I\u27m Not Allowed to Write about That in School but at Home I Can : Examining Elementary School Students\u27 Attitudes Toward Writing Instruction

Research on writing indicates that children’s attitudes about writing have an impact on their writing achievement (Knudson, 1995; Graham, Berninger & Fan, 2007). At the same time, we see the narrowing of curricular practices, especially in literacy, giving children less input into their educational experience and fewer choices about how and what they are learning (Genishi & Dyson, 2012). The purpose of this study was to examine children’s attitudes towards writing and the experiences that have shaped these attitudes and their identities as writers. We conducted grade level focus group interviews with children in an elementary school to learn more about their writing practices (in and out of school), their perceptions of themselves as writers, and the experiences that have influenced their views on writing and their writing practices. The goal was o learn about writing experiences that motivate children to write and lead to children\u27s positive and/or negative attitudes towards writing in order to think about ways that teachers’ can help to support writing development in classrooms across the elementary school grades