Creative Writing Final Assignment/Interactive Art and Narrative Part 1

For my final creative writing project, I have designed a four class lesson plan and assignment for my intermediate students enrolled in a Freshman English Reading/Writing course at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul, Korea. There are app. 36 students each semester. This assignment combines the use of descriptive writing techniques, visual and literary analysis with various digital tools. The pedagogical approach underlying this lesson is a combination of the experiential, cognitive and constructivist schools of thought. The teaching methodology will be primarily based on student pair and group collaborative tasks.  However, in this initial blog I am going to detail some of the ways I want to engage my students in the use of imagination, the art of creative writing, provide brief examples of activities and an outline of the final digital artifact. (In the following blog I’m going to present a rationale for this lesson plan that will explain more details about teaching methods and design issues.)

To begin with, Sungshin Women’s university has spent a lot of time (and money) embellishing the hallways and campus with a great deal of art, both paintings and sculptures.

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In particular, we have a spiral walkway that extends eight floors with app.50 paintings placed throughout and ending up at an actual gallery containing several more art works on the bottom floor. All the art has been created by local Korean artists and/or past students. Here are a few examples.

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This art is generally seen as superfluous and ornamental and yet hundreds of students walking past it daily on their way to class throughout the term. In brief, my lesson is about having students, in groups of five or six, bring these works of art to life by combining creative writing skills with technology to transform them into collaborative digital artifacts.

 

As a mentioned above the class I teach is a Reading/writing class which is centered on the composition of various types of paragraphs (Opinion, Process, Descriptive, Narrative) and includes an intensive reading/literary analysis component in which students study various short stories in class throughout the term, so this lesson is not outside of institutional requirements. So the content and materials are can be decided by the teacher and students.

Material and Resources:

Girl with a Golden Earing (film)

The Fall of Icarus, William Carlos Williams 

Musée des Beaux Arts, W. H. Auden 

“Axolotl” (short story) Julio Cortazar

Tedtalks

Options:

Mourning Picture, Adrienne Rich

The Simpsons Episode: A Brush with Greatness

The Portrait of Dorian Grey (excerpt),

 

Technology used:

Edublogs

Popplet (mindmapping tools)

Google Docs

Padlet

Thinglink

 

The Lesson Plan: 
Outcomes for this assignment are as follows:

• Students identify and describe basic painting layout.
• Students discover ways of engaging with art works from exemplars.
• Students will compare different ways a painting can be interpreted.
• Students do a literary analysis of short story in groups.
• Students learn to use digital tools to write a collaborative story.
• Aims:
• To develop their critical thinking skills
• To enhance their awareness of digital tools
• To enhance their collaborative ability
• To improve their English writing skills

1^st Class

Starter: Ss will be given the following 2 pictures and then take turns describing and sketching the pictures to one another without revealing the picture.

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Teacher elicits context. Van Gogh's view from the asylum in.

 

1. Ss watch Tedtalks to help them critically analyze the contents of a painting.

How Art can Help you Analyze

 

2. Ss will do a Listening activity with Nat King Coles song “Mona Lisa”.

Ss analyze lyrics

3. Ss view Bruegel "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" and suggest interpretations then Ss will read separate poems to one another “The Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams and “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden. Ss compare and contrast poems.

4. Ss describe the following two still life paintings to one another and find the connection (the 5 senses) Students will then review how the five senses are used in Descriptive Writing. Ss  find example in last 2 poems. (They will already be familiar with techniques from previous writing task in our textbook.)  

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5. Reading Activity: Ss predict plot of “Axototl” with the following painting.

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Ss do literary analysis of story in reading circles with each member performing a different role. (Confusion Collector: collects all the immediate visceral responses, impressions, queries, Verb Finder: collects new and interesting verbs, Discussion director, Adjective finder: collects new adjectives, similes, metaphors, Connector: finds connections with world outside the classroom TV, contemporary events, etc) Class discussion.

6. Ss nominate groups. Ss move to Art Gallery area. Ss collectively choose a painting to use for their assignment.

Ss brainstorm, jot down impressions, capture a digital image, and consider ways of interpreting the painting using techniques from earlier in lesson.  

7. The class will then move into blended format and students will continue the task online. Students will create a morphology grind on Google doc before next class for Formative online assessment. The groups will be divided into pairs A, B, C (in the case of uneven numbers, a stronger student will work alone). Pair A will begin the story on Edublog from the morphology grid and complete it within 2 days and then it will be passed on to Pair B, who will provide feedback on blogs and then on to Pair C.

(Ss will be provided with a handout with useful expression for giving feedback and watch the following video and answer a set comprehension to compliment it.)

Constructive Peer Feedback

 

2^nd class

1. Ss come to next class with a completed first draft of a story that will be assessed by another group and the instructor in terms of point of view, character,  openings and conclusions, grammar.  In class we will continue with our analysis of "Axototl" and focus on openings and beginnings and Ss will do various activities comparing how stories open and descriptive techniques from school textbook. 

2. Ss view following Tedtalks and answer comprehension questions on handout.

Finding the Story Inside the Painting

3. Ss will also be given an assignment to watch the film “Girl with a Golden Earing” and complete a Comprehension questions and do analysis of the film in a View Circle similar to the reading Circle we used with the text. And post comments and on Padlet.

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4. Online: Ss return to open story composition on edublogs 2 days for each pair, online feedback from the teacher and return to class. This will all culminate, after 3 rounds of feedback sessions, when students embed their narrative into Thinglink and present their final story. The groups and instructor will then assess the stories with a rubric.

  

References for Images
 

Image #1: By author

Image #5: retrieved from http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2015/07/29/a-van-gogh-pilgrimage-on-the-125th-anniversary-of-his-death

Image#6:Nunn, R Retrieved from http://www.robnunnphoto.com/posts/2008/8/2/what-to-shoot-different-genres-styles-and-ideas.html

Image#7: Baugin,L Still-life with Chessboard (The Five Senses) retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lubin_Baugin_-_Still-life_with_Chessboard_(The_Five_Senses)_-_WGA01515.jpg

Image#8: Jones, Z (2006) retrieved from http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/historietas-chiclosas-axolotl-cortazar-los-beatles/

Image#9: (2015) Retrieved from http://hakobapeb.kora-line.net/the-girl-with-the-pearl-earring-movie-online.html