From Fiction to Non-fiction

Last week, we were lucky enough to be part of a conference which was all about writing across the curriculum where we presented a piece of work on how to use film to develop non-fiction outcomes. After an entertaining and thought provoking keynote speech from Michael Rosen – which reminded us of the need to put quality literature at the centre of reading and writing – we kicked off by sharing the choice of film we had chosen to use to inspire both fiction and non fiction outcomes, that of ‘Varmints’ by Marc Craste and Studio AKA.

As we reminded delegates at the start, the right choice of text, or film, is vital. When considering using a text for a variety of genres, the need to engage is of high importance. Ideally you want children to be fully immersed and this is tricky if the text is one-dimensional as fostering curiosity is essential to not only the immersion model, but the teaching sequence for writing. Varmints is a multi-layered text. As a picture book, a film (and there is presently a dance piece touring the UK inspired by the book) it presents a story set in another world, where a creature goes to extreme lengths to save a small part of the wilderness that remains in his world before it is destroyed, so that it can be re-planted and be part of a new beginning. As well as this powerful message being wonderfully relevant, the visual quality of the film of a high standard and the soundtrack is beautiful; taking the viewer on a journey that needs no words.

This particular film lends itself well to scientific non-fiction outcomes, exploring the issues of changing habitats and environments and how they impact on the conditions needed for life cycles. As a short film (24 minutes) it can be used piece by piece to help children understand the themes presented, and we shared some of the strategies of how to do this with delegates. After exploring the meaning of the title, we listened to the soundtrack of the trailer without watching it and gathered a response. We followed this with an activity where we sorted adjectives and verbs to describe the atmosphere of the film up to a certain point, asking delegates to justify why they had placed some words ahead of others whilst referring to the text. It was important to us to create an emotional response to the film, before identifying how to use it for cross curricular purposes, as we knew from using it in school that this provided an opportunity to look at a context for the science to take place, therefore making the theory less hypothetical, more rooted in something the children have had experience of engaging with.

The activity we took delegates through on the day used various stages of the film to recreate the life cycle of a plant. We used stills captured from the film, as well as images from the book to support this process. At this point, to support the modelling of non fiction writing, we shared examples of some non fiction books on the topic of life cycles. This is so children can be aware of the appropriate terminology, such as ‘Germination’ and ‘Pollination’, whilst having examples of writing to hand of a more formal tone.

We have a great opportunity in the primary classroom to make links. Many schools use creative curriculums to help children to build connections within ‘topics’ and we know this supports children’s engagement levels as well as helping them to secure some tough concepts. Where a text lends itself to a cross curricular writing opportunity, we should not be afraid to go with the interest generated by the curiosity – the progression of skills can always be covered within another context. Of course all of this takes careful consideration, but we know the best lessons are when the children want to find out for themselves how something works, or what is going to happen next, and we want to contribute towards helping to shape curious minds that can apply their knowledge in more than one context, for that is when the real learning takes place.

The Varmints dance-theatre piece by Travelling Light Theatre Company is on tour until the 23rd June.
The book ‘Varmints’ is published by Templar.
The film is available on iTunes for £1.49 and also on Vimeo.

Posted in: Curriculum