Day 4

Kathy read the last bit of "A Hairy Tale" today. The students have enjoyed this story and Kathy has kept them hanging on by stopping at an exciting point each day.

One student asked if Kathy was writing a new book. This led to an interesting discussion about writing books, royalties, trying to get books published. Everyone was fascinated by what Kathy had to say. Gave them a good insight into what is involved in writing books.

Kathy explained that her latest book has about 20,000 words too many and she is going to have to whittle it down. She said there were lots of irrelevant parts she needed to eliminate to make the story better.

We then talked about what type of fairy tale the students' stories were. Kathy talked about showing and telling - the best way to show a character is through what they say, do and think.

Then looked at creating tense moments by writing about sights, sounds, smells, using speech,

etc.

When writing an action scene Kathy suggested

• choose words carefully


• use verbs


• use shorter sentences


• don't describe too much

The students went off to work on their adventure stories for about 45 minutes then came back and some students wanted to share what they had written. Some awesome writing has been produced.

Olivia- "Suddenly my brain clicked and I must have snapped out of the blur that you get when you have just been woken from a peaceful sleep."

Chelsea - her opening sentence - "Who would have thought a lazy day at the beach with my 2 best friends, Danny and Luke, would change our lives for ever."

And - "unhappy groans gave the village an unpleasant feeling."

Liam - an action packed adventure story with a touch of humour - "It had big, sleek tyres for a fast trip on the road."

Ronald - a detailed, logical, easy to follow story - "What! I can barely run a lap of our school field, let alone run a whole building!"

Some great stories are being crafted, thanks to Kathy's explicit teaching of the steps involved and the great rapport she has developed with everyone.

Day 3

Kathy began by recapping the point of a story - handy as the weekend may have made some forget some of last week's work. She made suggestions for those still floundering.

Then she got them thinking about the ending. Talked about how they needed a logical end to it. And after the climax or crisis, needed a calming down period that leads to the end. I like the way Kathy explains what she is talking about in language, and using examples, in a way that is easily understood by the students.

Kathy then introduced the idea of storyboards or chunking. William thought he had heard about storyboards but wasn't too sure.

Kathy used a picture book to show how each page can be a different scene - like a movie. Pace can change too.

Modelled on board using "A Hairy Tale" as an example.

Had a box for each chapter - Rosie noticed that you had to have a main bit for each part of the story - needs to have a link - otherwise reader won't "get it".

The storyboard shows up if there are any gaps.

Can

• visualise it


• draw pictures


• write sentences


• do a timeline - this shows the peaks and troughs really well. If too many troughs, may mean it's boring.

Kathy then gave them a choice of doing a storyboard now or just carry on writing if they know what is happening. This catered for the different needs of the group.

Then went back to talking about the ending - something unexpected may happen - could have a twist.

Suggested they write the ending now and to talk with her if they were confused.

Main character needs to be the one who sorts the problem. Gave them lots of examples to show the different things that might happen at the end. But it MUST MAKE SENSE.

Looked at characters - Read "Voices in the Park" - showed same thing from 4 different perspectives.

I - first person

he/she - 3rd person - could be limited (focusing closely) or unlimited (God perspective)

you - 2nd person

Kathy explained how they will be using limited perspective.

Suggested they could "interview" their character so they know how they will react in certain situations.

Gave the group a character chart to fill in to help focus their ideas.

Students filled in the chart then discussed their character afterwards.

Kathy gave suggestions.

• have childlike characters or children


• same with creatures


• don't have more characters than you need


• choose family/friends that provide contrast - not the same


• talked about names for characters - have a variety of types -short, long, unusual, simple to complex.

A very full session but the children are still keen and coping well with all the information. Adventure stories coming along well.

Day Two

The students were very enthusiastic for day two and Kathy didn't disappoint when she turned up wearing a wig to be in character for reading some more of her story, "A Hairy Tale".
She used this as a starting point for talking about the plot of a story and how important it was.
Kathy and the students had an animated discussion about what types of beginnings they liked in books and she shared some of her favourite ones.
Having a variety of examples helped them focus on different types of beginnings - exciting ones, or normal ones then something happens to change things.
I like the way Kathy listens carefully to the students thoughts, suggestions, etc and they appreciate this as it shows she values their ideas and opinions.
Olivia talked about a really neat book she had been reading with stories written by students. It was a Duffy book and we managed to track a copy down - it helps to be working in the library - and Kathy read one of the stories that Olivia had talked about. A really powerful piece of writing with lots of plays on words and twists. This produced some more excited discussion and helped give the children some more ideas for their writing.
Kathy modelled a graph of a story using the 3 little pigs story as an example. This helped them see that the story had peaks and troughs before reaching the final climax or "aha moment".
Kathy then talked about conflict and complications in stories and about creating tension. She gave them some focus questions to keep in mind to help them develop their beginning.
They then went away to write the beginning of their story and I think the long period of quiet that followed showed how eager and interested they were in what they were doing.
They came back together about half an hour later to share some of their writing. Everyone was keen to share but could only fit in a few.
Kathy made suggestions about breaking up descriptive pieces with some dialogue so it wasn't quite so heavy going. Liam had already included plenty in his story and it was a strong beginning.
Time was running out but before finishing, Kathy told them that next time they would be looking in more detail at their characters, so it gave them something to think about over the weekend.
The way Kathy has organised the sessions and broken them down is working really well. The students are responding well to her approach and are still very enthusiastic about the writing process. Looking forward to seeing the endresult of her visits.

Kathy White day one

We welcomed Kathy to school this morning and she was very impressed with our beautiful library where we will be working, and our awesome mountain, Mount Hikurangi which towers over our lovely school.
The students had previously decided that they would like to write adventure stories with Kathy.
Kathy began by gettting the students to tell her about their favourite books, if they had one, or the types of books they liked, and why they liked them. Roald Dahl featured a few times.
Then the brainstorming session began, which the students enjoyed and which produced some amazing ideas and conversations.
The students went off in pairs or by themselves to brainstorm more ideas about what their story might be about- carnivorous grandmother, alien baby, even kissing bomb!!
The group then came back together after about 30 minutes to share their ideas. Kathy was able to make suggestions about their ideas and guide them so that they would think of a problem or conflict to base their ideas around. She also pointed out that because they were only writing a short story, they may need to narrow their ideas down, as the story would not be long enough to include them all.
After the morning break Kathy read some of one of her books, "A Hairy Tale" which is a type of twisted fairy tale. She discussed the story as she read it and shared with the students the reasons why she wrote the book and what had inspired her. This helped them understand where the story had come from.
Another brainstorming session followed, this time using a box of fairly ordinary objects. They had to choose 1 object and brainstorm around it. Or they could choose 1 of the NZ Post story starter cards as inspiration.
Some students managed to include this brainstorm with what they had started earlier in the day. Others started on a totally new idea.
Once again they came back together as a group to share their ideas with Kathy and get her input. They were very enthusiastic and came up with more wonderful ideas. How their minds work is amazing!
Kathy made suggestions as they shared and reminded them about the need to have a problem or conflict to base their story on.
Most of the students have decided on their theme/idea for their adventure story and are looking forward to Kathy's visit tomorrow, when they will begin writing their actual story. The focus will be on writing a great beginning for their story.
The students have responded well to Kathy and she seems to have motivated them really well and they are keen to write. One boy even asked if he could write some more ideas and do more planning after school. The answer was a definite yes.
Looking forward to the next session.

Kathy White

Hello my name is Maddie and I am twelve years old. I am looking forward to the upcoming visit from author Kathy White. I have all ready begun thinking about what adventure story I am going to write. A samurai princess trapped in china.

Kathy White visiting author

Only a few days to go before Kathy arrives at school. Looking forward to meeting her and working with her. Students are looking forward to her visit too.