Using constructs of ‘good’ writing to develop ‘a voice of one's own’ in the primary school classroom

Abstract

Partly as result of the predominant ‘narrow’ view of writing in England's recent school curriculum and assessment, current primary school pupils often hold a skills-oriented view of ‘good’ writing for a substantially longer period than has traditionally been reported in the literature. This makes it difficult for teachers to promote and engage children with writing in the classroom and—crucially for the present paper—limits pupils' awareness of the wide stock of resources they can exploit in their practice, thus impacting on the development of their writer identity. This paper reports on the pupil impact of a teacher-led project on ‘good’ writing constructs carried out in Merseyside schools in spring 2023. Results from this mixed methods study suggest that classroom activities aimed at developing in pupils a holistic concept of ‘good’ school writing provides children with greater awareness of the notion of ‘choice’ in the writing process, hence fostering self-efficacy mechanisms that encourage the resourcefulness, creativity and individuality essential to writer identity creation.