Creative writing poses a number of challenges for teachers. The first is probably universal in nature and begs the question, where does creativity stem from and how does it develop? My own research into this area has not led to any definitive answers and still seems to be a riddle for theorists and neuroscientists alike (Damasio 2001). In the language classroom, the creative process is not black and white or formulaic. As a teacher, one needs to allow and encourage this unpredictability.
In my English language acquisition classes, the foundation for creative writing still lies in strategies that have an initial heavy scaffolding approach. Many of my students are fortunately very creative in their thinking, however, the lack of vocabulary or the subtle nuances of metaphor and idiomatic expressions pose challenges for students. To circumvent this, I have recently become a fan of iconicity in my teaching.
Iconicity, in short, is demonstrating the correlation between form and meaning. What this might look like in the classroom is giving students a simple one-word prompt, such as “raindrop” and then asking them to write something in the form of a raindrop.
I have found even for students with limited vocabulary seem to be engaged in this type of activity and are able to produce quite creative pieces of work.
A second strategy I use is story carving. This is particularly useful for pre-intermediate-level students. In essence, students are given a list of verbs, nouns, and adjectives that they must use in a creative piece of writing. For this strategy, no prompt is given, and students are only instructed that the piece of writing needs to be fictional in nature. This I have found works best if a story-build prompt is included.
Story dice is a final and remarkably popular approach my students enjoy. I have the physical dice in my classroom, but also use an online version. (https://davebirss.com/storydice-creative-story-ideas/)
With this strategy I have students first create a story on the fly in spoken format and once every student has had one turn, we move to writing. For this strategy students can either work individually or with a partner. In my classes the only initial restriction I put in place would be to ask the students to write in a particular tense, this is more for grammar focus, but seems to create an extra challenge and element of surprise among my students.
References
Carter, R. 2004. Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk. London: Routledge.
Damasio, A. 2001. “Some Notes on Brain Imagination and Creativity”. In The Origins of Creativity, edited by K. H. Pfenninger, and V. R. Shubik, 59–68. Oxford: Oxford University Press.