Travel Writing“Come Fly With Us”

Where does Travel Writing fit into the curriculum?

Travelling and Telling: Introduction to tourist information writing, Comparison of literary travel writing past and present and Perceptions of tourism.

Word Sentence Reading Writing S & L

W7 Layers of meaning

S1 Complex

sentences

S11 Trends over

time

S4 Integrate

speech, reference

& quotation

S7 Exploit

conventions

R4 Evaluate Information

R7 Compare presentation

R9 Compare writers

R11 Author’s standpoint

R6 Authorial perspective

R8 Readers & texts

Wr4 Presentational devices

Wr6 Creativity & non-literary texts

Wr17 Textual evidence

Wr13 Influence audience

S&L9 Evaluate contributions

S&L6 Analyse bias

S&L10 Group organisation

The DFES provide an example scheme of work. The objectives they put forward are as follows:• This unit contrasts consumer-orientated tourist

information with more literary travel writing from different periods. Pupils should consider the characteristics of the different forms and explore the links between style, context, content and purpose

• www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/literacy

Travel Writing is a focus of the KS3 strategy. It aims to prepare students for: • Persuasive writing• Account writing• Descriptive writing

Each of these are types of writing that could come up in the Year 9 SATs paper.

Writing Triplets:• Imagine, Explore, Entertain

• Analyse, Comment, Review

Aims of today…

Success Criteria:• To explore how & why Travel

Writing fits into the KS3 strategy.• To suggest ideas to help you

break down aspects/features of travel writing extracts.

• To complete a personal response activity.

• To introduce you to aspects of writing skills you could teach using Travel Writing.

• Independent Learning.• Writing Activity.• Peer Assessment.• Further Activities.

Aims:• To provide you with information on travel writing.• Engage you in example activities.• Link theory to practical teaching.

Points to note:• Consider Travel Writing as a cross-curricular topic

• History• Geography• Citizenship• MFL

• PAF – useful to explore• Look at example paper to help understanding of use of Travel Writing

Travel Writing

Sight

SoundSmell

Taste

Experience

Opinion

Understanding culture

Analyse

Entertain

Spiritual, Moral, Cultural

ICT

Reflect

THE FEATURES OF TRAVEL WRITING

KS3

In General…

Travel narratives use a

chronological narrative

structure and a 1st person

narrative voice

Ideas for use of tense

• Use the past tense to narrate the events of a journey or stay at a location.

• Use the present tense to describe features of the location as they appear:

‘We flew with the Pacific Ocean beneath us covered with motionless ripples.’

The grammar…

Use connectives to portray time.

For example:

When, after a while, the next day, then, next, soon after, later, whilst…

Ideas to make your travel writing more interesting

Be selective! Choose between or use a variety of:

• Anecdotes• The effect of the location on yourself. Develop a

strong personal voice and reflect upon the experience.

• Include humour• Interesting information about the location; its

culture, beliefs, types of food etc.

Bringing the location alive

Assume your reader knows nothing about the country you are writing about. Your aim is to make them feel they are there without leaving their sofa!

To do this, include:• Proper and specific nouns: Giza, Arabic,

Cairo…• Indigenous language: sawgrass, paichi…

Create an atmosphereThis is an excellent opportunity to use lots of descriptive

language (adjectives and figurative language) to set the scene.

For example: ‘From their boats below the quay, smoke-shrouded

fishermen hand up chunks of grilled fish to their customers above, who sprinkle rough salt upon them from pots tied to the railings and wander off munching into the crowd.’

Show respect!

Try to retain some objectivity about the location you are writing about.

• Be sensitive: you may think something you have written is really funny – but could it be insulting as well?

• It is good to have an opinion but show awareness of other people’s as well.

AND AT ALL COSTS AVOID:

‘My alarm went off at 7am and I got up and showered and ate my breakfast before getting in the taxi and going to the airport. The plane journey was really long and boring but eventually we arrived at Marrakech…’

AAGH! DULL, DULL DULL!

ACTIVITY:What aspects of this travel narrative fit the features

of travel writing?

• ‘I went into Caesar’s Palace. It is set well back from the street, but I was conveyed in on a moving sidewalk, which rather impressed me. Inside the air was thick with unreality. The décor was supposed to be like a Roman temple or something. Statues of Roman gladiators and statesmen were scattered around the place and all the cigarette girls and ladies who gave change were dressed in skimpy togas, even if they were old and overweight, which most of them were, so their thighs wobbled as they walked. It was like watching moving Jell-O. I wandered through the halls full of people intent on losing money – endlessly, single-mindedly feeding coins into slot machines or watching the clattering dance of a steel ball on a roulette wheel or playing games of blackjack that had no start or finish but were continuous, like time. There was no sense of pleasure or fun. I never saw anyone talking to anyone else, except to order a drink or cash some money. The noise was intense – the crank of one-armed bandits, the spinning of thousands of wheels, the din of clattering coins when a machine paid out.’

Suggested activities for working with a travel narrative:

• 1: Give the extract to the group as a handout. In pairs, students are to read the narrative and highlight and annotate words and phrases that match the criteria outlined in the features presentation.

• 2: Go through the narrative as a class and take feedback from volunteers on the content (or pick on people!).

• 3: Give the class a ‘watered down’ version of the narrative and encourage the students to edit and improve the story using the features outlined.

• 4: Bottom sets or year 7/8: Students are to draw or storyboard the events and locations in the narrative and label with quotes from the narrative. This would need to be frameworked around the features.

Example ActivityIntroduction to reflective writing.

You must write your first reactions and thoughts.Be as descriptive as possible.

Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

I am going to show you six slides.You need to write down a personal response

to each slide.

Think about:What you see.What you hear.What you feel.

You will have ONE minute to look at the image. You SHOULD start to write as soon as possible after seeing the image.

You will then have 30 SECONDS to continue/finish writing.

Travel Writing• What did you see?

• What can you hear?• How do you feel?

Write your first reactions and thoughts.Be as descriptive as possible.

Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

Travel Writing• What did you see?

• What can you hear?• How do you feel?

• Write your first reactions and thoughts.

• Be as descriptive as possible.

• Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

Travel Writing• What did you see?

• What can you hear?• How do you feel?

• Write your first reactions and thoughts.

• Be as descriptive as possible.

• Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

Travel Writing• What did you see?

• What can you hear?• How do you feel?

• Write your first reactions and thoughts.

• Be as descriptive as possible.

• Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

Travel Writing• What did you see?

• What can you hear?• How do you feel?

• Write your first reactions and thoughts.

• Be as descriptive as possible.

• Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

Travel Writing• What did you see?

• What can you hear?• How do you feel?

• Write your first reactions and thoughts.

• Be as descriptive as possible.

• Re-create the image in your mind for your reader!

WRITING PURPOSE TRIPLETS

Analyse, Comment, Review:

Good opportunity to practise ‘commentary’

• Requires the use of judgement

• Personal response

• May include phrases such as ‘I expected…’ / ‘I noticed…’ / ‘It impressed me…’

WRITING PURPOSE TRIPLETS

Analyse, Comment, Review:

Good opportunity to practise ‘commentary’

• Requires the use of judgement

• Personal response

• May include phrases such as ‘I expected…’ / ‘I noticed…’ / ‘It impressed me…’

Triplets continued…

Imagine, Explore, Entertain

Travel writing needs a different type of invention to other narratives but still requires:

• First person• Where and when • Atmosphere• Variation of sentence length in strategic places

for effect.• Interesting vocabulary

Needs of the class

• It may be useful to provide topic sentences to scaffold first attempts at travel narratives (to try and avoid the ‘I was on the plane’ scenarios)

• E.G:

‘I arrived in Moscow, my suitcase apparently on the way to Bali, with no money and no idea how to speak to anyone…’

Practising writing skills

• This is an opportunity to focus on the needs of individuals to practise writing skills such as:

• Adding detail: expanding nouns with adjectives: the dusty, dry road. Alliteration can also be used.

• Imagery: Similes, metaphors and personification

Writing skills continuedSentence construction:

Experimentation with moving adverbs around:

Quickly I realisedI realised quicklyI quickly realised

This can be used with adverbial phrases, e.g; I spoke, with a great deal of trepidation, to the crowd.

Writing skills

Word power:

Encourage the use of power verbs and adjectives

Matching language to suit audience:

teenage = wicked

older = entertaining

Writing skills

Paragraphs

TiP ToPRevision of time, place, topic, person

• Varying lengths of paragraphs

• Use of linking sentences

Writing skills

Organising whole texts

• GENERAL: Linking ideas between paragraphs, logical order of ideas

• CONNECTIVES: Additional, causal, chronological, oppositional.

• E.g: Furthermore, consequently, meanwhile, in contrast…

Writing skills

Using sentences for effect

• Try different ways of starting sentences

• Different lengths of sentence

• Use different connectives within sentences

• Link ideas in sentences

• Write about more than one thing in a sentence

ACTIVITY!

Look back at your personal response to the image and music

presentation. Try and make 3 changes based on the writing skills

just outlined.

Independent Independent LearningLearning

‘Learning to Learn’

Skills awareness

Developing a language in which to talk about the world

Encouraging Resilience

‘Learning Power’

Emotional Intelligence

Language of Learning

•Giving them time to identify the skills they’ve used – and justify them.

•Even that is an independent task in itself!

•Make time to discuss these as part of the activity…

e.g. Can pupils identify where they have been:

Creating

Enquiring

Collaborating

Evaluating

Managing

Reasoning?

Language of Learning + ACTIVITYACTIVITY

Theory + Practice

I am CREATIVE

C1 I can look for alternative ways of approaching tasks

C2 I can generate ideas and keep options open

I am a THINKER

T2 I can compare and contrast opinions, ideas or sources

T6 I can ask new questions to develop my understanding

I can MANAGE myself and my work

M3 I can self mark my work

M5 I can recognise and reduce interruptions

I am a CONFIDENT COLLABORATOR

CC1 I can learn from other pupils in paired and group work

CC4 I can mark other students’ work

I am an INVESTIGATOR

I1 I can brainstorm a range of ideas and theories

I5 I can make good use of sources of information

I am REFLECTIVE

R2 I can set targets that allow me to move forward in my learning

R5 I can recognise audience and the purpose of work

I am an INDEPENDENT LEARNERI am an INDEPENDENT LEARNER

Your mission:Your mission:Write for 15 mins about an exciting event that happened while you were visiting the destination in your travel bag…

To be successful:To be successful:Include reference to the props in your travel bag

Use cultural references

Use indigenous language

Write in 1st person narrative voice

Use 4 adjectives

Use all 5 senses in your description

Success Criteria:Success Criteria:•Include reference to the props in your

travel bag.•Use cultural references.

•Use indigenous language.•Write in 1st person narrative voice.

•Use 4 adjectives.•Use all 5 senses in your description.

Peer Assessment

TASK:Swap your ‘Travel Writing’ with the other group on your table.

Assess their writing based on the success criteria you were given.

Provides a focused source of feedback.Stimulates and reinforces learning.

Promotes self-assessment capability.Is supportive and forward thinking.

Add a

positive

comment.

Suggest one target.

SOME IDEAS FOR FURTHER ACTIVITIES

• 1: Reading/writing: SATs practise questions: analysing travel narratives

• 2: PAF: Person, audience, form. Comparing travel supplements, travel guides etc.

• 3: Speaking and listening: Present TV programmes• 4: Writing: Students write their own travel guide –

somewhere they have researched in an ICT session or somewhere they have actually been to.

• 5: Comparisons between travel narratives and other genres.

• 6: Drama: tourist, traveller, explorer – differences/similarities.