tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post115947828425334697..comments2024-03-25T09:56:16.164+00:00Comments on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: And then...and then...and then... Meg HarperUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-5562800049854847172010-06-17T00:48:02.041+01:002010-06-17T00:48:02.041+01:00I am so sorry I couldn't join in with this on ...I am so sorry I couldn't join in with this on the day I wrote it!! A couple of manic days out of the house! I'm thrilled this has been so well received and I'm going to read again properly tomorrow. For now, let me just say thank you and that we had huge fun. Lots of story games. I particularly like one called 'No, you didn't' which I'll explain asap - love the idea shared here for others. Thank you!Meg Harperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07461125464455502821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-20361821017667046432010-06-16T12:14:20.475+01:002010-06-16T12:14:20.475+01:00I think this is so true. I have felt the same myse...I think this is so true. I have felt the same myself, in schools. I think the trouble is teachers think that they have to TEACH story writing just like they teach anything else - whereas we all learned to write not through having story structure taight to us but through reading and playing and being allowed to use our imagination, and being taught reading and writing in such a way we didn't end up terrified of them.Leilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02890097085059764567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-19063145162988724642010-06-16T09:51:16.100+01:002010-06-16T09:51:16.100+01:00Great post and interesting comments!
Aha, the ea...Great post and interesting comments! <br /><br />Aha, the ease of CP initiatives! Still wrangling with artspeak documentation on the project here, as the IT systems didn't quite link up . . . Hope your sessions today have been fun, Meg!Penny Dolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16386668303428008498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-46184132595941903602010-06-16T03:55:13.371+01:002010-06-16T03:55:13.371+01:00Great post. I find kids are a font of creativity a...Great post. I find kids are a font of creativity and can build stories from their unique perspective in the world. They pass easily between fantasy and reality. Have fun and let us know how it goes.Jan Markleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08317561950719847803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-51931757053389924182010-06-15T21:58:14.408+01:002010-06-15T21:58:14.408+01:00Thankyou, thankyou, Meg! SO good to hear someone ...Thankyou, thankyou, Meg! SO good to hear someone making sense about getting children to write/make up stories. OF COURSE their stories are going to be picaresque and segue from one thing to another. Endings are difficult enough for the professionals, let alone little children. Let them have fun, for goodness' sake!Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-68866627428776130812010-06-15T19:06:41.933+01:002010-06-15T19:06:41.933+01:00One of my favourite things to do with young childr...One of my favourite things to do with young children is to tell a simple story and then retell it with their elaborations; then retell it with further embellishments, then tell it again. One example - the Hare and the Tortoise, in which, by version six, the tortoise is a biker, and the hare is having nightmares about windmills. The 'beginning middle end' nonsense is a hangover from the necessity for year six children to write a story in an hour as part of the SATs testing. But the education system exists to create bureaucrats, not story tellers, so what do you expect?Andrew Stronghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04875188855955154864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-19628118093792101752010-06-15T18:49:59.039+01:002010-06-15T18:49:59.039+01:00This is really interesting, Meg, especially as I&#...This is really interesting, Meg, especially as I've just been asked to do a session with some year twos - who seem very, very small to me! I must admit I've only fairly recently got the idea of story structure myself, which probably explains a lot!Sue Purkisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09084528571944803477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-27984465696429062882010-06-15T12:30:48.221+01:002010-06-15T12:30:48.221+01:00Interesting post AND comment. I'm minded of t...Interesting post AND comment. I'm minded of the exercise where each person adds the next sentence of a story following a pattern of And, But, So as the first words of each consecutive contribution. The next step after And, And, And, I guess.<br /><br />(Why are these writing games so much harder to explain than to actually do?!)Joan Lennonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15763862159032836768noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-42453525540427188382010-06-15T11:33:05.688+01:002010-06-15T11:33:05.688+01:00This is a fascinating post, Meg - thank you. I tho...This is a fascinating post, Meg - thank you. I thoroughly agree, that children should be allowed to wander towards the discovery of narrative structure. If it is just foisted on them before they are ready they won't have any deep understanding of it and won't enjoy the satisfaction it brings. And they will then reject texts like Joyce's Ulysses because it breaks rules without touching their earlier experiences of creating narratives of their own which follow the unstructured chaos of real life. <br /><br />I'm hardly an expert on narrative structure, but I did a bit on it when doing my PhD and the type of structures we enjoy are pretty universal through time and geography. There are many examples of incident-rich narratives which don't follow a standard story arc, but they tend to fall into either a pattern of a journey (as your kids have made it) or a collection of tales (like 1001 nights), and often both together. <br /><br />The journey narrative has its own resolution in the journey's end - unless the journey is deliberately thwarted, of course, and I'm happy to argue with anyone about the Canterbury Tales in that regard. The story collection has little narrative arcs in each story and although it is often built into something with its own narrative structure, that structure may again be thwarted (CT again, Decameron, Odyssey to an extent). Deliberate subversion of narrative structure is something we applaud in modern writers but rarely acknowledge in older texts. Yet the complex narrative structure in which the sequence of episodes is integral to continual plot/thematic development is a construct of the novel and so relatively recent. What your kids are doing has a long and venerable history. <br /><br />Sorry, end of lecture on narrative structure. You can delete this comment if you like :-)Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.com