Day 2 Des Hunt Waiotahe Valley School Friday March 18 2011

“Ko Whangakopikopiko ahau. Ko tenei taku pūrakau.”
“I am Whangakopoikopiko. This is my story."

Day two started with a fantastic presentation from Des. He had created a power point presentation which he augmented with little chemistry experiments. This presentation helped the students learn a little more about the relevance between the properties of chemistry and the structure of writing. Des explained the chemistry of ‘attraction versus repulsion’ in positioning characters which was well received by the students. He also illustrated with an experiment the importance of being precise and adding just the right amount of action or tension in the students’ writing.

We moved on to individual students planning for their stories. Des had shown in his presentation how he went to the computer straight way with his ideas. Des was very responsive to our Year 7 and 8 students using a ‘big picture approach to planning’ which involved using big pieces of paper and felt pens as he recognised that the students did not have the sophisticated word processing skills to commit their ideas to electronic print.

One of the skills that the students found helpful and learnt on the day was how to keep the reader interested in the story. Des read from his latest book The Peco Incident to illustrate how he does this, by telling a little story in a story. The students were then able to use this example as a model to follow in their writing. The students also liked the idea that they could begin to plan their own story and enjoyed creating their characters. The students responded best to the chemistry presentation, particularly the melting steel! This experiment was conducted to illustrate that if something doesn’t work in your writing then pull it apart and come at it again from another angle. This was a very affirming analogy as the students are involved in peer and self review. It was beneficial for them to hear that even experienced authors undo their work and have to rework it.

Throughout the whole day we all could have been forgiven in thinking that we were here for the purpose of writing. We were having so much fun learning.