A creative writing project

Our pictures: we could just have stolen them from Google, but went for the non-tech approach!

Below, the rough outline of a creative writing project I'm team-teaching with a colleague next week, with two groups of Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate adults, most of whom use English for work, who have recently been working on register.

Our materials are a series of photographs of people torn out of newspapers and magazines... and that's it.

Stages of the project:

1. Ss (=students) look at the photographs, select 6-8 of them, and decide how the people are related (relatives? work? living in the same block? )
2. Ss decide what "the story" is going to be (someone gets/doesn't get the job, consequences, etc., etc...)
3. Ss make brief "character notes" on the people selected (name, age, background, character...)
   
4. Ss decide what written texts there could be that would "tell" the story (job applications, emails, memos, reports, post-it notes...)
5. Ss agree on and make any alterations necessary for the story to be coherent
6. Ss then write the texts (in pairs, not individually), and post them on a blog
7. Ss write comments on the blog (both on the content, and to provide feedback on the project)
8. Ts (=teachers) provide feedback, correction, etc.

At Stages 1 to 7, the teachers will also be providing help with whatever language is necessary...

That's the outline, we'll provide a link to the actual results of the project... But what do you think so far...?

Cuisenaire rods

Red, white, white, yellow: She | should | n't | 've | stayed | out so late...

Here are some links I came across while putting together the pages on our online phonology course (or "Sounds, stress and intonation: Teaching English pronunciation" to give it its full name).

The course has a section on features of connected speech, and suggests using Cuisenaire rods as one way in which you can practise and clarify such things as stress, weak forms, intrusion and catenation...

In our online course materials, we like to include links to other useful resources, and here are some on using Cuisenaire rods:

>> What are Cuisenaire rods? (Wikipedia)
>> Cuisenaire rods in the language classroom (te.org.uk)
>> Cuisenaire rods in the language classroom (John Mullen)
>> Cuisenaire rods for storytelling
>> More on Cuisenaire rods

Storytelling

Andrew Wright was one of the speakers at recent the annual ELT Conference at IH Barcelona, giving two inspiring sessions on storytelling.

Storytelling is perhaps not quite the right term for the technique Andrew was suggesting -- with the teacher's role being more to get the kids to tell the story, collectively.

Andrew has an excellent book on the subject, Storytelling with Children (OUP), and he's also the author of 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy.

On his website, Andrew has a series of articles on storytelling.

Blogging, Storytelling, Video links

Two great sets of links, both of which came from recent additions to Larry Ferlazzo's amazing collection of links:

• Using Blogs to Promote Authentic Learning in the Classroom
• Digital Storytelling

Note also this link, which I discovered by exploring from the second of the above:

• Video in the classroom

How should you use technology in the classroom? Your learners should create things with it. It shouldn't just be you finding and printing stuff for them, or displaying it to them on an interactive whiteboard.

Make your learners creators of content, not merely consumers...

I don't remember who first said that, or where I heard it -- but that's the secret of using technology I believe.

Getting your students to write

The excellent teachingenglish.org.uk site has a new article on Making writing communicative (which it often isn't in a language classroom, particularly when writing is something the learner does, hands in to the teacher... and that's that).

The article mentions blogging, which is one way writing can be made more communicative, particularly if all your learners are writing on a single class blog, and writing comments on each others' work, too. Doing so, and creating something that is shared will also create "tasks that are intellectually satisfying", I would suggest.

Among the books listed in the bibliography at the end of the article is Process Writing (Arndt and White, Longman 1991), one which I can highly recommend. Getting people to write in pairs, or at least to comment on each other's work (whether or not it is via a blog) is one aspect of process writing and -- because you talk about what you are writing -- another way in which it can be made communicative.

Getting learners to write -- and read -- stories is another. Some of your learners will no doubt say that they don't like writing, but there's also fun in the process that I think even they will come to share.

Here's a fun story from Ananova.com about fish making a bolt for it from a trout farm that might make the start of a piece of (shared) creative writing. Process writing would require you to brainstorm first, before you start to write: who will the narrator be? One of the characters named in the story? Or one of the trout, perhaps?

And that's where the fun begins...

>> More on Process Writing

50 Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story

Another link, suggested by Ana Falcon, that came to my mailbox in the ELTECS Latin America news list -- 50 Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story.

I think storytelling -- getting your learners to write stories, to tell multimedia stories -- is one of the most interesting things you can do in a language class. Apart from the obvious opportunities for learning and using language that such a project provides, it's the creating things aspect of it that attracts me -- and it's one of the best possible uses we can make of technology, as it takes much fuller advantage of the potential of technology than, say, seeing and using the Internet as a bank of images for use in class.

You want good group dynamics in your class? Get your learners to create and share something together.

The article (or wiki, to give it its proper term), contains lots of useful ideas and links, including links to audio, images and video available under Creative Commons licences -- ie. that you can use without infringing copyright.

The author, Alan Levine, has the commendable rule that "the media files you use in your story have to be ones that are licensed or shared with permission to re-use". However, my suggestion would always be that your learners create their own images, audio files, etc.

The more they create themselves, the less they steal from other websites, the prouder they will be of their work; the "pride in creation" is wonderful for motivation, for wanting to learn...

>> ELTECS news lists
>> More good stuff in your mailbox
>> Creative Commons
>> More on digital storytelling
>> Er... What's Web 2.0?

More image links and ideas for using them

Yet another useful link from Larry Ferlazzo's amazing collection, to Nations Illustrated, which has over 7,000 images -- free for non-commercial use -- organised by countries of the world.

I like Larry's idea of exploiting the fact that you can send the photo's as e-cards to a friend (or your teacher)... Perhaps you could also have your learners create a story based on a series of e-cards sent to you from different places around the world...?

Note also the "play puzzle" feature, if you're a jigsaw puzzle fan, which allows you to turn the images into jigsaws. I wonder if you could have people doing that in class in pairs, perhaps with one person having the original picture, which their partner isn't allowed to see... Or have them work together to work out how the puzzle must fit together logically ("that bit must go there", "that can't be right...").

>> In the same post, on About.com, Thirty Free Image Resources on the Web

Ficlets: collaborative stories

I think this also came from May's DevelopingTeachers's newsletter...

Ficlets ("a short story that enables you to collaborate with the world") looks like a website (currently in Beta) you could have your learners write on directly as a project.

They explain:

Once you've written and shared your ficlet, any other user can pick up the narrative thread by adding a prequel or sequel. In this manner, you may know where the story begins, but you'll never guess where (or even if!) it ends.

Or you could take the idea and have your learners publish their (collaborative) stories on your own class blog (or elsewhere, eg. as posters on your classroom walls).

On the Ficlets site, you have a maximum of 1,024 characters for your stories. On your own site you could try mini-sagas, with a fixed word length (or limit -- ie. exactly 100 words, or "not more than" 100 words).

Video storytelling

An article, from the excellent techlearning.com, on using the video in the classroom to get kids to tell stories.

Working with kids who were doing poorly, the author says that:

"... rather than have students silently read essays and short stories, I asked them to read the works in front of the class. Before long I couldn"t get them to stop. This simple act made a huge difference to them. It turned reading into performing"

More ideas on using video in the classroom from the also excellent teachingenglish.org.uk.