'Doing' Persuading: Actively Constructing Knowledge, Voice and Self. Issue 3 (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Davies, Molly
• Is Part Of: Changing English. Volume 25:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 264
• Page End: 274
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: Examinations -- persuasive writing -- voice -- viewpoints -- drama -- play -- development -- identity; English literature -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; English language -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 410
• DOI: 10.1080/1358684X.2018.1482738
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1358-684X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: I explore a series of incidents in my English classroom, which occurred while I was preparing my students for their high-stakes GCSE English Language exam ('Paper 2: Writers' viewpoints and perspectives'). I thereby attempt to confront some of my own failings and biases with regard to non-fiction and the teaching of persuasive writing in particular, as well as to unleash the huge potential I now believe it offers, when combined with the multi-voiced space of a classroom, for creative play and the productive skills of English. In doing so I argue, drawing on Vygotskian notions of the internalisation of concepts and the developmental benefits of play, that in order for truly 'productive' learning to occur, students need agency and a sense of empowerment to construct knowledge together, and to experiment with and develop their understanding of and flexibility with their own 'voice'.