11th March 2010
Dear Parents,
Be Aware. The children are going to be turning into writers and storytellers!
This week the school embarked on a new method of making writing an accessible and exciting activity. Teachers and children will be turning their classrooms into creative and exhilarating storytelling environments. They will be using as tools two items that they have in abundance: their voices and their incredible imaginations.Children find it difficult to write unless they have something exciting to write about. So they must talk about their ideas first. But before that they must have something to talk about. By watching the award winning Storyspinner collection of stories, which they may have already told you about, their ideas are stimulated and their imaginations fired up to create stories.
After that, they embark upon ‘The Oracy To Writing’ Process. Through this method they explore, examine, tell, retell, innovate and invent stories. This Process has been designed to meet the needs of children at all levels. Because there is no need for any particular expertise in reading and writing, all the children start this work at the same level, that of expert beginner.
After two weeks of this Oracy work that is infused with drama, speaking, listening and story making, the children are ready to write. In fact they will eager and impatient to write. The writing they produce will be creative and will display all the features of authorship: it will be original, it will be owned by them and it will be created with a readership in mind. But most importantly, it will be a joyful activity.
I would very much like to tell you more about these very important and exciting developments and would be delighted if you could come into school to meet me and watch some stories.
So please sign the slip below to say you could attend on Tuesday 16th March and Thursday 18th March from 9.00am till 10.00am.
Entrance will be through the Infant door, once all the children have come in.
Many thanks
Phil McDermott, the Storyspinner
