Thinking and Writing
Dialogue, thinking and writing develop together
WRITING CAN BE an aid to thinking – as a means to organise, remember, refine and even discover one's thoughts. Thinking – the sort of complex and systematic thinking that develops through focused dialogue, concept-stretching and inquiry building – can help writing. One reason that complex thinking through dialogue helps pupils to write well is that they learn to connect and structure their thoughts in a conceptually rich and responsive context. This translates into better-structured and more thoughtful writing. Pupils learn to control their own thinking and move beyond prompt sheets and writing frames.
In addition, when pupils discuss questions that matter to them, they are more motivated to write. Although many teachers and pupils value p4c in part because there is no 'literacy barrier' to participation, not using the written channel in p4c might be wasting a golden opportunity to allow writing and thinking to enrich each other. In this section we will collect strategies and resources you can use to develop dialogue, thinking and writing together in your lessons.
We will add at least one new resource each week and invite feedback and comment.
| Title | Category | Author | Created |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing poems to explore 'unfairness' A little activity to explore the concept of unfairness through having children write and discuss their own verses of poetry. Contains audio files. | Thinking and Writing | Steve Williams | 09/11/2009 - 12:50 |
| Poems of delights and other things An activity to develop conceptual exploration through short poems. Short audio file of children reading poems included. | Thinking and Writing | Steve Williams | 10/10/2009 - 19:38 |
| Ideas for writing Ideas to get children writing. The writing easily into inquiry. | Thinking and Writing | Steve Williams | 26/09/2009 - 20:22 |
| Writing and thinking booklet for pupils A booklet to encourage children to care for their thoughts through writing. | Thinking and Writing | Steve Williams | 26/09/2009 - 20:07 |
| Thinking and Writing (Part 4) How freewriting and p4c can work together | Thinking and Writing | Steve Williams | 11/01/2009 - 15:55 |
| Thinking and writing (part 3) An introduction to i-writing -- writing for ideas | Thinking and Writing | Steve Williams | 21/11/2008 - 18:25 |
| Thinking and writing (part 2) An introduction to writing for ideas and writing for ideas plus expression | Thinking and Writing | Steve Williams | 09/11/2008 - 22:25 |
| Thinking and writing (part 1) Steve Williams introduces some general strategies to guide writing for thinking and thinking for writing | Thinking and Writing | Steve Williams | 09/11/2008 - 22:19 |