Helping children to ‘Love the Words’ through other ways of learning

“My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.”  – Dylan Thomas

Whilst Dylan clearly had a love of words from an early age, reading is not to everyone’s taste.

It’s an established fact that we have different learning styles, but have you ever wondered what that means for children who struggle with formal learning in a classroom environment?

Thankfully, modern education has developed teaching methods beyond the traditional approached most of us will recall.

Through provision of other ways of learning (OWL) children have opportunities to pick up skills and knowledge in a manner that better matches their individual style.

We can help

At the Dylan Thomas Centre, we are happy to be in a position to assist local schools in providing other ways of learning. Recently we have been working Dylan Thomas Community School on a short term project to help engage a group of pupils that struggle with traditional methods of teaching.

Lee Aspland, our Outreach Officer, has taken Dylan’s life and work that is celebrated in the Dylan Thomas ‘Love the Words’ Exhibition and has created photography activities to challenge the pupils.

Learning, but not as you know it

Using Swansea as their backdrop the group of young people have been out to Langland, the marina and the city centre looking for inspiration to create their own photographic response to Dylan’s work.

At the end of each week’s activities the pupils have submitted their favourite photographs, presented the reasons for their choice, and discussed the creative work of others in the group.

Looking to the future

Our intention is to repeat the project with other groups of local schoolchildren next term, after reviewing the outcomes with the school.

If you think that a group of children at your school could benefit from participating in a project like this, please contact our Outreach Officer, Lee Aspland, on 01792 463980 or email lee.aspland@swansea.gov.uk.

This post is also available in: Welsh