I am... Great Women

Junior Writers Number - 9
Young Writers Number - 10

In Young Writers this week we looked at some fantastically great women. There are so many amazing women both alive today and from history that it was hard to chose our favourites, but we whittled it down to a few.

There was Emma Watson, Michelle Obama, Amelia Earhart, Harriet Tubman and Coco Chanel who we had all heard of. Others we were introduced to such as Jhansi Ki Rani (a warrior queen), Cornelia Sorabji (lawyer and among the first female graduates of Bombay University), Sultan Razia (an Indian warrior queen and one of Susmita’s favourite stories) and Misty Copeland (a ballerina).

We looked at the art accompanying the profiles on these women in the books provided and found our favourite styles before discussing who are role models were. Amongst the group a lot of us don’t have a specific role model but the more we thought about it the more there are recognisable figures to look up to, archetypal role-models if you will - such as David Attenborough, greta Thunberg. Amelia W briefly touched on the idea that you can look up to people in some respects, their work, what they’ve achieved, how they’ve impacted your life, but be let down by them in others. It’s a very realistic and healthy way to view people and celebrities regardless of what accolades they might hold.

To humanise our role models further still, we wrote monologues from their point of view answering questions we would ask our role-model women if we had the chance to meet them. Each of these was set in a very particular part of that woman’s life, whether this be as Michelle Obama became First Lady or when Coco Channel was in the orphanage.

As we’re still working towards the Young Walter Scott prize, any of these role models who existed in history could use their monologues as an entry.
In the Junior Writers group, we continued to get to explore the selfie theme through poetry. From the header image you can see that Buttons joined in on the task. She did so by Bonking with Susmita - which is the term used for the telepathic communication that Bonks (Bear/Monkeys) use.

We filled in a sheet of questions, keeping in mind what we had already put down and being as specific as possible, as well as not always being very literal.

The questions:
I am (your name)…
I am (two special traits or physical characteristics)…
I wonder (something you are curious about)…
I hear (an imaginary sound)…
I see (an imaginary sight)…
I want (an actual desire)…
I am (name)…
I pretend ( something to imagine)…
I feel (a feeling about something imaginary)…
I touch (an imaginary touch)…
I worry (something that is bothersome)…
I cry (something that is very sad)…
I am (name)…
I understand (something that is positively true)…
I say (something to believe in)…
I dream (something to dream about)…
I try (something to make an effort about)…
I hope (something to hope for)…
I am (name)…

There were lots of unicorns and dolphins, rainbows and stars, snoring rabbits, whales singing. It got very philosophical at the end, with lots of hopeful things understood such as everyone forgives. Then the time of convincing parents for presents and the latest game console wrapped things up.

Have a go yourself and let us know how you go.

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I am... Great Women