Teacher and pupil responses to the POR project

I enjoyed immersing the children into the world of the story through drama, story -telling and other talk for writing activities. We already teach a lot of drama in our school, so that is not new, the difference with the POR teaching sequences is that the drama provided a solid basis for text-led writing activities (rather than objective-led ones), which has been liberating for teaching and learning. The children seemed freer to express their ideas and were so inspired that they naturally wrote in role for a real purpose. The children’s focus was shifted from the process of writing to its content.

The reluctant readers and writers in my class had enough ideas and motivation to write down their ideas and before they knew it, had written a paragraph. One boy said, “I want to marry writing,” and sighed with disappointment when it was time to stop. Since we started the POR project, one mother commented, “He is always asking to read at home and that’s a first!”

The more experienced writers were able to take advantage of the simple, yet open structures to find their voice and express their ideas to their best ability.

Beverly Titmuss
Patcham Junior School, Brighton

The Eye of the Wolf by Daniel Pennac

I read this book in the Easter holidays when I was staying on a holiday farm in the middle of nowhere, in the countryside, in Suffolk. I enjoyed reading the book (quite an easy read), maybe more so, because I felt close to nature and animals? I thought it was a fantastical read, cleverly written portraying the voices and thoughts of the 2 main characters in the text. As humans, it gives us a sort of glimpse into the animal world. I think children would enjoy hearing this book read aloud to them as they always seem so much more sympathetic to animals then adults. A different sort of book to anything I've read before, but nonetheless enjoyable and should be celebrated for being different!

Audrey Dean John Hunt Primary & Nursery School, Newark, Nottinghamshire