The Words for an Assembly This is the transcript of an assembly for students to listen to in the age range of 13-16. Education covers many things and the focus of this is to encourage students to use the beauty and skill of 19th Century Novels to give them not just appreciation of great writing but, at the same time, encourage them to be calm and enjoy the moment.

THE EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY This resource is to inspire students to write about an ordinary thing in an extraordinary way. It provides an explanation ( a transcript to read to the students if you want to) and a worked example. If you show your students the picture and the worked example it will inspire them to write their own imaginative visions.

In this resource Johnnie Young has found during his 35 years of teaching creative writing that students love to write about suspense but in practice they often go in too quickly and then find it hard to regulate the suspense. This resource, which has been carefully crafted for 13-15 year olds, shows a simple straightforward overall structure and plan and then an example of an outline plan fleshed out. The students therefore have a choice about how to use it: Try to think of their own scenario or Write out, develop and expand the outline plan fleshed out in their own words. An opening is provided to help kick start the activity.

This resource demonstrates how to write a poem based on a pattern of three colours. I’ve presented three drafts of an example poem and you may wish to show your students the progression. They may which to highlight changes and see if they prefer them. Is the poem improving through its progressive stages? If so, why? There are provided also ideas on how to get them started as well as ideas for presentation once finished.

How to teach the writing of a poem about a river This resource provides details of a step by step guide for you to encourage your students to write a poem about a river. It provides detailed guidance with options of the actual words you might use which I have found work well with this. It is important that the initial notes from the prompts provided by the stages are written out in rough draft basic poetic form to make up the structure of the poem which can then be improved on. It is the rewriting and editing process which is so important for this idea to work well and therefore a series of improved drafts are shown as an example to help inspire creative ideas.

Syllogism: getting your students to think by using a short story. Read your students the short story about granny’s cake and explain to them the syllogism (ie: “ You always love my cake. This is a special cake and therefore you will love this cake.” Then follow the discussion suggestion (after the story) and ask them to write their own short stories which include their own syllogisms. This will help students think critically about logic and reasoning in a practical and fun way. It will also help them expand their creative imaginations by the use of syllogisms. A few examples are given in the discussion section together with an outline of a story based on a chosen syllogism to help the students get started by giving them a worked idea.

This resource gives an example of a creative analogy and includes a you tube video short

Ask your students to write a short story about someone who does the wrong thing and then has to deal with the consequences of it. Read your students the short story called: “Mum’s Marzipans” to inspire them.

Treasure Island: close reading great literature to help improve creative writing. This is a great writing task based on a piece of close reading from a master story teller: Robert Louis Stevenson. A writing task is set to write a character study in approximately 100 words and then the character description from the opening of Treasure island is examined with close reading skills. Notes are given to show how skilful Stevenson included so much in his description and then the teacher asks the students to re-draft their own descriptions using some of the techniques discovered in the close reading to enhance their own work.

I stopped to look more closely. These days and especially these days, we all realise the increasing pressure on our students. The speed of change, the uncertainty, the anxieties all around. This exercise is designed to provide a little oasis of calm in a busy world and at the same time help with their writing skills and, in fact, use their writing skills to help create that oasis of calm. The task is for them to imagine walking in the countryside somewhere when they come across something that causes them to stop and just look. It may be a thing of beauty, or a thing of curiosity or something unusual or unexpected. Then ask them to write about their walk and then describe the thing they stop for in such a way as to create a calmness of perception. Below is an example to read to them entitled: “The blue bird on the old statue”. Read it through with them and discuss it and point out how the writing slows time down and provides a meditative observation. Then ask them to have a go themselves. You may wish to have ready a selection of pictures of things found in the countryside to help boost their imaginations.

Stonehenge. An intriguing opening for a science fiction story for your students to continue. Read the following opening of a story about Stonehenge. It is designed to hook in your students’ interest. Then ask them to continue the story in accordance with their imaginations which will be fired up.

Bring character traits to life in a fun way. Having taught English for 35 years I have seen many thousands of descriptions of characters written by students of all ages. If you want to improve the outcome you have to improve the way the task is set-up. I have observed many writing task set-ups aimed at producing descriptions of characters. Very often the teacher will provide a list and say: “Describe a character. Think of height, clothes, voice, mannerisms, eyes, hair etc ” and the student will produce a description, following the prompt list and the outcome will often be rather flat. This resource provides a fun way to bring the description of character to life and make it more interesting and the method used can be re-used again and again for different types of content. The key to enhancing description of character is to introduce character traits and put them into action. Detailed instructions are provided about how to deliver this resource and a model answer is provided to help show the students effectively how it works. Also a ‘mix and match’ chart has been carefully prepared for writing task practice and a worked example using the ‘mix and match’ chart is provided for illustrative purposes.

What variations can you make with this one small text? This is a wonderful exercise to jump start your students when you have creative writing in mind. Give them this introduction: “Imagine you have been hunting for a rare glimpse of a particular elusive tropical bird in the swamps of the vast South American Amazon basin. Read the short version and then write an extended version based on your imagination. “ Hand them a copy of this short version of the text entitled “Tropical Bird” and read it through with them. Tropical Bird short version I arrived after hours of wading through the swamp and saw to my great delight the beautiful tropical bird which I had been chasing after for so long. It floated on the water and sang a little song. Now ask them to expand this piece of writing with more information taken from their own imaginations. If they are unsure about what to do or how to do it show them the chart below which includes ideas for them to use or adapt. A fully worked example is provided for guidance.

Read the end of the story and write the rest. Read the final part of the story to your class and ask them to see if they can be imaginative and creative and think up what story line might have convincingly led up to that situation. Encourage them to make some outline notes and discuss their ideas with a partner. Then set them the task of writing the story from the beginning all the way up to the end as stated. Then ask a few to read out their whole story, complete with the ending as shown.

Read this amusing story to your students and ask them to draw a picture to illustrate it. The whole story is 1300 words. Winnie the Spider and the Seven Pink Shoes “Now you just tell me what you are playing at Winnie!” said Winnie’s mother and looked at Winnie’s seven pink shoes and frowned with a very big frown indeed. “They were in a sale mother. I couldn’t resist them. Buy one get six for free!” “But why in the world did you not buy eight? Now you’ve got a single foot with no shoe on it and that looks very, very silly!” “They didn’t have any more than seven pink shoes,” said Winnie. “But…” and she was holding a bag, “but they did have this one which is exactly the same style and they actually gave it to me for free. The only problem is…” and she took a shoe out of the bag and showed her mother, “…as you can see…it’s yellow!” “I can see that it is yellow. You can’t wear seven pink shoes and one yellow shoe!” “And why not?” said Winnie and placed the shoe onto her foot with determination. “Ah… it fits perfectly, just like the others!” With that Winnie did a little spider dance and her mother stood there watching with disbelief as a dazzle of pink shoes whirled about in the air with a splodge of yellow swirling around here and there in the blur. Winnie stopped dancing and panting looked down at her shoes and smiled. “See, they’re lovely!”

The wind is getting stronger. Ask your students to write a short description of the wind as it gets stronger and the effect it has on all around. There is an example description to spark their imaginations. After you have read it to them remind them of some “ingredients” they may wish to include in their work: Show the growing effect that the wind has as it gets stronger. Make the narration first person singular. Make use of some dialogue with the narration. Perhaps let the narrator walk from one place to another describing different aspects of the wind’s effects. I could sense that the wind was up to something. The first sign was the donkeys. They simply refused to move. “Come on Bessy…” Mr Hodgkins pleaded. “The children are waiting for their donkey rides!” But no. Bessy and all the other donkeys stayed firm. And when a donkey decides that it doesn’t want to move then there is not a lot you can do about that. “Why do you think they won’t move at all?” I asked as I stopped on my walk to see. “I think it’s the wind,” said Mr Hodgkins and pointed to the beach where the surface of the soft sift was being lifted. “It gets in their eyes you see,” he said. CONTINUED

The Five Ton Dinosaur Tooth Read this opening to your class especially designed to engage your students’ imaginations. Then ask them to write about the adventure which unfolds. “I think it might be a stalagmite,” said Dr Parsons the geologist. “It doesn’t have the surface texture for that,” said Sheila Randall, the biologist. “Well, it certainly doesn’t look man made, that’s for sure,” said Peter Mackay, the lead archaeologist. “Are we all in agreement then that this is a mystery find?” said Cathy Thornton, the chief reporter for the Exeter Echo, her pencil hovering above her notebook.

An Unexpected Thing One of the main challenges in this great profession of ours is to get the attention of a group of students, hold their attention and then manage a situation that gets that attention to produce some useful work which will lead to good solid learning. Of course, as teachers, we all know that. That’s the easy bit. But ‘how’ do you do that? Now that is the difficult bit. Johnnie Young has spent over 35 years developing ways to make the work interesting, enjoyable and useful. In this resource you will be provided with: An explanation of the task delivered in such a way as to engage the interest of your students straight away including the exact words you may wish to use to save you time. A specially written entertaining example to read to them. Notes and prompts for them to get them started writing. Notes on how to manage the work once it’s complete. Clear learning aims.

Johnnie Young, with over thirty years’ teaching experience has carefully prepared this resource called “Describe a great painting twice” Once with the writing organised into sentences and then the same writing as one long sentence. Learning point: to practise descriptive writing and investigate the different effects of writing with one long sentence compared to writing which is in sentences. Teaching instructions are provided in detail together with a guide for actual words the teacher could use to help teach it efficiently and a checklist and two examples carefully written for comparison and teaching purposes.

Bernie and Martin are members of a model aircraft club. One day Martin’s helicopter crash lands in a nearby field but because Martin has trouble walking his friend goes in search of it. He doesn’t find it but what he does find changes Martin’s life forever. Read the example story, especially written by Johnnie Young, to your class to inspire their creative imaginations and then ask them to write their own story where someone loses something (could be anything, anywhere) and they search for it without success. What they do find though is incredible. The Missing Model Helicopter. “It’s got to be here somewhere, surely. Is that it? Yes, I think it is…No…no it’s not! That’s just a piece of foil flapping in a bush! Now where could it have gone?” Bernie was getting quite agitated now. His friend Martin had been flying his remote controlled helicopter at the Titans Model Aircraft Club when it had crash landed somewhere in a nearby field. Martin couldn’t walk very well so Bernie had offered to go and search for it but it was proving to be very elusive. He carried on searching. Over two hours now. He knew that Martin wouldn’t be able to afford a replacement. “Ah,” he thought, “maybe that is it…over there…” But when he got to the suspect object he found himself looking down on a well dried out cow pat without a model helicopter in sight. CONTINUED OVER 900 WORDS

Incredibly unusual way to start a story that will have your reader intrigued. In this resource Johnnie Young will explain how to write the opening of a story which will intrigue your reader and encourage them to want to read on. It is simple and effective and your students will love experimenting with this technique. An explanation is provided and five ideas offered to get them started straight away. Also an illustration of the technique is provided in full to spark the imaginations.