
Slices of Life
Overview
From Curious George to Angelina Ballerina, children love reading book after book about the many adventures of a favourite character. In this creative writing and publishing workshop, students work together to develop a character for their own series. Students look specifically at story structure and character development as they capture different slices of their character’s life.
Learning objectives
Specific to this workshop:
- Read and discuss simple picture book series stories centred around one character
- Primary focus on character development and consistency
- Collaboratively create a character with a driving personality trait
- Integrate details of the collaboratively created character and his/her family, home and friends into own story
- Learn and apply different planning and writing techniques, including sensory description, showing rather than telling, dialogue, and use of catch phrases and idiosyncratic actions
- Students at the ECP centre will also spend the end of the term doing a Technical Skills Booster customised by each teacher to the class's needs based on the writing done throughout the term.
As writers:
- Write with confidence and independence
- Become aware of the disconnect between what the writer knows/imagines and what the reader knows if it’s not written down
- Express ideas with detail
- Slow down to elaborate each part of a story fully
- Follow a simple story structure
- Sequence ideas logically and step-by-step
- Use vocabulary that they know in their writing
- Improve writing skills through individualised feedback from the teacher
- Correct identified technical errors in their work to prepare writing to be published
As learners:
- Develop creativity and collaboration through a workshop environment
- Develop grit and perseverance by working on a challenging and long-term writing project
- Develop time and project management skills to see a project through to completion
- Learn to look at own work critically and consider how to improve it
- Learn to be open to and respond to constructive feedback
- Gain confidence as a writer by writing and publishing a story in a book for a real audience
Creative Writing & Publishing
For children aged
6 to 8
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