Increasing student production rate

Jury's out on my observation. I await the feedback appointment. Unfortunately the observer came for the Shadow part of the session -- always a sticky subject.

Meanwhile: wrapping up our marking creative writing topic with the related issue of getting students to write outside class and hand writing in. Remarkable how so many do not take advantage of getting feedback, who do not use the stimulus and goals to get on and write. I can completely understand a writer not wanting to use precious time and energy simply doing homework for teacher -- we are not in that kind of teaching. So I devised a flexible scheme to cover several levels of writer. It's the Alpha, Beta, Delta assignment.

For the details I refer you to the whole actual description from Creative Writing: the Matrix, which is this term's tutor tip on the book's website at http://www.paxtonpublishing.co.uk A freebie.

Here's another link to look at, with a freebie of sorts. It's the Institute for Learning, which is, as FE tutors, our very own organisation -- very big, recognised and official on over 18 AND UP, UP, UP learning. You kinda-sorta-gotta join if you are teaching in a publicly funded institution (community, prison, as well as FE colleges), because we all have to be registered nowadays. And we have to do CPD -- Continuous Professional Development. http://www.ifl.ac.uk

That's where their freebie part comes in. Turns out that simply reading their monthly emailed On the Agenda news bulletin can count towards your annual CPD requirement. How easy is that!

Sparking the Written Word

Farewell for this academic year, but it's not quite all over for me. I am off to Winchester next Friday and have a slot for writers or teachers who want to teach creative writing. That's the title above.

Woke up in the night this week (as one does) and got to thinking about it, even though I had decided not to plan it til next week. A bit of insomnia can be very useful! It is only one hour, and the tough part of this brief is that the teachers might be teaching to 9 year olds... or 90 year olds. I want to pack the session with interactivity, so have decided on:

• The Rant
• Stone Writing
• Postcard Prompt
• Gift-of-Writing

Each of these is an exercise in itself, but I also will use different instructions to lead each one, and also point out how each draws upon a different inner source. Why and how did I choose these, I asked myself in the night -- came up with a list of 7 reasons which add up to Voice. Teaching creative writing is about helping a person to find her/his own voice.

If you want one of these (end of year freebie) contact me via comments or profile. Better yet, buy Creative Writing: the Matrix!

I have just completed my CPD for IfL via Reflect online. The simple IfL declaration is easy-peasy, but you don't put in details -- no sense of accomplishment. The Reflect blue-coloured step-by-step on the IfL site is simple to use and more fun. I suggest tackling it in 2 - 3 sessions. Does NOT really take that long, but learning a new click-path is wearing. I got cross when I got to the 'send to CPD' stage and had to perform yet another (simple) series of clicks. Anyway, all clicked and on board now.

Have a happy writing summer! Back in mid September -- but if you are new to this blog, feeling urgent and planning a new course, do look back on blog entries of the last 18 months where you'll find plenty of ammo.

Why do we write?

Pleased to say that InTuition, the quarterly magazine of the Institute for Learning, has run my response in its Ask the Experts feature. In the autumn edition a college art lecturer said students asked 'why do we draw?' And thinking of our own students I was moved to respond:

...my creative writing students don't ask 'why do we write?' except when groaning over procastination. But I know that they write for the same reason students draw. To draw, to write, to make, is to capture something. It is about process, not end product -- except for commercial art or copywriting or journalism.

This art-making may express some aspect of the inner self the artist didn't even know was there. The satisfaction is in the process of discovery. The result displays the maker's voice, a unique angle on the world.

Another reason people make art is to assuage the essential loneliness of being human -- if I reach out in paint or words and you respond to my work, we have shared something, we have communicated, even if we never meet. Maybe only the artists themselves know why they create, and that knowledge can't be put into words. Why do we draw? Never mind. If we are impelled, we just do it.

Thanks to IfL for airing my views. It is the organisation all FE teachers have to register with these days as part of required professionalization (word??!!) of our kind of teaching. See my other IfL blog entries (gov't tutor registration) for more info and links. The current query asks how 'value added' works...