Poet in Residence

Poetry Society

March 2006

Paul Marshall

I was kindly invited by KEAP (Kernow Education Arts Partnerships) on behalf of the Poetry Society to undertake the residency which consisted of seven days across three schools- two days in two primary schools and three days in a secondary school. I had been working on a project funded by Creative Partnerships called Coathooks and Corridors which was a celebration of Cornwall LEA since its inception and which culminated in a performance at the Hall for Cornwall in Truro.

As I had already had a relationship with Braddock, Devoran and Penrice schools as part of this project, we felt it would be appropriate to extend this work and open it out within these schools. In consultation with the teachers from each school we devised a series approaches to meet their needs.

Braddock

Braddock is a small village school near Liskeard with two classes, infants and juniors. In consultation with the head teacher I was asked to do some work on oak trees as the school derives its name from Broad Oak and the oak is an integral part of its identity. I spent two days at the school, on the second morning a visit with the children was arranged to Bocconoc Hall a nearby stately home with huge grounds full of very ancient oak trees.
As the junior class spans quite an age and ability range my challenge was to find a way of keeping everyone interested. I decided to approach the subject of oak trees from the perspective of the oak itself-how does an oak tree feel? What does it feel like to be so old? What does it think?
The first part of this took the form of Kennings, I introduced the form through a riddle,

I am an arm swallower
Log-look-a-liker
Tail-swisher
Sewer-dweller
Bottom-muncher
What am I? (Alligator)

Mostly using animals and pets the children made-up their own and read them out while the rest of the class had to guess what they were.
In the next part I used Adrian Mitchell’s poem ‘Yes’ which is built around personification. I asked the children what they thought the moon and a prison and a bus would say, this elicited some very inspired responses. I then gave them the poem and we read it out together-we then discussed how an oak tree might feel and what it would say.

After our visit to Boconnoc hall to study the trees themselves in all their splendour I asked the children to write something as if they were an oak, this could be in the form of a Kenning or something similar to Mitchell’s poem. I had discovered that a model to work to is of much more use in generating good poems than giving no formal guidance whatsoever.

With the infants class I was helped by the head who had arranged, by fortune or design, a delivery of acorns which we planted in special containers-giving us the chance to talk about the way trees grow. We then used this experience in a series of drama games incorporating the ideas of the tree growing from an acorn to maturity and also the journey of the tree through the seasons. Using these physical embodiments back in the classroom we constructed a group poem around these ideas.
In the subsequent session again after our visit to Bocconoc, the session started with a photographic reminder of our visit and we then explored through touch, taste and smell some of the leaves, stones, bark and branches we had brought back. I asked the children to tell me what the items reminded them of and from their observations we again constructed a classroom poem.

(Having no real experience of working with this age group I voiced some concerns to the teacher as to the success of the session-she assured me that at such a young age the process was of more importance than the quality of any finished product and sought to put my mind at rest.)

Devoran

Devoran is a village school near Truro with around 175 pupils. Each class teacher had different requirements so the days were divided between the infant and the junior schools with an assembly at the end of each day where I performed some of my own work and we heard poems that had been written through the day. Because of the amount of time I had I was only able to spend one lesson with each class.

The teacher of years 5 and 6 wanted to do some work on the transition that some pupils would be undergoing between primary and secondary school. We discussed fears and expectations and swapped anecdotes about good and bad times we’d had at school. I then asked the children to write things down in sentences that began with ‘once I was‘ then ‘now I am’ and finally ‘one day I will be.’ We shared some of these and began the process of shaping them into poems.

Year four wanted to mark another transition. Devoran is the oldest school in Cornwall and a new school is under construction nearby. Again I came from the perspective of personification getting the children to imagine how the old school would feel about the new school. Would it miss the children, would it be lonely or jealous. We did some work on senses, listening and seeing, exercises to test how well they knew their classroom and the school. This proved to be a rich vein and some very evocative and moving pieces were produced. Again these pieces were worked on further by the teacher after I had left.

The teacher in year three had organised a walk down to the local creek as she wanted her class to use the surroundings as a springboard for their imagination. We gathered as much material as we could from all our senses- the weather, the muddy brown river, the gorse, the trees-I got the children to tell me what they knew about the creek and its history, some said there was a monster across the river in the woods. I tried too get the children to tell me what the things reminded them of; what was the river like, the upturned boats, from there they went on to form metaphors to be included in their poems.

Year two were working on a group poem which was to be performed in an upcoming competition. They had already been working on the piece and we went into the hall and did some vocal warm-up games and exercises to free up their voices. We also experimented with choral and individual patterns and emphasis as well as pacing.
Year one were performing a sound poem about a robot using acoustic instruments. We looked at how to incorporate sound and words into the same piece. I gave some of my ideas on how to break up the poem into sections and we had a great time making a lot of noise!

For the reception class I found that it was best to ask them to tell me nursery rhymes and stories. We also talked about the sounds that things made.

Penrice

Penrice School is a secondary language college in St. Austell with around 1500 pupils. I had been working with a selection of year seven pupils for the previous project and for this residency I would be working with a year ten drama class. Their assignment was to devise a piece based on endurance with particular reference to Shackleton’s expedition to the Antarctic in 1915. The teacher was keen to use some of the poems generated in the performance itself.

As it was a Drama class I was keen to divide the sessions between practical exercises and written work. I used warm-ups and games in which sight and hearing were gradually taken away, for example students had to become a door to door salesman and sell a machine to a customer without using their hands. These exercises coupled with spatial awareness games were designed to give the students a physical approximation of being deprived and stranded.

When it came to the written part I decided to introduce a free writing exercise to the class.

I gave them a sentence to begin with from Shackleton’s account of his adventures,

All night long the electric light gleamed
From the stern of the dying ship…

From here for ten to fifteen minutes I let the students write. Although they complained of sore hands I believe this freedom of expression is exactly what they needed. I emphasised that they were under no pressure to write anything of quality, my one stipulation was for them to keep writing. I assured them we would not read the pieces out but when we had finished I asked if anyone wanted to volunteer- several hands went up and the quality was evident.

In the subsequent weeks I returned to this free writing exercise as a means of clearing away the cobwebs of the rest of school life and as an aid to concentration.
I also made use of the Object Game in which the students had to write from the perspective of an object. I introduced this game by reading Simon Armitage’s poem ‘Ten Pence Story’ as a model. The objects I chose were all related to survival; ‘a flag flapping on an empty continent’, ‘a pick-axe stuck in a block of ice‘, ‘an abandoned shelter.’

Again these led on to some very good work.

In one of the sessions I got the student’s to imagine that they had found an old camera in the Antarctic with an undeveloped film inside. They then made a contact sheet from a piece of paper and wrote in short descriptions of each imaginary photograph to form a poetic narrative. We then looked at Haiku’s as a form and used the ‘photographs’ as a basis for subject matter.( By chance we had a student from Japan who was able to recite a Haiku in Japanese! Not something that happens everyday in St. Austell.)

The teacher had requested that for the finished piece the students try and produce a choral piece. As this was my final session my approach to this was to pass on something which the teacher could re-arrange as necessary and so I introduced a series of ’list’ poems to the students. I used one of my own ‘Skylarking,’ ‘The Quality of Sprawl’ by Les Murray and ‘The Way We Live’ by Kathleen Jamie. The beauty of a list being that everyone can contribute at least one line either written or spoken.
After consultation with the group and a discussion about survival we decided on the title ‘The quality of Endurance’. Each student wrote their own poem and then formed small groups in which they edited and selected the strongest lines. We finished with a group reading of the class poem.

As I write I have yet to see the finished piece so I am unable to say which poems have been selected and how they have been used. I would have liked to extend the work by helping the students to edit the work they produced but unfortunately we ran out of time.

From my perspective the residency went very well. I was able to make some really strong connections in the three schools both with staff and pupils and some of the work which was produced was really very strong. The residency encompassed the whole range of ages and abilities which was very useful for my own development as a poet and an educator. It has allowed me to identify not only my own strengths and weaknesses as a practitioner but also the kinds of areas that schools and children need help with in order to develop creatively in the future.

Paul Marshall May 2006

Feedback from the Schools

All three schools have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to work with a poet and all would be keen to work with Paul again.  Both the teachers and pupils have been able to explore new areas of writing by having a professional writer in school.

“Students were enthusiastic and responsive.  Although some of them initially thought they could not write poetry, they were all encouraged and guided towards understanding that all contributions are valid.