“I would 100 per cent hate it!”

Such was the typical response when I surveyed a number of our junior pupils in 2018. What audacious, horrifying proposition provoked such outcry? The prospect of sharing one’s creative writing in a workshop setting. As an English teacher and writer, creative writing features firmly in my classroom. However, when it is taught, pupils often respond to the idea of discussing their own and others’ writing with, at best, reluctance and, at worst, terror.

I have always thought that creative writing could be a great leveller in the classroom. Whether it is the persistent issue of the school transition dip in attainment, the stubborn performance gap between disadvantaged children and their peers or the need of a safe space for those with mental health challenges to express themselves, creative writing offers a potential avenue of support for those who need it. But believing it is one thing; persuading others to believe it is quite another.

So when I heard of the Walter Hines Page scholarship, I did not hesitate to apply. Offered through the English-Speaking Union and my teaching union, the NASUWT, the scholarship enables a UK teacher to visit the US to research an oracy-based project of their choosing.

I had been struck by the lack of existing UK research relating to the teaching of creative writing and was keen to learn from American pedagogical approaches. After a rigorous application process, I was awarded the scholarship in April 2019 for my project, Finding a Voice: Oracy in the Writing Workshop.

So in (sub-zero) January 2020, I undertook a two-week trip across the US Northeast in a pick-up truck, visiting three schools and two writing centres. Here’s what I learned.

1. Identify young people as writers

Sally Ventura, English faculty chair at Olean High School, New York, advocates the importance of instilling a sense of identity in young people by explicitly referring to them as “writers” and as “readers” in the classroom. This makes sense: educator and writer Kylene Beers says that calling someone a name, for good or for ill, is significant in the development of a child’s identity.

Ventura has achieved one of my own aims: her school’s creative writing group has professionally published its own literary journal, MacGuffin. Celebration of success empowers and encourages our young writers, justifying to them the label of “writer”.

2. Give them a prompt

I often encounter those three little words “I don’t know” in creative writing tasks. Pupils genuinely feel that they don’t know what to write, what to think or how to articulate a thought. To combat this, Dan Rose at Oswego Middle School, New York, has developed students’ confidence in the interpretation of texts to get them used to having confidence in their own views. He does this by displaying prompts whenever students read or hear a piece of writing.

These include: “The first thing I think of is …”, “On the other hand …” and “When I think deeper about this …”

Even if a student doesn’t have a particularly perceptive thought, everyone can write something. They can all engage. If a student is asked to share an idea, they can. They have something.

Being “forced” to think and respond as you read or listen to a text enables oracy. Until organic, quality conversation flows, students build confidence by having these comment starters as a framework.

3. Create the right environment

Creating an environment of equality is a key factor in establishing what Kerrin McCadden, of Montpelier High School, Vermont, calls “communities of writers”. She believes that the best way to create such an ethos is by regularly sharing her own writing, asking for her students’ advice and articulating her struggles.

McCadden also addresses the feelings associated with the idea of sharing one’s work. She leads a discussion about the body and everyone takes time to identify the physicality associated with fear, thus taking a kind of ownership and control over the process.

4. Get into the writing rhythm

Maine poet and writing tutor Dawn Potter spoke of having students copy out a poem as it is slowly read aloud to them.

Now getting students to “copy” is often considered meritless rote within the teaching profession, so I was sceptical at first. But Potter explained that by writing out a poem, students “borrow” the poet’s identity and, by doing so, “we come as close as we ever will to living inside another mind as it actively creates a poem”.

My scepticism lessened as she explained that by considering and discussing the line structure and punctuation of a poem, a student is given first-hand experience of being a poet.

This “borrowing” approach also applies when it comes to the harder part - getting students to share their writing.

All the coaching and practice is done with a famous poem first, so that the fear of sharing one’s own work doesn’t come into play until they are furnished with strategies to deal with their nerves.

5. Instil confidence

I was lucky enough to spend the day at The Telling Room, a wonderful non-profit writing organisation in Portland, Maine. There, I observed a workshop where students verbally explored story options while their adult mentors took notes.

Lead teaching artist Marjolaine Whittlesey spoke with me about the importance of celebrating a young person’s personal narrative, particularly when they are unable to see the value in it. For example, someone from rural Maine could write stories about snowmobiles - something they may take for granted but which could transport some readers and listeners to an unknown world.

Oral storytelling is a powerful medium and the session also allowed for ideas, feelings and memories to be teased out before planning to commit them to paper.

6. Provide a room of one’s own

At 826 Boston, I learned about one of the organisation’s core beliefs - that of having dedicated spots within schools, which act as all-important “third spaces” to write in: not an in-school classroom space but also not any old place outside of school.

In 826’s Writers’ Room at Northeastern University, the space is painted orange, there are snacks, drinks, sofas, plants and fairy lights. It could easily be mistaken for a coffee shop.

But does all the above facilitate better creative writing lessons in schools? The evidence I witnessed suggests it does.

My trip demonstrated to me that existing perceptions of creative writing - and talking about writing - in the classroom must evolve in the UK if we are to begin to deconstruct the cultural reticence that is so embedded in young people. Equipping pupils with strategies to support them as writers who share their work is vital and I am committed to taking forward my findings.

From now on, I will be utilising prompts as a framework to enable quality thinking and verbal responses to others’ writing. The instantly implementable name-calling strategy will also feature strongly in daily classroom life to cultivate a greater affiliation with the identity of “writer”. And in my classroom, I will be adding more homely touches, like fairy lights and textiles, to create an appealing space in which to write.

Meanwhile, beginning a writing workshop - or, indeed, lesson - with every person in the room “checking in” (articulating how they are feeling or sharing something “low barrier”, such as the identity of their favourite cereal) is an ambition I would like to fulfil, and though performance training and yoga feel like very “American” approaches to overcoming anxiety, these are approaches I will be experimenting with in my practice.

In order to foster a sense of community in my classroom, I am also committed to writing with my pupils.

As I begin to disseminate my findings, I am in no doubt as to the potentially monumental impact of American approaches to writing workshops.

Laura Barbour is a writer and English teacher at Dunfermline High School in Fife. Her blog, bit.ly/AmericatheBraw, follows her recent research trip in the US. She tweets @dreamingisfree. To view the full research report, go to bit.ly/WalterHines

This article originally appeared in the 3 April 2020 issue under the headline “Plenty to write home about”