{"id":4343,"date":"2014-04-18T10:20:50","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T10:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=4343"},"modified":"2024-07-25T07:30:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T07:30:08","slug":"the-creative-writing-issue-chris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2014\/04\/18\/the-creative-writing-issue-chris\/","title":{"rendered":"The Creative Writing Issue – Chris"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Ready To Write – Chris Mares<\/h2>\n

I vividly remember my first experience with creative writing in the classroom.\u00a0 I was a lower sixth student at Lewes Priory Comprehensive School in the summer of 1975, sitting in young Miss Matthew\u2019s English class.\u00a0 It was a beautiful, blue-sky morning. I was watching a mini-skirted girl I vaguely knew from the upper sixth walk by outside, a chill of desire in my belly, exacerbated by the smell of patchouli exuding from Miss Matthews as she lent towards me, her long, thick black hair almost touching my face as it tumbled over her white of her hippy blouse.\u00a0 I was in love.<\/p>\n

But not with Miss Matthews.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you listening Chris?\u201d\u00a0 Miss Matthews asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d I said, instinctively.\u00a0 Though I wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 Not really.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen write something.\u00a0 How does it make you feel?\u00a0 What does it do to you?\u201d\u00a0 Miss Matthews paused, then stood and moved on to another student.<\/p>\n

We were listening to Lou Reed\u2019s album Transformer.\u00a0 Miss Matthews had told us, as she put the vinyl album on the record player, that we were going to listen and write.\u00a0 The class sat in bemused disbelief.\u00a0 We\u2019d never done anything like this before and I had felt that Miss Matthews just couldn\u2019t be bothered to teach us anything.\u00a0 I had stared at my paper as the needle touched the vinyl and the music began.\u00a0 Nothing happened.\u00a0 My mind, though, was unknowingly awash with untapped creativity.\u00a0 It could all have gone very differently.<\/p>\n

There are powerful reasons for using creative writing activities in the classroom but there is also a need for structure and procedure.\u00a0 Miss Matthews, though her intention was good, had plunged us in too quickly.\u00a0 She had not led us to the point of creativity.\u00a0 Our schema had not been raised. We were at sea, at a loss.<\/p>\n

Alan Maley, in his excellent piece Creative Writing for Students and Teachers draws a distinction between expository writing and creative writing pointing out, importantly, that creative writing draws primarily on the right side of the brain, the side associated with intuition, feelings, and creativity, as opposed to the logical and analytical left side.\u00a0 For many students the switch in focus from the instrumental requirements of expository writing to the aesthetic permissions of creative writing can be extremely rewarding and thus motivating.\u00a0 For a student to produce an original poem, for example, results in a feeling of deep and genuine satisfaction, especially for beginner writers with a limited language repertoire in English.<\/p>\n

I would argue that building creative writing into students\u2019 writing experience from early on will help with their self-esteem and self-confidence as well as help them develop strategies such risk taking and that will help them become more effective language learners.<\/p>\n

Creative writing also fosters an understanding of the playful nature of language that is common to all cultures yet rarely touched upon in most classrooms.\u00a0 In our stories we play with collocation, connotation, and puns, for example.\u00a0 We also bend and stretch rules.\u00a0 This is all part of the fun and joy of language.<\/p>\n

At its most basic level creative writing activities for the classroom can involve simply completing a stem sentence.<\/p>\n

I wish I was good at \u2026<\/p>\n

I wish I knew how to \u2026<\/p>\n

I wish I could visit \u2026<\/p>\n

I wish I could speak \u2026<\/p>\n

It can also involve the addition of words within the structure of a poem.<\/p>\n

First name<\/p>\n

Who wants (three things)<\/p>\n

Who loves (three things)<\/p>\n

Who feels (three things)<\/p>\n

Family name<\/p>\n

Or<\/p>\n

I am (two special characteristics you have)<\/p>\n

I wonder (something you are curious about)<\/p>\n

I hear (an imaginary sound)<\/p>\n

I see (an imaginary sight)<\/p>\n

I want (an actual desire)<\/p>\n

I am (the first line of the poem repeated)<\/p>\n

Another fun form is the acrostic where students read a word vertically, in this case, \u2018love\u2019, and then write a phrase related to love beginning with each letter of the word love.<\/p>\n

L<\/strong>onging to see you<\/p>\n

O<\/strong>ver the moon<\/p>\n

V<\/strong>ery happy<\/p>\n

E<\/strong>njoying your warmth<\/p>\n

A Favorite Creative Writing Activity<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Short poems or haiku can be very evocative and be used as the basis for creative writing exercises.\u00a0 A favorite of mine is Alan Maley\u2019s haiku, Thinking of You.<\/i><\/p>\n

Thinking of You<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Thinking of you<\/i><\/p>\n

Twenty nine thousand feet below <\/i><\/p>\n

And eight years ago<\/i><\/p>\n

Procedure<\/b><\/h4>\n

For any creative writing activity to be effective students need to be interested and engaged and their individual schema need to be raised.\u00a0 The way to do this depends on the particular class but a generic way I have done this is as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Ask the class if anyone likes to read.\u00a0 Establish what people like to read, whether they are reading anything at the moment, whether they read for pleasure, etc.<\/li>\n
  2. Ask the class if anyone likes to read poetry or has read any poetry, or has even written a poem.<\/li>\n
  3. Tell the class that you are going to read them a short poem and you want everyone to close their eyes and just listen and see what they see in their mind as you read the poem.<\/li>\n
  4. Read the poem slowly.<\/li>\n
  5. Tell the class you are going to read the poem again and this time students are going to write it down.\u00a0 Having done have students in pairs take turn reading the poem to each other.<\/li>\n
  6. Next write the following questions on the board:\u00a0 Who wrote the poem?\u00a0 Where was this person when she or he wrote the poem?\u00a0 Why did they write it?\u00a0 Tell the students there is no right answer and encourage them to be creative.<\/li>\n
  7. Have each pair share their ideas with the class.<\/li>\n
  8. The next phase depends on the creative license of the teacher.\u00a0 In my case I tell the students I know who wrote the poem and what it\u2019s about.\u00a0 Ask students if they\u2019d like to know more.<\/li>\n
  9. Tell them that Alan Maley wrote the poem.\u00a0 This is true.\u00a0 What follows is my own embelishment.\u00a0 Tell them that Alan used to work in India and at one point he was flying home to England when the captain said, \u201cIf you are sitting on the right hand side of the aircraft and you look out of the window you will see the city of Florence.\u00a0 I tell the students that Alan looked out of the window and suddenly memories from the time he lived and worked in Florence come flooding into his mind.\u00a0 He takes out his notebook and almost without thinking writes the haiku.<\/li>\n
  10. I then tell the students that each of them is Alan and that when they get home, having written the poem themselves about a relationship he had once had with \u2018Julia\u2019, he decides to take action.\u00a0 We then brainstorm what he could do, for example:\u00a0 google Julia, find her contact information, text her, email her, write her a letter, call her, return to Florence and try to locate her.\u00a0 Having established a range of possibilities, have students in pairs work on one of the courses of action Alan could take.<\/li>\n
  11. Students are then given time to write a text, email, letter, dialog, etc.\u00a0 If there isn\u2019t enough time then the class can work together under the teacher\u2019s guidance.<\/li>\n
  12. After students have completed their task have them share with the class.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As an aside, I emailed Alan Maley a couple of days ago to verify that Thinking of You had been written by him.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what he said:<\/p>\n

    \n

    Dear Chris,In haste, as I am in Mexico on my way back to UK.<\/p>\n

    Yes, it is my haiku.\u00a0 And thanks for using it!<\/p>\n

    All the best<\/p>\n

    Alan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    I am sure Alan would be happy if you used his haiku, too.<\/p>\n

    Visualization<\/b><\/h3>\n

    In order to foster creativity it is useful to build visualization activities into one\u2019s repertoire.\u00a0 Here is a generic visualization activity:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Tell students to relax and close their eyes.\u00a0 Tell them that they are going on an adventure.<\/li>\n
    2. Tell students to imagine that they are standing on a street in a town they know.\u00a0 Ask the students what time of year it is\/day it is\/what the weather is like etc.\u00a0 Have them make notes.<\/li>\n
    3. Tell the students that they are now walking along the street and they hear a noise. Ask them what the noise is.\u00a0 Have them make notes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The \u2018story\u2019 continues to be shaped by the teacher but is written by the students.\u00a0 There is clearly a lot of latitude for creativity by both the teacher and students.\u00a0 Students can be steered towards producing dialogs and therefore practicing the use of direct or indirect speech.<\/p>\n

      Some suggestions on the use of Creative Writing activities in the classroom<\/b><\/h3>\n

      If students are not used to activities that require creativity it may take some time to train them to feel comfortable and let go.\u00a0 This is understandable.\u00a0 With this in mind it is worth building creative writing into one\u2019s teaching repertoire, once a week for example.\u00a0 Make sure tasks are completed and that students share their writing either in class or have their writing displayed either in the classroom or electronically.\u00a0 This will motivate students as they will feel invested and validated.<\/p>\n

      The stem sentences can all be altered according to the students\u2019 needs, level, and interests.\u00a0 It is also fun to play with forms of poems.\u00a0 Extra lines can be added, prompts changed, etc.<\/p>\n

      The language learning benefits from creative writing are clear.\u00a0 Risk taking benefits learning as does playing with language and learning about collocation and connotation through experimentation.\u00a0 The rewards are clear: personal pleasure, an increase in self-confidence and self-esteem and a resulting increase in motivation.<\/p>\n

      Returning to Miss Matthew\u2019s classroom all those years ago.\u00a0 I wonder if the class might have gone differently the class had a more structured flow.\u00a0 Miss Matthews could have pointed out that it was a beautiful day.\u00a0 She could have asked us what made it beautiful.\u00a0 She could have asked us to write down what would have made it perfect.\u00a0 We could have shared answers with each other, then as a class.\u00a0 Miss Matthews could then have told us she wanted to listen to a song with our eyes close and to try and picture the song based on the lyrics and the feel of the music.\u00a0 She could have asked us to imagine the people in the song, where they were, what they were wearing, what they were saying.\u00a0 She then could have selected one track, Perfect Day, and we could have listened.<\/p>\n

      After that, our schema raised, our minds dancing with imagery, we would have been ready to write.<\/p>\n

      References<\/b><\/h3>\n

      Maley, Alan, Creative Writing for Students and Teachers in Humanizing Language Teaching (Issue 3, June, 2012)<\/p>\n

      Ur, Penny & Wright, Andrew,\u00a0 Five Minute Activities, (CUP 1992)<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      <\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Ready To Write – Chris Mares I vividly remember my first experience with creative writing in the classroom.\u00a0 I was a lower sixth student at Lewes Priory Comprehensive School in the summer of 1975, sitting in young Miss Matthew\u2019s English class.\u00a0 It was a beautiful, blue-sky morning. I was watching a mini-skirted girl I vaguely … Continue reading The Creative Writing Issue – Chris<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":4119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7331,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4343\/revisions\/7331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}