Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Series - Teaching Creativity and Creative Teaching: Using Creative Writing Assignments Across the Disciplines
Wednesday, March 18, 11:45-1:15 in BC 142
Jenny Dunning, English and 2008-09 CILA Associate; Karen Achberger, German; Peder Jothen, Religion; Sharon Powell, Social Work and Family Studies; Marc Robinson, Russian Language and Area Studies
(co-sponsor: Writing Program)
Jenny Dunning and members of the “Creative Writing across the Curriculum” CILA Learning Community will share their insights about the potential benefits of using creative writing assignments across the curriculum. The group has been engaged in discussions ranging from what creative writing assignments can bring to other disciplines to the role of narrative itself in those disciplines. Their explorations have involved not only practice but theory, particularly their growing understanding of “writing-to-learn” strategies, and the value of offering students both “high stakes” and “low stakes” assignments. They will share examples of successful assignments, and talk about how grading creative writing assignments can be made easier by structuring them as “low stakes” tasks, or by constructing them as a sequence. They will provide handouts.
Jenny will also talk about her own scholarship of teaching and learning project, which involves the design and assessment of a different approach to teaching creative writing that will be implemented in the new course “Fundamentals of Creative Writing” (English 150). She will reflect on what it means to teach the “practice of creativity” in the creative writing classroom and share her ideas for using introductory student writing portfolios to assess the effects of this changed approach on student learning.
Suggested readings:
- Peter Elbow, “High Stakes and Low Stakes in Assigning and Responding to Writing,” New Directions For Teaching and Learning, no. 69, Spring 1997 © Jossey-Bass Publishers. Pp. 5-13.
- Patricia A. Connor-Greene, Catherine Mobley, Catherine E. Paul, Jerry A. Waldvogel, and Art Young, editors, Teaching and Learning Creatively: Inspirations and Reflections, Parlor Press.
- Art Young, Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Chapter 2.
