Belly up to the Pond: Teaching Teachers Creative Nonfiction in an Online Class (original) (raw)
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A Compositionist Teaches Creative Nonfiction
The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado eBooks, 2023
The Practices & Possibilities Series addresses the full range of practices within the field of Writing Studies, including teaching, learning, research, and theory. From Richard E. Young's taxonomy of "small genres" to Patricia Freitag Ericsson's edited collection on sexual harassment in the academy to Jessie Borgman and Casey McArdle's considerations of teaching online, the books in this series explore issues and ideas of interest to writers, teachers, researchers, and theorists who share an interest in improving existing practices and exploring new possibilities. The series includes both original and republished books. Works in the series are organized topically. The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado are collaborating so that these books will be widely available through free digital distribution and low-cost print editions. The publishers and the series editors are committed to the principle that knowledge should freely circulate and have embraced the use of technology to support open access to scholarly work.
Relief: Observations on Creative Nonfiction as Pedagogy
LEARNing Landscapes, 2019
"Relief: Observations on Creative Nonfiction as Pedagogy" offers a case study in the possibilities of using creative writing as a pedagogical tool with ESL students. Analyzing the experience, comments, and creative work of a Chinese nursing student named Wei Wan at Ryerson University, the essay explores the benefits of personal writing and peer workshops as tools for self-exploration, aesthetic appreciation, and confidence building. While urging teachers to see the advantages of this methodology, the paper also reflects on the literary values of creative work in hybrid, non-standard English forms. As a teacher of literature and occasionally creative writing at Cape Breton University (a small institution with a traditionally homogenous, English-speaking, population), I hadn't given much thought to the possibilities of creative writing and second-language learning. That changed this past summer when I had the opportunity to teach a class at Ryerson University, a large, urban institution in downtown Toronto with an ethnically diverse student body including many new immigrants. Since this creative writing course was classified as a "liberal arts elective," one that could be counted for credit by students in almost any program, the class attracted a diverse group from a wide range of majors. While I didn't design the class for "second-language learning" as such, it turned out that some of the students who benefitted most from the class had chosen it with exactly this goal in mind. This essay explores the experience, comments, and creative work of one such student, a Chinese nursing student named Wei Wan, whose writing I'd like to consider as a case study in the possibilities of using creative writing, particularly creative nonfiction, as a pedagogical tool. Wei Wan produced two remarkable personal essays, one of which is reproduced below. After the course was completed, I asked her to share some of her thoughts and recollections about the class. I think Wei Wan's writing is illustrative in two ways: first, her experience and comments attest to the potentially transformative powers of writing and creative workshops as tools for self-exploration, aesthetic appreciation, and confidence building. Second, her final pieces (particularly before they were subjected to rigorous "correction" for syntax and grammar) reveal the stylistic nuance possible in a hybrid English that educators may be too quick to correct out of existence. Here Wei Wan reflects on choosing the course and her experience of the first few classes: This past spring, I needed to choose an elective. Since English is my second language, writing is really painful. I enjoy writing in my native language but transferring that to English is very difficult. Therefore, I wanted a course that would improve my English skills and be interesting at the same
Chapter 6. A Compositionist Teaches Creative Nonfiction
Nonfiction, The Teaching of Writing, and the Influence of Richard Lloyd-Jones, 2023
A few years ago, the M.F.A. and undergraduate creative writing programs unexpectedly left my English department, joining theater and several other programs in a new School of the Arts. The decision to leave was negotiated secretly with the president's office and stunned most department members. Among them were the rhetoric and composition faculty-myself included-who had for years staffed the creative nonfiction offerings, including the introductory undergraduate course and the graduate M.F.A. workshop. The graduate course would surely leave with the M.F.A. But what about the undergraduate class? Introduction to Creative Nonfiction was originally conceived by the rhetoric and composition faculty, who also taught-and cherished-the course. Unsurprisingly, the creative writing faculty argued that English 204 was a "creative" writing course, and therefore belonged with them as part of their new undergraduate curriculum.
The "lived-in" moment: the aesthetic potential of nonfiction literature in a third grade classroom
2016
Nonfiction: texts whose main function is to "communicate information and durable factual content" (Duke, 2000, p. 205). This includes both texts that would be considered literature in the field of children's literature (e.g., picture book biographies, nonfiction children's trade book focused on science, math, etc.) and those that would be considered nonliterary (e.g., dictionaries, encyclopedias, manuals, news articles, textbooks, etc.) Nonfiction literature: texts that meet the definition for nonfiction, but also include elements that lend an artistic or literary quality to the text. Format: speaks to the arrangement or plan of the text, I use this term to refer to the format (e.g., picturebook, longer illustrated book, etc.) of the text. Structure: speaks to the arrangement of the text in the literature (e.g., narrative or expository) of the text. Structures of nonfiction texts Nonfiction picturebook: a nonfiction text that is around 32-48 pages in length, "in which the story depends on the interaction between written text and images." (Arizpe & Styles, 2003, p. 22) Nonfiction illustrated book: a longer nonfiction picturebook that includes a large amount of text and for which the illustrations support the content, but are not integral to content being shared. In a nonfiction illustrated book, the text can stand alone. Non-or minimally-illustrated longer nonfiction text [parallel to the fictional novel]: a nonfiction text that communicates the information using texts; images (if included) are marginal. Autobiography: narrative nonfiction texts that are accounts of the author's life. Memoir: narrative nonfiction texts that are accounts of the author's life. These texts focus on the way the author remembers events and emotions rather than on the facts. Memoirs tend to focus on memories about a specific event or time frame of the author's life. Narrative nonfiction histories: narrative nonfiction texts that communicate histories of people, places, and events in a narrative style.
Redefining Preparation: The Need for Creative Nonfiction in High School
The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado eBooks, 2023
The Practices & Possibilities Series addresses the full range of practices within the field of Writing Studies, including teaching, learning, research, and theory. From Richard E. Young's taxonomy of "small genres" to Patricia Freitag Ericsson's edited collection on sexual harassment in the academy to Jessie Borgman and Casey McArdle's considerations of teaching online, the books in this series explore issues and ideas of interest to writers, teachers, researchers, and theorists who share an interest in improving existing practices and exploring new possibilities. The series includes both original and republished books. Works in the series are organized topically. The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado are collaborating so that these books will be widely available through free digital distribution and low-cost print editions. The publishers and the series editors are committed to the principle that knowledge should freely circulate and have embraced the use of technology to support open access to scholarly work.
ENG 4761-001: Creative Nonfiction Writing
2006
Requirements will include a brief (2 week) journal, a well-prepared 20-minute presentation on a published essay of your choice, two medium-length essays, and a longer project that will entail some form of research. Workshop sessions will be cordial but intense, with everyone getting at least two chances to submit polished pieces for group attention. Be ready to write lots and lots, to revise obsessively, to speak your mind, to think energetically about the philosophical dimensions of your personal experience. (Old curriculum Group 6, new curriculum Group 1 or 5.