Independent, imaginative writing: lots of problems and some solutions

This chapter describes part of a series of curriculum development projects set up to identify and tackle the difficulties of teaching imaginative story writing to children aged 7-12 years. The key aims were to develop practical teaching strategies that would work in large mixed ability classes. The projects sought to develop knowledge of writing techniques and an understanding of the writing process to help children and teachers create supportive writing communities. An underpinning principle was that teachers, rather than some pre-determined teaching sequence, should drive the curriculum. Thus, although some of the strategies were presented as teaching sequences (see Ellis & Friel, 1995), teachers were encouraged to use them flexibly to create their own teaching sequences, depending on the needs of the class.