Creative
Writing
Why include creative
writing in the EFL classroom?
Consider the three quotes below:
Educating people entirely through left-brain
activities of the academic curriculum is like training somebody for a race by
exercising only one leg while leaving the muscles of the other leg to atrophy.
James Hemmings,
The Betrayal of Youth, Marion Boyars, 1980
To solve complex problems in changing
circumstances requires the activity of both cerebral hemispheres.
Carl Sagan,The Dragons of Eden, Coronet,
1978
Imagination is an essential part of human
intelligence. Creativity is applied
imagination.
Ken Robinson, Out
Of Our Minds, Capstone, 2001
*
Education has
become very academic (or maybe has always tended to be). The capacity for remembering and recalling
information and
logico-deductive reasoning are highly regarded. Over the years in the UK, with the ‘need’
to reduce costs, schools have seen subjects like drama and music disappearing. Yet, employers want people with
imagination, creativity and soft
skills. I believe that developing creativity in young minds is an
essential part of the teacher’s job.
In the English language classroom, I see a role for creative
writing for these reasons:
} To
allow for personalised responses
Students need to be free to play
with ideas and language in their own way. Not everyone has the same ideas and
emotions in relation to a stimulus. Each student has a right to express
themselves as individuals and to be respected as individuals.
} To
accommodate mixed (ability) students
Students can write how much, how
little, however simply or complexly they wish.
} To
focus on meaning over form
There is too much focus in many
EL classrooms on grammar – on the mechanical manipulation of the form of
language, often, I believe, at the expense of meaning. Language begins and ends
with meaning. Students should have plenty of opportunities to express themselves
using whatever language they have available. This also allows them to tap that
dormant language within, because they really search for ways to express
themselves.
} To
motivate students
Dropouts
don’t leave school because we don’t give them enough facts, but because they
don’t find any meaning in them.
Gertrude Moskowitz, 1978
Some practical classroom ideas:
Frames
Starting with a frame will help students, especially those
unused to creative writing. Unfortunately although creativity is as natural to
children at birth as breathing, it gets stifled early and needs coaxing and
encouraging. Children quickly learn, usually at school, that a ‘correct’ answer
is required of them, one that the teacher is already aware of and it’s wasting
time to offer something from outside the box in class.
Example 1:
Once upon a time there was a
.................... girl who lived in a
.................... village. Her mother
and father were very .................. She liked to play in the ...................
with her ..................... friend, who was called .......................
One day they found a
........................... and they took it to the police station. The
policeman was very ......................... and told them they could keep it. They
were very ..................................
Give children a gapped story like this (depending on age and
level) and ask them to work in pairs or small groups to fill in the gaps.
Reassure them that there is no one ‘right’ answer and that they can make their
story as funny / scary / silly as they want.
Example 2:
Pictures – with speech balloons to fill are not overwhelming
as students can see that they don’t need to write a lot and can then therefore
think more about quality than quantity of words. There are may you can find online.
Poems:
From reading to writing
Linking reading for pleasure with writing is a great idea.
Students will have models and inspiration for their own writing and be
reassured that they don’t have to write a lot to create something powerful and
/ or beautiful.
Here are some examples:
Haiku:
An old
pond!
A frog jumps in-
The sound of water
A frog jumps in-
The sound of water
Limerick:
An elderly man called Keith
Mislaid his set of false teeth -
They'd been laid on a chair,
He'd forgot they were there,
Sat down, and was bitten beneath.
Acrostics:
Crouching, ready to
pounce on a bird
Always running,
scratching, purring
That’s Tommy my cat
What’s purple?
My sister’s eyeshadow
my father’s car
the cover of my diary
my new jeans
and the dye
I’m not allowed to use
on my hair.
All right
they are my parents
but I don’t want them to come into
my room without asking,
I don’t want them to read my letters,
I don’t want them to laugh
at my friends,
I don’t want them to check my homework.
All I want is to live my own life.
Writing for the paper
fodey.com is
a great easy-to-use website where students (and teachers) can see their articles
take shape and look like authentic newspapers.
I start by
creating my own for students to read. We do spend some time focussing on the
use of passive voice in class. This is where passive is used naturally and
effectively. Students can then write their own articles (collaboratively, if
they prefer) and then we use the website to work the magic. It makes for a
great display – as students can add photographs, too.
Other ideas:
- Play three different pieces of instrumental music . Students each have three pieces of paper. As they listen they write down whatever comes to mind while listening to the music on each piece of paper. Students read each other’s writing and guess which music inspired each text. In pairs students choose one of their texts and expand on the writing – turning it into a poem, story, song etc.
The books below have a wealth of fabulous ideas for encouraging
creative thinking and writing:
Writing Simple Poems, Vicki L. Holmes & Margaret R.
Moulton, Cambridge University Press
Once Upon a Time, John Morgan & Mario Rinvolucri, Cambridge
University Press
Creative Poetry Writing, Jane Spiro, Oxford University Press
Storybuilding, Jane Spiro, Oxford University Press
Images, Jamie Keddie, Oxford University Press
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