Are We So Focused on the Nuts and Bolts That We Are Forgetting the Story?
Has writing become so much about the nuts and bolts that we are missing the gift of storytelling in our classrooms?
I have been thinking about this a lot lately.
Like many of us, I can get worn down by the feeling that I am not doing enough when it comes to writing. There is so much to becoming a writer. In fact, writing is one of the most complex cognitive tasks we ask children to do.
I made the graphic below as an attempt to capture just how much is involved in being a writer. I am sure there are things I have missed, but it gives you an idea of the sheer number of things we are asking children to hold in their heads.
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And this is where I have started to wonder.
Are we so focused on all of these things that we are forgetting the role of storytelling?
Or perhaps we haven't forgotten it at all.
Perhaps we have simply convinced ourselves that we don't have time for it. Perhaps the educational pressure cooker we are working in right now has robbed us of the cognitive bandwidth to even think about it right now.
What happens when children don't have the language?
Oral language and the ability to express yourself are so crucial. Not only that receptive language is so important, actually understanding what is being said.
And right now, we have a real crisis in our schools.
So many children are struggling to speak in a sentence. They struggle to find the words they need. They struggle to understand what is being said to them.
Yet sometimes we seem to treat language, comprehension and composition as if they are the things we will get to later.
Once the children can decode.
Once they can encode.
Once they have mastered the spelling patterns.
Once they can write a sentence.
But I don't think it works like that.
These things aren't separate.
They are intertwined.
Children don't suddenly arrive at composition once they have mastered the mechanics of writing. They need to be developing an understanding of language, ideas, structure, vocabulary, comprehension and storytelling alongside the teaching of the nuts and bolts.
As Pie Corbett would say, if we don't give enough attention to comprehension and composition, we can end up with children who are technically able to write but who produce rambling writing.
They can spell.
They can form their letters.
They can put a full stop at the end.
But they don't necessarily have anything to say.
And they don't necessarily know how to say it.
That is a very different problem.
Storytelling isn't the extra
This is why I am such a big proponent of SRSD. It has been a real gift in my classroom.
It gives children a process. It makes the invisible parts of writing more visible. It gives them tools to help them plan, organise and construct their ideas.
But there is another approach that I think deserves an equal amount of attention.
Talk for Writing.
And I don't see these as competing approaches.
I actually think they complement each other beautifully.
Talk for Writing puts storytelling right at the forefront.
Children get the opportunity to really explore how stories work. They map them. They retell them. They use actions. They imitate them. They innovate on them.
And this is where it gets really interesting for me.
Because innovation isn't just about changing a character's name or swapping a setting.
It gives us the opportunity to really pull a text apart.
What happens if we add a little more detail here? What happens if we add too much? If we overuse adjectives here?
What vocabulary could we use? How could we say it better?
How could we show rather than tell?
What happens if we change the perspective?
What parts of speech are doing the heavy lifting?
How can we create a sense of movement?
How can we create stillness?
How can we use darkness and light, sound and silence, movement and stillness?
We can explore all of this together.
We can make the thinking visible.
We can break it down into small, bite-sized pieces.
And suddenly, writing isn't just:
"Now write your story."
It becomes something children have actually experienced, talked about, explored and understood. Something they have crafted a real product of their thinking.
What does this look like in my classroom?
In our class, this looks like taking a short non-fiction piece about the pekapeka, connected to our dramatic inquiry.
We map the piece.
We learn to retell it with actions.
We explore the language.
We dive deeper into the text in stages.
We use shared writing to innovate on the original.
We play with language.
We explore how the writer has created a particular feeling.
We use tools like:
movement, stillness – darkness, light – sound, silence
to capture the essence of the forest setting.
And then something important happens.
The children take the text home to read.
But they aren't encountering a completely unfamiliar piece of writing.
They know it.
They have heard it.
They have talked about it.
They have mapped it.
They have acted it out.
They have played with it.
They have helped construct it.
So by this point, they have a good degree of independence with the reading.
And then we move on.
From imitation to independence
Now we apply what we have learned.
We use TIDEL to write about the pekapeka.
But this time, the children have a huge degree of independence.
They have the structure.
They have the language.
They have the experience.
They have the understanding.
They have something to say.
And then comes choice.
Maybe their writing is about another forest creature.
Maybe it is about the farm.
Maybe it is about the forest itself.
Maybe it is something completely different.
That progression matters.
I do.
We do.
You do.
Now you choose.
And I think this is where the relationship between CSPACEL and Talk for Writing becomes really powerful.
Exploring the key parts of a narrative through retelling gives children the understandings they need to eventually create their own and to understand what makes an effective piece.
But what about the nuts and bolts?
I can almost hear the question.
"But what about the nuts and bolts?"
They are still there.
Of course they are.
We are still explicitly teaching literacy.
We are still working through dictated sentences.
We are still working on formation.
We are still teaching spelling.
We are still using CHOPS — capitals, handwriting, organisation, punctuation and spelling — to self-assess.
None of that disappears.
The difference is that I don't think those things should become the whole story of writing.
Because writing is more than transcription.
It is more than spelling.
It is more than handwriting.
It is more than putting a full stop in the right place.
Writing is about having something to communicate.
It is about having ideas.
It is about understanding how texts work.
It is about knowing how language can make someone feel something, see something or understand something.
And children need opportunities to experience that from the very moment the start school.
Maybe storytelling isn't something we need to fit in
This is the bit I keep coming back to.
Perhaps we need to stop thinking about storytelling as something we need to squeeze into an already crowded literacy programme.
Perhaps it isn't an "extra".
Perhaps it is part of the programme.
When we add storytelling and drama to our writing — and, importantly, prioritise them — we give children something priceless.
We give them language. We facilitate expression.
We give them experiences.
We give them ideas.
We give them a way to understand how texts work.
And we give them something to write about.
The nuts and bolts matter.
They matter enormously.
But they are the tools.
The story is the reason we use them.
And maybe that is the bit we need to keep reminding ourselves of.
Because I don't want children who can simply produce writing.
I want children who have something to say.
I want children who can tell me a story.
I want children who can take an idea and make something with it.
And I want them to know that writing isn't just about getting it right.
Writing is about having something worth saying that someone else will enjoy reading.
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