Literacy
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Past Event: Livestream: Writers Bloc
Tue 17 Jan 2012
6:45pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
In a Free Word first, the launch of Writers Bloc will be livestreamed direct from the Free Word Centre to your computer. Writers Bloc is a pioneering project established by Zadie Smith, Hari Kunzru, Nick Laird, Rachel Holmes and Kamila Shamsie to investigate education and literacy around the world. In the first stage of the project, ten writers visited ten…
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Past Event: Free Speech: The Night Class
In association with the Bishopsgate Institute and Free Word
Mon 12 Sep 2011
5:30pmThe Astor Room
Free Speech night class hosted by English PEN in association with Bishopsgate and Free Word Centre.…
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Past Event: No Time Like the Present - Margaret Storm Jameson
Wed 11 May 2011
5:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
We continue our journey through PEN's ninety-year history in the company of the President of English PEN during the defining years of 1938-44. Margaret Storm Jameson was an indefatigable campaigner, a suffragette and committed pacifist, who argued for literature as a tool in post-war reconstruction and helped a number of threatened writers escape Nazi Germany. She also published over forty…
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Stories to Touch
Director of if:book and Free Word Associate Chris Meade explores the digital reading possibilities of the iPad and Kindle for school children.
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“Why write about schools and not airports?” Riz MC performs at launch of Writers Bloc
Listen to Riz MC performing a new poem speed-written in response to the launch of international writing and education project Writers Bloc at the Free Word Centre.
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Video: Free Word hosts the launch of Writers Bloc
Writers including Kamila Shamsie and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discuss education around the world at the launch of pioneering writing and education project Writers Bloc.
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School Wars
Every child has a right to go to a good local school and shouldn’t be turned away on the grounds of wealth, religion or ability, says Francis Gilbert.
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Too Much Freedom for the Land of the Free
In advance of her course on Free Speech and Literature, Dr Sophie Mayer finds out why Arizona State has banned The Tempest from its school curriculum.
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Livestream: Writers Bloc
Free Word presents the launch of Writers Bloc, a new project which sends writers to report on education issues around the world. Tune in right here from 6.45pm on Tuesday 17 January to join the discussion in our first ever Free Word livestream.
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The Counterpoint of Change: Writers Bloc Afterword
Hugh McLean of Open Society Foundations highlights the importance of education in challenging conflict and exclusion.This essay is the afterword to Writers Bloc, a collection of essays by writers about education around the world.
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Kamila Shamsie on Writers Bloc
Writers Bloc is a new writer-led initiative which explores education throughout the world. Ahead of its launch at the Free Word Centre, livestreamed at freewordonline.com, co-founder Kamila Shamsie talks to us about the project and her article on Pakistan's curriculum challenges.
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Down with the kids
Last week Marga Navarrete from Imperial College ran a Youtube subtitling workshop at Lawdale Junior School in Tower Hamlets. Marga has run this workshop many times before as part of the brilliant Routes Into Languages programme, but usually with older children, around year 9 or 10. This was Free Word’s only translator-in-residence event for children, and it almost didn…
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Free Word Translators at International Translation Day
Time: September 30th 2011, 9am- 6.30pm Place: Free Word Centre, London Themes: Translation (of course!), dialogue, new initiatives, success, sharing ideas, the importance of readers (thanks to Rachel Van Riel for a highly entertaining presentation that included telling us about the Which Book website, a site that helps you decide which book to read by theme, which has apparently been around 10…
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Mother Tongues promotes bilingualism
Mother Tongues is a new project from the Arvon Foundation, funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation, which encourages young people to write in both English and their mother tongue. Over 300 languages are spoken in London. In Lambeth, the most widely spoken language after English is Portuguese. This short film, taken at Totleigh Barton, one of Arvon's centres, shows 16 Portuguese-speaking young…
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Libraries unite to continue to tackle children’s literacy
The Summer Reading Challenge is a pivot for developing better joint literacy work between libraries and schools. Created and run by The Reading Agency with libraries, this year’s Summer Reading Challenge had the highest rate of involvement ever with 97% of UK library authorities participating.
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In touch with the Olympics
Booktrust associate Alexandra Strick looks at some of the projects planned to help inspire disabled children in the UK to celebrate and participate in the upcoming 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.