Year 7

Language & Literature

On Friday 1 April, our Year 7 Language and Literature students ventured into the city for an intensive Writing Workshop. The day was filled with studying a range of settings, note-taking, developing writing skills and finding inspiration from a variety of sources.

Our students were busy, engaged and focussed for the entire day. The purpose of our excursion was to immerse the girls into the active world of being an author.

Our morning started at the Adelaide Railway Station where the girls were challenged to observe the atmosphere and record details about the ornate architecture by which they were surrounded. They also noted the range of ways communication exists in the railway station; for example, calls over the speaker, signage, etc.

The girls developed notes about characters, thinking creatively about the story behind an individual. This was followed by some time spent in the inspirational Mortlock Wing of the State Library. The girls were completely immersed in the writing process as they absorbed the atmosphere.

A highlight of the day was their two-hour workshop with published local author, Janeen Brian. Janeen took the girls through activities which extended their writing skills and challenged them to use language in a creative and entertaining way. Janeen asked the students to use the details they had gathered from the Railway Station. This allowed the girls to see the link between identifying inspiration in the real world and being able to develop it into a creative text.

Janeen led the girls through a number of writing activities, which encouraged them to continually edit their writing and recognise that, more often than not, the first thing you write will not be what appears in your final piece. Effective authors will constantly be reviewing every word and sentence, looking for opportunities for improvement, often by focusing on the smallest of details.

Our excursion concluded in the tranquil setting of the Botanic Gardens. This was a fantastic way to end our day, as the girls applied some of their newly acquired writing skills. This location really emphasised how two very opposite settings - the vibrancy of the Railway Station and the peaceful surrounds of the Botanic Gardens - can influence the style and mood of a text.

The girls have returned to class with the goal of completing a narrative text. We look forward to reading the creative work they generate and seeing how they have applied some of the new skills they acquired from their writing workshop experience.