The Writer as Teacher
As a complimentary element to my plays and also a completely independent strand, I can also offer and deliver a whole range of classes and courses based around creative writing and performance for schools and colleges.
I have experience of working in schools with pupils from 8 to 18 covering the whole spectrum of creative writing from poetry to playwriting.
I can mould these classes to any topic on the curriculum and have done so on subjects as far reaching as Africa and apartheid to local history and castles.
Feedback from Parc Primary school children, Bargoed
I can be found on the Literature of Wales website: http://www.literaturewales.org/writers-of-wales/i/142779/desc/allan-laurence/
I qualified as a teacher at Didsbury College of Education, Manchester University.
NATIONAL CURRICULUM
I can fit courses around the English National Curriculum covering language, literacy and communication. These can cover oracy, reading and writing aiming at Foundation Phase outcomes 1 – 6 and Key Stage 2 Levels 1 – 6.
I can help children develop their communication skills in oracy, reading, writing and wider communication. Effective development of wider communication skills can be explored through gesture, mime and expressing ideas and emotions through the medium of drama and theatre.
I can structure sessions to enable learners to:
- analyse, structure & organise their work
- use language creatively – through, prose, poetry, dialogue
- use errors and unexpected outcomes to develop their learning – through theatre & drama
- identify patterns and formulate rules through the use of poetry, rapping and dialogue
Workshops will enable learners to communicate through speaking, listening, reading and writing, developing these skills through appraisal of their own work and that of others. Thus learning how to communicate effectively for a range of purposes and with a range of audiences.
Where possible – we will use performance and presentation opportunities to share and showcase outcomes for peers, parents and staff.
WORDS AND PICTURES
I have also delivered a package of workshops combining words and pictures with Award winning photophotographer, Glenn Edwards entitled Visual Voice. Glenn is a photojournalist and even though these workshops are particularly attractive to younger pupils, we have geared classes for the older student more interested in the news reporting aspect. Check out Glenn at http://glennedwardsphotojournalist.com
AFRICA
As part of the Mzansi Cymru project I delivered a series of workshops for year 5, 6 and 7 pupils that explored the history of modern South Africa right up to the present day. Focusing on apartheid this opened up issues of racism, justice and equality through storytelling, poetry and factional reporting.