PREVIOUSLY:
In Unit 16.3, we discussed about the various
ways of teaching the sub topic "Talking about funerals" in Form Two.
IN THIS UNIT 16.4, we will cover the sub topic"Creative Writing" in Form
Four.
TOPIC’S INFORMATION
Main Topic: WRITING USING
APPROPRIATE CONTENT AND STYLE
Sub Topic: Creative writing
Periods per sub topic: 8
Class: Form Four
DESCRIPTION OF THE SUB TOPIC
This is the familiar activity. In Form Three, it was also covered as
Creative Writing. In this topic, the students were guided to compose simple
poems by using simple techniques. In this context, Form Four students will be
guided to compose simple stories.
NB: Creative writing
for ‘O’ Level students involve composing various works like poems, stories and
simple plays. Thus, a teacher can choose any among of these genres to begin
teaching his/her students Creative writing or Creative Writing (Six stages
of teaching how to write poems). So, there is no rule on what genre to start with.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THE LESSON
In this sub topic/lesson, the student should be able to write a work of
art using literary devices and skills.
- TEACHER’S PREPARATION STAGE
This stage is about the preparation of the teacher before undertaking
the lessons of the particular sub topic. These are all activities, procedures,
materials, teaching aids, and games prepared by the teacher for teaching a sub
topic:
- Putting
heads together: Introducing the
topic/lesson properly. Organising how students will be able to get to know
what is the topic/lesson about. It is where teacher makes sure that
students are going to be in his/her train. It includes brainstorming and
familiarisation of the topic/lesson with the students.
This makes students stay together with the teacher. It is at this stage
students can understand what is going to be discussed in the particular topic.
In this sub
topic/lesson; the teacher will introduce
students to the art of writing various literary works like short stories, short
plays (dramatized dialogues) and poems. It's the choice of the teacher to guide
students into writing specific type of work of art. For instance, if in Form
Three's Creative writing, the teacher taught students how to compose poems, in Form Class,
he/she can teach them how write short stories and plays.
The teacher asks students oral questions on what they know about writing
short stories. What do you do when you want to write a short story? What things
should be included in the short story? These questions can help students
understand the topic's aspects.
- Preparation
of Materials. A teacher has
to decide on the teaching/learning materials he/she is going to use.
In this sub
topic/lesson, the teacher has to guide and
encourage students to use dictionaries, grammar books, and other sources like
magazines and newspapers in order to get story ideas and create the perfect
stories of their own. They should have enough vocabularies, high command of
English grammar, and rich story ideas.
- Target Practice. Show them/Guide them to the practice of the functions of the sub
topic. A teacher has to show or guide students to the target practice of
the grammatical functions of the sub topic.
In this sub topic/lesson, the teacher has the role to guide students to study and discussion of
the devices or skills on writing various works of art. In this context, the
teacher has to guide them on the skills of writing one type of work of art. In
Form Four class, the teacher may teach how to write short stories in Creative writing.
- Context-Based
Practice. A teacher leads students
to the discussion on how the target grammatical functions practised
earlier can be applied or integrated into the contexts and situations. The
students are guided by the teacher to apply the learnt skills in relevant
contexts and situations like school and library.
In this sub
topic/lesson, he teacher to discuss with
students various short story prompts or starters. When they discuss these short
story starters, the students have taken into consideration the contexts and
situations like school, adventure, biography, comedy, tragedy, love stories, fiction,
nonfiction, free verse, and memories.
- Vocabulary
Building Practice. At this time,
teacher discusses with the students on the vocabularies and phrases to
apply in the already mentioned contexts and situations.
In this sub
topic/lesson, the teacher and students have
to brainstorm and remind themselves on the most commonly applied vocabularies
in Creative writing such as: fiction, novel, short story, style, plot,
technique, narrative style, point of view, characters, settings, title, and
language.
- TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCEDURES, ACTIVITIES AND GAMES
Guide the students to the full sub topic/lesson procedures, activities
and games for better understanding of the sub topic by following these
activities:
Activity One: Brainstorming the sub topic/lesson through oral questions with answers,
pair works, and group discussions of all important concepts to get students on
track.
In this sub topic/lesson, the teacher is going to guide students to brainstorm on kinds of
literary work they would like to write on. These kinds of literary works are
short story, short play, poem, memoirs, short biography, autobiography, short
flash fiction, and folktales.
Activity Two: Teacher's application of his/models or examples so as to bring the
topic/lesson and the students into the real or common sense of the
topic/lesson.
In this activity, the teacher will guide students to individually choose one kind of
literary work of their interest. In this context, the teacher will choose short
story writing as an aspect to cover.
After guiding students that they are going to learn how to write short
stories, the teacher can now demonstrate how short stories are composed by
using various techniques or by giving out the texts on various stories.
The teacher asks students to read the story or stories and guide them to
choose the topic of their interest and list down general ideas about the topic.
For example, if the students have chosen to write short stories on the topic "Life in the Jungle", then the
teacher can guide them to list down the main ideas such as:
- Bush life
- Adventure
- Forest
- Wild animals
- Research in the jungle
- being lost in the jungle
- etc.
Activity Three: Showing students how models like that of a teacher can be applied by
them. Here students need to be guided on how to use given expressions,
structures, vocabulary, and phrases or similar ones.
In this activity: After choosing their topic of interest to write their short stories, the
teacher guide the students to draft short stories on their own, edit, and with
the teacher's support with ideas, style and vocabulary complete their work.
Give students the considerable time. They can do it individually and as
an assignment. Give them the guidelines such as:
- Word count. Number of words per story.
- Good and catchy title.
- Vivid settings of the story.
- Realistic characters.
-and others.
After writing, students have to be guided by the teacher to support one
another in checking spelling and grammar from dictionaries and grammar books.
To make it simpler, the teacher can ask students to exchange their works.
Activity Four: Taking/leading students to the real situations or contexts where they
can apply what they have mastered. Here speaking, reading or writing activities
are involved.
In this activity, the last activity after making corrections, the students are guided by
the teacher to read each other's work of art. On his own time, the teacher will
go through students' works and choose the best works for demonstration in the
class or class noticeboards.
Activity Five: Winding up the topic/lesson.
Here teachers summarise the topic/lesson by emphasizing the importance of the
sub topic/lesson and suggesting other related aspects of the sub topic/lesson.
Additional Activity: As a teacher, what other activity can be applied in this sub
topic/lesson? You can always drop your alternative activity or activities to
this article so as to improve teaching and learning of ‘O’
Level English (OLE).
GRAMMAR PRACTICE:
For more practices on how to teach this sub topic, check the following
articles:
For Writing stages: brainstorm, draft, revise/edit,
write final draft, check out Writing narrative
compositions/essays (not less than 200 words) Part 1.
REFLECTION
Our life is made successful with writing. We can't say other language
skills are not important. No, but they are perfected by writing just as writing
is perfected by other language skills.
Ask students how they can get creative works at home or at school.
Actually, some students will say they get them from their parents or
grandparents or others. At school, they will say they get them from teachers,
friends and from the History subject. This is how past events are experienced
in the real life.
ASSESSMENT
A teacher should design an evaluation for students by using appropriate
assessment tools like oral questions or assignments so that to see if the
students are able to write a work of art using literary devices and skills.
ASSESSMENTS
Assessment #01: Group work
Ask students to groups themselves or guide their groupings. Then ask
them to browse any English newspaper. Each group should write a story of not
less than 250 words basing on any topic they are interested with in the
particular newspaper.
Assessment #02: Pair works
In pairs, ask students to browse any English newspaper or magazine. The
first member of the pair should pick any topic and gives another. The second
member of the pair should do the same. Then each one should write a story about
that particular topic. After finishing, they should exchange these stories and
make corrections for themselves. The final step is each pair to present one
story to the class.
Assessment #03: Individual work.
Individual test. Finally ask students to write their own stories
individually. These stories should be marked by the teacher and the best
stories will be published on the school newspaper or on the school noticeboard.
Note: You can give
students more individual works, pair works, and group works to facilitate their
interaction and understanding of the sub topic or lesson. As English language
teacher you have to give students more works to do. Because language is meant
to be largely spoken and written, the teacher should rely on written exercises
and notes. Instead students have to learn English language by vigorously
exercising individually, in pairs, and in groups.
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
Writing is a productive skill. After learning all four language skills
during teaching and learning processes, finally the students will have to sit
down and write the final exams. This highlights that writing is the necessary
skill if a student really wants to excel in the final examinations. A teacher
should emphasize this skill just he/she emphasize other language skills.
NOTE: These stages
explained above are not necessarily covered in a single lesson of single or
double period. Remember that this is the guide for teaching the whole sub topic
which has periods ranging from 6 to 20. So, the teacher's task is to divide
these stages according to the total number of periods for a particular sub
topic.
WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?
This article is about how to study and teach "Creative Writing" in Form Four.
As a student or teacher, what is your opinion on how to study and teach this
sub topic/lesson?
Your opinion is worth and I believe that it can make
these materials better for our own consumption.
You are Welcome!