A selection of free downloadable education resources based on workshops run with partner schools and community groups during the Red River project. 

Each pack includes a selection of resources and research from the wider project along with prompts and instructions to stimulate writing. We believe that teachers and workshop leaders will know best how to tailor sessions for their group, curriculum priorities and locality. So the packs are designed to be starting points and suggestions rather than as exact recipes, and you should feel free to adapt them to best suit your purposes. 

Further background reading on John’s research can be found in the ‘Making the Poem’ section of the website, and within ‘Creative Responses’ you’ll find a BBC4 documentary hosted by John, a 9 minute moving image work by artist Naomi Frears and a 15 minute sound work by Rob Mackay, all of which include elements of John’s poetry and provide good examples of different approaches to using language to explore places and ideas. 

While each workshop has a specific focus, in general they address two key aspects of rivers as they are presented in poetry: 

• rivers as places of identity; 

• rivers as places of becoming and being. 

They encourage participants to think of the way we have shaped rivers and the way they have shaped us; how our past, present and future are entangled with the ecological health and significance of rivers. 

Each session includes:

• downloadable resources necessary for the workshop;

• links to contextual material and a short bibliography