Archiv für die Kategorie „Creative Writing“

Der Dialog, ‘Dad? Can I borrow…?’ geht um jene typische Szene, in der ein Sohn seinen Vater um eine ‘kleine Anleihe’ bittet. Die Aufgabe besteht darin, das Dialog-Gerüst mittels Dialog-Techniken aufzufüllen.

The dialogue, ‘Dad? Can I borrow…?’ is about that typical scene in which a son asks his father for a small ‘loan’. The task is to dress up the bare-bones dialogue with the help of dialogue techniques.

Worksheet 3 bezieht sich auf die Dialog-Techniken, die im Basis-Artikel (Creative Writing: Theory and Practice) beschrieben werden. Das Arbeitsblatt, ‘Cell Phone Conflict’, stellt eine Szene in der Form eines Dialog-Gerüsts dar. Die Aufgabe besteht darin, das Gerüst mittels der Dialog-Techniken aufzufüllen.

Worksheet 3 refers to the dialogue techniques described in the basic article, Creative Writing: Theory and Practice. The worksheet, ‘Cell Phone Conflict’, presents a scene in the form of a bare-bones dialogue, which is to be ‘dressed up’ with the help of the dialogue techniques.

Worksheet 2 bezieht sich auf die 3 Dialog-Techniken, die im Basis-Artikel (Creative Writing: Theory and Practice) beschrieben werden. Der Text, ‘Judy’s got the Blues’ ist ein Dialog-Gerüst ohne jeden Zusatz. Die Aufgabe besteht darin, dieses Gerüst mittels der Dialog-Techniken aufzufüllen.

Worksheet 2 refers to the 3 dialogue techniques described in the base article (Creative Writing: Theory and Practice). The text, ‘Judy’s got the Blues’, bare-bones dialogue, is to be ‘packaged’ with the help of those techniques.

A Swiss comedian said recently, to be creative you’ve got to go up the mountain. His explanation was that creativity isn’t a skill you acquire by working hard at it, but has to do with inspiration. For him, the best place for inspiration is on a mountain top.

Not all of us have access to a mountain, but there is certainly a place where we can find inspiration or, should one say, inspiration can find us, maybe in the woods, at the seaside or out on a lake.

The other side of the coin is the business of ‘translating’ an inspiration into words, putting it down on paper – in a way that adequately expresses what we so deeply feel. This is where the acquisition of skills for good writing comes in. Writing techniques don’t fall from heaven, they are learned. I will be developing teaching materials to facilitate that learning process.

Diese 2-seitige Unterrichtseinheit besteht aus einem einfachen theoretischen Teil, bei dem Techniken des Creative Writing erklärt und – anhand von zahlreichen Beispielen – veranschaulicht werden, und einem praktischem Teil, einem Arbeitsblatt, bei dem die Schüler die Möglichkeit bekommen, das Theoretische in die Praxis umzusetzen.

This two-page teaching sequence consists of a simple theoretical part, in which creative writing techniques are explained and illustrated by way of numberous examples.  In the second part, a worksheet, students are given the chance to put the theory they’ve learned into practice.

Das Schreiben ist eine Kulturtechnik, ein wesentlicher Bestandteil unseres Alltages. Wir schreiben am Arbeitsplatz, in der Schule, füllen Formulare aus, schreiben Notizen und Berichte, wir schreiben SMS und E-Mails, wir schreiben mit der Hand,  wir schreiben über Facebook, Studivz, wir schreiben Blogs und über Twitter, wir schreiben im Chat, bei ICQ oder MSN,  mit dem Computer, mit einem Kugelschreiber, einem Bleistift, mit Kreide. Wir schreiben mit unserem Finger eine Nachricht in den Sand. Schreiben. Schreiben. Schreiben. Mal kreativ, mal weniger kreativ. Hier kann geübt werden!

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Dressing Up Dialogue

Beschreibung: Das Rüstzeug für die Gestaltung von Dialogen.

• Dressing up Dialogue (1)
• Dressing up Dialogue (2)
• Dressing Up Dialogue (3): Switching Circumstances
• Dressing Up Dialogue (4): Borrowing Dad’s Car

Working with the Bible

Beschreibung: Die Neugestaltung biblischer Texte im modernen Englisch

• Working with the Bible (1)
• Working with the Bible (2)
• Working with the Bible (3)

Working with Keywords

Beschreibung: Die Verwendung von Schlüsselwörtern als Sprungbrett zum kreativen Schreiben

• Working with Keywords
• Fables with Keywords

Current Topics

Beschreibung: Aktuelle Themen als Schreibanlass

• Stalking
• Cyber Revolution
• Binge Drinking
• Swine Flu
• Cellphones and Cars
• Smoking among German Teens

Miscellaneous

• Alphabetical Dialogue
• Point of View
• Bully Story
• Finish Story
• Questionaire: School Readers

There are many good reasons to teach creative writing. Some of the most important, to my mind, are:

1. Children love stories and have a basic need to express themselves in words.
2. Creative writing stimulates the imagination.
3. It enables the student to better understand and appreciate good writing.
4. It helps young people in their search for their identity.
5. It clarifies thinking, i.e. it forces students to be logically consistency and factually accurate. If they want their story to be believable, they have to get the details right.

Those critics who describe creative writing as a ‘soft’ subject, as a break from the real business of teaching basic grammar, underestimate what creative writing can do to develop students’ cognitive and communicative skills.

Of course, the desire to teach creative writing is not enough. The teacher needs good, practical teaching material. My idea of writing little stories about a ‘careless’ adventurer who is continually getting himself into difficult situations proved to be a highly motivational way to get students started along the path of creative writing.

The stories may seem silly, but they do have their appeal, especially to boys, who are generally ‘undermotivated’ when it comes to reading and writing fiction.

Have a look at some of my Careless Corrigan stories on the Download page. There are several recently-written stories, including ‘Careless and the Rockslide’, ‘Careless and the Blue Bear River’, ‘Careless and the Polar Bear’, ‘Careless and the Diamondback Rattler’, ‘Careless and the Marijuana Plantation’,  ‘Careless and the Wasp’ , ‘Careless and the Pygmies’ and ‘Careless and the Illegal Campfire‘. Before you use any of them, you should have a look at download 1, which contains more information about Careless including the ‘rules’ for rescuing him.

If you try them out with your students, why not write a short comment on how your experiment worked out?

Fables are rightly prized as a highly effective means for EFL teaching. They are

- shorter than even the shortest short story

- pithy, i.e. concise and full of meaning

- easy to understand (provided the language has been modernized)

There are many ways to work with fables. The one I have chosen is the keyword method. To my mind, it is a good way to help students gain a working knowledge of the fable, which in turn provides a basis for other uses of the text.

On my Download page under the heading, Creative Writing, I’ve posted two examples of my ‘Working with Fables’ method: Working with Keywords (1) and Fables with Keywords.  Further examples, enough for a lengthy teaching sequence, can be found at School-Scout.de under my name.

What kind of experience have you had teaching fables? Have they worked well for you, too? Do you have some favorites?

CARELESS AND THE HUNGRY LIONS

Careless knew that he would have to be careful. The Malatooba National Park was known as a dangerous place. The five-year drought, the worst ever to hit the park, had seized the land like a giant hand and squeezed the last drop of water out of it. What a change! A fertile region once full of wild animals, where it had been so easy for lions to fill their bellies that they had grown fat and lazy, had turned into a desert. The lions were thin and hungry now, very hungry. But they had become much better hunters. They had to in order to survive. They now did most of their hunting at night. Careless knew that and he had first driven to a large tree before he put up the tent for the night. If there was an attack in the night, he and Linda Lou could find safety in the tree. Of course, he had installed his famous Lion Alarm, which would warn him if any of the big cats came near the tent. Careless was sure they were safe, but Linda Lou didn’t share his confidence. She had asked him several times to keep on driving instead of making camp. ‘We’re safer in our tent than we would be in the Jeep,’ he said. ‘They would hear the Jeep and come after it. Besides, it’s very difficult to stay on the road at night and I’m very tired.’ So they settled down for the night. Within a few minutes Careless was sound asleep, but Linda was wide awake her eyes popping with fear, her ears listening to the sounds of the desert. Just before the alarm went off she turned to Careless and poked him. ‘There’s
something out there!’ she cried. Careless woke up just as the alarm sounded. He jumped up, grabbed his Linda Lou and pulled her out of the tent. What they saw there made Linda gasp for breath. Their campsite was surrounded by a ring of lions! ‘It’s okay. Be cool. Just follow me to the tree. They won’t attack if we don’t make any quick movements,’ Careless whispered. So they started moving slowly towards
the tree, but these lions didn’t seem to know about Careless’s lion rules. Instead of waiting, they attacked almost at once. Linda Lou was in the tree, but Careless was still on the ground when they came bounding at him.
Now rescue Careless!

CARELESS AND THE RING OF EYES

Careless was hurrying through the woods in his snowmobile on his way to Crow Lake, where wolves had been sighted. It was late evening as Careless neared the Crow Indian Reservation, where he planned to stay with some old friends for the night. Suddenly the motor of his snowmobile began to make strange, sputtering noises. A short time later, there were no more noises at all. The motor was dead! ‘No problem,’ he thought. ‘I’ll just leave the snowmobile here and walk to the reservation. I can get the motor fixed in the morning.’ But he had no sooner started walking than it began to snow. As he went on, the snow came down faster. Soon he could hardly see where he was going. ‘There’s no use trying to go on. I’ll make a little fire and stay right where I am until the snowstorm ends,’ he said to myself. That was when he heard the first wolf howls. ‘So,’ he said to himself, smiling, ‘it’s true. There are wolves in the area.’ When he heard them a few minutes later, much closer this time, his smile disappeared. But it took more than howling wolves to make Careless Corrigan nervous. ‘I’ve got just what you need, my furry friends,’ he said aloud, laughing to himself. He broke some branches off an old tree and got busy making a fire. Soon he had a huge fire going. ‘There you go,’ he said, looking out into the darkness, ‘how do you like that?’ He was so sure that wolves would back away that he was shocked by the next howl. It came from very close. Suddenly, he could see several pairs of eyes shining in the light of the fire, staring at him. Nervous now, he put some more branches on the fire. ‘These are strange wolves,’ he said to himself. ‘Everyone knows that wolves are afraid of fire.’ Shortly after that, he put his last branches on the fire. Within a few minutes the fire had grown even larger but the ring of eyes didn’t move back. In fact, it moved in closer and closer.