Writing is Exploration

Alice C. Linsley


I write for a living and I live to write. Now as a retired persons, I have more time to teach students how to write, something I enjoy enormously. 

I teach them what good writing looks like and how it should sound when read aloud. 

I teach them about the business of writing and how to craft their work for publication.

I teach them how to write a query letter, how to identify potential publications, how to prioritize submissions, how to slant articles for the target audience, etc.

Writing is a skill matched to desire. The most gifted teacher is limited by the student’s desire and motivation. Every student can learn to write better, but few will learn to write well.

Desire is something over which I have little control. I can show students samples of the world’s best writing and I can teach them how to analyze the characteristics of great literature, but I cannot plant desire and motivation in them. That is self-generated or more accurately, inspired from a Source beyond.

Students who take my classes discover a great deal about themselves. They explore their interests, work through sore spots, encounter new things, and grab hold of fascinations that carry them for years. Writing is exploration. It opens the mind to matters of the heart and creates pen-pecked dreamers.

Most of my students have been published at least once and many have established impressive publication records. A few in the latter group are now writing professionals. They keep in touch with me and often forward their published works for me to read. I find this extremely satisfying.

Related reading: Stimulate the Imagination; Pen-Pecked Dreamers; The Challenges Writing Teachers Face; Write for the Enjoyment of Creating

Teach Writing Online?

 

Alice C. Linsley

Over the past decade I have taught writing remotely to over 20 private students. Mainly, we communicated via email, but sometimes we used Skype. Today, remote instruction can be done more efficiently using Zoom.

I also taught Creative Writing in the classroom and certainly my preference is to engage students face-to-face (f2f). However, the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed teachers to online instruction and to new levels of frustration.

Martin Weller offers this observation at his Ed Techie blog: “It’s forever 1999 for online learning critics”.

Online and distance learning does generally require more self-motivation from the learner, away from the physical cues that prompt learning. It also requires more organization of their time and study environment and so retention may always be an issue compared to f2f. But it also offers opportunities for other forms of teaching. The least interesting thing you can do is replicate the not very effective model of the lecture. We had these discussions back in 1999, and people explored problem based learning, constructivism, collaborative learning, and then later connectivism and flipped learning. I’m not proposing any one of these approaches as a magic bullet, and some students will like them and others hate them. But different approaches are achievable and have been realised for a long time. Just because you’ve been dumped off your lectern and feel aggrieved, is no need for another ‘online learning sucks’ hot take.

 

My advice is to find a level of technology that is comfortable for you. Work on that platform until you learn how to use Zoom. Start by communicating on Zoom with family and close friends. When you are comfortable, initiate a session with 2 or 3 students. 

Plan ahead. Have visuals ready to show the students. State homework assignments and follow up with email reminders. Most parents want to be copied on the email communications.

The teacher's attitude is very important to the students' success. Take the online challenge as something positive. Ask for help. The students are tech savvy and many are glad to help you. 

Remember that the final objective is for your students to write something worthy of publication. Then help them learn how to shop around for potential publishers. Learning to write and learning the business of writing are two different matters, but a good writing teacher will help students with both.

Related reading:  About This Blog; You Tube Video Editing; How to Teach Online With Zoom

The Challenges Writing Teachers Face

"A great teacher makes hard things easy." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

Well-crafted written communication is one the hardest things to teach. Consider the complexity of the task.

 

Many students are uninterested in learning to write well. They do not consider this a necessary skill for life.

 

Good writing takes time. There is a process of writing and revision. Students are not rewarded by immediate gratification.

 

There is the matter of recognition of good writing which comes through reading well-written material. Many students lack good reading skills. Those who like to read often fail to distinguish mediocre work from truly great literature.

 

There is the problem of distraction so that students have difficulty organizing their thoughts.

 

There is the additional challenge of logical order and sequence of ideas. Students often lack the critical thinking that this requires.

 

Good writing also requires grasp of grammar and syntax. Writing teachers spend a great deal of time teaching and re-teaching grammar.

 

Students tend to stay in their comfort zones when it comes to vocabulary. They do not stretch themselves by employing more sophisticated language unless they are challenged.

 

Teaching students how to write well is no simple task. Writing teachers who can do this should receive special honors. In some cases, the honor comes years later when a former student's work is published in a prestigious magazine. Sometimes, the former student takes the time to write a lovely letter to his writing teacher in which he acknowledges her influence and thanks her.

 

That happened this week for me. Thankful! Very thankful!

 

Alice C. Linsley

 

 

Related reading: Wendell Berry: The Writer's Obligation; Pen-Pecked Dreamers

 

 



Creative Writing with Middle School Students

Alice C. Linsley


I recently finished an 8-week writing skills class for middle school students and we had a blast!  They were asked to build their vocabularies by reading great literature and using unfamiliar words in sentences.  We then discussed their sentences in class and sometimes found we needed to clarify the word's meaning.

We started all our sessions with each student reading aloud the opening paragraph of a classic. We then discussed what made that paragraph great. Some of the books we discussed include:

Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe

R. L Stevenson
Treasure Island
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre

Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishement

Jack London
The Call of the Wild

Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncles Tom's Cabin

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Valley of Fear

Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist
Great Expectations
A Tale of Two Cities by

Herman Melville
Moby Dick

J.F. Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans

Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo
Three Three Musketeers

Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage

Jonathan Swift
Gulliver's Travels

I found that middle school students aren't ready for the content of many of these great works, but they are able to read, understand and appreciate the book's opening paragraphs.

We also read and discussed some short creative essays since each student was required to produce an essay of publishable quality.  I selected the essays for brevity, humor, insight and as samples from a range of centuries. Here are some of the essays we discussed:

G. K. Chestertown (1874-1936)
"A Defense of Penny Dreadfuls"

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
"A Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick"

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)
"Of Charity, or the Love of God"

Before discussing the essays, we identified the main ideas.  We then evaluated how the writer was able to take what may be mundane and explore it's glorious side.  Or how something as glorious as the love of God can be brought down to earth and yet remain untarnished.

I had forgotten how much fun it is to teach middle school students!  They are eager to explore ideas and they want to please.  That made it possible for me to accomplish a great deal with them.  All five of the students had at least 2 published works by the end of the eight weeks.

8 Ways to Stimulate Creative Writing

1. Three Minute Writing:  Students are given a topic (or title) with the understanding that they only have three minutes in which to write on the topic.
2. You're Not Yourself Today:  In this writing activity students are told they are not themselves today, they will become someone else. Prepare index cards with different roles. Example: "You're not yourself today.... you are a pirate looking for treasure on a deserted island."
3. Pass A Story:  Pass a piece of paper with an opening sentence or paragraph on it. Students add a few more sentences in the time allotted and then pass it on to another student. Students continue adding to the story until everyone has had an opportunity to write a part of the story. Read the final story aloud.
4. Dear Teacher:  Give students the opportunity to develop letter-writing skills. Assign a topic for them to write a letter to the teacher, such as classroom suggestions, something  they like about you, etc.
5. Roll a Story:  A numbered die is used to correspond with titles of possible stories to write. Students roll the die to determine which title they will be using for their creative story.
6. Grab Bags:  Three paper lunch bags will be needed for this activity. Label each with the following: setting, character and conflict. Fill each paper bag with index cards, each containing an example of the above mentioned items. Put these cards into the corresponding bags. Students must choose a setting card, a character card and a conflict card.
7. Did you Know?:  This activity allows students to become the experts about a specific topic. Students should choose something they are knowledgeable about. The purpose in this exercise is to inform classmates through their writing.
8. Comment Please:  This activity can be implemented after students have had time to polish their stories beyond the first draft stage. Students will read their work aloud and classmates will be given the opportunity to give positive comments about the work. Only positive comments and questions for clarification of what was written may be stated.
   
   Read about these activities here.

INDEX of Topics at Students, Publish Here!

Writing: Craft or Art?

Students wonder how they can become good writers. I tell them that writing is a developed skill, like speaking a foreign language. Writing well requires practice, practice, practice!

I have about 15 years experience teaching foreign language and every year one or two students excell beyond my expectations. They are the ones who want to speak the language. They are motivated to apprehend the idiom at a level that surpasses most students. Often they exhibit intuition about the language. For example, I have a student whose intuitive sense of how the Spanish language works made it possible for him recently to apply the subjunctive mood to a situation he has never learned. He speaks well - that is his developed craft, but he also handles the language in a beautiful way - that is the art.

So how does one write well? Practice! Write! Re-write! All good writers write everyday. That is how we develop our craft. The art of writing involves skill first and second, an intuitive sense of words, mood, cadence. I'm not sure that this can be taught.

The Problem of Suffering

I recently read CS Lewis' The Problem of Pain. It is a well-reasoned and cogent apologetic for the Creator's abiding love. I have some trouble with Lewis' evolutionary view of the human species, but find his conclusion compelling: pain too is in the service of God's love.

This is the conclusion of many great figures of history: Abraham, Joseph, Moses, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, Kierkegaard... and George Herbert. Herbert's poem Affliction continues to be a powerful statement of the endurance of love, not simply in the midst of pain, but by virtue of pain.

How counter-intuitive it is to even speak of the "virtue" of pain! Yet human experience tells us there is value in suffering. The suffering of the olympian preparing for the trials of competition. The pain of the soldier as he pushes the limits of his physical and mental endurance. The grief of parents who have lost a child and who reach out to parents suffering similar loss. And in the face of devastating loss it is only our sorrow that reassures us that we are alive. George Herbert tells no tales.

Use Herbert's Poem in the Classroom

I've used the following poem in both Philosophy class and in Creative Writing class. I tell the students about George Herbert and read his poem to the class. I then ask the students their impressions. Then I request that each think about the most painful experience they have had. Then I assign a stanza to 11 student volunteers and work with them so that they will read their assigned stanza expressively and with understanding. The students read the poem aloud in class, the different voices representing the suffering of all humanity. Finally, those who didn't volunteer are asked to share their impressions.

Affliction
George Herbert

When thou didst entice to thee my heart,
I thought the service brave:
So many joys I writ down for my part,
Besides what I might have
Out of my stock of natural delights,
Augmented with thy gracious benefits.

I looked on thy furniture so fine,
And made it fine to me:
Thy glorious household-stuff did me entwine,
And ‘tice me unto thee.
Such stars I counted mine: both heav’n and earth
Paid me my wages in a world of mirth.

What pleasures could I want, whose King I served?
Where joys my fellows were?
Thus argu’d into hopes, my thought reserved
No place for grief or fear.
Therefore my sudden soul caught at the place,
And made her youth and fierceness seek thy face.

At first thou gav’st me milk and sweetness;
I had my wish and way:
My days were straw’d with flow’rs and happiness;
There was no month but May.
But with my years sorrow did twist and grow,
And made a party unawares for woe.

My flesh began unto my soul in pain,
Sicknesses cleave my bones;
Consuming agues dwell in ev’ry vein,
And tune my breath to groans.
Sorrow was al my soul; I scarce believed,
Till grief did tell me roundly, that I lived.

When I got health, thou took’st away my life,
And more; for my friends die:
My mirth and edge was lost; a blunted knife
Was of more use than I.
Thus thin and lean without a fence or friend, I was blown through with ev’ry storm and wind.

Whereas my birth and spirit rather took
The way that takes the town;
Thou didst betray me to a lingering book,
And wrap me in a gown.
I was entangled in the world of strife,
Before I had the power to change my life.

Yet, for I threatened oft the siege to raise,
Not simpring all mine age,
Thou often didst with Academic praise
Melt and dissolve my rage.
I took thy sweetened pill. Till I came where
I could not go away, nor persevere.

Yet lest perchance I should too happy be
In my happiness,
Turning my purge to food, thou throwest me
Into more sicknesses.
Thou doth thy power cross-bias me; not making
Thine own gift good, yet me from my ways taking.

Now I am here, what thou wilt do with me
None of my books will show:
I read, and sigh, and wish I were a tree;
For sure I then should grow
To fruit or shade: at least some bird would trust
Her household to me, and I should be just.

Yet though thou troublest me, I must be meek;
In weakness must be stout.
Well, I will change the service, and go seek
Some other master out.
Ah my dear God! Though I am clean forgot,
Let me not love thee, if I love thee not.

Virtual Non-Reality

If asked what I think endangers America's youth today, I'd reply that virtual non-reality is the greatest danger because our youth haven't lived enough to recognize that illusion can lead to delusion and nihilism.

How do we fight virtual non-reality among our children when they would rather play video games or chat online than read a book or write a short story? Is life so harsh that they must escape this way or has this way replaced life?

Just some thoughts on a topic that concerns me and other teachers I know, especially creative writing teachers. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.