Creative Writing Lab
Inspire students with creative writing workshops at the museum.
This curriculum-aligned creative writing program supports English and EAL students to explore ideas, experiment with language and craft imaginative texts inspired by museum objects and authors, including Alice Pung.
Students will experience
- Strategies to spark creativity and generate ideas, including blackout poetry.
- Ways to develop personal and authentic responses to museum objects.
- Memorable digital content providing insight into Alice Pung’s writing practice.
- Guided creative writing within the museum’s galleries.
Students will learn
- Low stakes writing strategies to generate ideas.
- Techniques to craft writing
- How to produce a poem or creative piece of writing.
- Ways of creating personal responses to museum objects and artworks.
Students will be provided
- Learning resources for the workshop and gallery visit.
Students will need
- Pens and a pencil.
Other key information
- The length of this excursion is 90 minutes includes a visit to the Identity exhibition.
- Please note: This workshop and gallery visit can be adapted to support different frameworks of ideas, themes or units of work. Please indicate your learning focus when booking so we can tailor the program to your needs.
Alice Pung
Alice Pung is an internationally-acclaimed author and journalist who has published work in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Age, The Monthly and The Australian. Her award-winning books are studied in schools in Australia and overseas and include Unpolished Gem, Her Father's Daughter and Laurinda.
Alice was born in Melbourne, the daughter of Chinese-Cambodian refugees, and grew up in Footscray and Braybrook. She has given lectures at universities, including Vassar College, Brown University, Peking University and the University of Milan.
Availability
Terms 1–4, Monday to Thursday
10 am, 1pm
Duration: 90 minutes
Student information
Years 9 to 10, VCE
Minimum 15 students
Maximum 30 students
Bookings
$11 per student + education service fee
Call 13 11 02 or submit an online booking request
Workshop
Presented by a museum educator
Victorian Curriculum Links
English: Levels 9 and 10
Literature and contexts
- analyse the representations of people and places in literary texts, drawn from diverse historical, cultural and social contexts, by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors and a wide range of Australian and world authors (VC2E9LE01)
- analyse representations of individuals, groups and places and evaluate how they reflect their context in literary texts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors and a wide range of Australian and world authors (VC2E10LE01)
Engaging with and responding to literature
- analyse how literary devices and language features, and still and moving images, shape an audience’s preference about the social, moral or ethical positions presented in literary texts (VC2E9LE03)
- analyse the ways that social, moral or ethical positions are represented in a range of literary texts (VC2E10LE03)
Creating literature
- create texts, which may be hybrid, that experiment with literary text structures, language features and devices, and voice, for purposes and audiences (VC2E9LE06)
- create texts with a sustained voice, selecting and adapting literary text structures and devices, and language, auditory and visual features for purposes and audiences (VC2E10LE06)
Intercultural Capability: Levels 9 and 10
Culture, identity and belonging
- how diverse cultures, including their own, influence one another in a range of contexts and how this impacts identity and a sense of belonging and inclusion (VC2CI10C01)
Cultural diversity
- how diverse worldviews can contribute to addressing social and environmental challenges (VC2CI10D02)
English VCE
Unit 1: Crafting texts
Accessibility
Please view our accessibility page for general information. A sensory map of Melbourne Museum can be found on our Visual Stories page where step-by-step visual and written access guides are available. Contact our team on 13 11 02 or email us at schools@museum.vic.gov.au to discuss how we can support your visit.
Museums Victoria Learning Access Fund
The Museums Victoria Learning Access Fund aims to enhance access to our museums (Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks and Immigration Museum), programs and events by offering free or subsidised education programs for eligible schools. Find out more about the fund.
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