The power of ‘Everybody Writes’ (on paper!)

I’m going to start this blog post (my first in a LONG time) with a controversial statement…

I’m not a fan of mini-whiteboards.

I know, I know. They have their merits. I can accept that. And I agree! I’ve read some wonderful blog posts of late that demonstrate just how valuable MWBs can be. And I’m not arguing against that.

However, what I have found, from personal experience, is that they also have their drawbacks. To name a few:

-            The seemingly endless financial cost of replacing pens, erasers, and sometimes even the whiteboards themselves – multiple times a year

-            The organisational admin of constantly checking that equipment hasn’t gone walkabout

-            The time you must invest in developing the routines in the first place – time that can be invested elsewhere…

-            The distraction they can cause for some students if they are left on the desks throughout the lesson (is that child at the back creating the next Mona Lisa in erasable marker whilst you passionately articulate Priestley’s views on socialism? Possibly.)

The above considerations are exacerbated for me due to having a department with a lot of trainee teachers and ECTs (almost 50%). MWBs just seem to present a host of extra challenges and, in some ways, more pitfalls than perks.

And, again, whilst I fully accept that MWBs have their advantages, I also think there are some valuable alternatives.

For me, one such alternative is ‘Everybody Writes’ (on paper). The term ‘Everybody Writes’ is one of the strategies presented in Doug Lemov’s ‘Teach Like a Champion’. Lemov posits that this strategy: supports students to think more deeply; encourages students to produce higher-quality writing; boosts the thinking- and participation-ratios in the classroom.

Of course, ‘Everybody Writes’ does not dictate that students’ writing MUST be completed on paper rather than MWBs. However, for me, this is personal preference. Below I outline the reasons why.

Firstly, we have historically had issues (and therefore our past outcomes) with student resilience – particularly their writing resilience, and particularly in English. One of the most impactful things we’ve put into place is increasing opportunities in lessons for short bursts of independent practice. Previously, we’ve struggled to make time for independent practice. We constantly seemed to be aiming for the ever-elusive ‘paragraph or more’ by the end of the lesson, and were constantly falling short – meaning opportunities for independent writing were few and far between. When we moved to prioritising short bursts of independent practice, students’ confidence seemed to transform. Instead of seeing writing in English as an insurmountable task, we gradually fostered students’ resilience by exposing them to opportunities to write independently in every lesson, with length varying from a sentence to a whole essay, depending on the lesson/task.

Another point on the same lines that I want to address: student attitudes to English. Five years ago, student perceptions of English were dire. It felt like we were hearing the same feedback from students over and over again: they loved Maths, they felt successful in Maths, Maths made them feel good. The reverse was true for English. When we delved into this, it seemed to come down to the opportunities students were provided to feel successful. In Maths, they could practise an equation, quickly check it was correct, and then move on. A short burst of independent practice was rewarded by instant reinforcement that they were doing the right thing. In English, however, they weren’t given the same opportunities. Often, they were expected to write a paragraph or more, and they would spend the whole task in a state of apprehension and confusion, not knowing if they were getting it right or not. Through introducing short bursts of independent writing with Everybody Writes (on paper) - along with, to be fair, other things such as strategic multiple-choice questions - we were able to change students’ mindsets. They were given more opportunities to feel successful.

Now, of course, there is the argument that if students are writing a sentence or two, they can just do it on a MWB. True! But, for us, there seemed to be a bit of mental barrier for children. Writing on a MWB was low stakes, low pressure, low threat. Then when it came to writing on paper, they were crumbling, seeing it as too challenging and too daunting. By getting students used to writing on paper, we overcame the notion that doing so is ‘scary’. In essence, we created a culture in which writing on paper became as low threat – in fact, it is a valuable opportunity to receive feedback and have misconceptions be addressed. Which leads me to my next point.

Purposeful circulation and live marking are cornerstones of our assessment policy in English. We prioritise live marking because we know it is a high-leverage feedback method, and it because it supports teachers’ marking workload. However, the impact of live marking can be impeded if students aren’t being given regular opportunities to write: you can’t live mark something that hasn’t been written! Therefore, we found when we introduced more Everybody Writes (on paper) we were given more opportunities to provide students with meaningful feedback. And with this feedback being in their books, rather than on MWBs, they also had it to refer back to later on.

Finally, Year 11 outcomes. Our outcomes in English have gone a progress score of less than negative 1 in 2019 to having a positive progress score (for the first time ever!) in 2024. There are many things we did to achieve this (see other blog posts I have written such as Strategic Do Now tasks ​and Improving analysis). However, the aforementioned considerations around writing resilience, opportunities for feedback, etc. have all greatly contributed, too. Therefore, I would assert that Everybody Writes (on paper’) has been contributed to our improved outcomes. In a Year 11 class, this strategy provides the perfect opportunity to rehearse shorter tasks that reflect some of the smaller components of GCSE Language and Literature, such as an introduction to an essay, or a sentence of inference based on a test, or a sentence of evaluation in response to a statement. By practising these skills in short bursts on paper, you can really work to break down some of the barriers students have towards the GCSE papers.