Ms Reynolds brought her TY English class to a Fighting Words Workshop on Tuesday, 2nd February. It is a workshop to encourage creative writing. Every Wednesday and Saturday there is a teen writing club - the Write Club. Read what the class wrote in a 40 minute collaborative effort.
In about 40 minutes, the TYs wrote an opening dialogue as a group. They were then split up into groups of two's and three's, and with a Fighting Words volunteer, continued to write the story for themselves. A number of students read what they had written to the whole class. The whole class was praised for its writing skills. Students were encouraged to join the Write Club - a club for teenagers held every Wednesday and Saturday.
Read their opening dialogue:
“How you doing?” said Sharkeisha.
“Sound as,” replied John.
“I wanted to ask if you are going to that concert,” said Sharkeisha, fluttering her eyelashes. She had to push her eyelashes back into place as the glue had lost its stickiness.
“Longitude?”
“Yeah, that one”
“No, the tickets were too expensive,” said John, stroking his beard. “You going?”
Sharkeisha muttered under her breath, “Yeah, I got two tickets! My uncle got them cheap.” Her brow furrowed and there was worry in her eyes.
John was clueless.
“When are we going?” asked John “I can’t wait to see the man himself, Kendrick Lamar.”
Sharkeisha bit her thumbnail, “Well... Do you remember the girl from Barcelona?” Sharkeisha twisted her hair, fidgeting with it.
The light in John’s eyes started to dim and he asked “Yeah, what about her? Is she O.K, like?”
“She’s coming with me, actually”
“Sure, that’s grand…” John gave a fake smile.
The TYs described their two characters as follows:
Character 1: person who got the tickets. Female, 16, Sharkeisha, out-going, long and green eyelashes, she’s into music and likes to party.
Character 2: friend, not invited. Male. John, 17, from West Roscommon, loyal and a good friend, cynical, a beard he likes to stroke. He’s a DJ.
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