Year 5 Nadia Wheatley Writing Workshop
Early in September, our Year 5 students took part in a ‘virtual’ writing workshop with acclaimed Australian author, Nadia Wheatley, via a Zoom webinar. Nadia is the author of award-winning titles such as ‘My Place’, ‘Australians All’, and ‘A Banner Bold’, which is set on the 1850s Ballarat goldfields.
Nadia shared with us that her writing always starts with a ‘sense of place’ and that places suggest ideas for stories. We all live, work, and study in certain places and Nadia encouraged students to use these ideas in their own writing. Students were asked to imagine driving through the countryside and seeing an old chimney standing alone in a paddock and to think about who lived there and why isn’t the house standing anymore. Making a map, and thinking about where fresh water comes from were two other key ideas that Nadia explained she uses as a basis for her writing.
For over an hour, Year 5 students had the opportunity to ask Nadia questions as she ‘zoomed’ us from her home in Sydney. They asked about the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether it had impacted Nadia’s day-to-day life, and she explained that it hadn’t impacted her routine very much because she generally spends so much time at home writing indoors anyway, but that she had had to stop travelling for research. A favourite story that Nadia shared was how her mother used to read to her each night and tell her stories about her time as a nurse stationed in Palestine during World War 2, and how she and her fellow nurses had had a pet gazelle called Daffodil. This early exposure to storytelling set her on a path to become an author and she has spent the past 40 years writing and visiting schools all over Australia.
It was great for our students to get this opportunity to connect with an author – particularly an author of books that they have been studying – and find out so much about the writing process; we’re especially grateful that we could adapt this into our remote learning structure!
Following the workshop, a few students shared their thoughts…
“The Nadia Wheatley workshop taught me that you should look into nature for ideas for writing. She also taught me that fresh water is a good location for setting books and if you cannot get started on a first-person piece then you could imagine you’re writing a letter. She also taught me that children are usually not included in history so she writes history books with kids in them. Nadia Wheatley is an inspiring writer who has written many books about historical fiction.” – Joe Evans
“I enjoyed hearing about Nadia’s inspiration for ‘My Place’ and ‘A Banner Bold’. Her way of writing has definitely inspired me and I will use places I’ve been, such as Sovereign Hill, Bendigo, Castlemaine and other old towns in my writing.” Samantha Lisle
“I really enjoyed the workshop. It was good to hear Nadia’s writing journey. I really liked how she spoke about how she wrote her books and using some of her favourite things into her books, like Latin. In the workshop she spoke about what she does to make a piece of writing. This helped me by showing me that when I write I can use these strategies to make my writing more detailed.” Sienna Caputa
