The other day in class my co-op introduced me to a genius lesson idea. She had this children's book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg (the guy who wrote Jumanji andPolar Express). According to the fictional editor's note, the story is a collection of illustrations by a guy named Harris Burdick, who disappeared before releasing the stories that go along with the pictures. These mystery illustrations are presented in the book. Here's an example:
For the assignment, the students had to carefully examine the illustration as a "setting" and imagine what sort of plot might be inferred from the setting. They would identify if they thought the plot was going to be "happy" or "sad," whether the character seemed evil or good and what in the illustration gave them that impression. I was stoked about the idea, but I couldn't help thinking how awesome this would work as a starting off point, a prompt, for the students to write their own narratives, and the objectives of the lesson could be achieved that way as well. It was my co-op's lesson so I couldn't really make any changes but I did tell one group of students that I was working with (they finished up the assigned work quickly) that they should just starting writing a story with the line in the picture being the first line of their stories. One of the boys in the group looked up at me and asked, "will we get in trouble?" I almost burst out laughing, but at the same time it was terrible that the students have gotten to do so little creative writing in class that they see it as something they could get in trouble for.
I'm looking forward to try and get more creative writing in the classroom I'm a part of. Steve gave me a great idea that I'm going to put into effect this Friday. I'm going to use the 20 minute block of time that my homeroom is waiting for lunch as my own creative writing class. I'm going to start having the students do free writes and sharing their writing with classmates. I'm still working on the details but I'm psyched to get this going. Any suggestions for guiding 7th graders through their (probably) first creative writing experience would be much appreciated, thanks!
-Luke Damiani
This is awesome! I might have to "borrow" this idea. :)
ReplyDeleteIn regards to getting your students through their first creative writing session, I would suggest (1) give them a list of topics, but let them write about whatever they want and (2) sit down and write with them. I've been working on implementing something like this and we'll be (hopefully) starting Monday. I have every intention of sitting with a group of students and writing with them.
Good luck!
Dude, that picture is amazing. I hope you don't mind me using it.
ReplyDeleteHow is the 20 minute period coming along?