Our Working Wall

When I first thought about reading 'Breathe' to the class I realised how well the story slotted into the Summer Term's Narrative work in Year 6. I haven't yet sat down and written my plans to promote the teaching of this yet and have instead decided to use the following three weeks to get a feel for the novel and the different approaches that I could take in promoting the writing of ghost stories with my class. Each lesson or idea has always been open to class discussion and we've explored different ways of making the unit and the reading of the novel as exciting as possible. I have found that asking the class to come up with ideas of how we could write great ghost stories has helped me shape up a few super ideas for this unit's work.

The several ideas that emerged, and of which I will post about over the next few weeks, are 'The Working Wall' (This was something I wanted to do and the children liked the idea of), 'Creating a Spooky Reading Corner' (This was their idea and something I liked) and having a creepy evening of storytelling (This is something I hinted at - the telling of ghost stories - and they took off in a direction that I did not seeing coming). As can be seen from previous posts, many other ideas and thoughts were explored too and some with emerge as time goes on. The one that I wanted to promote and focus on in this entry was the class 'Working Wall.'

The Working Wall is an idea that I have caught from a recent Literacy course in Oxford. Like many things, someone else came up with the idea and I then tweaked it to suit what I wanted to get from it. A Working Wall is there to support pupils' writing throughout a unit and is meant to grow and change as the weeks pass. The overall objective (to create a ghost story which has flashbacks) is always placed somewhere for all the children to see throughout the Unit and the Wall's main function is to act as a sort of 'workshop' where children can contribute their own ideas and thoughts about the processes involved in achieving the objective.

The Lancashire Literacy Team give an excellent explanation here. They separate the Working Wall into the following five sections:

* The Genre Checklist ( How to write whatever you're going to write)
* Gathering Content (Collating a bank of examples)
* Planning (Techniques demonstrated and used: mind maps, my Ghost Story Starts Game)
* Drafting (Demonstration and Support)
* Editing and Revising (My VCOP board can be used to assist here as well as in the Drafting process)

I like the fact that the Lancs team state that the Working Wall should not be seen as a 'tidy display' but rather a busy hive of thoughts and ideas. When I mentioned this to my class they became far more interested.

I had decided that the first phase of our work would involve no writing at all. Instead, we would read and discuss 'Breathe' as often as possible whilst exploring other good ghost stories. The latter part of this was started in the IT Suite where the children found stories online. They would then take the story and paste it into Word. From here they would highlight a phrase or passage that they thought would be useful to use in our own stories. They then used the footnotes tool to mark out why they liked those particular passages or ideas. Those that found the reading difficult, explored spooky images on the internet and use textboxes to explain why they thought those photos were good places to set their ghost story: all of this is there to help them prepare for the next phase in the Unit which is planning their story.

This element of research abd exploration into the genre is the 'Gathering Content' element of the Working Wall. With the online stories and images annotated and put up on the Working Wall, I felt we were making steady progress into the planning element of the Unit. With my 'Ghost Story Genre Checklist' and VCOP boards at the ready, we were going to begin using the creative-ghost-writing planning game (that was a mouthful) that I had created.

One of the things that the children were very interested in was finding local ghost stories. They had decided that this made the tale far more pertinent to them and that it would be 'spookier' as the location would help us become more attached to the tale. The following day saw lots of the children bring in their own ghost-story collections which we thought would be good to put on display around the Working Wall.

Resource for Writing

I have now begun reading 'Breathe' to my class and they're loving it. The bookmarks I have made are allowing the children to focus on the narrative as well as exploring where the characters are going and driving forward the important elements of the story. We have working on setting up our own spooky reading corner - but more about that in another post. The next item that I have been working on and have completed today has been my 'Breathe' VCOP board.

The VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openings and Punctuation) system was something that I stumbled over a few years ago on another teacher's blog-site. I found that is was designed by Ros Wilson. Ros has been involved in Education for over forty years and always comes across as extremely passionate about raising standards in writing. The VCOP board is a very basic, clear and clever way for pupils and teachers to gain a greater understanding of the skills required to become a successful writer (albeit in concern with National Levels). Sites like Sparklebox have taken Ros' idea and created visual and exciting '3D pyramid' which children have on their desks as an aid.

The VCOP pyramid is a guide to improving the standard of writing but should never be seen as the sole resource for doing so.

When I first printed out and put together the Sparklebox version of the VCOP board I found that I liked the idea but thought the size of the pyramid too large for a child's desk. Instead, I created my own VCOP mat (this has been done before!). I felt that the mat was more practical; easy to store away at the end of a lesson and functioned far better as a clutterless tool that the children could engage with.

Being Literacy Coordinator, I took it upon myself to create a bank of differentiated VCOP boards for every year group in my school. The boards would be tailored to the levels of ability throughout that year-group and the images and designs on the board would be relevant to the topic work covered: E.g. The Year 5 (who study the Victorians) board had images of Queen Victoria handing out advice.

I have also made my VCOP boards double-sided: it seemed a shame to create a lovely resource and laminate it for consistent use but not use both sides. On the ones that I have made, I have placed word guides and grammatical explanations. Lower down the school, the board (on its flip slide) explains the basic function of a verb and a noun. Further up the school it explores figurative language devices such as similes and onomatopoeia.

With my 'Breathe' board, I decided to embed the 'Tips for how to write a good Ghost Story' guide that I had written (so that the child is consistently familiar with it) and I also found some good examples of similes and short sentences from the novel.


Of course, I'm not going to know how effective the board is until I have the kids using them. And before I get them using the boards, I need to make sure that they have developed a real thirst for writing their own ghost story. It goes without saying that I don't see the VCOP board as a way of easing the teaching of writing in any way - I see it as a useful tool which could help focus and assist a pupil. More on the VCOP board shall be added in future blog entries.

Both the PDF and Publisher version of my Breathe Board are available in the Resources section of the blog. I have attached the Publisher version in case anyone wishes to amend my work.

What makes a good ghost story?

In terms of timing, this was actually the very first thing that I brought up with the kids. This was before we started reading 'Breathe'; before we began looking at the front cover or even speaking about what my plan would be in terms of writing ghost stories over the next few weeks.

The first thing I did was place the question: 'What makes a good ghost story?' on the IWB and got them to start talking in pairs and then as a whole class. I got a whole bunch of answers and was really pleased with some of the responses. It should be noted that the first few weeks of Literacy in Year 6 Autumn is spent looking at different genres so the kids had a fair idea.

As you can see from the first slide, the kids hit the nail with some of the main features:

* The unexpected

* A chase or a hunt (I really liked this one and it came from a child who I didn't expect to make such an insightful comment)

* Tricking the reader

* Ghosts *pfft*

* Short sentences

As you can see they covered many stylistic devices as well as creative ideas which would work well. This ended up helping me come up with my 'Ghost Story Starts' idea of which I will look at in a later blog, but have attached the resource for this idea in the Resources section. [How to use it shall be revealed another time].

What Ghost Films have you watched?

I was also interested in the fact that most of them had claimed to have watched a 'Ghost Film.' I was very surprised by this and was expecting to hear a list of films which I feel they probably should not have watched. I find that what children watch at home a fascinating exploration into their countenance and behaviour. As you can see from the results, they went off on a tandem and ended up being a bit daft with their ideas - they did make me laugh though.

What we have watched:

Ghostbusters, Brothers Grimm, The Fog (PG-13), Scooby Doo, Carry on Screaming *I almost wet myself at this one and knew that I'd lost all serious offerings at this point*, The Haunting, Skeleton Key, The Haunted Mansion, The Grudge!!!! (PG-13) (1/2 of it. The lad had claimed that a friend and himself had nicked it from his friend's mum and dad's collection and watched half before being terrified and switching it off) Lost Boys, Vampire Kid, Harry Potter...and Caspar...*sigh*

It went from 'ok' to 'awful' very quickly. The kids were offering ideas and then finding it hilarious to offer something vaguely connected but not really. I thought it was very interesting that they could be serious about the format a ghost story should take in a book but lost it when they were asked to name films. Many of the things mentioned don't even have a ghost in them! I did laugh for a long time at the offering of Caspar though...

What elements of fear have we experienced that we could use to help us write a good ghost story?

I asked this question to try and elicit from the children a sense of what it was that made a good ghost story a chilling experience. I explained to them about when I was younger and found myself alone in the house at night and how I got incredibly scared even though there were no 'ghostly' happenings. We began to explore what elements of fear they thought affected them and how they would use it in their own work.
This was a great conversation and last a good 15 minutes. The children were enthusiastic about this and I would say that for every missing-the-mark comment which was offered, there were 10 that did hit the mark.

We first started speaking about our home. One of the class really connected with the idea that our home should be a safe place and so when you begin making it unsafe then it can be far scarier than sending your characters to a haunted mansion. We talked about our fear of there being something in the cupboard in the end of our room or something under the bed. We then brought in how sound can affect us greatly - and our characters. The creaking of a floorboard, the groaning of pipes - noises which, in the dead of night, were unaccountable when fear has a grip on us. The class then spoke about the importance of taking things away from the character that they rely on: family, light and electricity were some of the suggestions. One pupil, which I found very interesting, related the primal fear of being alone in the house with an unwelcome presence to the experiences of Little Red Riding Hood and her time in the cottage as well as her journey through the woods - bright spark! Overall, we agreed that in a ghost story, there must be a moment where things become out of control for the character - and therefore for the reader.

Introducing 'Breathe' into the classroom

When I was approached by Nikki Gamble to create a guide to using 'Breathe' in the classroom, my first thought went to the bookmarks that I have been creating these past 10 years. The bookmarks are designed to promote good reading and thinking skills within the curriculum: 'Booktalk' as Chambers would say. I came up with the idea of creating a set of bookmarks many years ago at college with some friends. When I was working with my first class I have organised a set of parents to come in and help read in groups. Rather than just allowing parents to listen to the child decode the words off the page, I created the bookmarks to help promote discussion. I always used to joke with them that when I read with my group for an hour, we found ourselves reading for about 15-20 minutes of it and talking for about 45 minutes throughout.

I am a firm believer that many books out there, especially for children, have an awful lot to offer. They allow us to look into situations that may or may not reflect our own thoughts and experiences. With Cliff's 'Breathe' I adopted this approach again but concentrated on how the book would also help the children write good ghost stories.

I would never presume to use every single question that is on the bookmark. This could end up having a negative effect indeed. The last thing I want to do is pull Cliff's book apart and lose the enjoyment of the story. Let us not forget, however, that this book is here is serve a purpose. It is an excellent rendition of a ghost story and one that the children can learn a lot from in terms of technique and style as well as appreciating plot and the elements that go into writing a cracking ghost story.

We haven't even begun to read the book yet. Instead, I wanted to prove to you, the reader, that the bookmarks can heighten discussion and, as one of my own pupils points out, 'open up..imagination.' The first piece of discussion we had involved me blowing up the front cover onto the IWB (Interactive Whiteboard) and asking the children to note down in their Reading Journals what they notice about the front cover.

When they had accomplished this, I then began asking questions, using the bookmarks as a guide to refresh my memory. We spoke a lot about the font, the character, the fact that judging books by their cover is just in our nature and after a whole class discussion I was blown away by what they came up with. Many of the children had decided that the girl in the photo was wearing old clothes and was from the distant past. They had decided that the wooden frame was the back door of an abandoned cottage and that the font has a big impact in promoting the style of the book. Below I have attached one table's comments on the cover. I have made no amendments. I shall endeavor to add other comments made as we make our way through the book:

PB (A Reluctant Reader)
Comment in Reading Journal without any teacher-led questions asked:

‘All you know is that there is a ghost that looks like it is a girl. It is in black and white so I think it might be set in the past. Ancient.’

After a whole-class chat about the cover, using the first bookmark as a guide:

‘If I saw Breathe in a book shop I would probably buy it but first I would ask around and see if anyone recommended it because it has such a spooky cover. I can see a ghost through a window which seems to have been breathed on. I think that the person in the window is a teenage girl’

JS (A confident reader stuck in a particular genre)

Comment in Reading Journal without any teacher-led questions asked:

‘Who is the girl in the window? I think it is a ghost. I think this will be about a family of ghosts stuck in a house until the truth has been revealed.’

After a whole-class chat about the cover, using the first bookmark as a guide:

‘I think the person in the window is a ghost of someone killed in the house who wants their revenge. I think the genre is ghost mystery. I think the front title is really intriguing and unusual. It works really well. I think blood (teacher note: dripping from the words like in the proof-copy of the book) would give the wrong impression of the book. Horror and ghost stories are very different. (Teacher Note: JS then draws a table in his book stating that Horror has ‘Blood, Guts and is Scary’ and Ghost has no blood and guts but can be scary). If I saw this book in the book shop I would buy it because it sounds really good and has already been recommended to me by you (Mr. T)

EQ (Confident reader who is open to a broad reading range – with guidance)

Comment in Reading Journal without any teacher-led questions asked:

‘Who is the girl? Why is she here? Where is she? What is it about? Is the thing in front a window or a door? Will I like this book? Is it gonna be sad, scary or happy? Why does it have a lack of colour? Why is it called ‘Breathe’ if it’s a book about ghosts?

After a whole-class chat about the cover, using the first bookmark as a guide:

‘I can see: A middle teenage girl, an old, wooden window door and a title that looks as if it has been breathed on the window and rubbed on the glass. I would definitely buy this book because the cover is really intriguing and loads of questions go through your head. I am also going to like this book because it is mystery-ghost. I REALLY love ghost stories as well because mysteries always ask questions about what it is about. The font helps too. Without blood is better for ghost stories because it isn’t about gore, it’s about deepness and help. These questions (Teacher: EQ refers to my bookmarks) have opened up my imagination with more questions.

MB (Confident reader who is open to a broad reading range – with guidance)

Comment in Reading Journal without any teacher-led questions asked:

‘Where is the scene on the cover? Who is the figure in the background? Abandoned house? Author: Cliff McNish. Colour Scheme: Black + White.’

After a whole-class chat about the cover, using the first bookmark as a guide:

‘I would buy this book because it intrigues me to find out more about the person in the window. I think the character in the window is the ghost of someone long-gone dead. I think this is the ghost genre because it says it on the cover. Red blood would not go well with the black and white cover. This font has a ghosty touch to it. A horror story has an immense amount of gore in it. A ghost story doesn’t have a lot of gore.’


Hopefully this gives you an idea of what the bookmarks are capable of. Throughout my teaching I have seen the bookmarks make a huge impact on the reading of all children. They turn them from passive, decoders to imaginative, reflective readers who are contuinally looking beyond the text.

Speaking & Listening: Get them used to hearing and telling Ghost Stories

A Ghost Story:

When I first thought about using 'Breathe' in the classroom as a 'teaching text' I back peddled a little. I thought about how much the book has to offer and then I began thinking about ghost stories in particular. One of the things that caught my attention when I first picked up 'Breathe' was the fact that it said 'A Ghost Story' just below the title.

At first I did not understand the need or purpose of this extra piece of information. I could tell from the front cover that it was going to be a spooky tale of sorts but there was definitely something alluring about that extra piece of informatione. The author (or publisher) was trying to make a statement of some sort; it singled the book out for me. When I pick up a Harry Potter book it does not say 'A Fantasy Story' underneath and neither do the Roman Mysteries claim to be 'Historical Fiction Novels'. So why does 'Breathe' do it?

I asked the kids about this in the class and they came up with some very interesting thoughts:

Write them down here (on laptop at school at the moment)

Upon reflection I found that my thoughts traveled to one note that stuck in my head when I first read it: how many ghost stories have I read that have been written for children? I mean the genuinely scary ones where the ghosts are not friendly and sweet, but aggressive, dangerous, tormented and confused?

I have upon my bookshelf tens of 'Ghost story collections for children', some edited by the wonderfully gifted Aidan Chambers (The Topliner Series from the 70s) and Philippa Pearce (A Century of Children's Ghost Stories) others are more recent and penned by the likes of Hazel Riley (The Crying) and Chris Priestly (Uncle Montague's Series). But I know that for every ghost story book I have, there are 30 fantasy sat next to them. Why are ghost stories for children a less trodden path than fantasy, action and science fiction? Is it that we are worried about scaring the children? Is it that children don't like reading ghost stories? If this is the case, then why not?

Sharing our Experiences:

Whatever the case be, as I started to reflect on 'A Ghost Story' I couldn't help but think about my own creepy experiences in the past. I can safely say that I have never had an encounter with a ghost at all but I can remember being extremely fascinated by stories my mum and dad told me when I was younger about experiences that they had. I can also firmly recollect being dared to run through the local churchyard late at night when I was nine years old. This dare had been floating around our gang for days and when the night and time arrived we all (under false boisterousness) approached the top of the graveyard and talked about how we would do the run.


Although many of the memories of this night are vague, I do remember that no-one in the gang was prepared to go-it alone. Why? Because we had inundated ourselves with far too many ghost stories about the graveyard beforehand. We had wanted to build up the suspense and fear before the event happened. We had wanted to show how brave we were by going into the unknown, facing it and surviving...except we did not want to do it alone. Perhaps this is why ghost stories in children's books are such a rare commodity: we liked to be scared sometimes but generally when there's someone around to look after us!

I remember that I ran with two others. I was a very fast runner in those days; small and spindly in my thick parker coat which I loved so much. Although it's not evident on the map, the run itself was mostly down a steep hill (an empty woods) which would then end with a short metal bridge that crossed the Conwy river. This would then take us up several short stone steps that led into the back of the church's graveyard. From here there was a short, curving path that ran past the church itself and then towards the light - towards the exit which was blocked by (what appeared to us at the age of 9) a huge, imposing iron gate. The light from a street-lamp nearby illuminating our escape.

There were so many things that scared us all that night. Firstly, the older ones in the gang went first and together. They had decided that us younger ones needed to go last as a rite of initiation into the gang *pfft* Secondly, there were no lights where we were running which inevitably led to some of smashing into gravestones and the curbed edges of the lawns in the graveyard. Thirdly, dark in Gyffin really meant dark in those days and lastly, when I was running past with the others in my group not only did we hear something growling in the woods but we also saw a faint light on in the church itself. Whoever was in there at that time of night could not have failed to have heard the screams as we saw the light and heard, what we thought, eerie music coming from the organ inside.

We finally made it through to the end. I was the first by a long shot and actually found myself immediately concerned for the others. My mind flitted to the growling, the music and the darkness...

Needless to say the others were not far behind. We were all safe but that night would stay with us for all time. In fact, Stenny and I would go back one night in the future and try and look through the window of the church to see if we could spot who was playing the music.

You'll no doubt have noticed that I failed to spot any ghosts of any sort and that I am a long way from finding the ingredients for writing or telling anything as well planned as Cliff's book. However, what I have is experience. I have felt that fear and excitement that comes with being somewhere unfamiliar. I have gone through those moments where I heard the low growl (I probably made that up in my mind); I saw the faint light in the empty church and heard the whispering of music from within - my mind my afire with ideas and creative explosions with what was watching me, with what was lurking in the dark - and it is these elements, these experiences that will help me understand and write and tell a good ghost story.

Children know this. They know that it is the experiences that make us. If you can place yourself in the shoes of your hero in a ghost story and make their fear believable and real then those feelings emanant into the reader too. Therefore, just as we started reading 'Breathe' the class also shared moments that have scared them too. We have noted these down and shared them here concentrating very much on what it was thet affected us. With all these stories and examples, we can hopefully appreciate 'Breathe' that little bit more but also approach the writing of our story with all the elements needed to 'spook' and unsettle the reader.

A Brief History of where I am coming from...

When it comes to blogging, I am generally quite awful. I either tend to waffle to the point of losing not only the reader, but myself too. Either that or I tend to be too vague when trying to explain a new idea or strategy. Therefore, with this new blog, let me try and be succinct and to the point:

This blog is based heavily on using Cliff McNish's excellent children's book 'Breathe' in the classroom. Although the work is aimed at Year 6 pupils (my class) I feel it could easily be adapted to be used with Year 5 all the way up to Year 8.

The blog will look at how you can use Breathe to do the following:

* Enchance Writing within the classroom through composing a Ghost Story

* Impact on the importance of Speaking & Listening / Drama

* Improve Sentence and Word Level work

* Greatly improve a child's approach to reading for meaning and enjoyment.

Of course, what I really intend to do is create a piece of work that is fun and engaging for the teacher as well as the pupils!