Knysna Literary Festival Outreach

Sasha Campbell from the Knysna Literary Festival invited FunDza to facilitate writing workshops as part of the festival’s outreach programme this year.

On our first day we visited two schools in the Plettenberg Bay area to do a song and dance about the FunDza mobi site and to share the benefits of reading. The Grade 6 and 7’s wrote ‘bio poems’ and we read a story of their choice from the FunDzApp (FunDza’s Android app) on our cell phones.

Day 2 was all about writing! We spent the morning with sixty Grade 7 learners from eight primary schools in the area and the afternoon with forty Grade 9 learners from six Knysna high schools.

We asked the learners to each do a bio poem as a way of introducing themselves to the rest of the group. It was wonderful to see them share who they are, what their likes and fears are and what they dream about.

Unfortunately there was not enough time for each person to share as we were eager to get them into ‘story mode’. The learners were split into groups of five and each were given a word to describe to their teammates in a 30-second style word game, without using the actual word.

The benefit of this exercise is that the kids have to access their imagination and vocabulary. Afterwards, they had to take their five words and as a team write a story using each of the words in some way.

This brought about some nerves and excitement. Imagine making a story using: peanut butter, driving, tennis, author and forest! One person in the group was chosen by their teammates to be the scribe. Each group was given the opportunity to share their story. You could hear a pin drop as the learners listened quietly and respectfully at the fiction that was collaboratively created.

In the afternoon session, the group writing was followed by an individual free-flow writing session. The learners were selected for their interest in writing so it is no wonder that they embraced this activity. When we asked them to stop writing, some of them were disappointed and continued to write as we wrapped up the session. A learner volunteer shared her story, which was very personal and evoked much emotion.

Huge thanks go to the Knysna Literary Festival for their vision of hosting writing workshops and for bringing learners from all corners of the community together in one space. Thank you also to the teachers for selecting learners interested in writing. It makes a huge difference when facilitating workshops if there is a common goal. Thanks too to the learners for entertaining us with their wild imaginations and beautifully written pieces!