The mission of the Teaching Writing SIG is to help all young people become passionate and successful writers. Teaching writing is an exciting, dynamic and multi-disciplinary affair and our group advocates for a broad, balanced and research-informed view of how children develop as writers.
The group aims to accomplish its goal by considering curriculum development, governmental policy, opportunities to get the nation writing, conducting and publishing research, and by working with children, teachers, school leaders, teacher-educators, writers, and other charities and organisations to help bring together theory, research and practice.
From Auckland to Boston via Connecticut, we have a global network of contributors exposing our members to the very latest in thinking around the teaching of writing.
It’s our hope that people regard the SIG as a friendly place where they can access a specialist network and continued professional development both online and in person. We would like the SIG to function both as a think tank and as an action research community. The result would be that we continually engage in finding, sharing and discussing effective practices, case studies and academic research.
The Teaching Writing SIG therefore has three interconnected areas of interest:
- Connecting writing theory, research and practice and sharing knowledge about the craft of writing
- Helping develop teachers’ writer-identities, subject knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, and engaging teachers in publishing action research through UKLA channels
- Developing new friendships and collaborations.
The Teaching Writing SIG is convened by Tobias Hayden who is a UKLA member and a class teacher at a school in Dagenham, England. He can be contacted at tobiashayden@gmail.com if you wish to get involved.