Top 5 Resources - Literature Round 2 | Norfolk & Norwich Festival

National Centre for Writing whiz us round their Top 5 literature education resources:

Are you sitting comfortably?

1. Mood-boosting book recommendations

The Reading Agency have a Reading Well section featuring carefully curated book lists for children and young people going through challenging experiences and for those needing a feel-good read. The mood-boosting books list will be relevant to all children and young people right now; positive and uplifting stories are exactly what we all need to hear! It’s comforting to see some classics including ‘Paddington Bear’ and ‘Mathilda’ on there too. There’s something for everyone from age 5 – 105.

2. Stay Connected at the World Story Cafe

It’s impossible to just poke your head around the door at the World Storytelling Cafe, once you’re in you’ll never want to leave! This virtual storytelling space was set up by the Marrakech Riad hotel in response to the global Covid-19 crisis. They already had physical storytelling cafe under construction, so quickly established an online version. Each day storytellers from around the world either live stream or upload pre-recorded spoken word stories. There is now a huge library of stories and poems from different cultures to choose from, as well as live performances every day. Parents and carers will enjoy these as much as children.

3. Literary career and writing advice for young people

New Writing North feature free to access ‘How To’ questions aimed at young people interested in the literary arts who are considering their future career choices. Including interviews with professional writers, editors and journalists giving advice and insight into established careers and the writing life from ‘How do I become and editor?’ to ‘What does a poet do all day?’ my personal favourite by “all-round lady of letters”, Clare Pollard.

4. New Writing North's downloadable creative writing workshops KS 3-5

Also from New Writing North is their excellent collection of self-led creative writing workshops suitable for key stages 3-5. These free, downloadable workshops by authors and performers cover the following forms: fiction and poetry, songwriting, well being, genres, and theatre. They range from extended writing prompts using images to help get words on the page and creativity flowing, to more technical workshops exploring structure and ideas.

5. Volcanic poetry activities from The Poetry Society

The Poetry Society’s Learning From Home series has a wide collection of quirky poetry themed activities for children many of which are cross curricular. The activity which caught my eye was the volcano themed poetry activity ‘pyroclastic poetry’ for KS 1-3, a playful and original way to learn some volcanic vocabulary whilst playing around with form and language . The Poetry Society also run the prestigious Foyle Young Poets annual competition for 11-17 year olds, details here