“I won’t won’t be writing”: Young authors enact meaningful work

Abstract

The article considers the beliefs and practices of elementary-aged children who write for personal fulfillment. Mobilizing Lips-Wiersma’s (Lips-Wiersma & Morris, 2011) notion of meaningful work, I examine the ways in which these children experienced writing and sharing their work in a voluntary after school writing workshop and at home. Data are gathered from observations of the children as they wrote and shared their ideas with peers, from interviews in which they conveyed their beliefs about and experiences with writing, and from the varied texts they composed surfaced the core aspects of meaningful work: self-development, self-expression, and unity with others. The children were aware of their individual needs as writers, they were delighted in the opportunity to control their writing activities, and they interacted with peers and family members as they produced texts.