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TEACH READING & WRITING
perhaps Ariel is doing the same thing for
something bad he’s done.”
Silence. I amdumbfounded. The child in
question struggleswith her spelling and
handwriting, andwith our relentless focus on
grammar and spelling, has found the
newcurriculumdemands particularly difficult
– alongwith countless other children across
the country.
“I would never have thought of that.What a
thoughtful answer,” I say, still slightlybemused.
A smile spreads acrossmy face and the
child giggles nervously. The class clap. This is
perhaps one of themost definingmoments
ofmy career, which I have based on a love of
stories and teaching English. It is only later in
the day that I have time to reflect.
This is an example of when an answer
reminds you of why you began teaching –
something entirely unquantifiable. Something
that you can’t assess or level. An answer
that could only come froma child. An answer
that shows she hasmade connectionswith
other areas of the curriculumstudied, with
other storieswe’ve shared andwith other
periods of time.
It gotme thinking. I knew the answer – Ariel
was in the tree, bound by Sycorax’smagic. It
concernsme that, had the child in question
not continuedwith her line of enquiry and had
I not, begrudgingly, allowed her to explore
her idea further, shewould never have been
able to formulate her own response to the
text. I would have, skilfully through questions
and probing as all good teachers do, led
the children to the conclusion I expected. I
may have limited that child’s creativity and
confidence to freely respond.
Itmademewonder howoften I had
dismissed an idea or response froma child
because it didn’t fit withmy own adult
interpretation? In the past when I modelled
then asked the class towrite a good example
of a newspaper article or persuasive advert,
was I asking themtowritewith an adult’s
voice? Having taught inYear 6 formany
years, I have been guilty of giving children a
pre-prepared list of Success Criteriawith the
implication that if they tick everything off
the list – full stops, capital letters, a fronted
adverbial, a range of conjunctions – their
writingwill suddenly be great. But it doesn’t
work like that.
Over the last year, I have begun to rethink
and redesignmy teaching of writing. I am
only too aware of theNewCurriculum
requirements and the focus on learning a
host of complex terminology and spelling
patterns, which promote a superficial, closed,
‘right or wrong’ understanding of English. The
suggestion being that writing can be only
interpreted in oneway. Childrenmay be able
to tell youfluently and, inmy experience,
rathermanically by the time SATs lurch
around, what a ‘determiner’ is, but is this
reallywhat writing is about?
Our role as teachers and educators is
surely to help children develop their own
voice and allowthemtowrite for a range of
real, age-appropriate purposes. I believe it
is important that children learn the correct
terminology and the structure of theEnglish
language. But is this all there is to it?Or do
they need to knowabout subordinate clauses
andbe able to explainwhy they have used
one –what has it added to their text and how
it influenced their reader – and then choose
when they use it?
Inmy experience, there are a number
of wayswe can navigate the newcurriculum
and develop our children’s passion for
writing, helping themunderstand the impact
of their writing.
1
Read,read,read
Read everythingwith your class. Adverts,
newspaper articles, different versions
of the same story, poems, instructions –
anything can be enjoyed and shared. Very
oftenwhen I readwith a class, we have
periodswhenwe ‘just’ read. That’s to saywe
get swept along by a narrative and
engrossed bywhat is happening. We also
take time to look at the language an author
has used and discuss the impact it has had
on them, as a reader. This is vital in helping
children understand that everyonewrites
for a reason.
2
Nowexplainyourself!
Themost powerful questions I nowaskwhen
my children arewriting are, “Can you tell me
why you’ve used that particular word?” or
“What were you trying to get the reader to
feel here?”What follows is always an
interesting discussionwhere the children are
allowed to explain and justify their
vocabulary choices and discuss the impact of
their sentence structures.
“They need to know theirwords have value and are
listened to; given time to talk and explore language so that
the sun’s rays can be as long as spaghetti and that water
can be as dazzling as the stars”
