Context

Having completed a series of four “Lads and Dads” reading evenings called Boys and Books (designed to engage boys and fathers with reading) the school wanted to follow up with a writing event, also held in the evening, to maintain the interest of boys and fathers in reading and writing and to extend the opportunity to girls.  The school already celebrates National Poetry Day with performance poetry from the whole school.

Aims & principles

• Enjoyment / making writing fun
• Week of varied writing and language activities culminating in a parent and child poetry evening
• Raising awareness of activities that could be used in Literacy and English lessons
• Creating a forum to establish Everybody Writes Week as a regular focus

In Practice

The school decided that they would launch their Everybody Writes week in July 2009 as a surprise to the children and their parents.

On the Monday morning, teachers displayed banners outside the school advertising Everybody Writes Week. A team of teachers talked to parents, carers and children about a range of writing and language topics – e.g. favourite words and overused expressions.

Next, there was an assembly led by the headteacher.  The assembly introduced the ‘surprise’ week ahead.  It included poems and the sharing of some of the favourite words / expressions collected from the parents and carers that morning in the playground.

The children in the Y5 class had been working on a dance project for a couple of weeks jointly with a local secondary school.  This had taken the form of a secondary school dance teacher working with the class for a morning, then having two weeks of practice. After performing their work at the local secondary school, the class used it to launch Everybody Writes week, demonstrating the links between different forms of writing and inspiration.  The class danced to  ‘Blame it on the Sunshine’ by the Jackson Five.

Exploring a range of poetry
Each day teachers shared a ‘classic poem’ with children, either at the start or the end of the day, and linked that poem to an activity. For instance, on one day children were all given a pound to “buy” individual words from a poem by Shakespeare at 10p a word. They were then asked to use the words they had chosen to create their own poems.

One day the local paper delivered enough free copies to share around the school and each class cut up headlines into words to produce their own ‘poems’ about Stockport, concentrating on interesting phrases rather than ‘sense’.

Interruptions
Teachers created a series of ‘interruptions’ throughout the week for the whole school and broke up the format of normal lessons. Interruptions included:

• Inviting a community policeman to talk about his job and how he used writing in his work
• Children using alphabet beads to create key rings and bracelets featuring their favourite words, phrases or important feelings
• A member of staff performing an extract from Hiawatha
• A teacher arriving at a classroom with an enlarged poem cut up into individual words.  Could the children use the words to create their own poem?
• A teacher arrived in the classroom with an unfinished sentence. Could the children complete it imaginatively?

Class Books
These were intended as a record of the work and activities of each class, so others could have a flavour and share what had been achieved / experienced.  They were not necessarily ‘best’ books, but followed the route individual classes had taken through the week.  They contained drafts, snippets of words and phrases, final copies, photographs, etc.
They were to be used as teacher / class wanted and were on display on the Thursday poetry evening and are now in the library and as part of displays around school.

Poems and Pizza
This was held in the evening and was opened by Senior Primary Strategy Advisor Phil Beswick, who gave a little background to Everybody Writes.  The adults and children were then split into groups, to rotate through a series of activities:
 

• Poet Mike Garry gave a performance and poetry workshop
• Writing limericks and reproducing them in the ICT suite
• Teamwork / logic game matching book titles and authors but moving around a set of nine hoops
• Pizza and juice served in the dining hall (i.e. inbetween activities - time constraint!).
• Close with raffle prizes of a range of books.

Poem in Your Pocket Day
Children had the opportunity to research and read a range of poems to find a favourite which they had particularly enjoyed.  This was then printed / photocopied / written out, folded and kept in their pocket for the day.  Throughout the day, adults and children could stop and challenge each other to read out or share their chosen poem.  Treats and rewards enhanced the overwhelming enthusiasm surrounding the day.

At the end of the week there was a final assembly where poems and writing were performed and there was a celebration of writing and sharing of creations.

Partnerships

The school was keen to involve the pupils’ family members or guardians. They also worked with local poet Mike Garry and used existing connections with the local newspaper, the community police service and a local secondary school to add variety to the activities offered to the children.

Outcomes

There was a noticeable change in perception for many children who had previously thought that writing was long and laborious. The school is also planning future Everybody Writes Weeks on an annual basis.

Children were overwhelmingly in favour of another next year.

‘My mind exploded with ideas’ — (SEN registered child)
‘It lifted our spirits for writing’ — (SEN registered child)
‘Fun!’
‘Learning to use description sparked your imagination’
‘You could use any pens you wanted to’
‘Usually people don’t like writing but they did that week’

Teachers
“Children who don’t normally write were interested and enthusiastic.”
“It showed in their writing the following week.”
“I will continue to use these ideas in lessons.”

Resources

• Copies of Jumpstart Poetry by Pie Corbett
• Coloured gel pens
• Banner
• Pizza and juice

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