GETTING DOWN WITH THE KIDS: WELL VERSED
Written by Katy Carr
used to think it was just things like Shakespeare’s sonnets. Now I know that you can mix it all up, make it funny and suit it to your personality.”
Throughout the winter we’ve been warming our cockles through the Well Versed poetry project; where our incubatory sessions with teacher and poets on how to teach poetry have culminated in a series of unique poetry workshops in schools across Norwich and Norfolk.
The children have done us proud – coming up with their own poems in response to what they’ve learnt and also learning how to perform them in a series of showcases.
I attended one of the showcases at Avenues Junior School and it was great to see the enthusiasm on the stage as well as the talent. Kids and parents clapped through poems on topics as diverse as fish fingers to our place in the world.
One parent spoke to me after the event, telling me how her Yr 5 son really wasn’t sure about the project when it was mooted, but that he’s had a great time and had learnt a lot. In the feedback forms, many of the kids have said that they’d like to go on writing poetry, which is just what we’d hope would happen. As Holly Ward, 14, said: “I
The idea was that the information passed on from poet to teacher and vice versa will remain in the classroom, and this too is looking hopeful. Kira Haslam, English Teacher from Northgate High in Dereham, said: “It’s a project that has been very beneficial to me both on a personal and professional level. It’s helped me to reconsider the methods I use to engage pupils with poetry and armed me with an array of techniques and approaches that I can use in the classroom.”
At its best, poetry is more than fiddling around with a few words on a page – it’s a way of allowing children to find their own way of looking at the world and to express themselves succinctly
and
originally, using the best words in the best possible order. These are skills that are going to be invaluable in many spheres of life; an ear for regurgitation and tired thoughts will never be wasted. As well as that, being able to perform your own work in front of peers is really not to be sniffed at. Many thanks to all the teachers, poets and school children
involved in this project, and if you’re interested, find out more on the Writers’ Centre Norwich blog.
What’s On: Our poetry and prose evening short courses commence the first week of March; you might just find a last minute place, but hurry! Poets will find Esther Morgan, Mslexia Poetry Competition winner and excellent tutor, ready to guide them through their paces in what’s bound to be an inspirational run. The prose fiction course with Stephen Foster is sold out, but there are still places on a prose fiction day course on how to transform real life into fiction with Bernadine Evaristo and more.
Meanwhile, our monthly book club continues – and if you’d like spruce up your reading list stay tuned; next month we’ll be alerting you to our summer reads campaign. We’ll also be giving news of
our Norwich and Norfolk Festival events.
Stay in touch:
www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk.
34 Fine City Magazine 2011
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