Writer Agency, Choice-Making and Embodied Grammar

Writing involves a complex web of deliberations as writers make specific choices from their repertoire of grammatical resources. However, curriculum and assessment criteria that favour top-down prescriptions of writing marginalise the agency of the writer (Gardner, 2012). Conversely, we posit a bottom-up process that integrates grammar teaching with the agentic role of the writer as they make ongoing writerly choices. This study draws on Myhill's work (2012, 2022) on the teaching of 'grammar as choice' by exploring the impact of explicitly teaching six embodied grammatical concepts: generating energy; tracking motion; scanning the scene; creating perspective; focusing; and zooming in. The study demonstrates how explicitly teaching these concepts to 11 Year Five students during short, personalised writing conferences improved the range and application of their linguistic choices, their writerly agency and the quality and quantity of their writing. The study contributes to the growing body of research that emphasises students' agency as writers.