FOCUS F: Cross-curricular Literacy links
Discussion informs children's writing
Redhills Community Primary School
Some suggestions
By Sue Carter and Gail Brown, Redhills Primary
1. Historic fiction about children in the workhouse
Obtain a copy of 'Victorian Workhouse' by Pamela Oldfield (ISBN 0-439-97730-4) and read extracts.
Read extracts from 'Oliver Twist' (Children's Classics ISBN 0-7214-0823-0) There is also a filmed BBC series of this Charles Dickens' classic available on DVD.
Discussion leading to children writing their own 'My Day in the Workhouse'.
2. Drama
Use drama work inspired by this resource to develop confidence/speaking/listening and performing skills. Go to the next on-line page in this resource for a very short play devised by staff at Redhills.
2. Images and illustrations of workhouse children to support creative or investigative literacy work
Kate Osborne who manages RAMM's education programme suggests:
"Just use Google or a similar search engine. Click on the Images tag then search 'workhouse children', keeping the inverted commas, and you get simply loads of images..."
http:images.google.co.uk
'Flickr' is another dedicated on-line photo resource and includes images of children acting in Oliver and taking part in living history activities at museums.