Secondary English Network

Received today from the University of Edinburgh:

We are delighted to announce our revised course for teachers of English entitled ‘Text, Language and Style’. This Continuing Professional Development course will start on 2nd September and is specifically designed to bring knowledge of language, in various aspects, to the teaching of textual analysis in the classroom. Classes will take place on 17 Tuesday evenings from 5.30 to 7.30 in a central university location in Edinburgh.

The course tutors are all from The University of Edinburgh’s Department of Linguistics and English Language and are all specialists in their areas so we guarantee a high quality and rewarding course. Participants are encouraged to be interactive and to learn from shared experiences.

Full details can be found in the following flyer:

Text, Language and Style CPD

On the 5th and 6th June, a group of 11 West Lothian pupils embarked on a writing residence with award-winning author Bernard MacLaverty. They were the winning entrants to the West Lothian Writing Prize - an annual celebration of pupils’ talents from across the authority. In addition to having their work published in a compendium issued to all schools, the winners also received this unique opportunity to work with one of the most pre-eminent voices in Scottish literature.

Thursday’s workshop took place in the hauntological edifice of Bathgate’s Regal Theatre with a move to the more salubrious surroundings of Edinburgh’s Scottish Book Trust on Friday. Over the two days, the students received many hints and tips for improving their writing and powers of creativity, as well as a one-to-one tutoring session with MacLaverty.

The enthusiasm and passion for writing that many of them displayed was thouroughly inspiring. Hopefully this will have fostered in them a love and passion for creativity that will extend far beyond their school years.The prize winners were as follows:
Danny Cunningham (Bathgate)
Cory Dunnigan (Deans)
Rachel Gorry (St Margarets)
Kirsty Leonard (Broxburn)
Jordan Forrest (Whitburn)
Murray McLean (Bathgate)
John Lawrie (James Young)
Cara Hewit (James Young)
Ramandeep Kaur (Armadale)
Annie Hedger (Inveralmond)

All thanks go to Charles Holt from James Young whose brilliant work organising the Writing Prize and the two-day residence have made this an unmitigated success.

As a dry run for next year’s “Comic Life” courses, I’m running an introduction to Comic Life in the classroom next month.  This is an informal course, so no need to sign up through EMS, just drop me a line at the address on the flyer.

This is not just for English teachers, so by all means tell your colleagues in other departments.  Since it’s a free course, I would imagine that colleagues from other authorities would be welcome to join us as well.  Limited places, so act fast!

Comic Life course flyer

Two pieces of news from West Lothian Council that may be of interest to authority English teachers:

‘Read Mor ’

“Read Mor” is a new and really interesting collection of fiction and non- fiction books promoting Scottish writers.
There is something for everyone and even if you don’t know what you want to read the library service will help you decide. Just go to www.scottishreaders.net pick a tag and off you go. You don’t even have to visit the library - request the book direct from the web site- select which library you want to collect it from…sit back and enjoy……

West Lothian…..Write!

An evening of poetry and story telling, celebrating the quality and breadth of the vibrant West Lothian writing scene, hosted by poet and writer Magi Gibson
Thursday 12 June, 7pm to 9.30pm
Regal Community Theatre, Bathgate
Tickets £2, performers free
Box Office: 01506 433634

The next two meetings of the Creative Contexts Literacy Exchange have just been announced, with some really interesting topics of discussion.  I attended the last one of these in Perth and it was an absolutely brilliant day with lots of really interesting speakers and also a chance to meet some really dynamic teachers from other authorities.  I would highly recommend them to everyone.

Developing language with poets and poetry: Wednesday 27 August 2008 - Scottish Book Trust, Edinburgh. Please note that this meeting will count as the last meeting of the 2007-8 annual membership. The day is set to include, amongst other things, a workshop by Lorna Irvine, Education Officer with the Scottish Poetry Library; news of National Poetry Day; news of poetry projects in Falkirk and Dumfries and Galloway; and poet Gerry Cambridge has very kindly agreed to join us to share his experience of working with schools. There will also be an opportunity for those who wish to visit the Scottish Poetry Library nearby to see their wonderful resources. Details and booking forms will follow in August. We would like to gather your thoughts about themes for the year to come during this meeting - or send ideas by e-mail if you can’t attend.

Working with museums and galleries: Wednesday 19 November 2008. Details of venue and agenda to follow, but we will be hearing about projects where museums, galleries, local history, artefacts, etc, have been used to stimulate language. Melanie and I have some possibilities in mind, but please do send us news of any projects which you feel could be shared. Please note that this will be the first meeting of the 2008-9 annual membership run.

The new CPD catalogue is now available on the EMS system for West Lothian English teachers (my “swansong” as outgoing Network Leader). A guide to the courses can be found below:

CPD Flyers 2008-2009

They promise to be just as tasty as a bag of jelly babies.  I really hope that the ESU’s “Debating in the Classroom” workshop does not get cancelled for the third year in a row, especially with the high profile that debating has achieved in West Lothian (thanks to the sterling work of Roz and Lauren as development officers over the last three years.)  Some other really interesting topics to engage with as well - is it sad that I’m disappointed that I can’t attend?

Recently, I’ve been revisiting some of the work that has been done using “Myst” to stimulate creative writing and investigating other potential uses of games and software for this purpose. A wonderful little piece I came across is “Façade” - a one-act interactive drama that explores the breakdown of a couple’s relationship with you, the player, as a guest at their house. It strikes an interesting balance between FPP adventures (like “Myst”) and the old text-based adventures that I used to love on the ZX Spectrum (like “Zork”) as you are able to type your responses to the ongoing drama, with surprisingly accurate reactions from Trip and Grace. The graphics look like someone has brought an Adrian Tomine comic strip to life and the voice acting is fairly convincing. It could be a very useful tool to explore the power of direct speech and cause/effect relationships in creative writing. Some of the language might be a little too “colourful” for younger classes, but the subtle nuanced approach to plot development is perfect for encouraging the maturity demanded at Standard Grade and above.

This led me to a sister site, the wonderfully monikered “Grand Text Auto” (has anyone else noticed kids disappearing from class with GTAitis?) which explores more deeply the relationships between technology, narrative, poetry and art. Some of it is incredibly geeky and retro, but at times it offers insights into how technology can fundamentally shift the way we think about text and creativity. It’s pushed this onto my Amazon WishList - which should prove an interesting read. I was always fascinated by the potential of the cut-up prose that Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean used in “Signal to Noise” (sorry, comics again) but never really thought to investigate it further.

Finally, something a bit more direct and perfect for the last 10 minutes of lessons in the exam heatwave: Grammar Ninja! Identify the parts of speech by throwing shurikens at them and try to attain Master Ninja status. It works a treat on a SMART Board, too.

It seems most of the output of this blog has become focused on comics and graphic novels recently, I should probably think about changing the title…

Tuesday saw yet another fantastic talk at the NLS from ace artist (and all-round nice guy) Gary Erskine.  Ollie Bray has already published a fab post about it here.  It’s always great to see the world of comics represented by people as intelligent, articulate and engaging as Gary, who can talk as knowledgably about Shakespeare as he can about Dan Dare.  The talk had a different focus from last time with Gary discussing his career as an artist and the development process of his Dare reboot with Garth Ennis.  His use of photo reference was quite surprising, but fortunately ties in quite nicely with a course I’m putting together on Comic Life.  I was also able to indulge my fanboy side and get further things signed afterwards (although not my Dan Dare TPB, which a certain jumped-up toy shop has still to deliver) as well as giggle nervously when Gary arrived in the same pub as us later on.

Earlier on Tuesday, I was presenting to West Lothian librarians at (the gloriously air-conditioned) Blackburn Connected about digital texts.  This mostly revolved around Shoo Fly’s “Angel Boy” and the potential of facillitating cross-curricular endeavours through the library.  One of these was inspired by Strathclyde University’s “Engineering Super Powers” project, where biotechnology academics present the latest scientific discoveries to primary pupils.  This may seem like a ridiculous notion, but when the science is contextualised through super heroes, it all of a sudden becomes accessible.  The work on display on the ESP blog is just amazing and the potential to apply this to a secondary context makes it even more exciting.  Imagine a project where pupils learn about cutting edge developments in Science, use this knowledge to create characters and stories in English, set against political contexts that they have learned about in History/Modern Studies, which are then illustrated in Art.  The costume design process could be an entire unit in itself, tied in with real-life fashion design (as exemplified in this new exhbition at the Met).

Finally, a little plug for one of my new favourite web comics, Vented Spleen.  Tom Humberstone is the artist responsible for this all-too-familiar stream of vitriol (I think this means I’m getting old) but he has also produced other works that could sit very nicely in a classroom context.  His autobiographical “Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Crohns Disease” is a little gem and his upcoming “My Fellow Americans” about the 2008 race to the White House should be an excellent “Palestine”-esque piece of reportage (if the embryonic blog is anything to go by).

Some new courses are being offered by Rick Instrell for existing teachers of Media Studies and those considering teaching the subject in the future.  I’ve been to a few of Rick’s inservices, as well as hearing him speak at the AMES Conference, and can safely say that he is the absolute authority on teaching Media. If you are looking for ways to raise the attainment of your Higher Still Media pupils, or find new ways of engaging with the English curriculum, these are a must.

Below is the flyer for the available courses

Rick Instrell CPD Flyer

Tomorrow is Free Comic Day!

Some participating local stores are:

• Red Hot Comics in Glasgow. In addition to handing out free comics on the door, they will also have a signing by Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant, the artists responsible for “We3″ and “All Star Superman”.
• Forbidden Planet in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Show up for some great free comics, including “All Star Superman”, Mike Mignola’s “Hellboy”, silent wonder “Owly” and even a Graphic Classics version of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”.

This would be a great way to build up a collection of comics to use in the classroom. Far from being worthy of the giveaway price, these are some of the most exciting titles around at the moment.