Teach Secondary Issue 13.6

Just the facts Who says factual writing has to be dry? Meera Chudasama shows how your students can get creative with their discursive writing... I f students are to become good writers, then they will need to familiarise themselves with a range of different non-fiction texts – such as documentaries, newspaper articles, blogs and vlogs. Just as with fiction, your students’ writing can be made far richer if they try drawing on their own personal experiences when producing it. So with that in mind, let’s look at how you can use different writing prompts and resources to expose your students to a range of different writing experiences. Documentaries Documentaries are a great way of showing howwritten dialogue, scripts and essays can convey different human experiences from all around the world – whether they’re as abstract as the Samskara of Indian philosophy, or as real and upsetting as the stories of children separated from their parents due to violence inMyanmar, as explored in the National Geographic documentary film, Lost and Found . You can find plenty of classroom-appropriate documentaries by searching YouTube. You could share playlists of documentaries with students who can then watch them in their own time, or keep a classroom playlist to which students can add other documentaries they would recommend. Engaging with non-fiction texts like this gives students a bank of words that they can potentially use in their own writing later. The activities that follow are all based on students viewing pre-chosen documentaries (though obviously ensure that you watch themfirst, and are familiar with any documentaries you go on to use as the basis for classroom activities and discussion). Task 1: Changing perspectives Students choose a person or animal featured in a documentary they’ve seen, and then consider the subject’s experience – what can they see, hear, feel, taste and touch? This exercise gives students opportunities to explore non-fiction texts by ‘living’ inside the subjects and events they portray. Example: Watch the documentary Lost and Found (runtime 20 minutes approx., see bit.ly/ts136- DW1) and write a short summary of the events it shows. Then consider the role Kamal Hossain plays in the Rohingya tribe, and how the children’s feelings are likely to change between being lost and being found. Finally, think about what the overall message of the documentarymight be. What view of the world would a young child have, having been separated from their parents? Howwould their parents feel, having lost their child? Once they’ve decided on who they want to write as, it may be worth having students watch the documentary again and create a word bank containing any nouns, adjectives, adverbs they might wish to use. Task2: Storyboarding Have students ‘create’ a new portion of an existing documentary. Begin by giving students a storyboard template comprising six frames, each with spaces for writing immediately beneath. The storyboard has to show a clear idea, with each frame giving students the stimulus to write two to three sentences (see ‘Free Resources’ panel). You can take this activity a step further by challenging the students to extend their writing. Make each frame a paragraph of their discursive writing piece – a great activity for visual learners who like to draw. A follow-up activity could then see the students write mini-scripts for their short documentaries, undertaken as an individual, paired or grouped task. You could even have the students attempt to film them. To keep things 68 teachwire.net/secondary