Moving on with Boys’ Writing
Date: Thursday 25th September 9.00am – 4.00pm
Venue: Epsom Downs Racecourse, Epsom, Surrey
Cost: £170.00 (£199.75 inc. VAT) per delegate
Outline Programme
There is a recognised and well documented difference between the genders in the Primary classroom, with girls consistently outperforming boys in their writing.
Building on the success of Surrey’s Boys Writing Project 2007/2008, this conference will take current thinking on improving boys’ writing a step further and develop existing ideas to help busy teachers to redress this inequality.
The event will motivate and inspire schools to progress their teaching of writing by highlighting key learning and teaching strategies that can secure greater achievement for boys.
The keynote sessions, delivered by Pie Corbett, Education Consultant, and Cary Bazalgette, former Head of BFI Education, British Film Institute, will explore the central issues and challenges in engaging and motivating boys in their writing, whilst the seminar sessions offer a more concentrated focus on specific tools and techniques to employ in the classroom.
Keynote Speakers
Pie Corbett, Education Consultant
Pie is currently a freelance education consultant, a storyteller and a poet. He was a former headteacher and then moved into the world of teacher training. After this, Pie became a lead inspector for Gloucester. He has also worked for the National Strategy since it began and during his career has written over 250 books.
Cary Bazalgette, former Head of BFI Education, British Film Institute
Cary worked at the British Film Institute from 1979 to 2007, having previously been a teacher of English and filmmaking in London secondary schools. She has written and edited a number of classroom resources for media education and has published and spoken widely on this topic in the UK and around the world. She was head of BFI Education from 1999-2006, leading the BFI’s commitment to developing new approaches to teaching and learning about the moving image media, particularly for the 3-14 age group, and gaining a higher profile for this area of education at policy level, nationally and internationally. Following 18 months as the BFI’s Education Policy Adviser, she is now working as a freelance researcher, writer and consultant specializing in media literacy and in children’s media.
Maureen Lewis
Dr Maureen Lewis is a teacher, researcher, lecturer and writer. She now works as an independent consultant and is an honorary research fellow at the University of Exeter. Her current research interests involve working with groups of leading literacy teachers to develop new insights into creative comprehension strategies and exploring the impact of non-fiction book bags (Curiosity Kits) on motivating reluctant boy readers and supporting reading at home
Seminars
A choice of seminars will focus on different contexts and strategies that can be employed to motivate, inspire and encourage boys in their writing:
• Top Gear – how still and moving car imagery can support boys’ writing
• Boy readers, boy writers - how to engage boys in reading in order to develop their writing
• ICT – exploring Photostory 3 and Audacity to support speaking and listening, and to create multimodal texts
• Creating Comics and Graphic Novels – how comics can motivate boys
• Creating the Spark – using creative ways to inspire boys to write
• Motivation and Memory – understanding pupil motivation
Intended Outcomes
Course participants will gain:
• deeper understanding of key approaches to achieving success for boys in writing
• opportunity to reflect upon the essential ingredients of effective and exciting teaching in writing
• ideas for enhancing and developing your strategies for engaging and motivating boys in writing
• greater understanding to overcome the barrier to boys’ achievement through a whole-school approach to improvement
• networking opportunities with schools who took part in the Surrey Boys’ Writing Project.
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Conference Code: 08E/6261
