Professor’s Comic Videos Set To Inspire Teenagers’ Creative Writing

PRLog (Press Release) - Oct 12, 2009 -
Students and their teachers and parents who need to improve creative writing skills can now get help from a new DVD created by international prize winning author Michael Symmons Roberts in association with Manchester-based production company 186 Media. The Write Kit DVD is a creative writing toolkit based around 17 short sharp drama videos which stimulate youngsters’ imaginations. Each movie contains challenging materials and games to build craft skills in writing prose fiction, poetry, drama and persuasive writing.

Challenges include capturing an ‘Animal of Light’ within the confines of a poem, creating a riddle using each one of the senses, or producing a radio advert to ‘sell the unsellable’. The Write Kit’s high-level educational benefits have been acknowledged by the the annual BETT Awards, and has been strongly recommended by the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE). The Write Kit has also been well reviewed on TeacherTV and by organizations representing  students with Special Needs (SEN) such as the Dyslexia Society.

The Write Kit can be purchased from 186 Media’s website (www.186media.com/products.asp?id=51) for £24.99. It contains 4 different sections, poetry, fiction writing, drama and persuasive writing. Each section consists of four or five separate exercises designed to increase imaginative response and sharpen students’ awareness of the basics underlying good writing.

Expert advice is provided via extensive video interviews with dramatist and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli,  children’s writer Adele Geras, former Sky News journalist George Dearsley, and Michael Symmons Roberts himself. Especially important for teacher is the fact that each exercise is mapped precisely to a skills requirement in the National Curriculum and National Literacy Strategy.

The high-end drama production is guaranteed to gain students’ attention through use of humour and relevance to daily life. Students will develop observation, listening and empathy skills. The exercises will also build appreciation of narrative structure, characterization, how to write convincing dialogue, what motivates characters in drama, as well as the secrets of genre writing, and special effects.

The DVDs can be played on classroom electronic whiteboards, DVD players and computers. The Write Kit is ideal for teaching a whole class, or working in smaller project groups and with individual learners. Step by step guidance for teachers is included on the DVD itself, together with sample scripts, letter layouts and other resources.

Author and presenter of the Write Kit, Professor Michael Symmons Roberts, teaches Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and has previously published 5 collections of poetry, and has been awarded many major prizes, including the Whitbread Prize for Poetry in 2004. he is also a novelist and librettist, having created works with composer James Macmillan for Welsh National Opera and Covent Garden.