Matt Beighton - AIM High Writing
Matt
Beighton
AIM High Writing
Summary
Age range KS1 to KS3
Books Yes
DBS Checked Yes
Booking
Contact
+44 (0)1535 656015
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk
Matt is a former teacher and author with a passion for inspiring literacy in children.
About Matt
Matt Beighton offers exciting and challenging AIM High Writing Workshops from Year 1 to Year 9.
His creative writing sessions are designed to remove barriers and get children quickly from “I don’t know what to write” to a fleshed-out plan and a piece of flash-fiction to showcase their new ideas. Perfect for all writers from those who struggle to engage all the way to the most talented, these sessions are a great way to explore different narrative styles and push boundaries.
Matt’s AIM High Writing Days
Branching Narrative - Years 3 - 9
Whilst the description below uses the Red Riding Hood theme, the same structure can be used to explore learning around any non-fiction topic. This session can also be used as a Year 6 SAT prep day providing a great opportunity to create a plan for a narrative that could be used for assessed writing.
First session: The group starts the day by talking about how we are in control of stories as authors. The group talks about getting stuck, and the idea that it isn’t because we are out of ideas or have no imagination, but rather that there are an infinite number of “next steps” and it’s overwhelming. Matt introduces the concept of the workshop – that trusting our brain and narrowing down our options is an effective way to overcome this. He explains how a branching narrative works and that they are going to explore a new way of planning narrative.
This is followed up by retelling Little Red Riding Hood, but by exploring alternative options at each point. This is a great way to warm up the concept that will be used. Little Red Riding Hood is used because it is a simple story that nearly all children know, and it is easy to manipulate.
Taking ideas from the children, Matt introduces the story as Little Red being asked to visit Grandma. The group discusses the traditional story, but that there are other options. Matt takes the first ideas that children come up with and explores where they take the story. Children are encouraged to trust the first ideas that pop into their head to see where it takes the story. We can’t know if an idea works or not until we have tried it out.
After break: Children work in pairs on large sheets of paper to create their own branching narrative of Little Red Riding Hood. They can use the ideas started earlier, or go with their own. Children that need more scaffolding have it with the earlier activity’s work, whereas those with more confidence are free to take it wherever they choose. This activity is all about getting children to trust their brains rather than the final outcome – they need to have confidence in their own ideas and the fact that some of them might not work is a good thing, not a negative. The group regularly break to circle the classroom and read each other’s work and to share it with the wider group if they choose.
Before lunch: Matt talks the children through the basic steps of planning a narrative based on the Little Red Riding Hood structure. This involves talking about narrative plots and how they are all linked – Little Red Riding Hood is the same plot at Moana, Lord of the Rings and so on – and how we can use these to our advantage. The children plan their own narrative arc based on this structure.
After Lunch: The children take their plan from before lunch and start to work on their own branching narrative, falling back on their Little Red Riding Hood plan where needed. They are encouraged to look at the choices they made in the morning and see if they work for their own story. Again, the group breaks to share ideas and read each other’s work.
By the end of the session, they will have multiple sheets of paper covered in their branching narrative. The session finishes by children working through their story and plotting what they think is the most interesting narrative, and we discuss how they could then use this to write a narrative later. By exploring all of their different ideas and picking the best, they will know that their narrative is the best it could be.
Curriculum Focus
Lower Key Stage 2
Organising paragraphs around a theme
In narratives, creating settings, characters and plot
Assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements
Read their own writing aloud to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear
Using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause
Upper Key Stage 2
Identifying the audience for and purpose of the writing, selecting the appropriate form and using other similar writing as models for their own
Selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, understanding how such choices can change and enhance meaning
In narratives, describing settings, characters and atmosphere and integrating dialogue to convey character and advance the action
Assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing
Ensuring the consistent and correct use of tense throughout a piece of writing
Perform their own compositions, using appropriate intonation, volume, and movement so that meaning is clear
Using expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely
Using modal verbs or adverbs to indicate degrees of possibility
Using relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that or with an implied (ie omitted) relative pronoun
End of Key Stage 2
Write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences, selecting language that shows good awareness of the reader
In narratives, describe settings, characters and atmosphere
Integrate dialogue in narratives to convey character and advance the action
Select vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect what the writing requires, doing this mostly appropriately
Use a range of devices to build cohesion
Use verb tenses consistently and correctly throughout their writing
Quests & Quills - Years 4 - 9
Matt’s Quests & Quills Workshop
If we want to write great stories, we must first learn how to tell them
Matt has developed this role-play led writing workshop that builds on children’s natural desire to play and act out fantasy situations. Quests & Quills breaks down many barriers children face when writing a narrative, allowing them to concentrate on simply telling the story.
Children will use battle boards and characters as tools throughout the course of the workshop. Children are introduced to the simple rules of the game, which is turn based, and as the story develops in small sections the narrative is explored.
Outline of the day:
09:30 The group start the day by discussing what goes into telling a story – creating a world, characters, plot and so on. They then look at the detailed gameboards and use them to create a bank of description for later in the day. Children have the chance to work around the classroom looking at all of the boards and to add and borrow any vocabulary that they like.
10:30 The children are given their characters that they will roleplay for their adventure. These give them something to pin a backstory on, and we spend time discussing a character’s motivation and personality, and how that affects how they act within a narrative. The children are given time to put together a detailed backstory for their characters, and are encouraged to come up with ideas that link their characters to everybody else in their game.
11:15 Children are introduced to the rules of the game and taught how to play. Everyone looks at how a narrative doesn’t just “happen” – a character can’t just see the monster, kill the monster and go home for tea. It has to build up over a series of events over time. This makes it more interesting for the reader, and so we look at how playing a game is similar to a story. We begin to explore how we can use the game to build a narrative.
After lunch: Children write an introduction to their narrative bringing together everything they explored in the morning. Emphasis is placed on building up the setting and using their character to drive the narrative forward. Once they have completed this, they begin to play the game. After each turn, they take time to write the narrative for that part, focussing on the best ways to tell an interesting narrative that will keep their reader engaged.
Curriculum Focus
Lower Key Stage 2
Composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures
Organising paragraphs around a theme
In narratives, creating settings, characters and plot
Assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements
Read their own writing aloud to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear
Using the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense
Using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause
Using fronted adverbials
Upper Key Stage 2
Identifying the audience for and purpose of the writing, selecting the appropriate form and using other similar writing as models for their own
Selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, understanding how such choices can change and enhance meaning
In narratives, describing settings, characters and atmosphere and integrating dialogue to convey character and advance the action
Using a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs
Assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing
Ensuring the consistent and correct use of tense throughout a piece of writing
Perform their own compositions, using appropriate intonation, volume, and movement so that meaning is clear
Using passive verbs to affect the presentation of information in a sentence
Using expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely
Using modal verbs or adverbs to indicate degrees of possibility
Using relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that or with an implied (ie omitted) relative pronoun
End of Key Stage 2
Write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences, selecting language that shows good awareness of the reader
In narratives, describe settings, characters and atmosphere
Integrate dialogue in narratives to convey character and advance the action
Select vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect what the writing requires, doing this mostly appropriately
Use a range of devices to build cohesion
Use verb tenses consistently and correctly throughout their writing
Distinguish between the language of speech and writing and choose the appropriate register
Exercise an assured and conscious control over levels of formality, particularly through manipulating grammar and vocabulary to achieve this
This link provides full details of the fantastic Quests & Quills workshop https://questsandquills.co.uk/#welcome
A Selection of Matt’s Books
Bookings
To book Matt Beighton please contact
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk
Matt also offers visits to schools and other settings, click here for more information.