Expression Through Poetry to Build Confidence

Blog Category: Learning

Posted Thu 24 Feb 2011

jock and friends

When writer Stephanie Taylor was given the opportunity to participate in Scottish Book Trust's Writers in Schools project, she had no idea how surprising and creative children could be! This is what she learned in class.

I was lucky enough to be part of the Writers in Schools mentorship project during 2010 with primary six and seven pupils in Newcraighall Primary School. Liz Niven was my mentor and Shona Cameron was the class teacher.

Liz was a very sympathetic mentor and extremely supportive. She was careful to let me explore all my ideas prior to the sessions but always tried to make sure I had a firm plan of the structure of each lesson.

We shared the sessions initially with Liz taking the first half and working with the children on a group poem. I would then use some of the techniques they had just explored to help them to create individual poems.

It was amazing to see how giving pupils the space and tools to be creative gave them the confidence to try something so new to them. I felt priviledged to watch them take what they were learning and apply it.

EXPRESSION THROUGH POETRY

The goals for the project set by Liz, Shona and myself were to increase confidence in the pupils' own reading and writing and to generate excitement about text and where it can go.
With input from Shona we decided to focus more on expression through poetry.

I was really interested to have the children think about characters and how they related to them. I was hoping they might be able to express some of their feelings about the imminent transition to high school or becoming a primary seven and top of the school. Well, they didn't dissapoint!

There was a lot of thought and discussion on these subjects but in the end the children used imagination and external stimuli to create their characters and the work had a real comical element to it.

JOCK AND FRIENDS

Each pupil invented a character and created an illustrated poem to go along with it. Together we produced a full colour booklet – Jock and Friends- and also made this into an ebook .

I felt it was really important that after the six sessions the children would have a book of their very own that they could hold, read and share. This really helped fire them up - especially with a book launch complete with readings, fizzy drinks and snacks!Giving the children reward and ownership for their learning and creativity is another important lesson I learned.

The sessions ended with the children reviewing their own book and making up quotes for the cover - which helped them to look at their work through different eyes.

CONFIDENCE FOR BOTH TEACHER AND STUDENTS!

Newcraighall Primary School My confidence has been boosted enormously - on the last session the children presented Liz and I with our very own book of poems that they had made all about us! It was completely unexpected and something I will treasure. One little boy even produced three sheets of his own poems he had made over one weekend!

I am very grateful to have taken part in this project and have much more confidence when faced with a group of children all eager to learn about the process of writing! I can only hope they felt as enriched as I did!

Please click the links below to watch my short film about the mentorship and to view Jock and Friends ebook. You can also visit my website here.