ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the contemporary understanding of writing workshop has evolved from its naturalistic and self-expressionist beginnings. The authors then discuss the essential contribution personal writing projects make to a pupil-writer’s development and successful and meaningful practice. They explore the affective benefits personal writing projects afford children and how they are able to develop a sense of self and voice in their own writing. The authors then consider funds of identity and the principle of children harnessing their funds of knowledge. The authors reflect on their own research to present the profound relationship between children’s self-efficacy, self-regulation, and agency. They meditate on how children are able to balance the needs of the curriculum with their own writing desires. The authors reflect on why, despite a rich body of research to support such practice, personal writing projects remain on the periphery of the writing classroom and curriculum. Beyond this, the authors discuss excellent examples of practice and the opportunity 21st-century multiliteracies offer children in terms of pursuing personal writing projects. The chapter concludes with examples of effective practice from the classrooms of high-performing Writing For Pleasure teachers.
