Increasing writing engagement in a South Australian year two classroom

This participatory action research study explores how targeted instructional strategies can enhance writing engagement among Year 2 students in a South Australian primary classroom. Framing writing engagement as a multidimensional construct—affective, behavioural, cognitive, and social—the study investigates the impact of a co-designed, multimodal narrative writing unit integrating student choice, authentic audiences, and collaborative opportunities. Over three months, observational data, modified writing engagement surveys, and student interviews were collected to assess engagement during traditional teacher-directed writing tasks and the multimodal project. Findings revealed consistently high behavioural engagement across contexts, but significantly greater affective engagement—both positive and negative—during multimodal video creation sessions. Students reported increased enjoyment and perceived authenticity in the multimodal project, despite describing it as more cognitively demanding. Interviews highlighted students’ preferences for choice and ownership in writing, suggesting that agency and audience awareness contributed to enhanced engagement and perceived writing quality. The study underscores the importance of incorporating flexible, student-centered practices and multimodal composition to foster meaningful engagement in early writing instruction. These findings contribute to emerging discussions on moving beyond standardized literacy approaches and advocate for integrating engagement-focused practices into early writing curricula.