Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The change of tack at Russell was spot on. Today, I worked with the three writing pairs plus six of the individuals. Every individual (or pair) had an in-depth session with me, going over their planning and what they’ve written so far. There are lots of really interesting ideas and people are really enjoying themselves as they tease these out. Now their planning is paying off.
It’s interesting, what a big difference there is between the year 8 writers and the year 7s. It really is a dramatic jump in the sophistication of their writing. It’s the jump from a reasonably straightforward telling to the inclusion of irony, a sub-plot, and telling detail – fascinating.
The journeys the students are writing about range from a journey into the bush at night to find one of Northland’s giant milk worms to a journey out to the Poor Knights as a (twelve-year-old) deckie on a fishing boat. This last is both a journey into an adult role and to the Poor Knights. But even a simple journey to Australia takes off, when a boy discovers that his Australian aunt has pet snakes and lets them slither about her house! Another boy’s journey is into the sea – an account of a dive during which he met a shark. This isn’t just an underwater journey – it’s also a journey into fear.
It’s neat the way preparing a storyboard opens up so many possibilities for these writers. It’s a kind of thinking aloud that prompts ideas. “Oh yeah, if I put a diagram here, and labelled it, then I could show the reader how the …”
Tomorrow afternoon, I’m going to continue working one-on-one with the individual writers – and the fantastic news has arrived that the Feet First website has accepted Room 5’s play for publication. They students will be thrilled when they return from camp to this news!
Don Long
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