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Feature Article:
We recently received this email from Creative Writing Teacher, Dan Lukiv. The research article he refers to is presented below. Click here. Dan writes:
. . . You folks published in issue 19 a
synopsis of my first study about events in school that had encouraged one
person to become a poet. I'm doing a series of six methodologically
identical studies to explore the same phenomenon, but through the eyes
of six different participants/established writers.
I'm including Study II of VI, in case you
would like to publish it for teachers. Study II also provides elementary
and high school teachers with pratical direction about encouraging
students.
Sincerely,
Dan Lukiv
To contact Dan: lukivdan@shaw.ca
For Those Who Teach Creative
Writing--Study II of VI Dan
Lukiv
In my 2002 MEd research, I explored what events in elementary and
high school encouraged one person to become a poet. I called him Arthur,
to protect his anonymity, and this established Canadian poet provided,
through hermeneutic phenomenological interviews, eight essential themes.
A rigorous process of participant review, bracketing in bias, and peer
debriefing helped keep interviews, and analysis and interpretation of
interviews, bias free. So did field notes, a field journal, contact
summaries, memos, and a process phenomenological researcher Max van
Manen calls free imaginative variation. So did what he calls hermeneutic
objectivity and subjectivity.
As an independent researcher,
I repeated the study in mid 2003, but with another participant. To
protect his anonymity, I called his Thomas. He, too, is an established
Canadian poet, and he, too, provided themes. Although seven themes
emerged, only one, at the end of the hermeneutic phenomenological
process, stood as essential.
Some teachers may want to
extrapolate these studies' conclusions by addressing the essential
themes in their classrooms. They may hope that what encouraged these
writers or either writer may encourage another student.
Here
are Arthur's eight themes turned into nine questions: 1.
Do I provide opportunities for students to read poetry and fiction
silently? 2.
Do I provide quality oral reading of poetry and fiction in class? 3.
Do I provide class singsongs? 4.
Do I provide language experiences--movies, plays, novels, short story
and poetry collections, scripts, and electronic media--uninterrupted by
questions or other assignments? 5.
Do I provide reasonable opportunities for students to daydream, to enjoy
flights of imagination fuelled by the connotative and imagistic value of
words? 6.
Do I provide reasonable opportunities for students to pun and joke and
verbally inform others about what they have learned? 7.
Do I passionately discuss with students thoughts and feelings based on
poetry and fiction texts read in class, and do I openly value their
attempts to write down those thoughts and feelings? 8.
Do I provide opportunities for students to explore literature through
freedom of choice? 9.
Do I compassionately provide sound direction about how to write well? (Reprinted
from Teachers.Net Gazette, which published an abbreviated version
of my research in 2003 [April]; the complete study resides in the
Geoffrey R. Weller Library at UNBC: LB1575.8.L85) Here
is Thomas' single theme turned into three questions: 1.
Do I demand, from a humanistic point of view, the best from students? 2.
Do I value, love, see each student as sublimely unique? 3.
Do I encourage students to be the best that they can be, no matter what
their gifts or deficits are? Notice
the focus on demand in "1" and encourage in
"3."
You may wonder how these
questions relate to a teacher trying to encourage students to become
creative writers. Perhaps Thomas' theme, stated, will help: One
teacher (English 9, 10, and 11) who demanded the best of Thomas as a
human being, and who more than valued, but loved, saw Thomas as a
unique person, encouraged him to be the best that he could be,
and since he had always, going back as far he can remember, wanted to
write, that encouragement translated into his wanting to be the best
writer that he could be. The fact that she was a high school English
teacher is not relevant. If she had been a math teacher, he feels the
effect would have been the same. Her interest in him, her demanding
nature, and her more than just valuing Thomas as a
person made such a deep impression on him that to this day his memories
of her classes remain a source of joy and motivation. From this
theme, then, came three statements that I confirmed with Thomas through
participant review: 1) Demand, from a humanistic point of view, the best
from students; 2) Value, love, see each student as sublimely
unique; and 3) Encourage students to be the best that they can be, no
matter what their gifts or deficits are.
Through further participant
review, Thomas agreed with the following: 4.
Application of "1," "2," and "3" may
encourage a student with creative writing ability or interest to become
a poet, novelist, or dramatist; 5.
Application of "1," "2," and "3" may
encourage a student with any ability or interest to develop that ability
or pursue that interest; and 6.
Application of "1," "2," and "3" may
encourage students to develop positive, lifelong-learning habits. (Academic
Exchange Extra will publish the entire study in its February 2004
issue)
Thomas' theme, you might say, has broader direction for teachers
than Arthur's eight. I plan to repeat this study four more times with
four new participants, to add direction for teachers. I'm excited about
what new direction will emerge! I plan, after completing Study VI, to
use grounded theory direction to gather all the themes in the six
studies into a covering theory that will direct teachers who want to
encourage some students to become creative writers. After I complete
that grounded theory study, I plan to survey established writers to see
if the theory rings true with regard to their experiences in school.
For now, teachers can address
Arthur's and Thomas' themes by personally answering the questions in
this article. Both studies don't offer generalizations for teachers to
use, but they do offer teachers an opportunity to extrapolate the
findings in their classrooms. In short, if certain events or conditions
encouraged Arthur and Thomas, perhaps the same or some of the same
events or conditions may encourage others. These others may become the
new poets, fiction writers, and dramatists of tomorrow.
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Classroom Music Resource
now available:
Recently Mentor's Fred Maybee published a super classroom resource called "Song Writing: A Classroom Approach". It is availabe at www.classroomresources.com by clicking on Fine Arts and then Music. It is published by Pacific Edge Publishing and is a resource that may be of particular interest to music teachers. Please contact the author for more details at fred@baylite.ca Here is what the publisher
has to say about Song Writing: A Classroom Approach
Table of Contents 1. Preface
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ZOOM is a sister publication of Mentor and the publisher would like to invite your students to write an article. ZOOM is primarily for subscribers in the Truro area but stories from all across Nova Scotia are appropriate. We are looking for articles about local volunteers (perhaps your playground at school, a youth group organizer, a parent, band coordinator, or cub leader), and young stars (award winning vocalist, a young athlete, an entertainer in your school, or an all-round exceptional student). For more details please go to http://www.baylite.ca/zoom/zsubmit.html. To subscribe to zoom go to http://www.baylite.ca/zoom/zsubadd.html |
A Mentor Network
Many teachers have asked us about our readership. How many subscribers are there? Who subscribes? What are they interested in? Each issue of Mentor goes to about 400 readers, most of them teachers, representing all teaching levels and all subject areas. In order to provide more detail about who reads Mentor, we invite you to add your name to the Mentor Network which will soon be available on-line for your viewing. This network is a list of teachers, their interests, questions, and concerns. Fill out the form in issue 18 of Mentor and add your name to the network. Supply only the information you feel is relevant. Then return to the Mentor Network page to watch it grow. Find other teachers in your subject area or grade level, with similar interests. Arrange to share materials. Do a teacher exchange. Search for pen pals. Or just pose a question. |
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