Using children's narratives to teach thinking at primary level

Abstract

Writing is a form of self-expression and a way to create meanings about ourselves and our lives. In this dissertation, we focused on ten children from different private and church schools. The children were asked to keep a diary using different forms of texts including photos, pictures and written text. The diaries include a focus on their lives both at school and outside school parameters. This record was kept for a whole term while we monitored and helped the children throughout this phase of the research. These diaries were then analysed and used as tools upon which a number of lesson notes were designed in order to help teachers develop thinking in their classrooms.