Travel Writing “Come Fly With Us”

Travel Writing“Come Fly With Us”

Where does Travel Writing fit into the curriculum? • Writing Triplets: • Imagine, Explore, Entertain • Analyse, Comment, Review The DFES provide an example scheme of work. The objectives they put forward are as follows: • This unit contrasts consumer-orientated tourist information with more literary travel writing from different periods. Pupils should consider the characteristics of the different forms and explore the links between style, context, content and purpose • www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/literacy • Travel Writing is a focus of the KS3 strategy. • It aims to prepare students for: • Persuasive writing • Account writing • Descriptive writing • Each of these are • types of writing that • could come up in the • Year 9 SATs paper.

Aims of today… • Aims: • To provide you with information • on travel writing. • Engage you in example activities. • Link theory to practical teaching. • Points to note: • Consider Travel Writing as a • cross-curricular topic • History • Geography • Citizenship • MFL • PAF – useful to explore • Look at example paper to help • understanding of use of Travel Writing Success Criteria: • To explore how & why Travel Writing fits into the KS3 strategy. • To suggest ideas to help you break down aspects/features of travel writing extracts. • To complete a personal response activity. • To introduce you to aspects of writing skills you could teach using Travel Writing. • Independent Learning. • Writing Activity. • Peer Assessment. • Further Activities. Spiritual, Moral, Cultural Sound Experience ICT Smell Entertain Travel Writing Reflect Sight Analyse Taste Opinion Understanding culture

THE FEATURES OF TRAVEL WRITING KS3

In General… Travel narratives use a chronological narrative structure and a 1st person narrative voice

Ideas for use of tense • Use the past tense to narrate the events of a journey or stay at a location. • Use the present tense to describe features of the location as they appear: ‘We flew with the Pacific Ocean beneath us covered with motionless ripples.’

The grammar… Use connectives to portray time. For example: When, after a while, the next day, then, next, soon after, later, whilst…

Ideas to make your travel writing more interesting Be selective! Choose between or use a variety of: • Anecdotes • The effect of the location on yourself. Develop a strong personal voice and reflect upon the experience. • Include humour • Interesting information about the location; its culture, beliefs, types of food etc.

Bringing the location alive Assume your reader knows nothing about the country you are writing about. Your aim is to make them feel they are there without leaving their sofa! To do this, include: • Proper and specific nouns: Giza, Arabic, Cairo… • Indigenous language: sawgrass, paichi…

Create an atmosphere This is an excellent opportunity to use lots of descriptive language (adjectives and figurative language) to set the scene. For example: ‘From their boats below the quay, smoke-shrouded fishermen hand up chunks of grilled fish to their customers above, who sprinkle rough salt upon them from pots tied to the railings and wander off munching into the crowd.’

Show respect! Try to retain some objectivity about the location you are writing about. • Be sensitive: you may think something you have written is really funny – but could it be insulting as well? • It is good to have an opinion but show awareness of other people’s as well.

AND AT ALL COSTS AVOID: ‘My alarm went off at 7am and I got up and showered and ate my breakfast before getting in the taxi and going to the airport. The plane journey was really long and boring but eventually we arrived at Marrakech…’ AAGH! DULL, DULL DULL!

ACTIVITY:What aspects of this travel narrative fit the features of travel writing? • ‘I went into Caesar’s Palace. It is set well back from the street, but I was conveyed in on a moving sidewalk, which rather impressed me. Inside the air was thick with unreality. The décor was supposed to be like a Roman temple or something. Statues of Roman gladiators and statesmen were scattered around the place and all the cigarette girls and ladies who gave change were dressed in skimpy togas, even if they were old and overweight, which most of them were, so their thighs wobbled as they walked. It was like watching moving Jell-O. I wandered through the halls full of people intent on losing money – endlessly, single-mindedly feeding coins into slot machines or watching the clattering dance of a steel ball on a roulette wheel or playing games of blackjack that had no start or finish but were continuous, like time. There was no sense of pleasure or fun. I never saw anyone talking to anyone else, except to order a drink or cash some money. The noise was intense – the crank of one-armed bandits, the spinning of thousands of wheels, the din of clattering coins when a machine paid out.’

Suggested activities for working with a travel narrative: • 1: Give the extract to the group as a handout. In pairs, students are to read the narrative and highlight and annotate words and phrases that match the criteria outlined in the features presentation. • 2: Go through the narrative as a class and take feedback from volunteers on the content (or pick on people!). • 3: Give the class a ‘watered down’ version of the narrative and encourage the students to edit and improve the story using the features outlined. • 4: Bottom sets or year 7/8: Students are to draw or storyboard the events and locations in the narrative and label with quotes from the narrative. This would need to be frameworked around the features.

Example ActivityIntroduction to reflective writing. I am going to show you six slides. You need to write down a personal response to each slide. You will have ONE minute to look at the image. You SHOULD start to write as soon as possible after seeing the image. You will then have 30 SECONDS to continue/finish writing. Think about: What you see. What you hear. What you feel. You must write your first reactions and thoughts. Be as descriptive as possible. Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

Travel Writing • What did you see? • What can you hear? • How do you feel? Write your first reactions and thoughts. Be as descriptive as possible. Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

Travel Writing • What did you see? • What can you hear? • How do you feel? • Write your first reactions and thoughts. • Be as descriptive as possible. • Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

WRITING PURPOSE TRIPLETS Analyse, Comment, Review: Good opportunity to practise ‘commentary’ • Requires the use of judgement • Personal response • May include phrases such as ‘I expected…’ / ‘I noticed…’ / ‘It impressed me…’

Triplets continued… Imagine, Explore, Entertain Travel writing needs a different type of invention to other narratives but still requires: • First person • Where and when • Atmosphere • Variation of sentence length in strategic places for effect. • Interesting vocabulary

Needs of the class • It may be useful to provide topic sentences to scaffold first attempts at travel narratives (to try and avoid the ‘I was on the plane’ scenarios) • E.G: ‘I arrived in Moscow, my suitcase apparently on the way to Bali, with no money and no idea how to speak to anyone…’

Practising writing skills • This is an opportunity to focus on the needs of individuals to practise writing skills such as: • Adding detail: expanding nouns with adjectives: the dusty, dry road. Alliteration can also be used. • Imagery: Similes, metaphors and personification

Writing skills continued Sentence construction: Experimentation with moving adverbs around: Quickly I realised I realised quickly I quickly realised This can be used with adverbial phrases, e.g; I spoke, with a great deal of trepidation, to the crowd.

Writing skills Word power: Encourage the use of power verbs and adjectives Matching language to suit audience: teenage = wicked older = entertaining

Writing skills Paragraphs TiP ToP Revision of time, place, topic, person • Varying lengths of paragraphs • Use of linking sentences

Writing skills Organising whole texts • GENERAL: Linking ideas between paragraphs, logical order of ideas • CONNECTIVES: Additional, causal, chronological, oppositional. • E.g: Furthermore, consequently, meanwhile, in contrast…

Writing skills Using sentences for effect • Try different ways of starting sentences • Different lengths of sentence • Use different connectives within sentences • Link ideas in sentences • Write about more than one thing in a sentence

ACTIVITY! Look back at your personal response to the image and music presentation. Try and make 3 changes based on the writing skills just outlined.

‘Learning to Learn’ Developing a language in which to talk about the world Emotional Intelligence Independent Learning Skills awareness Encouraging Resilience Language of Learning ‘Learning Power’

Theory + Practice Language of Learning + ACTIVITY • Giving them time to identify the skills they’ve used – and justify them. • Even that is an independent task in itself! • Make time to discuss these as part of the activity… • e.g. Can pupils identify where they have been: • Creating • Enquiring • Collaborating • Evaluating • Managing • Reasoning?

I am an INVESTIGATOR I1 I can brainstorm a range of ideas and theories I5 I can make good use of sources of information I am CREATIVE C1 I can look for alternative ways of approaching tasks C2 I can generate ideas and keep options open I am a CONFIDENT COLLABORATOR CC1 I can learn from other pupils in paired and group work CC4 I can mark other students’ work I am an INDEPENDENT LEARNER I am REFLECTIVE R2 I can set targets that allow me to move forward in my learning R5 I can recognise audience and the purpose of work I am a THINKER T2 I can compare and contrast opinions, ideas or sources T6 I can ask new questions to develop my understanding I can MANAGE myself and my work M3 I can self mark my work M5 I can recognise and reduce interruptions

Your mission: • Write for 15 mins about an exciting event that happened while you were visiting the destination in your travel bag… • To be successful: • Include reference to the props in your travel bag • Use cultural references • Use indigenous language • Write in 1st person narrative voice • Use 4 adjectives • Use all 5 senses in your description

Peer Assessment Provides a focused source of feedback. Stimulates and reinforces learning. Promotes self-assessment capability. Is supportive and forward thinking. TASK: Swap your ‘Travel Writing’ with the other group on your table. Assess their writing based on the success criteria you were given. • Success Criteria: • Include reference to the props in your travel bag. • Use cultural references. • Use indigenous language. • Write in 1st person narrative voice. • Use 4 adjectives. • Use all 5 senses in your description. Add a positive comment. Suggest one target.

SOME IDEAS FOR FURTHER ACTIVITIES • 1: Reading/writing: SATs practise questions: analysing travel narratives • 2: PAF: Person, audience, form. Comparing travel supplements, travel guides etc. • 3: Speaking and listening: Present TV programmes • 4: Writing: Students write their own travel guide – somewhere they have researched in an ICT session or somewhere they have actually been to. • 5: Comparisons between travel narratives and other genres. • 6: Drama: tourist, traveller, explorer – differences/similarities.

Travel Writing “Come Fly With Us”