Secondary School Teachers! We have designed The 5x5 Project to be used as classroom activity for your students.
We have attached some lesson outlines for you to use with your class in English agus as Gaeilge. We hope you find them useful!
As a primary school teacher, I know the value of bringing fun and silliness to creative writing. Here are just some of the ways that I like to use these stories in my classroom:
Identifying the parts of the story is so important, so why not do it in a fun way? Get the children to find and underline parts of the story such as author, illustrator, illustrations, dialogue, plot, characters and setting. Each different part could be associated with a different colour.
Mary Lowry
I work in a co-educational school in Donabate, North County Dublin. It has been a great privilege for me and for my fellow English teachers to participate in workshops at Fighting Words and to kindle in our students the joy and the power of writing. I have learned much from my interactions with Fighting Words, the most important lesson has been to realise that students love to tell stories and we just need to find ways to make it accessible for them to tell those stories in all sorts of different ways.
Nuair a bhí mise i mo dhalta bunscoile ag tús na seascaidí b’ionann scríbhneoireacht chruthaitheach agus aiste as Béarla agus aiste as Gaeilge a scríobh chuile dheireadh seachtaine. Níor tugadh aon treoir agus bhí béim curtha ar litriú agus ar ghramadach chruinn-ní mórán airde a tugadh ar shamhlaíocht ná ar smaointe neamhghnácha!!! Ní raibh na hábhair iontach spreagúil ach oiread-“Lá ar an bportach”, “Cuairt ar an mbaile mór” nó b’fhéidir “Lá ag an trá”. Go minic ba chur síos fíorasach a bhíodh sna haistí seo seachas píosa de scríbhneoireacht chruthaitheach.
Is duine deonach mé le Fighting Words Chonamara, agus bím ag obair mar Chúntóir Riachtanais Speisialta sa seomra ranga agus is máthar ceathrar clainne mé.
Creidim go bhfuil an scéalaíocht go smior ionainn agus gur rud é a thagann go nádúrtha dúinn. Ón lá a mbeirtear páiste, nach bhfuil muid breathnú idir an dá shúil orthu agus muid ag cumadh agus ag inseacht scéiliní dóibh seasta. Sé nadúr an duine é agus tá an scéalaíocht fite fuaite sna tradisiúin ón gcliabhán. Déantar ceiliúradh ar laethanta faoi leith - Lá ‘le Pádraig, Lá Fhéile Bhríde srl tríd scéalta sa scoil agus ag bailiú eolais ó na glúnta níos sine sa mbaile.
Nora Nic Con Ultaigh
I am a secondary school teacher in Coláiste Mhuire, a gaelcholáiste, in Cabra, and I also volunteer with Fighting Words Creative Writing Centre in Dublin 1.
Over the years my school has developed a fruitful partnership with Fighting Words. Every year Transition Year students visit the bright, book-lined writing space to take part in a short-story writing workshop. A few years ago playwright and drama facilitator, Louise Melinn, came to the school to run a Fighting Words playwriting course. The students’ work was presented by professional actors at the end of the project.
Siobhán Ní Shuibhne, múinteoir Rang a 4
Nuair a tugadh cuireadh do mo rang chuig ceardlann ‘Fighting words’ i mbliana, ní raibh mé i bhfad á fhreagairt. Caithfidh mé a admháil nach raibh mórán eolais agam faoin gceardlann í féin, ach amháin go raibh sí le bheith in Ionad Cultúrtha an Phiarsaigh atá suite i Rosmuc i gcroílár Ghaeltacht Chonamara. Is anseo ar ndóigh a insítear scéal Phádraig Mhic Phiarais. Bhí sé ar intinn agam rang a ceathair a thabhairt ann ar aon nós go gairid, mar sin thapaigh mé an deis!
