{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.0288659793814433, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0010309278350515464, 'mean_word_length': 5.1455696202531644, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
‘Doing’ Persuading: Actively Constructing Knowledge, Voice and Self

ABSTRACT I explore a series of incidents in my English classroom, which occurred while I was preparing my students for their high-stakes GCSE English Language exam (‘Paper 2: Writers’ viewpoints and perspectives’). I thereby attempt to confront some of my own failings and biases with regard to non-fiction and the teaching of persuasive writing in particular, as well as to unleash the huge potential I now believe it offers, when combined with the multi-voiced space of a classroom, for creative play and the productive skills of English. In doing so I argue, drawing on Vygotskian notions of the internalisation of concepts and the developmental benefits of play, that in order for truly ‘productive’ learning to occur, students need agency and a sense of empowerment to construct knowledge together, and to experiment with and develop their understanding of and flexibility with their own ‘voice’.