Creating a positive environment to encourage creative responses in Stage1 English for boys.

1. Creating a positive environment to encourage creative responses in Stage1 English for boys. Alison-Jane Hunter. 2011.

2. First things first! Start with the basics in the room. Posters of successful male writers. Samples of narratives by current/former students which have been judged successful through exams/competitions. Include plenty of images to go with the narratives. Make up success story posters for identities and former students so both internal and external validation is accessible. Have a bookshelf of lively stories available for selection � some short stories, some poetry, some novels, some graphic novels, some texts created by peers/former students and presented alongside the published works. Have posters of word games on the walls for when the student loses focus� Trick them into playing with the language!

3. Now think about course design. I like to have themes running through my year � values, patterns, motifs of thinking and learning. It allows the students to make connections and to intensify the learning experience. Task 1 New Orleans Short Stories. Quick Varied. Lively. Focussed. Images support texts and personal narratives build empathy and deep connection.

4. Novel Study. I chose The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Useful in Term 1 as it�s only just a novel and almost a novella. Clearly focussed extended metaphor allows the boys to be clear and not be distracted by sub plots. Word play such as Erica/America is easy to find so the boys feel a sense of achievement. Stop and play word games and validate their finding through play. Contemporary � link with the news/youtube/family experiences. Interviews with grandparents/parents build reality and validate the experiences, teaching compassion and understanding. Film clips: interior monologue. Teach narrative monologue form, working on VOICE.

5. Film study: Cider House Rules. Use drama to teach values and consider subliminal messages through props, costumes and other elements we decode almost subconsciously. Use playboxes and create characters through dress ups. Start with tableaux in groups for confidence to consider setting and non verbal clues before moving to dialogue. Play What If? Play Change of Perspective. Then consider voice and characterisation. Keep it snappy � 30 seconds of dialogue is fine. Share written play/film scripts and use the skills to build some short pieces of shared text before moving to individual texts.

6. Gotta love it! Science Fiction. I have a secret advantage here� I run Future Problem Solving� Read around� Try Margaret Atwood�s The Year of the Flood, Doris Lessing�s The Golden Notebooks and so on. I have a stock of narratives written by champion FPS Writers and I have 5 minute films we�ve made for FPS Presentation. Again � the key is making it seem real to the boy in the room. Discuss futuristic notions, language and clich� � they need to write well even in a genre which is not necessarily always highbrow! Go through research skills: quality SciFi extends current ideas into the future with confidence and realism. Teach Point of View, What If, Reversal and Word Blends. From a literary point of view teach time shifts � I often use film clips for this but short stories also work well.

7. Play with genres. Having looked at genres, creativity, subliminal messages and values, we compared Blood Diamond with the poetry of Derek Walcott. We looked imperialism, micro experience representing macro concepts, universal ideas and values and how form impacts on the audience and changes the very nature of reading. We looked at how form impacts on the nature of extended metaphor, forms of imagery, analogy and motif - and interactive layers of meaning and tension. We versioned poetry into film script and film script into poetry. Finally we turned poetry and film into scifi and we performed the transformations through physical theatre, using our bodies and our words to create an environment of change and connection.

8. Need a friend? Contact me at: ahunter@stpeters.sa.edu.au alisonjane631@hotmail.com