Memorable experiences All too often, children are asked to write about things they know little about or have not experienced, so writing is even harder than it needs to be. Some children have a limited set of experiences to draw upon so, if we want them to be enthusiastic writers, we need to provide stimuli that will motivate and inspire them. Memorable learning experiences can provide the stimulus for writing for real audiences and for specific purposes. The extent of such events is vast, ranging from full-scale residential visits to small-scale class incidents. If the experiences are to be used as stimuli for writing, then events need to be planned regularly and not just end-of-year visits. Indeed, as budgets come under increasing pressure and transport costs become prohibitive, school-based events can be far more attractive. A class visit to a local park in Leeds was the inspiration for letters to the local council about the poor state of the facilities. The cost of the visit was negligible but the opportunities for writing for a different audience and for a real purpose were significant. In this section, we will consider some of the different activities that have proved successful in providing a stimulus for writing:
Visits Visits to a wide range of venues can be fantastic opportunities to develop students’ knowledge and provide the motivation for different types of writing. Some visits to cultural venues, heritage sites and art galleries can also develop awareness of the local cultural offer. However, all excursions from the school will involve planning, preparation and form-filling, so it is important to make sure that the resultant learning activities tick as many boxes as possible. It is inevitable that many planned visits will form part of a school’s thematic approach to learning but, whatever the main focus, there will always be opportunities to develop children’s writing skills.
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IPEELL: Memorable experiences
