project
Craft of Writing
1 January 2016 - 1 November 2018
PI/s in Exeter: Professor Debra Myhill
Research partners: Professor Teresa Cremin, Open University Becky Swain, Head of Learning and Participation at Arvon
Sponsor(s): EEF and the RSA
Project webpage(s)
About the research
This is a unique opportunity for you as a teacher to think about yourself as a writer and about how you teach writing.
Arvon is an arts organisation which has been offering people time and space to write for nearly 50 years. They run writing residentials, in beautiful locations, where you get ‘expert tuition from leading authors and the support of other like-minded writers, you can feed your imagination and let your stories flourish’.
This project focuses on teachers as writers and the craft of writing. Arvon, the Open University, and the University of Exeter have recently completed a study, Teachers as Writers, investigating the impact of the writing residentials on teachers and children. There have been some powerful effects on teachers’ confidence and children’s engagement and motivation to write, and this new project develops this further.
On this new project, you will enjoy two residential writing courses at Arvon’s Lumb Bank Centre, working with professional writers, and will attend three professional development days to consider how to translate this new learning about writing into classroom practice. The residential courses build your own confidence and enjoyment of writing, and our hope is that this will lead to changes in how you teach writing, and improve children’s motivation to writing and their attainment in writing.
This project is funded by EEF and the RSA, and the effectiveness of the project will be evaluated by a team from University College London and BIT.