story4writing
| writing_for_fun_in_schools.pdf |
Are you a writing school?
Do you want your students to do more writing and actually enjoy it?
How about a ‘story4writing’ day with Richard O'Neill one of Britain's leading storytellers,
Richard is also an author, scriptwriter, lyricist and playwright.
His writing for children and adults has been critically acclaimed in the UK, USA and mainland Europe.
The workshop has been developed from work in schools throughout the UK, with help from teachers and children. The starting point we believe for great writing is to have a real understanding of story and the fun we can have with words, characters and perspectives, with writing becoming the by-product of the fun of doing. This workshop is being used successfully across the key stages. .
New methods are being developed all the time including the 'Story Roundabout' , 'The Describers' and 'The Pink Barbie Bicycle' (not what it seems) all fun interactive methods tried and tested to produce results
Thanks to all the schools, teachers and children from Cumbria to Cambridgeshire, Worcestershire to Nottinghamshire who have allowed me to put the finishing touches to the story4writing workshop.
How do we do it? Richard will first teach storytelling skills to your pupils (over 200 joined the session in Yorkshire recently). He delivers a selection of his stories and then allows children to play around with character and plot. Only then do we pick up a pen or pencil and start to write.
The whole day is based around the four F’s starting with Fun, we demonstrate through story that this process of writing is fun. Fascination, we encourage them to get fascinated by characters and plot.
Fabrication, we encourage them to fabricate a story and then to commit that to paper experiencing the fabrication, the making of a piece of work from start to finish. Freedom, we allow boys and girls to realise the freedom that writing brings, showing them they can express themselves and their interests through the spoken and written word.
These sessions have also shown increases in pupils self-esteem and confidence.
On longer projects in primary and secondary, we find that better writing leads to better oracy and behaviour.
*Many schools across the country develop an on-going writing relationship with Richard, allowing them to benefit from the latest methods, hints and tips and also to preview his latest work.
Teacher comments from our Story4Writing days and longer projects
Never seen Rebecca so excited about her writing.
Levi wouldn’t stop until he got to the bottom right hand corner of his page.
A reluctant boy writer was engaged and on task for a full half hour.
Enthused the children all morning
Richard made every effort to tailor the whole day to each year group’s needs.
The input is having a huge impact on the boys confidence, and spin off benefits for other teachers, they report the boys are more focused in class, better behaved and just generally nicer to be around!
A head teachers view
"Having, for many years, taught children the processes of writing a story, I was naturally interested in how the processes would be perceived by a professional story-teller.
Were the processes and messages that I was giving the children in line with that of a recognised author and oral story-teller? Always keen to learn and improve my own professional practice, I was excited at the prospect of watching Richard O'Neill apply his knowledge and skills in a class of mixed ability year 4's. The process began with wonderful modelling, cleverly delivering story around themes which the children could immediately identify and enthuse. This manifested itself in the telling of the story of "Apple Juice Jones" , an ex-serviceman with a passion for monster trucks and a wartime habit of driving too quickly! The children were enthralled by the oral story-telling and the rich characters contained within it. Moreover, they could readily identify with the different aspects of the story, mapping these easily onto 'story mountain' templates. The processes for creating that memorable story were explored during the school week and messages such as "Turn the ordinary into the extra-ordinary" were readily employed by the children, allowing them to utilise their wonderful imaginations. As a 'seasoned practitioner', the message of "delve deeper into written sentences in order explore narrative possibilities" struck a chord. It is the potential within a well-written sentence that can offer continuity and interest and ultimately, "good story" as opposed to a series of "add-ons". The messages of the week helped me to think of story-writing in different terms - not just as a vehicle for children to demonstrate 'levelled' skills but a creative form which has its own discrete skills often at variance with any derived 'success criteria' (e.g. a host of adjectives can actually impede the flow of the story and are therefore, potentially unhelpful ). The ultimate test of any training is the impact on teaching and learning standards. In that respect, the quality of children's written work and their understanding of writing processes, from note - taking to publishing, has greatly improved as has their teacher's understanding of what constitutes "good story writing and telling!"."
Do you want your students to do more writing and actually enjoy it?
How about a ‘story4writing’ day with Richard O'Neill one of Britain's leading storytellers,
Richard is also an author, scriptwriter, lyricist and playwright.
His writing for children and adults has been critically acclaimed in the UK, USA and mainland Europe.
The workshop has been developed from work in schools throughout the UK, with help from teachers and children. The starting point we believe for great writing is to have a real understanding of story and the fun we can have with words, characters and perspectives, with writing becoming the by-product of the fun of doing. This workshop is being used successfully across the key stages. .
New methods are being developed all the time including the 'Story Roundabout' , 'The Describers' and 'The Pink Barbie Bicycle' (not what it seems) all fun interactive methods tried and tested to produce results
Thanks to all the schools, teachers and children from Cumbria to Cambridgeshire, Worcestershire to Nottinghamshire who have allowed me to put the finishing touches to the story4writing workshop.
How do we do it? Richard will first teach storytelling skills to your pupils (over 200 joined the session in Yorkshire recently). He delivers a selection of his stories and then allows children to play around with character and plot. Only then do we pick up a pen or pencil and start to write.
The whole day is based around the four F’s starting with Fun, we demonstrate through story that this process of writing is fun. Fascination, we encourage them to get fascinated by characters and plot.
Fabrication, we encourage them to fabricate a story and then to commit that to paper experiencing the fabrication, the making of a piece of work from start to finish. Freedom, we allow boys and girls to realise the freedom that writing brings, showing them they can express themselves and their interests through the spoken and written word.
These sessions have also shown increases in pupils self-esteem and confidence.
On longer projects in primary and secondary, we find that better writing leads to better oracy and behaviour.
*Many schools across the country develop an on-going writing relationship with Richard, allowing them to benefit from the latest methods, hints and tips and also to preview his latest work.
Teacher comments from our Story4Writing days and longer projects
Never seen Rebecca so excited about her writing.
Levi wouldn’t stop until he got to the bottom right hand corner of his page.
A reluctant boy writer was engaged and on task for a full half hour.
Enthused the children all morning
Richard made every effort to tailor the whole day to each year group’s needs.
The input is having a huge impact on the boys confidence, and spin off benefits for other teachers, they report the boys are more focused in class, better behaved and just generally nicer to be around!
A head teachers view
"Having, for many years, taught children the processes of writing a story, I was naturally interested in how the processes would be perceived by a professional story-teller.
Were the processes and messages that I was giving the children in line with that of a recognised author and oral story-teller? Always keen to learn and improve my own professional practice, I was excited at the prospect of watching Richard O'Neill apply his knowledge and skills in a class of mixed ability year 4's. The process began with wonderful modelling, cleverly delivering story around themes which the children could immediately identify and enthuse. This manifested itself in the telling of the story of "Apple Juice Jones" , an ex-serviceman with a passion for monster trucks and a wartime habit of driving too quickly! The children were enthralled by the oral story-telling and the rich characters contained within it. Moreover, they could readily identify with the different aspects of the story, mapping these easily onto 'story mountain' templates. The processes for creating that memorable story were explored during the school week and messages such as "Turn the ordinary into the extra-ordinary" were readily employed by the children, allowing them to utilise their wonderful imaginations. As a 'seasoned practitioner', the message of "delve deeper into written sentences in order explore narrative possibilities" struck a chord. It is the potential within a well-written sentence that can offer continuity and interest and ultimately, "good story" as opposed to a series of "add-ons". The messages of the week helped me to think of story-writing in different terms - not just as a vehicle for children to demonstrate 'levelled' skills but a creative form which has its own discrete skills often at variance with any derived 'success criteria' (e.g. a host of adjectives can actually impede the flow of the story and are therefore, potentially unhelpful ). The ultimate test of any training is the impact on teaching and learning standards. In that respect, the quality of children's written work and their understanding of writing processes, from note - taking to publishing, has greatly improved as has their teacher's understanding of what constitutes "good story writing and telling!"."
