A Story Like the Wind / After Reading / Writing Opportunities /
Hope
Text potential
- Writing opportunities: Free writing
Purpose
Gill Lewis writes about ‘a small hope’. In this lesson, children are asked to consider what those small hopes might be and to reflect on their hopes for the future, expressing them in their preferred form: prose or poetry.
Preparation
- Make available a selection of writing materials.
- Download and display the Amnesty International logo.
Process
Ask the children to consider if A Story Like the Wind is a story of hope.
(Note: Gill Lewis writes about a small hope in a small boat but also the dream of freedom.)
You may want to refer to the lesson about Amnesty International.
- Does A Story Like the Wind support the mission of the organisation?
Introduce the word optimism meaning hopefulness and confidence for the future.
Freewriting – allow a short time (3 – 5 minutes) for the children to write down all the things that they hope for a better world.
After they have done this, share some ideas. Invite them to choose ideas from their free writing to expand into a poem or prose piece about hope.
Final reflection
Share the children’s writing more widely
Create a wall of hope in school displaying the children’s writing and the Amnesty International logo. Encourage other children to add to the display, providing writing materials in the vicinity so that they can do this easily.
Key vocabulary
optimism, hope
Contributors
Nikki Gamble
Director, Just Imagine
Nikki has worked extensively in schools across the UK and internationally. She is the author of Exploring Children’s Literature (4th edit) (2019) and co-author of Guiding Readers (2016) which was awarded the UKLA Academic Book of the Year Award 2017. Nikki is KS2 reading advisor and series consultant for Oxford University Press and content creator for the Oxford School Improvement and Oxford Owl websites. Nikki is Associate Consultant at the University of London, Institute of Education and Honorary Fellow at the University of Winchester