Personal Writing

TheEscapist

I'm teaching first and second years personal writing but it's been a struggle to engage them so far. Have a further 14 classes with the first years and 7 with the second years and not really sure about the topic besides setting questions and going through the text books. Any ideas?

eager tortoise

If I am covering essay writing, I begin by getting them to write paragraphs. Then, we choose an essay title and brainstorm ideas. Four might be sufficient. Then I get them to write a paragraph for each point expanding on it and giving details and that is an essay...at least for 1st years it gives them a sense of the shape and structure of an essay. Later you can advance to introductions and conclusions! Keep on topics they have an interest in: Pet/Sports/Computer related titles go down well with my lot.

For short story writing, ask them what stories they know and what they think makes a good story. Brainstorm a list of features with them. Ask them about books/films etc that they know and ask them why these stories are good. They'll say things like characters, action, good ending. Get them to plan a story before they write - beginning, middle and end. I place a great emphasis in my classes on verb tenses - I get them to stick to the past tense, to keep things simple. I also introduce them to first and third person p.o.v. and get them to do stories using both.

I did some work this week with first years on making their writing more vivid. I told them about the 'show, don't tell' idea that you read about in a lot of creative writing books. I gave them simple sentences (e.g. The man went in and robbed the bank) and asked them to turn it into a few, detailed sentences that would give me a better image in my head. They wrote great things about men in balaclavas and stolen BMWs and squealing tyres...You get the picture It was a nice exercise.

I often think visuals are a great stimulus instead of just giving a title. I put up a picture on the projector of a boy sitting outside an office and got the kids to tell me why he was there, how was he feeling etc. After discussion they started writing. Then we read the stories as a group and made suggestions as to how the stories could be improved (made more realistic/detailled/interesting etc.) The students then had to edit and re-draft. I sometimes get them to write/type their essays on A4 and design a cover to go with it. They tend to like that part

Just a few ideas that come to mind! It's a massive topic and there's lots you can do with it

TheEscapist

Thanks so much for that.