23/5/20 New KS2 English resources for teachers
I’m really pleased to announce the arrival of a range of resources to support the teaching of the book in primary schools. These have been produced as a collaboration with Emily Smith, a KS2 English specialist. Emily’s been trialling the work with her own pupils during the lockdown, so the activities are designed to be done very independently. So far, there are materials for pre-reading and Chapters 1 and 2. She’s been keeping me up to date with how they’re going – I love this comic strip created by one pupil using storyboarding software as a part of an information retrieval exercise on Chapter 2 (reproduced with kind permission of course).
There are even SAT style questions based on the Prologue which might make a nice activity for older students returning from lockdown, just in case they feel as though they’ve missed out! All the files are available to download under the ‘Teachers’ tab – have a look at the creative stuff put on for readers too. There are some creative writing prompts using different forms and focusing on techniques for engaging the reader. They’re all based loosely on the sea as a theme, and the image prompts link with environmental issues too.
15/5/20 Seal/Girl paperback arrived
It’s always nerve-wracking waiting to see how a book finally looks, bound and delivered. I’ve been through this excitement before with my education writing- I remember physically shaking when opening the first box of textbooks I’d co-authored. Print-on-demand is a very environmentally-friendly publishing model, but during the coronavirus pandemic there has (unsurprisingly) been some disruption to the model. For example, there was no opportunity at the time I submitted the manuscript to have author proofs printed and sent to me to check before publication. This was very scary, as I’d done some tinkering since my wonderful proof-reader signed it off (sorry, Sue!). I’m actually still waiting for my full batch of author copies to send to my amazing beta-readers to thank them.
Today this single copy finally arrived, so it went in the backpack when I went for my cycle ride. It was amazing to be able to take the book to the beach where Chapter 5 is set for a quick photo opportunity, and a huge relief to be able to flip through real pages instead of staring at digital previews.
Wherryville Press
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Elspeth Stevenson 