Writer's Workshop

Today I had a rare opportunity to work with the students in Will's room on writing. I love this kind of work - it is so inspiring to see children developing their unique writer's voice and learning to trust their instinct for language. They have been doing some pretty interesting work (through the mythology theme) on creation stories, and the creation of new worlds, so we combined that idea with an exercise on atmosphere and mood development in writing. The students all generated notes, and from that point worked on a piece of writing more like a painting of words than a story or logical progression of thoughts. They all got absolutely caught up in their writer's bubble, creating their own thoughts in their own way with some striking results. I had so much fun reading their work, I wanted to share some of it with you. (Please bear in mind that not everyone had a chance to fully correct for spelling and punctuation. I have not corrected unedited work.) These are snippets, to give you a flavor, and names have been omitted to protect the artists from paparazzi.

'...They reek of sadness
angry at nothingness
sad at everything
the core like bread being ripped
apart
the forest so sad
frost
ice
rain
snow
cold
forest
blue forest...'

'You think of lime as beaing calm. You think of red as anger. You think of blue as beaing sad but I beg to differ...'

'...I see a young shadow of me, he hums and walks away - I try to follow but a huge drop of water falls and... my ears hurt as they are listening to metal scraping the edge of nothing...'

'...I see a bleached, bright
yellow, then comes
a calm blue. A burning
red comes flaring
at me...
...Something
tapped me. It was
a great warrior,
he said: The people need you. So bring me there I said...'

'...Only bubbles popping on the brook
dare disturb the sacred peace
The trees beside are still
all is still, all is still'

'The beach is flotty with its pretty blue water. It makes me feel so wonderful and happy. I hear a bird chirp, I hear the wind blow...'

'The tiger is stuck in the tree. Crying. Yelping. It's madness. I try to help but I can't. The tiger can't get out... It's yellow red and orange swirling and swirling...'

'If you look down the sea looks blue when you swim in it. It might look clear or white to you. The sun bright yellow the cherrys ripe red...'

'...Then it breaks into tiny particles of snow. But it is still very dark out. Then it gets darker and darker. Black now. Then my head goes blank.'

Thank you to all the students for making my day!