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How we wrote
" Daisy and the Intergalactic Travelling Salesmen"

The stages of the project
How the chapters were written: which classes
Writing the chapters: different ways of approaching it
Illustrating the story
Curriculum links
Final comments and advice

Stage One
The story was commissioned by the Cheltenham Festival of Literature for their 50th Anniversary Literature Festival. First we had to find the schools to take part. Ruth Yockney, the Festival Education Officer found several local schools in Gloucestershire, and other schools elsewhere in the UK, Australia and the USA were recruited via Kids on the Net.

Stage Two
Well-known author Jamila Gavin (http://www.kidsonthenet.com/daisy/author.htm), who lives in Gloucestershire, wrote the first chapter. The storyline, starting in Victorian England and then taking in inventions all over the Galaxy was designed to link with History and Design and Technology curricula.

Stage Three
Helen Whitehead met with the teachers to discuss how the project would take place. Each school would be sent the chapters leading up to the one they were to write. Helen introduced the idea of a hypertext story in which the end of each chapter provides two alternative choices for the reader to go on to the next chapter. There are 16 alternative endings. A flow chart was provided to show how the story works. (The flowchart can be downloaded here.)

There was discussion of the content of the story itself. Chapter One sets the scene, Chapters Two, Three and Four are adventures of Daisy in space, while Chapter Five has to round up the story and end it neatly, particularly from Daisy's point of view, with some mention of the Pinkerellian Rose Cup foreshadowed in Chapter One.

Stage 4
When all the schools were clear about the timescale, Jamila Gavin's Chapter One was sent to the first two schools. Each school read Chapter One and produced a Chapter Two. The Chapters were produced in different ways in the different schools (see How the Chapters Were Written). The schools had a week to produce their story which was typed into a computer and sent by email to the Editor. Jamila Gavin and Helen Whitehead, the Editor, commented on the chapter, then another week was taken to redraft the story.

Stage 5
Each final Chapter Two, with Jamila Gavin's Chapter One, was sent to two more schools. Now there were four schools working at once, two for each version of Chapter Two. Each school read Chapter One and one of the Chapter Twos and produced a third chapter. It was sent for comment and redrafted in the two-week cycle mentioned in Stage 4.

Stage 6
Each final Chapter Three, with its preceding Chapter Two and Jamila Gavin's Chapter One, was sent to two more schools. Now there were eight schools working at once, two for each version of Chapter Three. Each school read the sequence of Chapter One, Chapter Two and Chapter Three, and produced a fourth chapter. It was sent for comment and redrafted in the two-week cycle mentioned in Stage 4.

Stage 7
Each final Chapter Four (with its preceding Three, Two and One) was sent to two more schools. Now we needed two endings from each version of Chapter Four. In fact, there are two endings left open for readers to contribute, and one final chapter written by Jamila Gavin. Jamila and the final schools read the sequence of Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four and produced a final chapter. The schools' chapters were sent for comment and redrafted in the two-week cycle.

Stage 8
The website was put together from the emailed stories by Helen Whitehead, with two links at the end of each chapter. The pages were uploaded onto the Internet - but no link was put to them from elsewhere. This allowed the schools to test out the story and make sure that it worked properly before it went 'live'.

Stage 9
Once the adventure had passed Class 3 approval, we launched the story at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature, linked to it from the Festival and Kids on the Net sites, and it became accessible to everybody on the Internet. You can still add a Chapter Five if you wish to - there's still a couple of spaces available!

How the Chapters Were Written (which classes)

Each school or class wrote their chapters in a different way, but it was up to the teachers to co-ordinate it within the school (although some of the early schools were able to have workshop visits from Jamila Gavin). In the UK, all the children were Year 5 or 6. Each school was expected to send one version to the Editors at the end of the week, and be prepared to edit it the following week.

"A merry bunch from my class took to the task with enthusiasm and delight," said Mr R Jackson, Brampton Ellis C of E Junior School, Wath upon Dearne, South Yorkshire, UK

"The school opened a networked computer room in the autumn term and thought this would be a brilliant project to start them off. The class working on the project was a mixed class of Year 5 and 6 children." South Deal Primary School, Kent, UK

"The children that participated in this writing activity were from the Gifted and Talented class." Houser Intermediate School, Conroe, Texas, USA

"To write our chapter, four children who particularly enjoy writing were picked out to write the story as a group." Porchester Junior School, Nottingham, UK

"The class that has been working on the project is a class of year 5/6 students (10-12 year olds). They have been working under the supervision of a fourth year trainee teacher." Stratford Primary School, Stratford, Victoria, Australia

Writing the chapters: different ways of approaching it

"Our chapter is mostly from one child, but with many of the other children's ideas incorporated. We had around 30 versions of the chapter from different individuals and pairs of pupils, and I helped produce a composite version." Dunalley Primary School, Cheltenham, UK

"We wrote in groups for about a week, then voted (individually, by secret ballot!) on the one that was liked the best. It was a tough decision! We had several really good creations." Houser Intermediate School, Conroe, Texas, USA

"The [children] initially worked in three cooperative groups to come up with a draft for the final chapter. These were all combined and aspects of each group's chapter were used in the final draft." Stratford Primary School, Stratford, Victoria, Australia

"We have had great fun participating in this cyber story, gathering our ideas together in groups, writing parts of the chapter individually and then putting it all together." Leckhampton C E Primary School, Cheltenham, UK

Illustrating the story

"All the children wrote their own endings to the story and then helped to illustrate the chosen Chapter 5." Kingfisher Primary School, Solihull

"The kids loved this. I read a chapter a day and they drew while I read, then we decided on the illustrations we wanted. We talked about how the characters need to look the same throughout the story." St Julie Billiart School, Hamilton, Ohio, USA

Curriculum links

"The two year 6 classes are studying the Victorians this term, and therefore "Daisy and the Intergalactic Travelling Salesmen" formed a very useful link between our historical and literacy studies." Kingfisher Primary School, Solihull

The children had to enter their stories into the computer. This acitivity allows the class teacher to monitor the children's ICT skills (loading, saving, editing, use of the mouse and keyboard etc.), and can assist with the ICT assessment for the term.

Overall there were several possible links to other areas of the curriculum which schools found it difficult to make the most of.

Final comments and advice

"The students had a lot of fun with this activity and love the idea that people from all over the world will be able to read a story that was a joint effort from different countries." Houser Intermediate School, Conroe, Texas, USA

"My advice to other schools taking part in a project like this is to start early, it takes ages to decide on redrafting etc., and this gets more interesting as the storyline proceeds, and continuity has to be checked." from Mrs J. Wilson. Dunalley Primary School, Cheltenham, UK

"Reading other stories I think everyone had fun with this. I know my kids felt those who went before us wrote quite well. I hope the kids realize how hard it is to write good, not long! :) I know we have tried, we have worked as a class, as groups of two back to a class and we had two volunteers to clean up any mistakes they felt we still had," comments teacher Ms. J. Stringer. St Julie Billiart School, Hamilton, Ohio, USA

"The class really enjoyed working on the project and are looking forward to the final result." Stratford Primary School, Stratford, Victoria, Australia

You may find Widden's name in the story twice, as they were the only school who were so enthusiastic they wrote a second chapter! Ms C. Taylor's class wrote a chapter in the last term of one year, and a new class wrote the other at the start of the new school year. They wrote a couple of great chapters in spite of undergoing a mini-inspection and having email difficulties! (Widden Primary School, Gloucester, UK)

Daisy index page

Start reading Daisy and the Intergalactic Travelling Salesmen

See Planet of Dreams for a teachers' template for writing a story like this with your class

Teachers' Notes written 3rd August 2002 

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