Authenticity and Children's Engagement with Writing

Abstract

This paper highlights findings from a mixed methods study that explores the research questions: 1) What kind of writing do children like/dislike, and 2) How, if at all, does authenticity factor into kinds of writing that children like and/or dislike? Findings indicate that children enjoyed writing that embodied authentic purpose and text (e.g., that purposefully engaged them with in meaningful communicative interactions with an audience through textual forms that exist in the world beyond the classroom). Children tended to dislike writing that represented non-dialogic "school work", that they perceived to be intended for merely assessment purposes. When she was in grade four (French immersion), several months after her interview for this project, Rose's grandfather died. Rose took a sudden leave from school to be with her extended family across the country. During this time, Mr. M., Rose's English teacher -who actively corresponded with his students through their daily journals -organized a card for Rose, which was signed by all of her classmates, scanned, and sent to her via email. Rose's response (framed as part of her journal-writing to Mr. M.) is as follows (I have used pseudonyms for those mentioned in Rose's journal):Hi Mr. M., Thank you and everyone for the card it was nice to hear from the class. I have written a story about my grandpa and you can read it to the class if you like.The Olden Days of Papa Today Im going to tok abut the days my grandpa was young becaus he left home when he was 12 yeers old and set off for a avenchur. His twin sister wonted to go to but he sed no. I think yur going to find this funny. His name is Henry and her name is Henryetta he hoped frate trains akros Canada becaus he was looking for a job. His frst job was working in northrn Ontario but he had no wotr or lit or anething to kep him worm. he had to hunt his on deer. But the cool thing was he did not ned a frezr. It was so coold he left it in the house and wated to cook it. PS the story is not over. During these two or three weeks

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“…Finally, writing motivation predicts writing quality at school entrance (Dunsmuir & Peter, 2004), in the primary grades (Graham, Berninger, & Fan, 2007), and beyond (Mavrogenes & Bezruczko, 1993;Troia, Harbaugh, CHALLENGES OF WRITING IN SCHOOL Shankland, Wolbers, & Lawrence, 2013). Students with low self-efficacy in writing-who may have less intrinsic writing motivation, less sense of agency as writers (S. K. Jones, 2015;Kaplan, Lichtinger, & Margulis, 2011;Magnifico, 2010), less interest in assigned topics (Flowerday & Schraw, 2003), and whose primary motivation may be extrinsic goals such as grades (Pajares, Britner, & Valiante, 2000)-tend to perform significantly worse on school writing tasks (Boscolo & Hidi, 2007).…”

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“…Therefore, in the beginning, second language learners should play with their creativity and write freely because one can produce a good product if they enjoy doing it. Jones (2015) discovered that the nature of the writing activity, the process, and the things that encourage the learner to write is influenced by factors such as their audience involvement as this will determine their behaviour towards writing.…”