My primary sources will be students
7-12 and teachers who teach 7 through 12. So far I’ve gotten a few teachers to
agree to let me interview them, but interviewing students has proved to be more
difficult. I can manage two students so far but it looks like both my sources
in middle school and high school require very permission slips from parents in
order to interview students. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do that as that
would involve a sizeable involvement with the schools that I don’t think I have
the pull to request. I’m going to have to figure something else out, but as I
said for now I can secure at least two interviews.
I’m also working to get the okay to
interview a teacher I met at the high school I’m doing practicum in. He
teachers an actual creative writing class which given my prompt I think would
be invaluable as a source.
I’ve worked with a middle school
teacher during practicum a lot so I have a good relationship with her. I have
already asked her if I could interview her and she said yes, now I just have to
find the time. Same thing with my high school practicum teacher, the only issue
will be time.
The questions I’m thinking of
asking them are:
Teachers:
Do you
notice any change in student participation in regards to academic writing vs creative
writing?
Are
students more apt to share work that is academic or creative? Why do you think
that might be?
In
your opinion when should creative writing be utilized in the classroom?
Students:
What are you
more likely to work harder on, academic writing or creative writing?
What
do you enjoy writing more?
How
do you feel about writing for creative expression?
Do
you think you’d enjoy writing more if you had more input in it/more creativity?
I’m
definitely going to use the article “The place of Creative writing in
Composition studies” as I think it says a lot about how creative writing can
teach students how to write and I think there is something to be said about how
that can engage students in writing. I think this article makes a good point that
I haven’t thought of which is that in some ways other subjects can envy
creative writing because of its inherent ability to invoke the imagination. One
quote that has been sticking to my ribs that I pulled from it was: “No one asks
‘Why can’t students coming from your course develop even a single character?’” I think that speaks a lot to how little the
act of creating is regarded in the academic field. We look at literature and we
have our students study and analyze the text, we tell them to rip it apart and
search for clues, but never do we ask them to try and replicate it. We never
tell them “okay now you try.” One thing I know from taking so many creative
writing classes is that one of the best ways to learn how to write is to study
good writing, and sure enough study that writing to learn how to do it helps
further ones understanding of the writing itself. It’s a richer experience all
together.
Another
source I’m considering is “The positive effects of Cohesion on the creativity
of small groups.” It’s not explicitly about creative writing but it has some interesting
things to say about how creativity creates a positive group dynamic which I think
might be interesting to look into.
I’m
also considering looking at the common core and the high school and middle
school graduation requirements as I think It might prove interesting to see
what purpose creative writing has in the schools currently. After looking at
the graduation requirements the high school I’m doing practicum in I’ve noticed
there are some definite opportunities to use creative writing. One such example
is that writing poetry is an option for one of the students’ graduation requirements.
It might prove beneficial to discuss why that is in there with the principal of
this school.
