Why I advocate to teach Creative Writing?

 

 

Picture credit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/getting-started-with-essay-writing

I have confessed many times in the past and I do it again. I did not enter this profession by choice. It was a good and comfortable option at that time to choose from.

Why am I saying this again?

Well, I am a Convent Educated girl. Proud to have studied from St. Joseph’s Convent, Kingsway, Nagpur. My LSRW (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing) skills were very good. But that was me and myself.

When it came to teaching the same to the students, I re-searched, re-learned and re-discovered everything entirely. Then I stepped into the domain of teaching creative writing to the students confidently.

Read my story of why I started advocating creative writing?

Imagination is a boon everyone in the world is endowed with. Thoughts run through our mind. They will never cease to exist. But we are not conscious when these thoughts move in our minds. Hence, we are not able to harness them into productive outputs. This has been proven scientifically.

A similar complex situation exists with the students. Since most of the students do not read, they hesitate to imagine. Then they struggle for words to give their thoughts a concrete structure. As a result, they hesitate to write.

When I started teaching, my co-teachers were Uma and Archana. They boasted of super imaginative powers which their students possessed.

What was the proof of the above statement?

Their students framed long, interesting, creative and grammatically correct sentences. PHEW… They really gave me a complex.

All Centre Pointers were supposed to take up ‘Frame Sentences’ very seriously when they were teaching languages. Each teacher took pride in showing off the wonderful sentences made by the students.  We were made to attend different and at least three or four workshops in a year which were targeted to teach ‘Frame sentences.’

Such was the craze to develop skills for Frame Sentences. When I started teaching, I was clueless about how to make children write good sentences. Out of frustration, one day I wrote a variety of sentences and told the children to copy it.

Well, Archana was too quick to catch my folly. Now what?

The only way to learn is to put in hard work. So, I started observing her classes to understand how she triggered imagination. While teaching she was …what? Dramatic, eloquent in speech, used simple vocabulary, added a unique twist to every child’s question, focussed only on students, gave them ample time to think and then to write, showered praise generously, etc.

Google had made an entry in my life at that time. I immediately took to Googling and finding out methods to teach imagination and improve my skills to teach creative writing. I discovered many new and exciting ways. I implemented it in my class and started getting good results. I was happy but not satisfied.

Because the next challenge came in. The students were supposed to write long paragraphs by this time. The demand was that the content should be creative, the language perfect and the spellings absolutely correct.

Oh My God!

Will it ever stop? No came the prompt answer. Once more I started Googling and came up with good solutions and saw the results.

There was a catch in the entire situation. And it was that we cross checked each other’s answer sheets. Hence the quality had to be high because the answer papers went through multiple rounds of checking. First by the teachers, then the coordinators and finally the Principal, Mrs Chatterjee.

Most of the skills that I picked up are actually copyright of Mrs Chatterjee. She took various workshops and taught us these skills and tactics of Creative Writing and a functional approach to teaching grammar. She had what... around ten thousand ideas to teach any given topic. She was super excited when anyone asked her for an idea to teach a lesson. Moreover when we went to her with our own idea she would praise us, encourage us and applaud in staff meetings of the wonderful creativity shown by us!

If I have the authority, I will declare her as the Creative Head for all the schools on this planet. Trust me I am serious. Her capacity for Creativity is beyond anyone’s imagination and reach.

Over time I have realised that it was a golden policy to teach Frame Sentences well to develop good writing skills among the children.

 

Anyways!

There are two sides of this coin!

One reason why I loved to teach creative writing was that it was a challenge each time to make the students write.

The other reason was, the revelations which the children made in their innocence. Most of the time the students’ mental condition is revealed while they write paragraphs or essays or make sentences. It helps us as educators to understand the problems or excitements faced or experienced by the students. This in turn strengthens the bond of teaching and learning.

I believe that no one can just teach. You have to understand the child and deliver your teaching as per his learning needs requirement.

I have won many prizes based on the case studies of children. Most of these case studies find their base in the creative writing pieces which they wrote in my classes. I took a clue from those scribblings and decided upon an approach for the child. It made me empathetic and I developed a good relationship with my students.

Years later, now in the present, very recently, I corrected a few creative writing pieces of students which opened my eyes to what their dreams and aspirations and thoughts were. It changed my perception of the students and the idea of this blog crept into my mind rather it popped into my mind.

There is this bunch of students who have given me sleepless nights because they were not passing the pre boards. Leave apart the pre boards they didn’t even clear the short tests which were planned for them.

I perceived them as aimless, clueless about their own future, not responsible at all, taking life carelessly, and on and on…

But when they wrote about their aims and ambitions in life, I was in for a set-back.

Student A wrote about why he wanted join the Indian Army. He sketched the entire picture of what happens in his house. How his father keeps motivating him to join the Indian Army and serve the nation. He was made to watch the Republic Day Parade to understand what proud moments are. His elder brother is also serving the Army and so he also keeps motivating him by telling him stories of war heroes and their bravery. He wrote passionately about how everyone talks, sleeps and walks through the regimes of the Indian Army. The training given to the soldiers and what pride actually means to them!

So he is clear in his objective- He wants join the Indian Army to serve the country.

Student B’s parents are Government employees. According to him starting a business needs a knack. It needs skills. Since no one has a background of starting a business in his family, he chose to study Commerce and learn the skills to become an entrepreneur. His parents supported his decision and are willing to help him out. So, he is focussed on becoming a businessman in future.

He has the future chalked out completely.

 

Student C remembers that his grandfather passed away due to heart failure because there was no medical facility available in his village. He described how his grandfather succumbed to pain in the ambulance which would have taken him to the hospital and if possible, life. Hence his aim of becoming a doctor and serving the people of his village is very clear.

 

When I read through these essays, my perception about these students changed entirely!

This generation is not out there to have fun. They are serious about their goals and what they want to achieve. They are driven by passion and are full of determination. The roads are chalked out and the maps are well marked for the destinations which are going to arrive during the journey.

 

They are willing to scale peak after peak and hoist the flag of their dreams which will sway in the winds of success!