Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Creative Digital Writing







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ED 629
OLUCHI ELECHI

   Creative Digital Writing Blog



According to Hicks, T. (2013) Robinson (2011) stated that being creative involves doing something, it would be odd to describe as creative someone who never did anything. He also stated, that creativity is more than lock; it involves intention, deliberation and selecting from among choices, Robinson (2011). Therefore craft writing is an act of creativity. However, as an educator we need to get our students expose to this creative writing through workshop approach and invite them to explore author's craft, confer with us and their peer and publish their work for a variety of audiences

  Image result for image of student at a writing workshop

 Hicks, T. (2013), stated that in order to help our students become craft writers, we must teach them how to study craft with lenses. As cited by Hicks, T. Fletcher and Portalupi (1998) stated that "one view of craft is to see it as a tool for looking, also mentioned that students should also learn to read like a writer". This means that as a teacher we should present to our students a writing that will help them get a feel for the setting, voices, tension, inner story, or recurring details. we should present to our students writings that will help them become writer them selves, that means we should give them the lenses that will help them see the craft in what they are reading, and that will help them develop new lenses with which they will use to revisit their own writing.




A lot of time our students are unable to see this lenses even the most skilled reader among our students may not have all the lenses they need to see the way in which an author constructs a text;

even with correct lenses, students don't always look through them without prompting Hicks, T. (20013) P (12). Therefore it is our duty as educators to provide to our students the lenses and prompts they need to identify the craft in writing. However, when students recognize some of these craft elements, they will then go from something a reader has read to something a writer can write.Image result for image of students with lenses



Meanwhile, teaching creative writing require specific craft techniques that includes providing lenses that will help students see the craft in writing. The next techniques is to slow down the process so the students can see craft that might have been overlooked due to a number of reasons that might have cause distractions during the process. Also start small, once we have looked through the lens, and slow down to identify and explore the related elements of craft, Hicks, T. (2013), p (13) talked about Elizabeth Hale's suggestions of a third important way to teach craft; which is starting small, this applies to the craft element and the way you will approach your students with it, this include teaching specific craft for a whole-class, individual or small groups. Show students how to write one particular way of writing one step at a time.





In addition, we must also encourage our students to move beyond models; we want them to take risks with their writing, as the best writers do, and yet have the supports in place to help them understand when they've made a mistake. We need to teach craft in a variety of ways and must likely a number of times, to the whole class, to small groups, and to individuals. Only then will students truly understand and own the technique. Also we need to focus on one element at a time Hicks, T. (2013) p (16).



                        Reference

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing; Composing Tesxts Across Media and Genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. p (1_42).

Berdik, C. (2016) Can a Curious Computer Improve Student Writing? Retrieved September 20, 2016


http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/01/writelab_a_roboreader_that_helps_students_improve_their_writing.html











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2 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 23, 2016 at 4:15 PM

    Oluchi, I like that you pointed out the importance of exposing students to various creative writing approaches. I also thought that the video was interesting. I found it amazing that the teacher had built up a 40-45 minute writing stamina for elementary students!

    I love that the text refers to "lenses" and the need to teach students how to look through them. I think that sometimes we forget that prior knowledge in some areas may not be there for some students.

    I found an article "One Good Lesson, Community of Practice Model for Preparing Teachers of Writing" (2015), in Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education that discusses how teachers can be trained to mentor the writing process. The approach has been successful in classrooms. Not only does this help students but it provides teachers opportunity for growth, as well. The link to the article is below.

    http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1126&context=wte

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  2. UnknownSeptember 23, 2016 at 6:51 PM

    Oluchi,
    You pointed out that teachers need to make sure students know how to correctly craft writing in multiple formats. I like how the text states "we must be deliberate in what we type when we post to social networks, how we frame a photograph, how we edit or any other number of choices that affect the composition of our texts". On-line publication has become almost a second nature task for 21st century students. The challenge is making sure what they compose is done in a way that is intentional and creative.

    Another component of the text that will help students create intentional writing is the idea of MAPS. Using an acronym to make sure your writing is at its optimal, helps the struggling writer. When a student understands the way they write depends on their audience, how it is presented, the genre, context and why they are writing, the daunting task will not seem so bad. At least students have a "more fun" way to present their thoughts than paper and pencil.

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