Opotiki College, Day Six

This is our final session with Des. We all worked hard in the first hour to have something completed. In the second hour we gathered around and we all shared our writing with the group. Those who were too shy had their work read out by Des or myself, but most were happy to share their own.

There was such a variety of styles, topics and ideas. It was impressive to hear how each student had interpreted the project differently. There were poems, stories, historical fiction, diaries, action, drama, thrillers and even some fantasy. It was great to finish off our session with this sharing session as we could all take the time to appreciate our individual talents and creativity.

Des finished with a final presentation about how to send work off to a publisher. He showed us many tricks of the trade and had examples of his own work that had been sent back by his editor so we could see for ourselves all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into publishing a book. Des finished by presenting the Scribbler group with a signed copy of one of his books, and the students responded with a heart-felt thank you for all the work he had done for us and the inspiration he had given us to keep writing.

With most of the students complete or near completion, Des is going to correspond by email with students to give final feedback. The final project will hopefully be complete in the next term as we are looking into publishing and sponsorship options as producing a short-order magazine run is fairly expensive. We will keep you posted as to when and where it will be available.

Attached are some photos of our group working with Des and also of our trip to the beach. As I can't figure out how to edit previous posts, there will be one final post done by students with samples of their writing.

Steve Williamson.

25-3-11

OUR BEACH TRIP

PICTURES OF US WORKING

Opotiki College, Day Five

This has been a very busy day indeed! The crew from CORE Education were here today filming us at work. They filmed many aspects of the project including interviews with students, observing Des giving feedback, observing students giving each other feedback, and students reading their work aloud. A reporter from the local paper had also caught wind that a famous author was in town working with school pupils. She turned up and interviewed a few students and took pictures for the paper. We are all looking forward to being world famous in Opotiki!

We have two students who have finished their pieces for the magazine. One is a tragic and moving story set on the beach called "Drawing Horses" and the other is a poem called "When I could Talk" inspired by the Heidelberg printing machine in the museum. This student took it to the museum where a curator was so impressed that they are keeping a copy for their archives!

Des has been impressed at how well the students are working together and help each other in their writing. This is because the students are all part of a group that meet regularly and are familiar enough and trust each other enough to do so.

Opotiki College, Day Four

This day was spent working enthusiastically on our projects. Des and I spent the time working with students through the drafting and revising stage of their work. This is a part of the process that is fairly new to students. Most have not reworked a piece of writing so many times and in such depth before and they are really benefiting from the amount of feedback that Des and I am giving. I appreciate having the time as it is definitely more than I would usually be able to give in the limited time of a normal timetabled class. Des has commented that many of these students are very good writers and this has been a real confidence boost for them.

Creative Coaching Residencies Taumarunui Day 2 & 3 with Kathy White

What a beautiful day to go out to Ngakonui Valley School. The trees and mountains are spectacular, especially Mount Hikurangi. Sue says it's okay to climb it so I'll pray for good weather at the weekend.

There's a mixture of ages in this writing group but everyone is imaginative and enthusiastic about writing short adventure stories. In fact, they were so keen that we managed to use every story-starter I had - cards, objects, and the Lolly Mixture (adjectives & nouns). That was great because it meant they brainstormed a few ideas and ended up with choices about which story they wanted to pursue. Everyone was happy and confident they had an idea that they could turn into a story. Liam was inspired enough to turn my humble TV remote into an Alex-Rider-style super-gadget and he did a lot of thinking overnight about the character that would use it.

William said he likes books that hook him within the first paragraph, so we looked at some great examples: Bill's New Frock; Stormbreaker; Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; Matilda. We looked at the bomb (also known as the inciting incident) that gets the whole story moving. It's like 'that was then and this is now.' From the moment of the bomb, everything changes. We decided that it often works to start where the trouble starts, where something new happens or when a stranger arrives. You can start during a quarrel, posing a question, or finding out something unusual about the main character.

The kids really got into making their own beginnings. Some people found it easy. Some found it difficult. I often find that I don't come up with the perfect beginning first time, so I suggested that they just start writing and not worry about getting it right.

We talked about the sorts of conflicts and complications that normally happen through the middle, and looked at a traditional story structure like The Three Little Pigs to see all the essential features of a story. Olivia mentioned a new Scholastic book about 20 stories that had been written by children - one of them was a twisted Little Pigs story - so we found it and read it. It was fabulous - and written by a ten year old - so that's a HUGE incentive for this group.

The stories are starting to look good already. Olivia's writing a suspenseful halloween story which is based on a misunderstanding between friends and Kyra is working on a funny story about an alien grandma who has a ferocious lion for a pet and doesn't realise that there's anything wrong. It didn't start off that way, but that was just a reminder to me how everything is a WORK IN PROGRESS.

There are also great stories unfolding at Manunui School. Eden has the most incredible beginning (involving blood on her character's hands) and Ashleigh's main character starts his story in the room where his kidnapper has hidden him. Spooky stuff!! You can tell these kids are into horror stories. Tyler was frustrated for a while because he didn't know where his story was going, but he's happier with it now that he's past that hurdle. I can see the makings of a great story there now - one that confuses reality and the virtual reality of a PlayStation game. Cool stuff.

Kathy White

Opotiki Residency Blog 3

It is half way through week two. Two schools have one remaining session; the third still has half the visits to come. At the first two schools, most students have their stories in electronic form, with some near to completing a third edit.

I'm excited by the orginality shown by lots of the students. They have interpreted the themes in ways that I had never imagined. Some of the work is quite moving. Their efforts are certainly worth publishing in one form or another.

The last two days we have had a film crew recording our efforts for CORE Education. It was pleasing to watch the students overcoming their nervousness to talk proudly about their work and the processes we've followed. A lot more than writing is happening with this residency - I've seen the confidence of students grow with each visit. I can imagine this confidence reaching out to include other aspects of their learning.

Des Hunt

Creative Coaching Residencies Taumarunui Day 1 with Kathy White

It's lucky my motel is across the road from Taumarunui School. There was no chance of me getting lost, not like the previous day when I followed the map given to me by the Information Centre, which supposedly had Ngakonui Valley School, and the road I should take, marked with a highlighter pen. I ended up in the middle of nowhere. I don't blame them. I've been lost before. That's why I always do a trial run before the day.

Kathryn Munro at Taumarunui School introduced me to the staff at their lively staff meeting. I think Bethwyn, the Principal is worried she may see her staff and comments in one of my books one day. But it's okay, no one will recognise themselves (scribble, scribble, frantic note-taking).

I met the children in the library. They're going to write short stories over the next two weeks, so we introduced ourselves and talked about what we like about our favourite stories. There are a lot of fans of Geronimo Stilton out there! I read part of A Hairy Tale, my favourite of all of the books I've written, then we did an exercise where we mixed up adjectives/verbs and nouns so that we had unusual combinations like carnivorous grandma, exploding grass, pooping spaceship and kissing lion and brainstormed all of the possible actions and reactions. Everyone came up with some real gems at this stage. Naomi had a beautiful first line. Turehou seemed to have a fully-formed story emerge in his head - how did he do that? Paul (a teacher) helped Piripi and Samuel by asking them lots of questions. I think that's how the 'battle with the dung beetles' cropped up as a scenario (lovely!)

Out at Manunui School, the kids are incorporating whakatauki into their stories. The kids have already brainstormed about what's involved in 'living well.' They came up with concepts like self-esteem, resilience, confidence, and the importance of friends and mentors. I read one of my favourite books to them - Officer Buckle and Gloria, by Peggy Rathmann. On the surface it's about a policeman who gives boring safety speeches in schools, until he gets an unusual dog called Gloria to help him. Deep down it's a story about how we all do better when we have a buddy. It's also a great example of how much sub-text there is in stories.

The challenge is how to write great stories that have deeper meaning about things like friendship. This isn't as easy as it sounds. I'm still learning about that myself. So instead of thinking about friendship, I decided to get out my story-starter cards, which have pictures on one side, and questions on the other. Jimmy brainstormed really fast about a Magical Tanny - a beast that looked like it had escaped from a Harry Potter or Percy Jackson story. Everyone ended up with great ideas splattered onto paper. There were watery portals, spy planes and evil rabbits. Now they need to figure out which are the ideas that they want to pursue and mould into a story.

Ideas and the shape of things may change when we look at structure and plot. Mine change constantly.

Opotoki Residency Start of 2nd week

Some Opotiki College writers have finished their first drafts. The two I've read have interpreted the theme - Our Town, Our Stories - quite differently, although both are stories that could have happened within the town. Because all the participants are members of a group called Scribblers, they already have a good set of skills to work with. A surprising number are composing at the computer which I consider an essential skill for any writer. At the current rate of progress, it seems that we will mostly complete the task before the end of the week.

After discussions with the Waiotahe Valley School group we have decided to interpret the theme more loosely than originally intended: telling stories from the point of view of an inanimate island was proving too restrictive. They are now planning stories of events that could have happened on or arround the island.

At our sessions towards the end of the first week, the Omarumutu school group worked together on a story where Weka met with Kiore for the first time. We looked at how to make Weka the obvious protagonist and Kiore the antagonist. We also discussed which tense to use, agreeing that the past was the most suitable. Students then wrote a short story which some read to the whole group. Now we will work on individual stories. I suspect that, as with the other schools, our interpretation of the theme will need to be modified.