Description
Session Outline
In this session, Sam Holdstock will introduce attendees to the narrative form of digital, Interactive Fiction (IF). Focusing on the concept of choice, he will explain how working with non-linear, interactive texts can support students to think about the relationship between choice and meaning. He will then discuss the ways in which this form of text can support choice-based, critical-creative approaches to the teaching of oracy and language analysis in English. Finally, he will introduce attendees to resources, tools and ideas that can help them to embrace choice-based approaches to teaching and resourcing.
Sam Holdstock
After completing his undergraduate degree, Sam taught English at a university in France for one year, before qualifying as a teacher of English and working at an inner-city secondary school in England for 8 years. In this time, he completed an MA in creative writing and education and began his PhD, exploring the possibilities for Interactive Fiction in secondary school English classrooms. Sam joined Canterbury Christ Church University as a Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education in 2024, completing his PhD in 2025. Since then, he has begun researching the affordances of Artificial Intelligence, considering how AI is shaping English, writing and oracy education.
