VIEWS & OPINION Hear my voice - why it’s not what you think


Comment by CHRIS YOULES, classroom teacher and author of “Sentence models for creative writing: A practical resource for teaching writing”, published by John Catt Educational


Teachers often refer to a piece of writing’s unique voice. When I hear this, I wonder if they are talking about Cormac Mcarthy’s punctuation-free prose, Ernest Hemingway’s terse style or Virginia Woolf’s ‘scream’ of consciousness. My heart sinks when I realise they are referring to an eight- year-old’s adventure story. An adventure story written by a Year 4 pupil may well stand out, but this isn’t because


they have a unique voice; rather, they are readers and imitate (quite rightly!) what they read. The author Stephen King says, “Stylistic imitation is a perfectly honourable way to get started as a writer, and impossible to avoid, some sort of imitation marks each new stage of a writer’s development.” The notion that novice writers have a unique voice is unhelpful as it may lead to the belief that fantastic writing can’t be taught.


Some other aspects of a writing ‘voice’ include word choice, humour, politics, religion and everything else that makes us human. Do we expect our young students to have developed this worldview? Of course, we want personal responses in their writing, but an opinion on something is not a writing voice.


There is another way we can view ‘voice’. In narrative writing,


we only have four choices when writing a sentence: action - things happening; description (including sensory); introspection - thoughts and feelings, and dialogue.


Have you ever wondered why you give up on books your friends adore after a few chapters? Of course, this may be down to a fanciful plot or unlikeable characters, but a writer’s voice also comes down to how much they lean into the four writing lenses. A writer that constantly writes action sentences may be more appealing for some, than a writer who has their characters constantly introspecting - or vice versa.


It is common to confuse a writer’s voice with writing style. To develop a student’s style, we should encourage our students to spot sentence structures and model writing sentences to imitate. We then verbalise our thought process on how and why we use dialogue, action, description or introspection, explaining the purpose of each decision.


Novice writers often write all action - The boy ran to the house and ran up the stairs and into the attic, where he saw the haunted doll and had a fight with it and won the fight and then and then and then…. Or they write with many unnecessary descriptions - The girl, with the luminous yellow-corn hair, strolled gently down the cracked concrete pavement.


As writing teachers we must model how to reveal a character’s thoughts or feelings, slow down, and give our readers more than a race from A to B. Most importantly, we must educate our students that the key to fantastic writing is not their writing voices but their writing choices.


Building relationships through play Comment by Dr GINA GOMEZ DE LA CUESTA, Clinical Psychologist and Founder and Director at Play Included CIC


Today’s younger generation is in a unique position – the pandemic denied them many opportunities to have meaningful social interaction with their peers that we took for granted in our own childhoods. By missing out on these early social experiences, such as spending time with friends, classmates or attending afterschool clubs, children have had limited engagement with others; impacting their ability to develop meaningful connections and form friendships. Anxiety and loneliness in children have soared, with


calls to Childline from children under 11 wanting support for loneliness rising by almost three quarters in the past five years. In addition, a YouGov survey reveals that almost half of children beginning primary school are not ready to start school, and so, require additional support to meet their development milestones, including language and vocabulary development. This need for additional support places further demand on already overstretched educational services in the UK. On top of this, more than two-thirds of local councils currently require some form of government help to manage their deficits and provide quality provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities – estimated to be around £2.3 billion. But even with these challenges, we must ensure that no child gets left behind.


So, how can we help children to develop their social skills and form friendships? The answer, in my opinion, lies in the most fundamental part of childhood – play. Children are designed to play, and playful experiences provide natural learning opportunities. Research suggests that children learn best through play, highlighting the interconnected nature of learning. In addition to playful experiences, children also need high-quality social interactions with their peers and adults for this learning to take place.


June 2023


There is a spectrum of play practices, from free play to instructed, and research indicates that guided play is most effective to support children’s learning and development. Playful experiences are particularly useful in a child’s early development because they find them highly engaging and motivational – driven by their innate curiosity.


Focusing on children’s interests and sharing control in a guided way can happen in many ways. Adults can initiate guided play using materials at hand, such as LEGO® bricks, and set goals aligned with children’s learning needs and interests while the child directs their own actions. This can be well-suited for specific goals and offers opportunities for children’s playful exploration and social learning.


Playing collaboratively with LEGO bricks, or building LEGO models, is a chance for children to develop their vocabulary and communication skills while forming meaningful connections with others who share the same interest, thus integrating several skills at the same time. The i-SOCIALISE trial (Barr et al., 2022), examined the social benefits of collaborative LEGO play for autistic children and demonstrated that not only did the children enjoy playing together, but that they improved their communication skills and confidence while playing with their peers.


All children deserve the opportunity to build meaningful connections and form friendships with others, especially following the isolation of the pandemic. Whether it be through LEGO building or another playful activity, when children come together to enjoy a shared passion, it creates a safe space for interaction. These social interactions support the development of turn taking, problem solving, creativity, and so much more. Now is the time to acknowledge the power of play in children’s social development. Parents, teachers, teaching assistants, carers, social workers, therapists, and counsellors all need to prioritise facilitating more opportunities for children to play together and develop meaningful connections which support their social and emotional wellbeing, one brick at a time.


www.education-today.co.uk 21


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44