Writing Together 2003/4

In Person and Online

Writer: Peter Wynne Willson
Schools: Golden Hillock School and Sports College, Sparkbrook;
Park View School, Alum Rock; Sheldon Heath Community School, Sheldon
Coordinating Teachers: Helen Terry; Rifat Aziz; Pete Murphy

This Birmingham residency worked with groups of Year 8 children from three secondary schools. It was designed to showcase and explore the ways in which writers can work at Key Stage 3 using on-line technology as a key part of the process.

A single writer - Peter Wynne-Willson - visited all three schools, leading a day workshop with a group in each and then working on-line over the rest of the term with the children involved.

The teachers - none of whom had worked with a writer before - wanted the children to ‘find the precious voice inside them’ and ‘to become more confident and successful’ and to gain ‘a sense of the wider world’.

Each teacher identified a group of around a dozen children. They aimed to include an equal number of girls and boys, children from each year class who might particularly benefit and children recommended by their own English teachers. Children were also chosen who were working hard but not achieving their potential and for whom the reward and encouragement of working with a writer would be especially beneficial.

The Birmingham Book Festival was selected as a regional partner to manage the residency. It facilitated a meeting between Peter and the teachers, which clarified the practical demands of the project and agreed a plan of work for the day-workshops.

The nature of the residency demanded that children in each group had ongoing access to the internet in order to submit work, receive responses and read the work of other children. Peter created webspace for work produced within his own website (www.peterww.co.uk). This webspace became the focus of the residency. It included (and still includes) a ‘message board’ area for children to post drafts of work and pages for each school (evolving into a page for each student). This website was open access and enabled anyone involved in or interested in the residency to access work produced.

The workshops used a mixture of introductory exercises, drama work and individual writing tasks. Emphasis was placed on ‘why’ to write rather than ‘how’ to write. Following these workshops there was a five week period of on-line activity. Children submitted work to Peter either directly by e-mail or via the website. This work was prompted by the initial workshops and was further facilitated by sessions run by the group teachers, most usefully including direct internet access.

Peter responded to poems and other pieces of writing sent directly to him by e-mail or inputted onto the message board of the site. The children were encouraged to respond to the work of their peers, in their own groups and the other groups. Others were encouraged to visit the website and respond to the work, including Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate. Peter observed that those children who were ‘quietest’ during the workshop days were in many cases the most active when on-line and not subject to peer pressure or the influence of a classroom environment.

The children engaged very actively with the residency. Their self-esteem grew and they became more independent in their writing, responding positively to the critical support of their peer groups through the website. There has been genuine pride in seeing their work on the website and in knowing that other people - not just teachers and fellow students - were also likely to read the work.

The initial day workshops and the on-line process that followed left children feeling empowered and stimulated. They have understood the practical value of drafting and re-drafting and of sharing work with others. Their writing has demonstrated an enhanced creativity. There has been a noticeable, improved use of creative language and an increased interest in exploring the sounds and meanings of words.

The teachers commented particularly on the quality of Peter’s workshops and the value of his drama-based exercises. Peter also demonstrated flexibility and an awareness of the practical realities of making the project work within school.

Direct response from the children included:

‘I was happy to know that I could express my feelings, and that I had the chance to read and comment on other people’s work’

‘I understand more about writing and about how a poems does not have to rhyme’

‘I enjoyed writing poems on the computer. I also enjoyed drafting poems’

‘I have achieved more that I wanted because in the last couple of weeks I have done a lot of work about myself and other people’

All the teachers involved in the residency demonstrated strong commitment, particularly given the difficulties of timetabling access to ICT suites and working with groups of children from across a whole school year. They themselves benefited, particularly by seeing new ways of working with creative writing in the classroom.

The residency generally improved the quality of creative writing produced by the children and increased their enthusiasm for their own writing. The on-line links between the children and teachers of the three schools was valuable, as was the opportunity to expose the writing work to the wider world. This process served to validate the work and give an increased sense of purpose to those writing.

The residency showed that working on-line can work well, although it definitely needs to be supported by face-to-face activities, excellent ICT support and a high level of day-to-day administrative support to enable communication to be fluid and continuous. The limited face-to-face contact with the writer was perhaps a little frustrating but the on-line drafting, criticism and re-drafting created new opportunities for creativity and practical work.

The three schools have agreed to meet face-to-face to allow the children involved in the residency to meet and perform their poems. The website will remain in existence although the residency pages will not be actively managed or edited.