Exploring Literacy through Museums, Gateshead.
Report commissioned by Renaissance North East
Compiled by Mid Pennine Arts
June 2011
Exploring Literacy through Museums
Gateshead 2011
Table of Contents
Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................................................... 3
1.
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
2.
Summary of success .......................................................................................................................................... 4
3.
Project aims ......................................................................................................................................................... 4
4.
Working together: the partnerships .................................................................................................................. 5
5.
Getting started: the INSET day ......................................................................................................................... 5
5.1 What is Talk for Writing? ................................................................................................................................. 5
5.2 Talk for Writing INSET ..................................................................................................................................... 6
6.
Case examples.................................................................................................................................................... 7
6.1 Parkhead Community Primary School and Discovery Museum................................................................ 7
6.2 Fell Dyke Primary Community Primary School and the Hatton Gallery ................................................... 7
6.3 St Joseph’s Highfield and Seven Stories ...................................................................................................... 8
6.4 St Augustine’s RC Primary School and Beamish, The Living Museum of the North ............................. 9
6.5 St Alban’s Primary School and Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens .............................................. 10
7.
Inspiring evidence ............................................................................................................................................. 11
8.
Benefits of partnership ..................................................................................................................................... 11
8.1.
Impact on approaches to teaching and learning ................................................................................. 11
8.1.1.
Talk for Writing ..................................................................................................................................... 11
8.1.2.
Working with a museum ..................................................................................................................... 12
8.1.3.
Confidence ............................................................................................................................................ 12
8.1.4.
Enthusiasm ........................................................................................................................................... 13
8.1.5.
Attitude to writing ................................................................................................................................. 13
8.1.6.
The value of visits ................................................................................................................................ 13
Impact on museum educators ................................................................................................................ 13
8.2.
8.2.1.
Confidence to support literacy ........................................................................................................... 13
8.2.2.
The value of building relationships .................................................................................................... 14
Talk for Writing – The INSET Day .................................................................................................................. 14
9.
9.1 Moving forward ............................................................................................................................................... 14
11.
Project Participants ...................................................................................................................................... 16
12.
Appendix 1 Talk for Writing Techniques introduced during INSET ...................................................... 17
11.1 Booktalk ......................................................................................................................................................... 17
11.2 The Three ‘Eyes’ .......................................................................................................................................... 17
13.
Appendix 2 Hatton Gallery Session Plan for Fell Dyke visit .................................................................. 19
12. Appendix 3 INSET Survey ................................................................................................................................. 22
Table of Figures
Figure 1 Partnership overview ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Figure 2 Children from St Augustine’s RC Primary School conducting a Women’s Suffrage Rally along Beamish Main
Street........................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Figure 3 Children’s progress in writing assessed against national curriculum sub-levesl ................................................ 11
Figure 4 Children’s progress in writing assessed against Early Years & Foundation Stage writing scales ....................... 11
Figure 5 Writing perceptions survey all children .............................................................................................................. 12
Figure 6 Writing perception survey boys.......................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 7 ‘Boxed up’ story .................................................................................................................................................. 18
1. Introduction
Exploring Literacy through Museums (ELM) is a project bringing together primary schools and museums.
It explores the way in which a focussed partnership can impact upon teaching and learning across the
curriculum but particularly in literacy. Now in its fourth year, the ELM project has extended its reach into
Gateshead and this report celebrates the success and shares the findings of the Gateshead 2011
project.
2. Summary of success
Samples of writing were taken from children working at Key Stages 1 and 2 and also from a Reception
Class working towards the Early Years and Foundation Stage writing scales. Of those at Key Stages 1
and 2, 76% made progress of one or more sublevel in their writing during the project, and 20% improved
their writing by two sublevels. All of the Foundation Stage children who were sampled had made
progress along the writing scales, with 85% progressing by two or more stages. In particular, boys
expressed increased confidence and enjoyment in writing by the end of the project.
3. Project aims
Renaissance is a national programme funded by the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS). It
has helped transform the regional museum sector across the country. Projects have been developed
aimed at making a real difference for audiences existing and new, across the region, and the
experiences gained from this regional work are shared across the region for the benefit of all museums
and their users.
Since 2002 the Renaissance funded Regional Learning Team has supported a sea-change in the way
museums have been able to support schools and their communities. The team, in partnership with
venues across the region, has embraced collaborative working with teachers and embedded the benefits
of museums and their collections within their practice.
The Regional Learning Team developed the Exploring Literacy through Museums project in order to:

improve the writing skills of primary school children by using museum resources

raise awareness that museum visits can help to develop literacy skills

inspire confidence in museum educators that they can support teaching and learning in literacy

champion partnership working between schools and museums to support visits

provide evidence that museum visits can help raise literacy standards.
4. Working together: the partnerships
In partnership, schools and museums planned and delivered a cross-curricular project over half a term.
Classroom activities were developed to prepare the children for their visit and build on the experience
afterwards. Each school assessed the children’s work at the beginning and end of the project.
School
Parkhead
Community
Primary School
Fell Dyke
Community
Primary
St Joseph’s
Highfield Roman
Catholic
Voluntary Aided
Primary School
St Augustine’s
Roman Catholic
Voluntary Aided
St Alban’s Roman
Catholic Primary
School
Museum
Discovery Museum
Year
Year 2
Topic studied
The Great Fire of
Newcastle
Type of writing
Recount
Hatton Gallery
Year 2
Poetry
Poems
Seven Stories
Reception
Mr Gumpy’s Outing
Story
Beamish: The
Living Museum of
the North
Sunderland Winter
Gardens
Year 5
Suffragette
Movement
Persuasive text
Year 5
Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
Story – character
development
FIGURE 1 PARTNERSHIP OVERVIEW
5. Getting started: the INSET day
At the start of the project all museum educators and teachers involved were invited to an INSET day at
Discovery Museum in Newcastle where they met for the first time. This was a lively day led by Judy Clark
from the National Literacy Trust who introduced the participants to the Talk for Writing teaching initiative.
They were given a flavour of how Talk for Writing can maximise the potential to develop writing inspired by a
museum, site or collection.
5.1 What is Talk for Writing?
Talk for Writing is about embedding the rehearsal of writing structures through oral and physical techniques
from the start of the writing process when children select and organise their ideas through to their final
communication in writing. Talk for Writing approaches were initially introduced through a series of
workshops, which the National Strategies provided in collaboration with professional writer Pie Corbett, in
the South West, East and East Midlands regions in 2007/8. The National Strategy document ‘Talk for
Writing’ 1 reports that many teachers were extremely positive about the impact of the approach and how
1
DCSF, (2008) The National Strategies, Primary: Talk for Writing, available at:
http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/154519
much the children enjoyed working in these ways. They reported that children’s engagement in writing
increased, particularly for boys and previously reluctant writers. They also found that the quality of children’s
writing improved significantly.
In partnership with the National Literacy Trust, the ELM Gateshead project sought to introduce teachers and
museum educators to Talk for Writing. Talk for Writing Advisor, Judy Clark delivered an inspirational training
day at the beginning of the project after which museum educators and teachers were given time to discuss
how to apply these ideas when planning their class visits.
5.2 Talk for Writing INSET
Teachers and Museum Educators were invited to an INSET event delivered by Judy Clark from the National
Literacy Trust, at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle. During the day Judy introduced Talk for Writing, then
explored how the ideas can be applied to the teaching of narrative writing, non-fiction and to museum
settings.
Judy explained that Talk for Writing is an approach that helps children to understand the whole creative
process of writing and to begin to see themselves as writers. It does this by engaging children in ‘Writer
Talk’ whereby they critique what they read and write as authors and audiences. By internalising phrases and
patterns, children are more able to retain the language of a particular text-type or genre from one year to the
next. Talk for Writing achieves this by immersing children in the text type, orally rehearsing it, reinforcing the
language and making the whole process memorable. It provides a bank of language that the children can
remember and draw on.
Judy developed this idea with reference to ‘generative grammar’2 by which children learn the pattern of
language, its sentence structures, and are thereby better equipped to approach their own writing.
Participants watched a short film in which a child retold the Cinderella story and they were asked to consider
the patterns of language she had internalised. Judy pointed out the skills with which Talk for Writing had
equipped the child:

confidence (the child had only her own drawing of a story map as an aide-memoiré)

expression (the child had a clear understanding of the characters)

descriptive phrasing (the child embellished the story allowing her own personality to shine through)
Talk for Writing also involves ‘Booktalk’, drama and role play, language games and the three ‘eyes’:
imitation, innovation and invention. Appendix 1 provides a summary of a selection of these ideas in turn.
[accessed 06.06.11]:2
2
Chomsky, N (2002) Syntactic Structures 2nd Edition, Berlin: Monton de Gruyter
6. Case examples
6.1 Parkhead Community Primary School and Discovery Museum
Children in Year 2 at Parkhead Community Primary School learned about the Great Fire of Newcastle with
Newcastle’s Discovery Museum. Assistant Learning Officer Joanne McKenna visited the school first and
delivered an object handling session with a Victorian theme. The session helped to familiarise the children
with the Victorian context for their writing, introduced them to Joanne, and built anticipation for their visit to
the museum. The Great Fire of Newcastle workshop is part of the Museum’s regular schools offer, but the
ELM Project presented an opportunity to adapt the workshop to incorporate Talk for Writing techniques.
Joanne made a storymap using images and displayed this on the interactive whiteboard in the Discovery
education room. Joanne said, “The storymap was really good and seeing how that could be used and
seeing the children tell the story back afterwards was great.” Children rehearsed the story using the map
and physical actions and this led into the workshop’s Great Fire of Newcastle puppet show. Their teacher
explained: “The children went on the visit to the Discovery Museum in the first week that we began to teach
the recount genre. The creative topic at the time was ‘Superheroes’ so the learning about the Great Fire of
Newcastle fitted in well… The visit to the Discovery Museum was the most valuable thing about the project.
It hooked the children in to their learning as they had first hand experience of artefacts from the period when
the fire happened and they enjoyed working with Joanne.”
Joanne visited the school almost a month later and children showed her diaries, artwork and performed a
retelling of the story which they were preparing for a parent’s assembly later that term. This longer term
relationship with the museum’s learning officer gave children a purpose for their writing, as Year 2 teacher
Nicola Taylor explained: “Joanne put a lot of effort into making the children’s visit to the museum fun and
interesting, because of this, the children wanted to make an effort with their writing to impress Joanne, to
show her all of the things they had learnt.”
All of the children sampled from Parkhead improved their writing by at least one National Curriculum
sublevel, and 45% of the children sampled made two sublevels of improvement. Year 2 teacher Rosie
Bedford reflected: “I feel that the ELM project has been a positive experience for all of the children in relation
to writing recounts as it has given them a real life context to write about… it makes a huge difference taking
the abstract into real life… I feel that the knowledge of Joanne as our (museum) link was extremely
valuable… (it) has given me the knowledge of how literacy can be taught using other resources. I think the
pupils will always remember the activities due to the teaching process.”
6.2 Fell Dyke Primary Community Primary School and the Hatton Gallery
Children in Year 2 at Fell Dyke Community Primary School visited the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle. Learning
Officer Hazel Barron-Cooper acknowledged the challenges that working with a changing exhibition
programme of contemporary art can present when developing school sessions. The show that children from
Fell Dyke saw, entitled ‘Littoral Drifter’, was a collection of work by artist Ben Cook inspired by coastlines
and surf culture. First the class had a tour of the exhibition and, by asking lots of questions, Hazel checked
the children’s understanding of the work and encouraged them to generate ideas. As they talked, their
descriptive phrases were recorded by a learning officer acting as their ‘scribe’. To help the children really
evoke the atmosphere of the images on display, they worked in small groups to create ‘soundscapes’thinking about what it might be possible to hear if they were at the location represented and recreating that
sound orally. Their soundscapes were recorded using Flip cameras. The children made a group poem
based around an image that Hazel had selected, by developing lines and phrases individually which were
then combined. Finally the children made a huge calligram, by adding their phrases in the shape of waves
on paper rolled out across the gallery floor. Their teacher, Laura Palmer said, “The children were inspired by
the visit to the gallery and this had an impact on their enthusiasm to write about their experiences.” Learning
Officer Hazel enjoyed taking a different approach to education at the Hatton and enjoyed exploring how the
exhibitions could be used to inspire learning without applying visual art techniques: “to do something with
words was a real joy to see.” The Hatton Gallery session plan can be found in Appendix 2.
Over half of the children sampled from Fell Dyke improved their writing, 45% by at least one National
Curriculum sublevel. Teacher Laura Palmer commented “the project made an impact on my pupils’ writing
by extending their vocabulary and challenging them to use more ambitious words.”
6.3 St Joseph’s Highfield and Seven Stories
St Joseph’s Highfield’s involvement in the ELM Gateshead project extended the work into Foundation
Stage. Children in the reception class at St Joseph’s worked with Lucy Graham, Learning Officer with Seven
Stories, around the theme of Mr Gumpy’s Outing, a book by John Burningham. Lucy visited the children at
school where together they explored a different story about a magic bed. The children spent time talking
with Lucy sharing their ideas for possible story endings, and then she described Seven Stories. At the
museum, the children explored the John Burningham exhibition and Lucy helped them to act out the story of
Mr Gumpy’s outing using some of the museum’s exciting props for example a large wooden boat.
Downstairs in the creative room, the children walked through a story map and another Learning Officer sang
songs with them and played Lycra games based on the story.
Class teacher Stella Murdy explained that whilst there were reservations about whether the ELM project
would work as effectively with a reception class, the children responded incredibly well to the Talk for
Writing techniques, becoming more confident with story structure and finding stories easier to retell. She
said the project “encouraged children to try writing (their) own stories and (gave them) the confidence to
change parts of a story and to make it (their) own.”
Working with Seven Stories gave Stella lots of hands-on ideas that she could use in the classroom: “For
myself – I know I can use Talk for Writing techniques to encourage storytelling and hopefully turn it into
writing.” In fact taking part in the ELM Gateshead project attracted attention from other members of staff,
raising the profile both of the use of a museum to support literacy objectives and of Talk for Writing as a
strategy. Lucy Graham reflected on the learning programme offered by Seven Stories, commenting, “I was
very impressed at how such a relatively short project could benefit a school in such a big way and so this
may change our outlook on project work and offers, where a small amount of good quality work can have a
high impact rather than delivery of a long term project.”
All of the children sampled had made progress along the writing scales used to assess Early Years and
Foundation Stage. James, aged 4, when asked about the best piece of writing he had done recently, said,
“my story of Mr Grumpy's outing that I did on my own. The head teacher said it was fantastic.”
6.4 St Augustine’s RC Primary School and Beamish, The Living Museum of the North
Year 5 from St Augustine’s worked with Beamish Museum to write a piece of persuasive writing based on
the suffragette movement. Learning Coordinator Angela Bromage came out to visit the class at school
before their visit where they were involved in activities that encouraged them to consider attitudes towards
women during the early 1900s and reasons why they might or might not vote. Their teacher, Hannah
Dunsire explained that this was one of the most valuable aspects of the ELM project for her because it “got
the children really excited about the prospect of the trip.” When the school visited the museum they wore
period-dress and had their own suffrage rally along the main street. Then the children were taken to the
Bank Room where they held a debate to consider whether women should vote. Learning Coordinator,
Angela Bromage said, “it…reinforces the value of what we do in museums, the benefits of drama and roleplay; of interactions with costumed museums staff; and of the sensory experiences we try to offer.”
On their return to school the children created a persuasive text, which their teacher reported they, “certainly
enjoyed writing” and that they, “reminisced about the events of the trip while doing so”. She concluded, “The
children did not complain that they did not know what to write about.” Niahm, aged 10 said, “I felt it was
easier to write an argument because I had experienced that argument” and Lucy, also 10 said at the end of
the project that she enjoyed writing, “because now I know that writing can be interesting and fun, so I know I
can do it better.” For Millie, aged 9, the best piece of writing she had done was, “my debate, because I
understood what to put into it and tried my best to get everything – the information – into it.”
FIGURE 2 CHILDREN FROM ST AUGUSTINE’S RC PRIMARY SCHOOL CONDUCTING A WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE RALLY ALONG BEAMISH
MAIN STREET
6.5 St Alban’s Primary School and Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
Year 5 from St Alban’s Primary School visited Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens to support their
Macbeth topic. Jennie Beale, the Museum’s Learning Officer, began by visiting the school where she
worked with the children to facilitate an object handling session with drawing, costume and photographs.
This worked to familiarise the children with the Tudor era and fuel their imaginations. With their teacher
Kellie Turnbull, the children used lots of Talk for Writing strategies before their visit. They mapped the story
of Macbeth and developed their own pictures and actions to remind them. They did their Talk for Writing
activity every day so the children thoroughly knew the story.
At the museum the children worked again with Jennie who explored Macbeth’s themes with spell-writing and
puppet making. Actors from an amateur theatre company, The Royalty Theatre, spent time with the school
group in the afternoon. They acted out three or four scenes from Macbeth and the children were able to ask
the actors questions both in and out of role. Their teacher said, “The link with museums for literacy work
wasn’t something that I had previously done, but it definitely brought it alive for the children and made it far
more interesting.” Finally the children adapted the Macbeth story with particular emphasis on the
development of a character, so that for example, Banquo became Jeremy Kyle and Lady Macbeth became
Lady Gaga. Instead of receiving a letter, in the children’s stories, Lady Gaga received a text message;
instead of riding horses, the characters rode motorbikes. Children went on to use the structure to make
short stories focussing upon the hero’s character.
When reflecting on the project’s impact on attitude to writing, Kellie said, “many of the children, particularly
the boys, did not enjoy storywriting, this was reflected in the amount of work they produced in class. When
we did the initial stories they were not keen to write – they complained and lacked ideas. The final story was
attacked with enthusiasm and they wrote much more. They really enjoyed it.” Before the project, only 47%
of the children involved said they thought they were a good writer but at the end of the project, this figure
had risen to 95%. As Anna, aged nine explained, “I love writing more now because (it) is so creative,
especially when we do fun things like acting the stories out and letting my imagination go free.” Sophie aged
nine agreed, “It’s fun. I loved it. Especially Macbeth. Now that was fun.”
7. Inspiring evidence
No. of sublevels of
progress
Parkhead
Primary
-1
0
0.5
1
2
3
4
Totals
Fell Dyke
Community
Primary
11
9
20
St
Augustine's
St Alban's
Primary
4
2
5
1
3
4
1
11
8
9
7
1
Totals
6
5
27
10
FIGURE 3 CHILDREN’S PROGRESS IN WRITING ASSESSED AGAINST NATIONAL CURRICULUM SUB-LEVESL
Progress against Early Years and Foundation
Stage Writing Scales for St Joseph’s, Highfield.
1 EYFS Writing
1
Scales
2 EYFS Writing
Scales
4
3 EYFS Writing
Scales
2
4 EYFS Writing
Scales
3
FIGURE 4 CHILDREN’S PROGRESS IN WRITING ASSESSED AGAINST EARLY YEARS & FOUNDATION STAGE WRITING SCALES
8. Benefits of partnership
8.1. Impact on approaches to teaching and learning
The ELM Gateshead project was an approach that promised impact in two ways: by working with a
museum, its expert staff and its collection; and by encouraging the adoption of Talk for Writing
techniques.
8.1.1. Talk for Writing
Learning Officer with Seven Stories, Lucy Graham, reported that her school described “the outcomes
including not just increased storytelling and writing but increased story-time participation and book-
talk.” Kellie Turnbull from St Alban’s Primary School said she enjoyed teaching using the Talk for
Writing approach, “the children were really responsive and it definitely helped to produce better
work.” At Fell Dyke Primary, teacher Laura Palmer felt she had extended her understanding of Talk
for Writing and as Literacy Coordinator, has requested further training. Techniques were particularly
beneficial for children who were speaking English as an additional language, and Laura is using Talk
for Writing ‘across the board’
8.1.2. Working with a museum
At Fell Dyke, whilst the school uses museums, these visits tend not to be literacy focussed and
teacher Laura Palmer was pleased to have uncovered this potential. Her class of Year 2 children
responded well to being in a gallery and children who were more reluctant to join in class
discussions, were stimulated by the gallery setting to find their voice. Laura was surprised by their
ability to respond to abstract art. It was good to have a connection with the person who would be
delivering the sessions in the gallery and to relate the children’s work to the collection at the Hatton.
8.1.3. Confidence
Taking a museum visit as a focus for literacy work impacted upon children’s confidence to write as
Stella Murdy, Reception Teacher with St Joseph’s Highfield Primary Schools said that the project
had,” encouraged children to try writing their own stories and gave them the confidence to change
parts of the story to make it into their own. In particular it made a difference to children’s storytelling
techniques so they were much more confident with the story structure and increased their use of
vocabulary.” Laura Palmer at Fell Dyke explained, “I think the project made an impact on my pupil’s
writing by extending their vocabulary and challenging them to use more ambitious words when
describing.” At St Alban’s Primary, Kellie Turnball reported the transformation she had seen amongst
children in her class, particularly boys who did not enjoy storywriting, but approached their final piece
of writing full of ideas. She also felt that all of the children in her class, including those with special
needs, could now retell the story of Macbeth because of the story mapping technique she had
applied.
Before
After
Enjoy writing
72 %
78%
Don’t enjoy writing
24%
12%
I’m a good writer
76%
80%
I’m not a good writer
13%
9%
FIGURE 5 WRITING PERCEPTIONS SURVEY ALL CHILDREN
Before
After
Enjoy writing
70%
83%
Don’t enjoy writing
25%
6%
I’m a good writer
76%
83%
I’m not a good writer
10%
5%
FIGURE 6 WRITING PERCEPTION SURVEY BOYS
8.1.4. Enthusiasm
“The children were inspired by the visit to the gallery and this had an impact on their enthusiasm to
write about their experiences.” (Laura Palmer, Fell Dyke Primary School)
“The pre visit from Beamish staff… got the children really excited about the prospect of the trip.”
(Hannah Dunsire, St Augustine’s Primary School).
8.1.5. Attitude to writing
By the end of the ELM Project, Kellie Turnbull from St Alban’s Primary said that her class were
absorbed in the Shakespeare topic, “we could easily have spent the whole year on Shakespeare, the
children enjoyed it so much they would ask, ‘are we doing literacy first today?’” They found
Shakespeare books on the corridor and asked if they could bring them into the classroom as classreaders. She said that when it came to writing, “every child knew the story structure and had ideas
for their writing”.
8.1.6. The value of visits
For Stella Murdy, Foundation Stage teacher with St Joseph’s Highfield, the ELM Project helped her
discover how to use a museum for literacy with Early Years and Foundation Stage as she had
previously only considered this approach with older children. She has talked to other staff in school
who are adopting similar plans. Moreover, working with Seven Stories has given her lots of hands-on
ideas that could be replicated in the classroom.
8.2. Impact on museum educators
8.2.1. Confidence to support literacy
For the Hatton Gallery’s Learning Officer, Hazel Barron-Cooper, many of the ideas presented during
the INSET day were ones that she could quickly and easily use in the gallery setting and she had
never considered using poetry in response to contemporary art. Hazel also acknowledged the value
of being aware of techniques currently encouraged as part of the National Primary Strategies. As a
result, she plans to offer a year round workshop by adapting the Talk for Writing techniques in
relation to the Hatton’s changing exhibition programme. Lucy Graham from Seven Stories felt that
the INSET day helped extend her approach to engaging children with the museum’s exhibitions. She
valued the opportunity to look at existing sessions, clearly identify where they fit within the National
Literacy Strategy and be able to communicate this to schools. It was the value of purposeful talking
and listening within the museum session that the ELM Project reinforced for Angela Bromage,
Learning Coordinator at Beamish and she intends to give more focus to this activity in future
sessions.
8.2.2. The value of building relationships
For participating museum educators the chance to meet teachers during the INSET day was
valuable. Hazel Barron-Cooper, Learning Officer with the Hatton Gallery, explained that it is rare to
have the chance to plan with a teacher of a visiting school group and that she really appreciated the
opportunity to spend time doing this. Lucy Graham of Seven Stories agreed, “I valued making links
with a fantastic new school and seeing the impact such a relatively small project in a small time scale
can have upon the children. The success of the project was fantastic...” Kellie Turnbull at St Alban’s
Primary School said she had never taught a unit of literacy using a museum to support it and found
the approach so effective that she is determined to do it again. She also felt she would encourage
other staff in school to work with museums, but felt there was still work to do in opening up
communications between museums and schools so that teachers are fully aware of what is available
to support their topics.
9. Talk for Writing – The INSET Day
At the end of the INSET day, all participants felt they had increased their knowledge and understanding:
“I now have many ideas of strategies I can use for Talk for Writing. I have ideas on how the museum’s
resources can be used to develop writing.” All participants felt it was quite or very likely that they had
developed their skills during the day. They also all felt the wanted to know more, with teachers
describing their interest in the resources and programmes available through Tyne & Wear Archives &
Museums and many participants expressing a desire to learn more about Talk for Writing. Attitudes had
changed for most participants, particularly in relation to the manageability and effectiveness of the Talk
for Writing approach and also in the capacity within museums to bring topics to life and inspire children.
In particular one participant suggested that their attitude to a ‘successful’ museum visit had shifted from
a focus on ‘outcomes’ and ‘achievement’ to one of engagement. Another had entered the one to one
planning session with her school partner with uncertainty but was pleased with the compatibility of their
thinking and approach. Most participants had enjoyed the day noting the effectiveness of applying the
Talk for Writing techniques in a museum setting and several expressed the excitement generated from
joint planning. Results of the INSET evaluation survey can be found in Appendix Three.
9.1 Moving forward
Laura Palmer from Fell Dyke Primary found the INSET really useful and has identified further courses to
attend. Hazel Barron-Cooper from the Hatton Gallery similarly plans to develop Talk for Writing as part
of the Hatton Gallery’s schools offer and is interested to see if teachers will be attracted to make a visit
to the Hatton Gallery that has literacy objectives. Laura said, “The ‘talk for writing’ training inspired me to
adapt my practice and approach to writing, particularly when teaching non-fiction units. I have felt more
confident in scaffolding the writing process and have seen an impact in my class. Those children with
EAL have been more animated and engaged in writing sessions when the talk for writing techniques
have been used. Also less able writers have found the oral rehearsal and use of actions particularly
beneficial.” She added, “The training day was beneficial in linking up with staff from all the galleries and
museums and learning more about possible visits that could be planned.”
Stella Murdy, Foundation Stage teacher with St Joseph’s Highfield described the long term impact of her
involvement with the ELM project, “I know I can use talk for writing techniques to encourage storytelling
and hopefully turn it into writing.” Techniques modelled during the INSET such as oral retelling, had not
been used in school before and Stella says she will definitely change the way she introduces a story to
her class as the children found the Talk for Writing techniques so much easier.
Year 5 teacher with St Augustine’s Primary School, Hannah Dunsire felt her knowledge and confidence
with Talk for Writing techniques has seen a great increase: “I have used the method about four or five
times since and find it extremely beneficial to the children. I recently received a new child with English as
an additional language and the process has been great for him.”
For Kellie Turnbull at St Alban’s Primary School, Talk for Writing became central to the project, the
children all learnt the Macbeth story and revisited an oral retelling every day. She described the
strategies introduced by Judy Clark during the INSET day as ‘inspirational’ and explained the way it had
reinvigorated her teaching. Kelly intends to take this forward and has agreed with the Headteacher to
give feedback to staff and ask the children to showcase some of the strategies to other teachers in
school as one of her Performance Management goals.
All schools reported the ease of contact they had enjoyed with their partner museums and many had
continued the planning relationship by email or site visits after the INSET day. As Kellie Turnbull
summarised, “INSETs can often feel less useful, but linking the project to Talk for Writing and allowing
time for planning in an integrated way made the partnership effective.”
10. Conclusions
In the words of Hannah Dunsire, Year 5 Teacher with St Augustine’s Primary School, the Talk for Writing
training was “fantastic” and “the best part of the project for me”. She used the techniques both to teach
the persuasive text structure and after the project to teach narrative with her own class and also with her
Foundation Stage after-school club. Hannah suggested the training was lifted by Judy Clark’s
enthusiasm and knowledge, in particular with the guidance she was able to give on extending the talk
and story mapping into writing and into non-fiction genres. As a result Hannah’s school plan to schedule
more Talk for Writing training in the coming terms.
Working with a museum to learn about issues of women’s suffrage and debate in costume and in role,
had powerful impact not just on the children’s attainment in writing, but on their knowledge and
understanding of the subject, the text type and their attitude to learning. Hannah concluded that they
were, “completely involved so that when they were writing it was more real and they were writing
because they had things to say.”
11. Project Participants
Co-ordination, support and training
Melanie Carter- Literacy Officer, RenaissanceNorth East Learning Team
Lucy Bemrose – Learning Officer, Research and Communication, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Judy Clark – Talk for Writing Advisor, National Literacy Trust
Evaluation and project report
Dr Stephanie Hawke – Mid Pennine Arts
Participating teachers
Laura Palmer, Fell Dyke Community Primary
Davina Horn, Fell Dyke Community Primary
Rosie Bedford, Parkhead Primary
Nicola Taylor, Parkhead Primary
Kellie Turnbull, St Alban’s Catholic Primary
Hannah Dunsire, St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary
Stella Murdy, St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary
Participating museum educators
Hazel Barron-Cooper, Hatton Gallery
Joanne McKenna, Discovery Museum
Jennie Beale, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
Angela Bromage, Beamish
Lucy Graham, Seven Stories
12. Appendix 1 Talk for Writing Techniques introduced during INSET
11.1 Booktalk
Booktalk is a way of scaffolding the children’s response to a text and because it provides a structure, it
allows children to respond individually as well as collaboratively. Participants in the workshop were
introduced to an image and asked to respond to it individually, then with a talk-partner. Judy pointed out the
way in which as individuals we form our response based on what we already know. Booktalk is about
allowing children to do this and encouraging them to voice their opinions and feel free to change them. In
particular, Judy demonstrated a structure of three ps (‘preferences’, ‘puzzles’ and ‘patterns’) and participants
worked with a talk partner to organise their responses to the image in relation to their likes and dislikes
(preferences), questions to be answered (puzzles) and recurring or recognisable features (patterns).
The structure of ‘Booktalk’ is one that can be applied to any ‘text’ in a museum context such as a painting or
image, object or artefact. By making time for Booktalk in a museum setting, children’s thinking skills are
extended. Judy suggested tools that can help facilitate Booktalk onsite, such as flip charts, post it notes and
a card with a peephole cut into it which could be used to explore an object or artwork.
11.2 The Three ‘Eyes’
By immersing the children in the text type through drama and role play with regular repetition of its oral
version, they come to know the text, such as a story, incredibly well. At this point they can repeat the pattern
through imitation. The Talk for Writing process then extends the children’s confidence by encouraging them
to begin to change the pattern; to innovate. Finally children can change the story entirely using the pattern
to tell a story completely of their own invention.
Imitation
Museums are an ideal context in which to begin to immerse children in a story. By ‘talking the text’ children
are encouraged to participate in the story telling, learning rhythms and rhymes until they can retell the story
communally word for word. They do this in pairs, in groups and by drawing storymaps, until they can
embellish and innovate. Judy suggested that museums can do lots of work around this either by making a
storymap onsite, or having a pre-prepared storymap if less time is available. Children can tell the story with
actions and repetitions whilst onsite. By providing a kinaesthetic environment, children can walk the story
around a site. A storymap might be drawn on a huge roll of paper and children can add to this map with
post-it notes to create a bank of descriptive words for example. Museum objects and artefacts can be
incorporated particularly well into storymapping activities
Innovation
By moving the oral story into its written form, children may add extra characters or places, substituting
characters, altering the end or the beginning or a character’s personality, or adding greater complexity by
telling the story from a different viewpoint. Judy demonstrated the way in which a story can be ‘boxed up’
providing the paragraphs and planning structure from which children can create their own independent
writing:
Little Miss Muffet sat on a
tuffet
Main character comfortable
Eating curds and whey
Main character doing
something they enjoy
Along came a spider
Main character is threatened
And frightened Miss Muffet
away
Main character escapes
FIGURE 7 ‘BOXED UP’ STORY
Judy gave examples of this process applied in a museum context, with a story from Greek mythology told
through artefacts, or children telling a story from archives and working in groups to fill genuine gaps in the
narrative. Cinderella was retold in a regency hall at Brighton Pavillion whilst a fairy story was talked (and
‘walked’) around a tour of a botanical garden.
The Talk for Writing ideas apply in just the same way to non-fiction writing, by breaking the text-type into
paragraphs (for journalistic writing for example, paragraphs might focus on who, what, where and when).
Mapping each paragraph helps children to learn the underlying structure of persuasive or instructional texts
in just the same way that the structure of narrative can be learned.
Participants were supplied with an electronic resource containing story maps, language banks and oral
stories created by other museums. Teachers were then given time to work with the learning officer from the
site they planned to visit and together they planned together drawing upon what they had learned of Talk for
Writing. What follows describes how one partnership developed their scheme of work.
13. Appendix 2 Hatton Gallery Session Plan for Fell Dyke visit
ELM Project 2011
Fell Dyke Primary School, Gateshead . Year 2
Monday 21 March 2011
10.00-12.00pm
Exhibition Ben Cook: Littoral Drifter
Theme: A Visit to the coast. Lots of short, interesting activities.
Summary of Activities
1. Introduction and Gallery Rules
2. Tour of exhibition with Q & A to help develop understanding and ideas.
3. Create a soundscape
4. Calligram
5. Group Poem
6. Hidden treasure
7. Write a Postcard (optional extra time permitting)
Detailed Outline
1. Introduction & Gallery Rules.
Introduction to morning and how we will be using art and literacy together.
Q & A rules of behaviour in gallery.
2. Tour of Exhibition led by Hazel Barron-Cooper, Learning Officer .The exhibition is by Cornish based
artist Ben Cook and is called Littoral Drifter. Littoral refers to things to do with the coastline.
The exhibition is based on surfing and people’s use of the coastline.
Q & A format to enable children to build up vocabulary they might use in writing tasks. 20 minutes
CHILDREN WORK IN GROUPS OF 5/6.
3. Create a soundscape. Children imagine what they might hear if they were in the pictures.
Images to use: Surfing Landscapes: Pencil drawings.
Make noises which are recorded on flip cameras.
4. Calligrams
The children will walk around the exhibition and write words inspired by what they can see.
a) Group Calligram. Work on large rolls of paper on wall on which a series of wave outlines have
been drawn.
Use blue & green pens to write words to do with surfing and the sea which they have collected while
looking at exhibition.
b) Individual calligram in shape of fish, wave, surfboard etc.
5. Group Poem
Working in their groups the children are given an artwork to be the starting point for a poem. Each child
writes a short sentence such as
The sea is black
And then everyone’s lines are put together to create a poem.
Artworks
Moonlit Sea: large polished black fibreglass ’seascape ‘showing the moon shining on the sea.
Toxic paradox: A circular image which looks like a flower but which is made up from images of colourful
surf boards.
The Dance: An image of divers beneath the water in a circle.
The Search: A wooden box containing real objects to do with the beach at St Ives; a map, tide tables etc.
Ben Cook Video: Sit and watch the three minute video of Ben Cook surfing at Tynemouth and talking about
his work.
TIME PERMITTING – TWO MORE ACTIVITIES
Hidden Things
What is around the corner, along the path or down the steps in your picture?
Postcard Home from the Sea
Draw a picture on one side of the card and on the other write what you have seen in the gallery today.
12. Appendix 3 INSET Survey
Very
likely
Quite
likely
Neither
1
2
3
4
Do you feel that you increased your knowledge and
understanding as a result of taking part today?
11
Do you feel that participating today has developed
or increased your skills (e.g. listening, thinking,
team work skills, other?)
9
Do you feel you might want to find out more as a
result of what you learnt today (e.g. about the
national curriculum, about other museums?)
2
11
Have your attitudes changed as a result of today
(e.g. attitudes to yourself, to others, to museums, to
finding out about new things, to working with
colleagues outside your organisation?)
2
Did you experience enjoyment, inspiration and
creativity today?
8
7
1
5
3
Quite
unlikely
Very
unlikely