By Callum Ludwig
A great story can take you to a place far far away, and the Big Write program at Launching Place Primary School has done just that recently.
Students were mystified when a spaceship mysteriously landed on their school grounds and immediately got to guessing and imagining just what might have happened.
Grade 1 and 2 teacher Marissa Tomlinson coordinates the Big Write Program at Launching Place PS and said students really like the creativity that writing prompts like the ‘Space Mystery’ bring to their writing.
“The Big Write program started because we were introducing the VCOP program to our school, which focuses on teaching students skills in vocabulary, building better connections in their sentences, using creative openers and punctuation,” she said.
“We put a lot of focus on trying to engage the kids and bringing excitement into their writing especially alongside their families as well.”
The Big Write cycle takes place over two weeks, with students given a prompt and spending some time thinking about what they may write and reviewing their previous writing, as well as brainstorming at home with their families, which is called Home Talk.
Big Write then culminates in a final session where students do their writing, whether it be for a narrative, persuasive piece or another form. Students are built up from doing 20 minutes or writing to 45 minutes to an hour to build up their sustained writing skills.
Ms Tomlinson said because students talked about the prompt for so long, they’re coming to school with fantastic ideas that they are excited to try out.
“It’s putting the icing on the cake of their writing, trying to make their writing as interesting as they can and not just about following conventions,” she said.
“It’s also strengthening that home school partnership because the kids are talking to their parents about their writing and then bringing their final analysed pieces back to share as well, so parents are really in the loop with what their children are learning.”
Previous Big Write topics have also included the ‘Mysterious Door’, ‘How To Make Your Car Grow To The Size Of A House’ and ‘What Would Make The Perfect Pet?’
Each cycle, a number of students are awarded for having written some of the best stories, here’s what some of them wrote for the ‘Space Mystery’:
“The alien came to the ground with a crash and a thud, and he was evil and sent all the other aliens to Earth, but there was one more rocketship and it was an astronaut who arrested all the aliens,” Grade 1 / 2 student Ethan said.
“An alien named Mitchell came and said he was going to take everybody, but he couldn’t take anybody except for Eddie, he took him into space and the whole grade rescued him,” said Grade 3 / 4 student Troy.
“There was an alien trying to land but he crashed and three kids saw him and told the principal. The principal experimented on the alien with some tools before he asked him how he got there. The alien told him his ship broke down so the principal fixed it and then she went back to work,” said Grade 3 / 4 Luna.
