of call is to remind ourselves of some of that great research and debate. Take a look at our Top 10 reports as we launch into “Writing: a balanced approach”.
Return to network theme: Writing: a balanced approach
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