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
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