All young people have stories of their own to tell – creating characters that are alive on the page

Drawing on more than five years of experience working with school-aged new arrivals to Australia, many from refugee backgrounds, author, teacher and musician Ingrid will introduce engaging texts written from diverse perspectives, including her middle-grade novel Songbird.

Students will carry out writing activities. They will be scaffolded and prompted to explore their own stories and put their experiences into words.

Topics Covered:

• Warm-up games and activities including drama games and relaxation (to focus and relax young minds).
• Engage with Songbird, Ingrid’s junior fiction novel about an eleven-year-old Iraqi girl struggling to fit in at school in Melbourne.
• A range of inspiring writing tasks and activities, using writing prompts and model texts