| Key Issues
Changing Literacies
The very notion of writing is being redefined. Students are increasingly involved in reading and writing digital texts:
Within cyberspace, the emergence of new forms of discourse is especially evident in such forums as electronic journals, email, news groups, and a diverse array of MOOs, web pages, message boards, and the like. Some of these according to Ann Okerson (1994:10), ‘are not like anything we have experienced in the print world.’
(Lankshear, 1997:153)
Students are ever more engaged in diverse modes of literacy. With increasing access to ICT and the computer students will be exploring the affordances offered by this new digital age. Cope and Kalantzis note:
Multimodality itself is becoming more significant in today’s communications environment where, from multimedia desktops to shopping malls, written text is represented in dynamic relation to sound, visuals, spaces and gestures.
(Cope and Kalantzis, 2000:234)
There are major shifts in the use of technology outside the classroom as well as changes in the way children and young people interact with ICTs in their everyday lives. The explosion of different forms of e-communication, which have become a popular and powerful force in the lives of many young people is resulting in a broadening view of what constitutes literacy. The new literacies that are emerging in e-mailing, instant messaging, the use of SMS, chatrooms, and message boards are just some. The relationship between out of school literacies and school based literacies now necessitates close consideration if we are to maximize students’ potential as writers. Creativity
With such an emphasis on literacy and assessment the English curriculum has moved significantly towards an 'adult needs' model and the space for creativity has been marginalized. There is now an increasing sense that learning in the classroom context should be more creative. QCA included this as central to the discussions about the future of English in English21 a consultation process involving schools about what the English curriculum should look like in 2015. A link to the English 21 website is available here: http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_5640.aspx. This process coupled with wider consultations led to the current curriculum with its four strands of competence, creativity, cultural understanding and critical understanding.
Similarly, the following comes from a National Curriculum website:
Creativity improves students' self-esteem, motivation and achievement
Students who are encouraged to think creatively and independently become:
- more interested in discovering things for themselves
- more open to new ideas
- keen to work with others to explore ideas
- willing to work beyond lesson time when pursuing an idea or vision.
As a result, their pace of learning, levels of achievement and self-esteem increase. Assessment
Despite English teachers' long battle to validate oral work and to have achievement in oracy as part of the formal assessment structure it remains true that standards of attainment in English are effectively judged by students' confidence and ability in writing. At Key Stage 4, for most students, the summative assessment of reading is primarily judged through the written form and it is certainly so at Key Stage 5.
Myhill (2001) makes the point that although we use writing as the medium to constantly judge learning and understanding we pay insufficient attention to the crafting of students' writing in preparation for summative assessment.
Gender
There has much concern over recent years about the gap in achievement between boys and girls in English. Girls consistently outperform boys and the gap increases as students progress through secondary school.
Boys' performance in writing, in particular, falls significantly behind that of girls. The National Literacy Trust has some very interesting articles and promotes strategies that have been successful in increasing boys' achievement as does Elaine Millard's (1997) book Differently Literate. Having student teachers consider the strategies that will motivate boys such as topic choice, genre choice and length of activities is an important part of their development as teachers of writing at Key stages 4 and 5
 
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