English
Year 8 Poetry
In Year 8 English, we've been diving into the world of poetry as we prepare for our upcoming text study of Forget Me Not. But instead of sticking to the usual classroom resources, we decided to try something new. The Year 8 English team took a trip to Bunnings—not for tools or garden supplies, but for paint sample cards. (If you happened to visit your local Bunnings store and noticed the paint sample wall looking a little empty, we may have been the reason!)
Back in the classroom, students were each given a paint sample card and were instructed to use the title as inspiration for their own poem. With the freedom to write a poem about anything they wanted, they brought enthusiasm to the task. What began with a simple colour name, quickly turned into some impressive pieces of poetry that showed just how creative our students can be.
Below a several examples of this wonderful writing:
Author, Amie Kaufman Visit
Last Wednesday, Wantirna College had the privilege of welcoming internationally best-selling author Amie Kaufman to our school. During her visit, Amy came and talked to us about how she published her books and how we could make our writing better. ~ James Attikson, Year 10
Amie’s visit consisted of two sessions, the first focusing on students generating ideas for their stories where Amie encouraged students to write about their own interests and the topics that they are passionate about. After overwhelming positivity from last year’s students and a myriad of questions around her world building techniques, she decided to run a secondary program to teach us how to create incredible and detailed worlds for our characters. This included activities such as map creation, descriptive writing, etc. and focused around the question: “How would your world be affected if you changed one thing in daily life?” ~ Tara Coombs, Year 8
As a young writer, I found Amy so inspiring. She explained her process for creating characters, settings, and something called “world-building”; how the environment, family, and community shape the main characters. Because of Amy Kaufman, I was able to create my own story. It’s about a teenage girl with the power to control sunlight and light. She has been trapped inside a camp for people with abilities, never allowed outside and constantly manipulated. But with the help of those who care about her, she eventually breaks free and finds her freedom. ~ Megan Turner, Year 8
I find Amie’s writing style to be somewhat similar to my own, and learned all sorts of tips and tricks for just about anything during the writing process! Amie is such a wonderful person to talk to— she’s so incredibly passionate about working with young aspiring writers and making sure all of our stories are heard. ~ Eloise Rogers, Year 9
The students that participated in this workshop are all passionate writers and enthusiastic about creating stories, this was evident through the insightful and complex ideas that they generated just on the day. Even Amie, herself, was impressed with the quality of our students' writing, exclaiming how creative our students were at Wantirna!
Students who participated in this workshop will now get the opportunity to continue to develop their stories and submit them to the Resident Writers competition in Week 3 on Term 4, with staff selecting the winners.
Thank you to the many teachers (Ms Montgomery, Ms Daniels, Ms Piritidis, Ms Blair, Ms Mingos and Mr Hawkins) who helped organise or supervise this event and are the main attribute to its success.
Gemma Bristowe
English