WHAT?
Creativity and communication are at the heart of learning. The Building a City of Literature partnership brings creativity and communication together to help the young people of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire develop a rich sense of place and community.
WHY USE BUILDING A CITY OF LITERATURE
Drama Activities help young people learn.
Specifically, we believe that this drama based partnership can help students with their literacy skills, speaking & listening skills and of course increase their drama skills. We have also found that students show an increase in confidence as well as a greater understanding of their community and sense of identity.
HOW?
Working alongside creative practitioners from local arts groups, and colleagues from the University Of Nottingham, teachers work with their students in the context of their own communities to capture local histories which might otherwise be lost. These stories are then worked up into professional standard play scripts, which are then made available for others to study and use.
How does it work?
Young people go out into their communities, talk with local members of the community and capture community stories.
The stories are then explored by the young people in different ways. They can be looked at in terms of what they say about the history of that community, what they say about the current community, or what they say about spoken English and the different local dialects.
The young people then work with local arts groups to develop the stories into professional standard play scripts; these can be acted out and offered to others for inspiration.
WHY?
The Building a City of Literature project helps to return creativity and communication to the heart of learning in schools and communities across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
Communities develop their links with young people, schools, arts groups and the University Of Nottingham in ways which help develop social cohesion.
Young people improve key academic skills, including speaking and listening skills, which have become side-lined in the current curriculum. They also develop their social skills and their drama skills, which all help their confidence grow.
Schools, arts groups and the University Of Nottingham have the chance to develop their community engagement programmes which helps improve community cohesion across the region.
Examples of what our students have been doing.
Play scripts are written here, directly on this site using our free service. Teachers and students across the region are free to join up and write and edit their own play scripts which they can share directly on this site.