National Writing Day 1 National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
National Writing Day KS3/4/5 2 About National Writing Day...3 Introduction: Dan Powell...4 Write Away!...5 Warm Up Exercises Narrative Writing Starters...6 Writing from Images... Session Ideas Te Object... Memory...9 Legendary Poems...10 Ask A Poet...11 Poetry and Creative writing Writing Tool kit...13 Response to Text ( Imtiaz Darker) KS4/5...16 Wose Ryme Is It Anyway...1 Non-verbal Storytelling (EAL students)...19 Writing in a Group...20 National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
National Writing Day KS3/4/5 3 About National Writing Day National Writing Day is a celebration of creative writing, and is co-ordinated by national literacy carity First Story and delivered in partnersip wit tirty-five oter national partners. Poems, stories, letters, raps, songs, scripts and more we want scools, libraries, writing groups and communities across te country to sare in tis celebration troug a series of events and activities. We want people from across te UK to put pen to paper, unleas teir imagination and make teir voices eard. You re invited to join us at events across te UK; from Hull to Bristol, London to Edinburg, Cardiff to Belfast, leading arts and culture venues will open teir doors to te public wit inspiring events and activities. If you can t find an event close to you, you can register your own event at your local scool, community centre, workplace or living room. We want everyone, everywere to get writing in 201 for te second National Writing Day. Join us at an event on Wednesday 2t June or sare your stories online using #nationalwritingday. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
National Writing Day Introduction 4 Introduction Te blank page can be daunting. As bot a part-time teacer of Englis and a First Story writer-in-residence, my working life is spent encouraging young people to put pen to paper and write. As a working autor, my writing life is spent encouraging myself to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and write. As a teacer, worksop leader and autor, I am all too aware of ow daunting te blank page can be. Te problem wit te blank page is tat it can be filled wit anyting. It can be filled wit everyting. Being left to grapple wit tis infinity of possibility can paralyse a writer, stop tem in teir tracks, leave tem struggling to put words down, or, even wen words do appear, tey are too often deleted, erased, crossed out almost as soon as tey appear. Te blank page is daunting because it gives you noting but space to old on to. Tere is no easy to read route across te blank page. Tat s wat makes it a blank page. It asn t been written yet. I am a believer in te power of te writing prompt. Writing exercises, writing prompts, make te blank page manageable. Tey give te blank boundaries. Tey give te blank page focus. Tey elp lay a pat troug te empty space of te page along wic eac individual writer can craft unique detours. Eac of te National Writing Day activities and exercises included ere is a brick upon a patway designed to elp young writers navigate te blank page. A ost of ice-breakers and starters support any session leader looking to engage and entuse teir students, wit activities ranging from word association games, to mini-autobiograpy, and beyond, to writing bad poetry or metaporical pen portraits. A series of writing models from a variety of styles, give students quality texts to respond to, wit writing prompts and activities developed to elp facilitate entusiastic and original responses. Tere are guides for te use of non-verbal storytelling and group writing tat will engage a broad range of ages and abilities, as well as guides for te use of picture books and oter images to promote creative writing, and a section of CPD materials to elp te teacer/session leader develop engaging strategies and approaces for te teacing of narrative and descriptive writing witin te classroom. I ope tese materials will inspire you and your students as we celebrate National Writing Day 201. Dan Powell for National Writing Day National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
National Writing Day KS3/4/5 5 Write Away! National Writing Day aims to inspire creative writing on a grand scale. Creative writing connects people to teir own voice, teir own language and teir own story. Studies ave sown tat writing can benefit educational growt, promote wellbeing and build confidence troug self-expression. Young people and cildren are more inclined to write creatively if tey see adults around tem doing so and writing can benefit people of all ages. Tis year, for National Writing Day, we're asking scools, students, families and our communities to participate in a free-writing activity called Write Away! We'd love to see every student and adult in your scool engage wit tis ten-minute activity, peraps during an assembly, te beginning of a lesson or during form-time on 2t June. Beyond spreading te joy of writing for its own sake, tis task is designed to engage everyone in an activity tat feeds into all strands of SMSC as well. Te free-writing is stream-of-consciousness writing. You just need to set a timer and keep writing until te timer stops. Te teme for Write Away tis year is I feel most free wen... At tis stage, all you need to do it plan te time into your scool day on 2t June and let your staff know. Nearer te time, we ll issue a resource wic will walk everyone troug te task via a tree-slide power-point presentation. Please ceck te National Writing Day website on 1st May 201 wen tese resources go live. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
National Writing Day Warm Up Exercises Narrative Writing Starters Anomaly game Generate a list of people and places, te more unusual te better, ten put tem in bags labelled people and places. Students select one person and one place at random from te bags. Tey must come up wit a convincing story for wy teir caracter is tere. Responses can be verbal or written. Tis starter can be supplemented wit an additional bag of dilemmas to elp tem build more developed stories. Caracter-invention tasks 1. Eac student in te group suggests one ting a caracter cannot be, wit te group leader/teacer listing tem on te board. Students must ten write for five minutes describing a new caracter, but it cannot be any of te tings listed. 2. Make an A-Z list of te caracteristics of your caracter. Extending te metapor My teacer is like an eagle. Remove like. Now tink about wat eagles (or watever) do, and extend te metapor. My teacer is an eagle swooping round te room, overing over is students, diving down on innocent prey and demolising tem wit te terrible grip of is talons. Lying game Give eac student a misdemeanor and ask tem to create an elaborate, far-fetced excuse for wy tey did it. Ask tem to come up wit a believable excuse. Discuss te difference between te two. Wat made te second excuse more believable? Discuss te importance of concrete detail and consistency in crafting believable narratives. Word bingo Use a bank of words from a variety of word types (noun, verb, adjective). Give te group a word tey must include in teir first sentence of a story about anyting tey like. Ten, from your list, call out one word every tirty seconds. You can increase or decrease te time between words to raise or lower te pressure on te students. Writing race List te tings your caracter as in te fridge or te attic, or small items e/se owns, or expensive items, or tings in is/er pockets first person to fifty tings for teir caracter wins. Now write for ten minutes about tis caracter. Include as many of te tings from your list as you can. Developing te Story Building up Write a tree-sentence story. Beginning, middle and end. Now break eac sentence into tree more. Ten break eac new sentence into tree more again. Keep doing tis to build up te narrative. Emotion game Get te class to suggest a longlist of emotions, ten come up wit as many pysical symptoms as tey can for eac emotion. Describing emotion troug pysical symptoms is always more powerful tan just telling te reader ow a caracter is feeling. Write 100-word story/paragrap/pen portrait of someone undergoing an emotional event witout referring to te emotion by name. To extend tis, look at te varied ways to describe abstract emotions: idioms ( eart was in my mout ); colour ( red-faced ), etc. 6 Six-word stories Sow students examples of tis condensed form of storytelling, e.g. No taxidermist loved is daugter more ; For sale. Baby soes. Never Worn. How many can you write in five minutes? Ten minutes? National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
National Writing Day Warm Up Exercises Writing from Images Wit some of te new Englis Language GCSEs requiring students to produce a piece of writing in response to a previously unseen image, all under exam conditions, developing skills and tecniques for generating ideas rapidly to tis kind of stimulus is vital. Many of te starter activities above will elp foster confidence and creativity in your students. Here are some approaces for furter developing te skills required to succeed at tis specific element of te exam. Try tem out in your departments, ten roll out tose you find most elpful to your students. Descriptive approaces: Zooming in tecnique: from large to small scale. Start in te distance, wit larger objects, ten to te middle distance, and ten to te foreground and smaller objects. Ten reverse te process and zoom out. Zooming out tecnique: ask students to look for te smallest detail tey can find in te image, describe it in detail, ten pull out to te middle, describe tat, ten pull out again to take in te full landscape of te image. Tis tecnique can be combined wit Zooming in to elp craft a controlled structure for descriptive writing tasks. Look at te image and tink of an abstract noun to describe te overall scene (peraps an emotion: joy, appiness, loneliness; peraps a state of being: pain, bravery, beauty; peraps an idea: belief, trouble, friendsip). Now write a list of (mainly) concrete tings associated wit tat abstract concept. Play te game If you were a colour, sape, texture, place, sound, taste, item of cloting, anyting Students write a list and ten tey use te words/ideas in teir description. Tis elps give te piece a sense of consistency, mood, and elps wit originality of ideas. Use of centre, edge, ligt sentence starters. Give te students a series of prompts. Wat is at te centre of te image? (Tey write teir response: At te centre is ) Wat is at te edge of te image? Start a sentence wit: Te ligt Start a sentence wit: In te sade Wat is moving in te image? Wat is static in te image? Wat is te brigtest colour in te image? Wic is te dullest? Wat is te mood of te piece? Te scope of te questions is limited only by your imagination and teir relevance to te selected image te students are working from. Creating a Narrative 1. Give students an image (or let tem coose from a pile). Give tem an image of a caracter, ten ask tem to start making notes. Wo is e/se? Wat is e/se doing ere? Wat as e/se done? Wat are tey going to do? Wat do tey want? Identifying wat your protagonist wants is key to creating a narrative. Once you know wat your protagonist wants, ten someone or someting can be te antagonist and try to stop tem getting wat tey want. Tis is te basis of all conflict in narrative. 2. Questions: ave students write for sort bursts in response to questions about teir image. Were is tis place? Wo cares for tis place? Wat as appened just moments before tis image was taken? If tere is a figure in te image, wy is e/se tere? Wat as te figure in te image just done? Wat is te figure about to do? Wy did e/se do it? Wat was trying to stop tem? Wat will appen next? Te responses to tese questions (and any more like tem tat you coose to ask) sould provide te students wit ideas of caracter, plot and setting tat tey can use to craft teir narrative. 3. Te caracter as kept a secret for a long time. Wat is te secret? Wy did it need to be kept secret? 4. Eac student generates teir own random list of words from newspapers or from a text you ave been studying in class. Next, give tem an image of a person and anoter of a place. Now tey must combine tese elements to create a story. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
Te Object 1. Brainstorm some objects tat you remember from your cildood, or tat ave always been in your ome, or are important to you in some way. For example: Someting important tat someone gave you. An object or piece of cloting tat you associate strongly wit someone in your family. A gift from someone, or an object anded down from an older relative. A piece of cloting or a pair of soes tat you associate strongly wit a time in your life. An object tat expresses someting important about you, e.g. a musical instrument, a treasured football sirt, a book you read as a cild. 2. Coose one of te objects. Brainstorm wat te object brings to mind. At tis stage don t censor your tougts. Put down everyting. Here s one example: Fabregas My ero too small for me now First day I got it - surprise present from my uncle FOOTBALL SHIRT faded lettering - in te was every week scrunced up in my drawer now tat Fabregas as left te team A tear were my sister pulled it in a figt No 4 - Te position I play 3. Here a few ideas for more unusual ways of tinking about your object: A igpoint or lowpoint in te object s life. A fragment or two of conversation tat te object migt ave overeard at key moments in its lifetime. A memory of you or your parent/family member using te object. Wat te object reminds you of. Words to describe te object wat it looks like, sounds like, makes you feel or tink. 4. Talk to someone else about your object, using your brainstormed ideas to elp you. Ask tem wat stood out most about wat you said. Wic bits seemed most interesting and enjoyable? 5. Tink about wic of tese ideas or angles migt make a good starting point for writing about yourself or someone else, using te object as a way of focusing your ideas. 6. Try a few different starting points, as in tis example about one special object, a carm bracelet: 1. My moter gave me er gold carm bracelet, wit its ballet soe, its coffee pot, its fis and rabbit and tiny little doll. Se gave it to me wen I was very young, just a little girl, almost as if se wanted to be rid of it erself as quickly as se could. 2. It was er first fiancé wo gave my moter te carm bracelet. Se was all set to marry im, till, at te very last moment, se ditced im. He ad to sell up everyting e d bougt for er, including er beautiful big ouse, tat lay empty, waiting for tem to move in. Keep te carm bracelet, e d said. I can t bear to ave it back. 3. Once upon a time tere was a beautiful young girl. Se met a ric young prince wo asked er to marry im and, of course, as all poor and beautiful girls do, se said yes. Te only problem was, se didn t marry im and it didn t end appily ever after, because te beautiful young girl canged er mind.. Talk about wat s different about tese starting points, wic you like best and wy. You could add a furter dimension to tis activity by asking students to write in te voice of te object get te object to tell its story. We are grateful to te Englis and Media Centre for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
9 Memory (KS3/4) Aim: encouraging students to use memory as a source of inspiration. Preparation: potocopy some I Remember pieces. Tere ave been a number of spin-offs from te famous Joe Brainard autobiograpy. Wendy Cope* and Paul Farley, for example, are among tose wo contributed to an issue of Areté (aretemagazine.co.uk), wic commissioned tese pieces. An extract from Paul Farley s I Ran All te Way Home includes te lines: I remember going for brawn, and te sign in Ernie te Butcer s: A missing knife is a danger to all. I remember a lad eld a knife to my troat on te 3 for a laug. I remember one nigt in bed realising I was definitely going to die and wondering wat noting would feel like. Tis was around te same time as realising te universe went on for ever. Ice Breaker: Auto Writing (ten minutes) Ask students to write a diary entry. Stress tat it will be private, and tey won t ave to read it aloud if tey don t want to. Encourage tem to write using emotions, describing ow certain situations felt. Exercise One: I Remember (twenty minutes) Give students Wendy Cope s I Remember pieces to read, or read tem aloud to te students. Feedback (ten minutes): We are grateful to te National Association for Writers in Education for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. Poto credit: ttp://www.ajlevy.co.uk National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
Legendary Poems Te poet Jon Canfield sares is advice on writing trilling poems about legends... One of te problems of writing poems is te blank page. How do you get started? But for generations poets and oter writers ave taken inspiration from te myts, legends and tales passed down troug te ages. I ave a poem in Falling out of te Sky: Poems about Myts and Monsters, publised by Te Emma Press wic is about te legend of Jan Tregeagle, a story I eard wen I was growing up in Cornwall. Tregeagle was a giant, scary figure, wo eventually is doomed to empty a lake wit a limpet sell, a bit like te Greek myt of Sisypus. Here s te start of te poem: Beyond te River Tamar, to te west - wen all te miner s weelouses still turn and stand port-proud, an age before teir waste, te ground beneat tem filled wit golden tin - tis county, Cornwall, osts a magistrate, a steward, lawyer, landlord, six feet tall; a swindler, tief, a liar and a ceat; and tose e cannot steal from, e will kill. In order to start writing te poem I wrote down a summary of everyting I knew about te story. Were does te story take place? Wen does te story take place? Wat do tey look like? Wat appens to te people in te story? How does it end Ten, because I was writing a poem, rater tan a prose version of te story, I tried to tink of interesting ways to describe tings: port-proud for te old mining weelouses, golden tin under te ground, ten went on to describe wat I imagined Tregeagle looked like. I ended up using a refrain tat appears trougout te poem, like a corus in a song to describe im: Tower-tall wit burning eyes, arms tat stretc out forty-span, lips tat only spit out lies, Tregeagle is a wicked man. I repeated te refrain every few stanzas, but canged te words sligtly as te story progressed. I like using ryme and regular meter (de dum, de dum, de dum, de dum, de dum), I find te constraint elps me to really tink about wat I want to say and only use wat s necessary, and te ryme forces me into tinking of images I migt not oterwise ave come up wit. But not everyone tinks like tat, and te brilliant ting about poetry is it doesn t matter if it s metrical or if it rymes or not, as long as it uses interesting, musical words. So, tink about a story you know, a legend, a myt or a fairy-tale. Maybe a story tat is set were you live. Now write down and all te tings you know about it using te list of questions above. Now, try and write one line of poetry to start te story. Now write anoter. And anoter. And anoter. You could write one line for eac question. Or you could write a wole stanza for eac question (a stanza is anoter word for a verse and can be as long or as sort as you d like).can you write a refrain tat describes your main caracter? 10 Te poem can be sort or long, you just need to tell us te story as interestingly and poetically as you can. We are grateful to Jon Canfield and Te Poetry Scool for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
11 Ask A Poet How it Works Watc an Ask a Poet video interview and discover a contemporary poet and learn about ow tey write. Reflect on ow you write and try out te writing exercise provided.tere is no good or bad writing, te aim is to try new tings and to play wit language. Have fun and don t forget to sare your work wit us! Click ere for te Ask a Poet video Objectives To discover and learn about a contemporary poet To learn about ow you could apply tips from a professional writer To play wit language and experiment wit a new writing exercise Step One Wit a partner take turns interviewing eac oter using te following questions. Te aim is to reflect on wat writing means to you. 3. Wat do you tink makes good writing? 4. Wat could you do to elp improve your writing? 5. How do you overcome writer s block? 6. Wat inspires you to write? (it could be a blog, speec, diary, poem or story). Wat do you find ard about writing? Step Two Read and discuss te poem THE KINGDOM OF GRAVITY by poet Nick Makoa. 1. Wat is te poem about? 2. Wat poetic devices are used in te poem? 3. Wat lines in te poem do you find interesting or striking and wy? We are grateful to te Ministry of Stories for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
12 Step tree Read and discuss te poem THE KINGDOM OF GRAVITY by poet Nick Makoa. 1. Wat is te poem about? 2. Wat poetic devices are used in te poem? 3. Wat lines in te poem do you find interesting or striking and wy? THE KINGDOM OF GRAVITY We are not Alexander, wo conquered worlds giving tem new tongues. But we sare te story of a sip resting on an African river, unbuckling at its sore, awakened by te nigts cold ard rain, staring at te face of te Nile as it reminds you. You are a awk silent in te voice of a midnigt universe Wat makes a man name a city after imself; asking bricks to be bones, asking te wind to breate like te lungs of te nigt, asking te nigt to come closer, to speak to you as a tribe, asking te tribe to sleep, asking sleep to loosen its language, asking language to dream. Come close to me. Can you not see tat I am in searc of fire? Te unsapen song of ligt. In my mout is a name overing like smoke, spoken to me by te oracle. Like oters, I was in searc of a forest, a place to call ome. But wat can I tell you about Kingdom, about aving te world at your feet? Wen you ave seen all te eart s boundary, you will crave for mirrors searcing for tem in streams, and wen te river looks back at you ow will you be sure tat noting is lost? Step four Take a line from te poem tat you like and use it to freewrite about leaving a person, place or ting beind. It could be leaving a country, a friend, bad or good situation or a loved item. Use te line as a starter line or weave it into te poem. We are grateful to te Ministry of Stories for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
13 Poetry and Creative Writing Toolkit Here are two exciting exercises to try wit your class. We ave cosen to use Wordswort poems tat are featured on te GCSE poetry clusters (Edexcel and Eduqas) as inspiration but te exercises could be linked to oter poems tat you cose. Te Wordswort poem A Complaint is about a failing friendsip. Te images Wordswort uses are all connected wit water: first flowing to represent a ealty relationsip, ten still wen tings go wrong. A Complaint Tere is a cange and I am poor Your love at been, nor long ago, A fountain at my fond eart s door, Wose only business was to flow; And flow it did; not taking eed Of its own bounty, or my need. Wat appy moments did I count! Bliss was I ten all bliss above! Now for tat consecrated fount Of murmuring, sparkling, living love, Wat ave I? Sall I dare to tell? A comfortless and idden well. A well of love it may be deep I trust it is, - and never dry: Wat matter? If te waters sleep In silence and obscurity. - Suc cange, and at te very door Of my fond eart, at made me poor. Using figurative language from te same subject area, or semantic field, is a good way to give creative writing a spine and coerence. Ask te class to make a list of tings connected wit a subject area. Tis could be someting concrete: te uman body or animals; someting tey enjoy: football, music, food; or even someting connected to work in te classroom: weater, electricity. You can eiter make one class list or ask everyone to coose teir own subject. Encourage students to come up wit verbs as well as nouns; so, for parts of te body, as well as and and foot, you migt ave breating or bleed. Next everyone writes a poem, peraps, at least initially, wit te same title: A Walk in te Woods, A Day at te Beac using te list as inspiration for as muc of te figurative language as possible. Please turn over We are grateful to te Wordswort Trust for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
14 Spots of Time In is autobiograpical poem Te Prelude Wordswort describes spots of time as moments tat appen, especially in cildood, tat continue to be of importance troug te years usually because tey ave sparked is imagination, or sligtly canged is understanding of te world around im. Tese moments are often connected wit emotion, but not necessarily life canging in temselves, and tey appen outside in te landscape. Tis picture was drawn to illustrate an example were Wordswort describes ice-skating on frozen Estwaite Water as a boy. First look at te picture and te poem wit te class Ask tem to tink of someting tey really enjoy doing outside: orse riding, cycling, walking, going to te park Next, everyone draws a picture, following te Wordswort example, wit temselves in te middle and te landscape around tem Ten, populate te picture wit words and prases associated wit te activity encourage te use of poetic devices suc as alliteration, simile, metapor and personification. If you look closely at te picture, some of te words ave been written in ways tat reflect teir meaning e.g. flew, wic te class can also try. Finally, use te words and prases to write a poem or sort prose piece about te activity. Please turn over We are grateful to te Wordswort Trust for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
15 Excerpt of Wordswort Prelude 199 And in te frosty season wen te sun Was set, and, visible for many a mile, Te cottage windows troug te twiligt blazed, I eeded not te summons: clear and loud Te village clock tolled six;i weeled about Proud and exulting like an untired orse Tat cares not for its ome. All sod wit steel We issed along te polised ice, in games Confederate, imitative of te case And woodland pleasures, te resounding orn, Te pack loud bellowing, and te unted are. So troug te darkness and te cold we flew, And not a voice was idle: wit te din, Meanwile, te precipices rang aloud, Te leafless trees and every icy crag Tinkled like iron, wile te distant ills Into te tumult sent an alien sound Of melancoly not unnoticed wile te stars, Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in te west Te orange sky of evening died away. Not seldom from te uproar I retired Into a silent bay, or sportively Glanced sideway leaving te tumultuous trong, To cut across te sadow of a star Tat gleamed upon te ice: and oftentimes Wen we ad given our bodies to te wind And all te sadowy banks on eiter side Came sweeping troug te darkness, spinning still Te rapid line of motion, ten at once Have I, reclining back upon my eels, Stopped sort; yet still te solitary cliffs Weeled by me, even as if te eart ad rolled Wit visible motion er diurnal round; Beind me did tey stretc in solemn train Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watced Till all was tranquil as a summer sea. We are grateful to te Wordswort Trust for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
16 Response to Text by Imtiaz Darker (KS4/5) I am sending a message again. Maybe you can t ear it troug all te noise of ligts and te dangerous way tings move in tat oter city were I tink you are, if I ave te dates rigt, toug of course I could be wrong. If you expected te message, you would stand like tis, wit your eyes open and focussed on te screen, your ears closed. Te city I am in as lost its volume control. Every person in te place is tuned to maximum. Can you see te text? Just to ask if you are safe and well? A pone srills, a clock explodes, in te next room, a TV switces on. Everywere, te sound of sirens, drills. Cars screec, orns blare. Opening up te poem Wo migt be te speaker of tis poem? Wat clues does te poem offer about te speaker? To wom migt te text be addressed? Wat clues does te poem offer about te relationsip between te speaker and te person being addressed? In many ways, tis poem is ambiguous (open to more tan one interpretation; not aving one obvious meaning). Wat is ambiguous in te poem? Wy migt Darker ave cosen to include suc ambiguity? How is te ambiguity created? How important are te descriptions of te city in te poem? How would you describe te tone of te poem? Dejected? Elegiac? Wistful? Anxious? Panicked? Uneasy? Impatient? Frustrated? Angry? Someting else? Wic words or prases are most memorable? Do any seem incongruous? How does te final word singing affect your reading of te poem Were are you? Wy ave you stopped singing? Imtiaz Darker From Te Terrorist at My Table (Bloodaxe, 2006), by permission of te publiser for te Scottis Poetry Library Please turn over National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
1 Researc Te city I am in as lost / its volume control Researc te issue of noise pollution. Wat are its effects on umans and wildlife? I m sending a message again Investigate te istory of te text message. Conduct a survey of family and friends: ow many use SMS text messages? Wat oter metods of communication do tey use? Climbing inside te poem Experiment wit volume wen reading te poem aloud. Wic lines of te poem sould be souted, wic wispered? Debate: does modern telecommunication (smartpones, text messaging, Skype, social media etc.) bring us closer togeter, or create more distance between us? Many of Imtiaz Darker s collections contain er own drawings alongside er poems. Wy not create an artwork inspired by tis poem, or any of te oter National Poetry Day in Scotland postcard poems? Building on te poem (writing) Compose a poem in response to tis one, writing from te perspective of te intended recipient. Close your eyes and listen to te sounds around you: wat can you ear? Listen for background sounds tat you migt usually ignore. Try tis in different places: at te bus-stop, in your bedroom, in te woods Ten write a poem about a place using only sounds to convey te landscape. all te noise of ligts is an example of synaestesia, a poetic tecnique in wic one sense is described in terms of anoter. Make a list of concrete and abstract nouns, ten describe tem using synaestesia: wat colour is ambition? ow does a beam of sunligt smell? wat texture does a rainbow ave? wat sound do te rings on Saturn make? Use your best example(s) as te starting point for a poem. Create found poetry using your own text messages. Scroll back troug your pone and use words and prases from texts you ave sent or received to create a new text. Start by copying out interesting or unusual prases. Look for patterns: repetitions, rymes, rytms. Try putting incongruous words and prases togeter to ear ow tey sound. Write a poem titled Te Sound of Silence. You could use te absence of sound to tell a story, or build a poem around a sound-based oxymoron (contradiction) e.g. te unfamiliar sound of a door not being slammed; te booming eco of a silent yawn; te noisy catter of glances and stares in te quiet carriage of a train Furter reading and links to selected books Purda (Oxford University Press, 199) Leaving Fingerprints (Bloodaxe Books, 2009) Postcards from God (Bloodaxe Books, 199) I Speak for te Devil (Bloodaxe Books, 2001) Te Terrorist At My Table (Bloodaxe Books UK, 2006) Over te Moon (Bloodaxe Books, 2014) We are grateful to te Scottis Poetry Scool and National Poetry Day for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
1 Wose Ryme Is It Anyway? (45-60 minutes) 1. Place a selection of different poetry books on a table, making sure tere are more tan enoug books for everyone. 2. Ask everyone to pick one book eac. 3. Ask eac person to explain wy tey picked tis book, encourage tem to talk about te title, front cover and weter or not tey ave eard of te autor before. 4. Give everyone 10 minutes to select a poem in te book and read it to temselves a few times. 5. Give everyone a post-it note and ask tem to write down a line from te poem tey ave read. 6. Give everyone a second post-it note and ask tem to create and write down a line tat copies te first line in some way, encourage tem to tink about bot te subject matter and style.. Ask eac person to read out bot lines witout saying wic one came from te book and wic one tey created.. Ask te rest of te group to guess wic is wic and to give reasons for wy tey tink tis. 9. Discuss ow it felt for everyone to copy someone else s line and style, encourage tem to tink about wat tey enjoyed about tis as well as wat was callenging. 10. Give everyone 10 minutes to do a free write using te line tey created as teir starting line. (A free write is stream of consciousness writing, were you keep writing non-stop until te time is up. If you ave more time available tis can be redrafted and developed into a more refined piece of writing) We are grateful to Dean Atta and for contributing tis resource to National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
Non-Verbal Storytelling (EAL students) Aim: to warm students up, allow tem to get to know eac oter, start tinking about caracters. So muc storytelling is non-verbal. Gestures and expressions are used around te world as an international language, meaning tat even tose wit limited Englis-language skills can take part in tis exercise. Introduction (teacer-led; ten minutes): To introduce te idea of non-verbal communication, te teacer demonstrates a few simple actions for te students to identify, for example: kicking a football, scoring a goal, using a fising rod, filling a trolley wit sopping. Next, move on to more subtle expressions tat start to elp you tink about caracter-building. We are starting to get under te skin of te caracters we migt want to include in our plot later. Ideas migt include a bully, a clown, or somebody tinking. Main activity (pupil-led; twenty minutes): Now it s te students turn to come up wit as many non-verbal impersonations as tey can, in pairs or in small groups, for two or tree minutes. Tis is fast, tinking-on-your-feet stuff. At te end of te tree minutes, eac group demonstrates teir gestures to see ow many everyone else can guess. Tis final part can be lots of fun, but tere s usually also te starting point for a serious discussion about stereotyping, wic can be very revealing wen working wit a group of cildren from diverse backgrounds. Often, te people we coose to mimic as part of tis exercise are based on stereotypes, because tey are easy to identify and often quite funny. But, ask your students to tink about wy stereotypes migt also be armful. Wat are tey based on? And ow migt tey limit te caracters we want to build in our story? Is anyone truly like teir stereotype, or aren t we all many-sided individuals wit lots of different qualities? In order to build really original, autentic caracters, and to avoid clicés, we need to avoid te stereotype. Most caracters in fiction ave a little bit of some of te people te writer knows or as met at some point in teir life. Discuss common uman caracteristics and personality traits. Use one from someone you know, sare it wit te students and ten get tem to work in pairs and find out a few caracteristics tat some of teir friends/family ave, ten sare tem wit te group. Tis is te starting point for great caracters. Tis exercise is drawn from a wider creative-writing toolkit for secondary-scool teacers working wit cildren for wom Englis is an additional language. Te full toolkit, It s Our Write, was developed by Ricard O Neill, at te end of a tree-year residency at Babington Community College in Leicester. 19 For furter information (and for more information about Ricard O Neill), visit: ttp://www.writingeastmidlands. co.uk/services/its-our-write-toolkit/ We are grateful for Writing East Midlands and Ricard O Neill for contributing tis resource for National Writing Day. National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
National Writing Day Writing in a Group Collaborative Story Use a map or diagram of a communal area (e.g. block of flats or sopping centre). Eac student is allocated a space witin tat area. Tey create a caracter tat inabits te space (e.g. Ayesa runs te nail bar on Level 2), developing a backstory and as muc information about teir caracter as possible (tis can lead to separate activities; for example, students could interview eac oter about teir respective caracter). Wen te caracters are ready, introduce an inciting incident. Students develop a reaction to te inciting incident (te event tat moves te story from exposition and into te first of te series of rising action events) from teir caracters. Wat follows needs careful management and editing, but eac student takes responsibility for teir caracter in te story tat ensues. A group migt begin by discussing te inciting incident, wat tey ave seen, wat to do next. Te story can take on a classical structure, wit te group deciding on wat teir caracters were doing at te status quo at te opening of te story (exposition), before considering te multiple steps of rising action and wat teir caracters did in response to tese events. Once te group as decided wat te climax of te story is, tey must eac ten decide ow teir caracter responds to it. Tey can use any or all of teir writing about teir caracters to elp tem wit filling in te gaps of te story. POSITION PLOT DIAGRAM RISING ACTION Session Ideas CLIMAX CONFLICT EVENT FALLING ACTION EVENT RESOLUTION An Exquisite Corpse Essentially, tis is a game of Consequences. Give te students a subject (e.g. being in te city or spending time wit your friends ). One student writes a line on a piece of paper and folds it over and passes it to te next student, and so on round te class. Read te results. Tis could lead to a longer piece of writing. (See Te Crow in Candenance, P.S. in Crumbs on a Page and One Day in And So It Begins). Variations: Give students rules/formulae for eac sentence, e.g. tey can only use four-letter words; no use of te letter e ; no use of te noun to be or its derivations; address every sentence to You. Te variations are endless! Free Writing to Music Find tree jazz (or oter genre!) tracks, eac wit a distinct beginning, middle and end. Get students to listen ten write a story following te arc of te music. Poetry Macine Discuss te difference between abstract and concrete nouns. Ask students to write down four concrete nouns and four abstract nouns on pieces of card. Ten ask tem to write te definitions of tese nouns on differentcoloured pieces of card. Suffle all te definitions togeter and, separately, suffle te nouns togeter. Give te nouns to one student and te definitions to anoter. Ask for a noun to be read aloud followed by a random definition. Tey will see tat some produce poetic definitions and some don t. You can catc te poem by writing down te ones te students tell you to, te ones tey tink work as surreal metapors. 20 National Writing Day Wednesday 2t June 201
21