Glow Scotland

Have you read these books? Could you write a story in the Scots language?

The author, James Robertson, is a founder editor and a contributing author to the Scots language children’s imprint Itchy Coo.  As an Itchy Coo author he has translated Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox into Scots and A. A. Milne’s classic Winnie The Pooh.

A Glow Meet with James will be held in the Writer’s Workshop Glow Group on November 5^th at 10am.  James hopes S2 pupils will be interested in this session about writing in Scots.  There will be a follow-up session on 19^th November at 10am.  Menzieshill High School in Dundee is hosting the event and S2 pupils there will have the chance to meet James face to face, but pupils across Scotland will be able to join in via Glow Meet.

His first Glow Meet will look at the background to his translation of Winnie the Pooh into Scots, and include: short readings from the original and the translated editions; a general discussion about dialogue, names changes and the impact on the tone of the writing; and a  challenge for pupils.  James’ second Glow Meet will be a feedback session, looking at the pupils’ responses to his challenge.
Join the Glow Meets and learn to write well in Scots.

Guest Post from Laura Tansley at Learning and Teaching Scotland

Schools across Scotland tuned in on Monday to hear Michelle Paver talk of her experiences and adventures as she researched her series of Stone Age adventure novels, ‘The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness’. She spoke of happening across bears in California and singing ‘Danny Boy’ to distract them, getting close enough to Wolves in Finland to lick muzzles, skinning rabbits and eating Reindeer, all in a quest to discover what life was like for a hunter-gatherer. Michelle read from ‘Ghost Hunter’, the latest instalment of the ‘Ancient Darkness’ series which was tantalising for those who have yet to discover her writing. Through the Glow Meet, pupils were then encouraged to ask Michelle questions – we had so many unfortunately we couldn’t ask them all but we hope to get them all answered by Michelle at a later date. For the schools that missed it, the recording of the talk will be available soon at the Glow Group for the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Thirty English Teachers from across Scotland brought their skills and knowledge of Glow to Stirling Management Centre to help build a Glow community over the course of two days.

The purpose of the event was to build various subject specific Glow Groups that can be used by English practitioners throughout Scotland providing them with an opportunity to work with others, make lasting connections and share knowledge and ideas which are transferable across schools and authorities throw Glow.

The practitioners, all at different stages with Glow, were just as enthusiastic as each other when they worked in teams to create Glow Groups. The groups included; Scots language, war poetry, personal study, Macbeth, The boy in the striped pyjamas and higher critical essays. Practitioners were given a blank canvas to work from in Glow with ready-made basic Glow Groups to be developed.

True to form, each group communicated well, taking a strategic approach to the planning process with much discussion of what each page should look like and contain. Groups were constantly thinking of the end user when building the groups, taking careful consideration of how the pupils would view the site and how easy they follow the activities in the Group.

The groups created are available for all to see in the Building Glow Communities tab of the Literacy and English Glow Group. If you find any of these groups useful and would like to contribute, you can simply request access through the e-mail address provided in each Group and we would encourage you to do so.

Judith Weston from Earlston High in the Scottish Borders said: “It’s been a fantastic opportunity to take two days out to build these groups.

“I’ll be going back to the classroom with a Glow Group packed with resources for English teachers and creative work for children.”

Michael Stephenson from Inveralmond Community High, West Lothian said: “we have built our group through the eyes of the children so they can follow the instructions, navigate easily and upload work tasks for teachers to edit.”

If you are interested in taking part in future events. Simply CLICK HERE to find out more.  

This morning I was at a wonderfully exciting event, shared by thousands of children all across Scotland. The Scottish Book trust arranged for Anthony Horowitz, the best-selling author of the Alex Rider novels (among many, many more fantastic books) was broadcast live over the internet on streaming video and via Glow Meet. It’s estimated that up to 7000 fans around the country viewed the event, and hundreds then joined the Glow Chat afterwards.

Anthony took questions from the children from Uphall Primary and Canal View Primary, and also answered questions that had been submitted by schools in the weeks leading up to the event. He entertained everyone with his irreverent stories of evil grandmothers and detestable teachers – according to Anthony, every teacher he has ever had has appeared in one of his books, and he’s had them all meet a sticky end!

After his very enjoyable talk, Anthony joined children on Glow Meet, answering as many as he could of the thousands of questions that flowed in – so many, that the computer eventually gave up the ghost! Not to worry, though – Anthony will be blogging about the experience on his website, www.anthonyhorowitz.com, and you’ll be able to comment there and ask him the questions that didn’t get through.