ABSTRACT
The best writing is vigorous, committed, honest and interesting. Over the last four decades there have been hotly contested debates about the teaching of writing in schools in the UK and internationally, resulting in a range of practices being developed by teachers as well as national policy frameworks being introduced by successive governments. The stories that follow were collected in the course of work with PGCE student teachers and master’s level work with a Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT). They each reveal something different about writing processes and practices in the classroom. Classroom writing should build on pupils’ interests and experiences and in turn build their writer identities and their sense of how writing can serve their own purposes, beyond as well as within the classroom. In terms of pedagogy, this means allowing pupils some choice and scope to negotiate the form and content of their writing but will also want to consider what pupils draw on when they write.
