Scenario 2b – Writing for a purpose

In this section we provide examples of activities that involve pupils in creative writing.

Example 1 – Writing a newspaper

Writing a newspaper involves pupils in an activity that develops their knowledge and understanding of their environment, in addition to their literacy and communication skills. In one school, the senior class work together as a complete editorial team to produce a school newspaper each term. Every member of the class is able to undertake some role. The staff are facilitators and encourage the team, but the articles are gathered by the pupils. Some pupils conduct interviews; others will describe recent events. It is interesting to look at editions of the paper over the years to see how the composition of the class changes. In some years the majority of articles will be in photographs and symbols, other years there will be more text material. The inclusion of many photographs of pupils and events enhances the presentation.

Articles are written with various packages – whatever the pupil feels comfortable with. The resulting pieces are pasted together onto A3 sheets before being photocopied for production. The newspaper has many purposes: collaboration between pupils, recording and reporting events, identifying and understanding the readers, as well as celebrating the school. A copy of each edition is laminated and added to the school library.

Example 2 – Story Writing Cubes

Some pupils find it difficult to conjure up new ideas. Somehow the formal writing process seems to inhibit ideas. One teacher gets around this apparent block with the aid of cubes with pictures or symbols. The cubes, made of card, are rolled and whatever image comes up provides the next element in the story. The cubes are colour coded; red for characters, green for places, yellow for weather and so on. On each cube are six symbols for that category, i.e. people, actions and adjectives. Pupils roll the cubes to get ideas for the story, e.g. A character met character at place and something happened. The pupils use the cubes as a starting point for ideas. They can change the outcome and add other ideas.

A similar approach was used by the ‘Lakeland Writers’ to create and write about a giant dragon. Baskets with numbers and items were used – pupils would choose a body part and number, and perhaps colour or other descriptive word, to describe each part of the beast.

Example 3 – Collaborative writing A group of non-verbal pupils belong to a communication group that meets regularly to encourage interaction between communication aid users. Young non-verbal children often interact more easily with vocal adults and peers. The technical difficulties of using a communication aid can inhibit interaction with other aid users. The group at one school worked together using symbols on their aids and the same symbols in writing software, to compose raps and collaborative stories, rather like the game of ‘consequences’.

Example 4 – Writing a diary Writing a diary is an activity that encourages pupils to write creatively about their own experiences. The examples below illustrate how this activity can be undertaken either as a whole class exercise or at an individual level. It involves pupils in recalling events – something that many pupils with severe learning difficulties find difficult to do – and enhances their understanding of time, in addition to developing their communication and literacy skills.

A Key Stage 2 class kept a diary of weekend activities for a term. Every Monday morning the ‘Good Morning’ session was extended to include questions about what each pupil had done at the weekend. Parents and carers were asked to make a note of what the pupils had done in the ‘Home / School’ books. These were used to prompt the pupils if necessary.

As each pupil recounted their experience they were invited to write their name and what they had done, on the computer. The pupils used an overlay keyboard and the most able also used the computer keyboard. Each piece of writing was printed out and the pupils drew a picture to illustrate their writing.

The writing and pictures were stuck into a big book, which was taken down and read whenever there were a few minutes to spare. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed hearing about themselves in this way. A group of sixth-form pupils wrote individual diaries. This activity was part of a weekly ICT session. The pupils were asked to choose a day to write about, then to think of something they had done on that day and whom they had done it with. An overlay, showing the days of the week and a number of possible activities, was used to help the pupils to organize their thinking and aid their writing.

The overlay keyboard was a starting point for the writing. It contained a limited number of symbols; when the pupil wanted to either extend an item, e.g. “I played football with my brother (in the back garden)” or write something different, the teacher simply keyed in what was necessary or asked the pupil to do so.

Example 5 – Letter and email writing

Having a penfriend or an e-pal (the email equivalent) enables pupils to develop their writing skills as they develop a relationship with another person. ‘Making Communication Special’, by Dr Chris Abbott, describes a project, funded by the Nuffield Auxiliary Trust, to explore the use of communications technologies.

“For too long and on far too many occasions young people with special educational needs have been isolated from their peers… All young people in our schools, whatever their particular need, have the right to be heard, and information and communications technology (ICT) can greatly increase the number of opportunities for this to happen.” (P5). This report describes the use of fax and email using symbols as a means of pupils communicating between different schools. These technologies enable pupils to communicate at a distance, with people they have never met. This is an important social learning experience, and one that is much less easy for a person with a communication difficulty.

There are conceptual problems with the use of fax for some people with learning difficulties. One of the project schools described the process of introducing a class to fax for the first time by writing a message in symbols and reminding the pupils about their previous experience of writing a letter home. All the pupils had done this, writing a message in symbols for their parents, taking it to a post box and posting it, and then later seeing it arrive at home. When it came to sending the fax the teacher explained that it was just like posting a letter in a box but that this time it would be sent immediately.

Setting up an arrangement with a parent or a friend known to the pupils so that questions can be sent and an answer received almost immediately can help this realization. The project also found that short messages with just a few symbols were more appropriate than long messages which can appear too daunting to the users at the other end.

You will find information about using electronic communication with your pupils in
Unit A – Communicating with Colleagues.

New symbol email software gives pupils access to text-free emailing. A user is identified on the computer by their photograph, and the address book comprises graphic representations – photograph, symbol or picture. Messages are symbolized into the user’s preferred symbol set, and the users on-screen grids are automatically loaded to facilitate replying. Pupils can even automatically dial up to connect to the Internet to send and receive their messages – although some teachers may prefer to do this for the group as a whole!

Key skills and equipment The key skills for the above examples are the ability to: use symbol-processing software make overlays for the overlay keyboard create on-screen grids use a fax machine use the Internet to send emails The key equipment is: an overlay keyboard plus software on-screen grid-making software symbol-processing software a connection to the Internet a fax machine

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