set 1986: no. 1

Philip, a fourth former in a Wellington high school, was not very keen on writing. He thought little of his own writing ability, tended to write very slowly and was of the view that his difficulties with spelling prevented him from writing down good ideas. For Philip, writing was indeed hard work. Not all students find writing as painful as he does. Philip and several other students told me what they thought of writing as I looked on. Two of us spent six weeks in a third form (Year 8) and… Read more

During 1979-80 we were invited to work in three middle schools (with 8- to 13-year-olds) to clarify what counts as progress in writing. We decided to select, with the teachers, three or four children from each year group. Each child was chosen as a typical representative of a fairly large group of writers in the class having their characteristic achievements, their problems and their interests. We planned to follow these children as they moved through the calendar year and, in some cases,… Read more