ABSTRACT

Imagine a funfair in the classroom...

invite dragons to school…let pupils travel through time!

Written by award-winning children’s author Judy Waite, Wordtamer offers over fifty ideas for exciting, innovative writing activities and creative workshops. The book explores how authors actually work and what they achieve through their methods. It considers how teachers and children can incorporate these techniques into their own work, and so improve creative writing.

Wordtamer provides easy-to-follow instructions to:

  • set up and run inspiring writing lessons and workshops
  • cover basic elements such as character and setting
  • identify craft skills that link writing with the school curriculum 
  • develop ideas into contemporary, science fiction, fantasy or time-travel scenarios using tried-and-tested templates that expand on core concepts
  • engage reluctant writers by using visual and kinaesthetic approaches
  • develop independent and group-work practice
  • enrich creative practice and awareness
  • explore different writing styles
  • improve teaching styles and children’s writing through a range of innovative and interactive activities
  • appreciate why, as well as how, these techniques are so effective.

Underpinned by theory and Judy’s own experience of working as an author in schools and running writing workshops for all ages, Wordtamer offers step-by-step, inspiring plans for creative writing lessons that will make a buzz in the classroom. Pupils won’t just create characters…they will become them.

part I|72 pages

Pre-Performance

chapter 1|11 pages

Introduction

Creative writing and historical context, research and teaching

chapter 2|16 pages

Writers in Schools – The Hybrid Classroom

How to connect writerly practice with school demands

chapter 3|7 pages

Room for Writing

Creative literacy in a classroom setting

chapter 4|16 pages

Good, Better and Brilliant

Ways of working, drafting and editing ideas

chapter 5|14 pages

The Right to Write

Confidence, creative thinking and evolving a ‘writer’s mind’

chapter 6|6 pages

Creative Places and Creative Spaces

Visualisation and the power of purposeful thinking

part II|58 pages

The Training Ground

chapter 7|10 pages

Setting the Scene

How to write effective scenes as backdrops to fiction

chapter 8|14 pages

Characters – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

How to create characters for all genres of fictional writing

chapter 9|9 pages

Plot – What’s the Point?

Plotting stories through graphs, timelines and mindmaps

chapter 10|13 pages

Talking of Good Dialogue

Writing fictional dialogue that is effective and convincing

chapter 11|10 pages

Capturing the Mood

Evolving suspenseful, tense and dramatic scenes in fiction

part III|83 pages

Showtime

section |77 pages

Wordtamer Showtime Programme

chapter Act One|8 pages

Legend of the Fading Sun

Fantasy myths and legends quest

chapter Act Two|9 pages

Our Head Teacher’s Brain is Missing

Who dunnit

chapter Act Three|6 pages

Sea World

Thriller/adventure set under the sea

chapter Act Four|11 pages

Virtual Reality

Science fiction/fantasy virtual reality computer game development

chapter Act Five|6 pages

Past Times

Historical, time slip

chapter Act Six|6 pages

Once There was an Egg

Fantasy dragon adventure

chapter Act Seven|5 pages

Thinking Hats

Contemporary moral storytelling

chapter Act Eight|8 pages

When the World Went Wrong

Dystopian science fiction

chapter Act Nine|5 pages

‘A’ is for Alien

Magic realism, science fiction

chapter Act Ten|12 pages

Endangered Species – Welcome to My World

Anthropomorphic realism and research in writing

section |3 pages

End of the Show