Tell Tales

Tell Tales is a new kind of online writing community for children aged 8 to 14.

Tell Tales is based around a collaborative creative writing game in which children create collective stories and drive themselves to greater literacy skills.

http://lamp.edu.au/2007/07/02/project-tell-tales/

The Tell Tales team comprises Bernard Cohen (award winning novelist and children’s book author, and founder of The Writing Workshop); Natalie Kershaw (originator of the TellTales concept, senior software engineer and Vogel-shortlisted writer); and Dan Ormella (senior exhibition designer at the Australian National Maritime Museum).

The Tell Tales concept arose from a confluence of strong needs: children love games, and respond well to writing games in face-to-face workshops – however, they need to be highly motivated to type, and email workshops were not successful. Parents love the idea of educational games. Teachers need and welcome assistance with teaching creative writing – few are experienced practitioners, and creative writing is now an integral part of the English curriculum all the way to year 12.

Project lead - Bernard Cohen

Bernard Cohen is director of The Writing Workshop, which runs creative writing activities for young people and via the internet. Bernard has taught creative writing at all educational levels and to all ages from five to (approximately) 75. He has been writer-in-residence at Peckham Library and Sir John Soane's Museum in London, University College Worcester, Taipei City International Writers' Program and trAce Online Writing Community in Nottingham. He recently completed a mentorship on the YOWW (Youth Online Writing Workshop) project, a blog-based writing workshop based out of the Riverina. Bernard is the award-winning author of a children's picture book and four novels. His CD ROM Foreign Logics (with media artist David Bickerstaff) was a multimedia work of the week in 2001 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London and was exhibited widely in the UK. Bernard's literary awards include the 1996 Australian/Vogel Literary Award for The Blindman's Hat and a 2001 Arts Council of England Writer's Award. He was listed for three consecutive years (1997-99) among the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists, and was inaugural Alumnus of the Year at the University of Technology, Sydney in 1997.