I
really like James' point of view and found her article really appealing,
especially because of the level - beginner! Although I agree that there is no
limit for creativity I would have probably tried to gain time for self
reflection if asked what I thought about creative writing at this level.
With some of our beginner students in mind I would immediately struggle to find
potential scenarios and activities which would make good use of the limited
abilities of those particular students. As she alludes, creativity and
especially, creativity in writing would be thought to be only possible for
proficient users and so I absolutely concord with the premise that less is more.
I
also like the part on Haiku poems as I knew about them very superficially and
her examples made me curious and hunger for more information about them and how
to write one. Acronyms were already known to me of course, but it was nice to
see her simple activities as these brought back memories of when I have used
them in class with my elementary classes. James could not be more right when
she says that CW does not have to be grammatical. I believe the opposite seems
to be implanted in many English teachers' DNA automatically often making grammar
almost the heart of the syllabus.
In
short, I believe the key words here to be:
Encourage them always
Allow them to try and try
Believe in them always
Creativity!
It
will come in the making
Owning what they know
Robert, my reaction to James' article was very similar to yours when I first read it. At first it was concern (it went very quickly), then it became curiosity, then a feeling of real freedom. The 'beginners' creative writing was such a revelation! I organised a workshop for our 2012 Tri-Campus Language Centre Conference in Malaysia where I introduced this concept and I could see the eyes of the language teachers opening up widely, first in disbelief and then in excitement!
ReplyDeleteI love your Haiku, by the way! I found this interesting site about how to write and teach to write haikus: http://haiku.insouthsea.co.uk
I might quote you and use your poem to encourage teachers to use creative writing with their beginners! (With your permission :-) )
Thanks Veronica for your feedback and link too. I checked it out and would like to look at it in more detail when I have some time. RE my haiku or first attempt at making one - of course you can use it! :-)
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