![]() In preparing an exhibition on publishing companies for UVic's Maltwood Gallery last fall, I came across a program called 826 Valencia run by the folks at McSweeney's. The not-for-profit organizes creative writing workshops across the US to encourage literacy and self-efficacy in under-resourced students. From what I hear, it seems to be doing extremely well... so I guess it was only time until someone in Canada took up the torch. Here in Victoria, an organization called Story Studio, inspired by 826 Valencia, has been in operation since 2012 and has gained such popularity in schools that their yearly docket of workshops fills up immediately. Does that mean schools aren't providing enough opportunities for students to express their creativity? Or simply that teachers are always eager for an extra set of hands when it comes to classroom activities? The Story Studio Writing Society began in 2012 with a hope to bring creativity and confidence into children’s lives by giving them the tools to tell stories of their own, in their own words and with their own illustrations. The aim was to remove boundaries and allow children to lead their stories wherever they wanted. I'll be writing more about Story Studio later, as I'm volunteering with them as part of my Passion Project. Given the time I've been spending in classrooms and with assignments of my own recently, however, I wanted to get some thoughts down about the roles of creation in classes. Have publishing groups like the ones listed here become popular because creative writing is not a central skill in schools? By that I mean that my school English experience was limited mostly to critical writing--essays, speeches, synthesis pieces or whatever they're called these days. I remember authoring the occasional and quickly discarded poem, but no short stories or opinion pieces. When I was asked to be creative, it meant "come up with a new way of reading this canonical work." Those lessons were undeniably helpful with critical thinking, communication, and a few other must-be-ticked boxes in the curriculum, but were they fun? Fulfilling? Personal? I think if you asked a group of students today, many of them would say "no."
Or would they? I think creative writing is a skill people perceive to be innate and thus only possessed by a few. When you ask an adult or high-school student to write a story, I'm guessing their likely answer will be "about what?" There's a lack of... initiative? or maybe a simple lack of ideas. If you ask the same thing of a 7 year-old though, I bet you'd get an earful. Does that mean we school creativity out of our students? By teaching them to respond rather than create and placing importance on non-fiction writing and the canon, do we inadvertently snub the ability to write creatively? If so, then it seems like something easily fixed. Wonderfully, it's also being included in the new BC curriculum (though as a separate and optional elective). UVic Students for Literacy is another group that works one-on-one with students to aid them with reading skills. In my time as an SfL volunteer, I sometimes assisted students with book reports or simply listened to them read to me. I also gained feedback from teachers that even the 10 minutes a week I spent with students dramatically increased their confidence reading overall. When learning to read, I remember my Grade 1 teacher telling me to read aloud to the dog, the cat, the toilet, or anything that'd listen just so I could get the practice. That skill is not something I kept polished, however, because it seems like oratory in older grades is limited to reading a speech or couple presentations a year. Just as creative writing is pushed out of the spotlight in the older grades, simple storytelling is overlooked for a focus on more buisness-like presentations. Yet that switch seems to me to coincide with increased presentation butterflies... I've dumped a lot of thoughts down here and have much more in this area that I'd like to research, but I'll leave off for now to let these questions settle in a bit. Be creative and prosper.
2 Comments
Paul Bennett
10/4/2016 08:36:09 pm
Do yoy remember Molly Mop and Billy Broom at Lake Edith?
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Sarah
10/6/2016 12:11:59 pm
Of course! Thanks for starting the storytelling so early.
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