Heritage
Writing Project
The 2003-4
Heritage Writing Project worked with 12 teachers in 12 Lambeth
schools, 10 of whom were KS2 teachers, and 2 were teachers
working with year 7. The project aimed to support teachers in
developing all children’s sense of their own cultural identity,
using particular texts and approaches, in order to enhance
writing development.
The teachers had
6 sessions at CLPE where approaches were demonstrated and
discussed, and teachers could reflect together on their work.
They were also visited twice during the year in their
classrooms, and most schools took advantage of the offer of a
whole school staff meeting to explain the project.
Underpinning the Heritage Writing
Project lie certain principles about the teaching of writing,
drawn largely from CLPE’s research project published as The
Reader in the Writer. This project demonstrated the role of
certain kinds of literature on children’s writing at KS2,
particularly ‘emotionally powerful’ texts with important themes
and recognisable characters and settings, and texts with strong
literary styles and rhythms. The project also highlighted the
importance of certain key teaching approaches, including daily
reading aloud times, exploring and reflecting on texts through
discussion, and the use of drama and writing in role. Important
for this project was the idea that an approach to writing based
on literature was found to help all children, but particularly
bilingual children.
The Heritage Writing Project built
upon this work, and emphasised the central importance of
children having a positive sense of their own identities, social
and cultural, in order to reach their potential as readers and
writers. We felt this should be recognised and reflected in the
environment and work of the classroom, particularly in the
literature on offer.
The project therefore provided
participating teachers with a box of books carefully chosen to
use with their class. The boxes contained a range of novels,
picture books, traditional tales and poetry. In terms of their
content these books reflected the cultural backgrounds of the
children in the schools, and dealt with important themes
relating to identity, for example places and journeys, memories
and racism. We wanted the books to communicate strongly with
children and to lead to valuable discussions of children’s
responses. Teachers were encouraged to select from the books
those they would work with over time. The focus was to be work
in depth, the books had to be used as whole texts, and the
longer blocks of work were to encourage opportunities for talk,
drama and extended writing.
One element in the project that most teachers found interesting
was developing writing journals, which were intended to give
children a place for personal, expressive writing: important in
a project that aimed to develop identity. These journals became
a focus for children working together or independently and gave
them, in the words of one teacher, ‘a space for their own voices
as writers’.
The project was developed and led by
Deborah Nicholson from CLPE for CfCT Action Zone, Brixton and
North Lambeth and Norwood Achievement Partnership, South
Lambeth.
Deborah Nicholson,
Advisory Teacher, CLPE
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