Teaching writing is somewhat of a dreaded phrase in the English department. We are all Literature lovers and doubt our ability to successfully break down and build back up the components of writing to teach students the step by step approach needed to really improve their skills. Teaching in a secondary school in an inner city with high levels of socio and economic deprivation, plus English as Second Language learners presents us with a variety of challenges to overcome in students’ writing.

Overcome the barriers

However, the biggest barrier I think our students face is themselves. As many teenagers are; they are delightfully opinionated and outspoken, full of creativity and life, but when it comes to putting pen to paper; they freeze. They struggle starting a piece of writing, become plagued by self doubt and give up, decide it’s ‘wrong’ and cross it all out, or write a paragraph and think that’s ‘enough’. This year I have decided it IS enough – prior to lockdown I was determined this was the year I was going to crack writing – so here is my (at this stage purely theoretical) plan to overcome these barriers and to create confident, enthusiastic writers.

The program of study this year is designed to encourage students to focus more on their own writing voice and expressing their opinions. We will be using starters and plenaries to encourage quick judgment making, supporting opinions with reasons and critiquing others’ viewpoints verbally. We will only teach writing alongside reading, this is not a new idea BUT what is new is the amount of work we’re going to expect students to produce.

Teach like a writer

We would usually plan to an assessment calendar – what students need to produce so that we can mark it in line with the school calendar and policy. This year the headteacher has given us permission to try out a technique championed in Jennifer Webb’s Teach Like a Writer and we will NOT be marking students writing – rather we will be reading it and giving whole class feedback. This is the first attempt we will be making to give students greater ownership over their writing and higher accountability for finding and correcting their own grammar and punctuation mistakes (with some guidance).

Rather than producing several extended pieces of writing per SOW moving from Newspaper articles one week to descriptive paragraphs the next, we will spend the whole half term working on one piece of writing and planning of individual lessons looking at quality examples will support the crafting and techniques needed to do this.

Students will learn the commitment needed and build their resilience by returning again and again to the one piece of writing. We will repeatedly ask students to select something they are proud of in their work and build a treasure trove of their ‘best bits’ for them to return to when inspiration is lacking.

Celebrate the creative process

In Storycraft by Martin Griffin and Jon Mayhew the author’s explore the virtues of a creative manifesto. Basically the idea that we should establish a classroom culture that celebrates the creative process including its failures and successes and an openness to sharing work to help inspire each other. This will be created in cohesion with the students and referred back to when the going gets tough.

To further help develop resilience we will be using Storycraft’s plea for generating ‘micro ideas’; using creative activities to play around with characters, settings and plot points and judging and critiquing our ideas before refining, planning and finally writing.

Both books advocate for moving away from a ‘taught’ structure as the rigidity it creates – although meant to enable creativity in expression – is actually stifling. We will endeavor to encourage students to play with structure whilst returning to the basic premise of a beginning, middle and end in different variations: person, place, problem; character, situation, resolution etc.

Removing the rigidity of a ‘plan’ and structure sits uncomfortably with me as I know the students (and we as teachers) cling to the hope we can provide students with a security blanket that they can fall back on in the exam.However, when I think of why we teach English; the desire for students to be able to leave us able to communicate their own ideas confidently and clearly; I know this is the right move to enable them to develop lifelong skills, not pass an exam.

With several screens that support our tech-centric lifestyle, we need to equally sensitize the eye care segment for long-term vision and to keep higher index eyeglasses at bay. Digital Eye Strain that is also known as Computer Vision Syndrome occurs due to continually shifting, adjusting, and refocusing eyes while staring at the screen.

As today almost everyone is susceptible of digital mediums, Bharti Public School, the Best School in East Delhi communicates about the symptoms, causes, and tips on how to get rid of Digital Eye Strain effectively.

CAUSES

During this phase of lockdown all the updates related to work, education, entertainment, and news, are being fed to us through screens. Thus extended period of watching via these mediums, causes discomfort in the eyes that leads to fluctuating vision, eye burn, and feel dry, itchy, and irritated. This condition is termed as Digital Eye Strain. Its impact further gives rise to the following problems:

• Fatigue – Tiredness in eyes due to intense usage of digital mediums.

• Headache – Constant exposure towards light and sound.

• Neck and shoulder pain – Excessive stretching of muscles.

SYMPTOMS

The increased level of distress can also result in the below mentioned;

• Light sensitivity – Level of light impacting negatively on the eyesight.

• Glare on digital screen – Excessive contrast between dark and bright on light sources.

• Nearsightedness & Farsightedness – Poor judgement in identifying objects from near and far.

• Unhealthy posture – Change in alignment of sitting position multiple times.

TIPS

As digital media has become the need of the hour in COVID-19 period, the only way to decrease the adverse effect on vision is by adhering to the right eye care tips on regular basis.

• Exercise your eyes – Remember the rule of thumb – 20-20-20. Every twenty minutes, Take a twenty second break and look at the screen from twenty feet away. This will relax eye muscles and decrease the risk of myopia and hyper-myopia.

• Take frequent visual breaks – Halting at regular intervals and limiting the screen time can reduce eye strain and fatigue. This will hydrate eyes and stop allergy triggers.

• Ensure correct seating position – Sitting straight with head aligned properly is important for neck and shoulder. This can relieve strained muscles and also exercise them at times.

• Adjust brightness on device – Setting brightness level of device is crucial to regulate rays that can affects the eyes. Hence change the background color to cool gray or lighter the OG shade.

• Wear glasses if needed – If your vision is affected, make sure to wear right pair of glasses before confronting the screen. Opt for eye examinations once a year to maintain eye health.

• Eat healthy – Ensure a balanced diet that consists of fruits and vegetables full of anti-oxidants to boost the eye health. This can ward-off vision related problems such as cataracts.

Bharti Public School, the Best School in East Delhi acknowledges the fact that children and technology are the future. Nevertheless, it is important to teach kids about moderation in life as it is a crucial life skill. Thus, we at BPS set healthy boundaries so students can go a long way setting higher visions and achieving life goals.