语言教学 | 普渡大学写作教学系列Teacher&Tutor Resource27-Writing Instructor(27)

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13.Teaching Resources

（9）Activities for Remote Creative Writing Classrooms

While remote instruction allows instruction to continue in situations where in-person meetings are impossible, some aspects of in-person instruction are difficult or impossible to replicate. Thus, ideally, exercises in asynchronous or remote creative writing classes should not aim to produce completed creative work, nor should they attempt to recreate every component of an in-person class. Rather, they should prompt students to generate ideas that can later be built upon to produce more fully realized art.

Thus, the following prompts are general writing exercises designed to spur creative writing output, but not necessarily to replace major course projects. These projects can (and should) be tweaked as necessary to fit your course. You might, for instance, modify them to make them specific to the texts used in your course, or you might modify them to fit certain genres of interest.

Write a scene with two characters in which each character’s perspective is explored.

• First write the scene from the perspective of one character, then write the scene from the perspective of the other. Exploring the same scene and the same sequence of events from multiple points of view allows writers to gain a greater understanding of the things that make two characters different (and, by extension, the two characters themselves).

• While this exercise usually involves two characters from a student writer's own work, it's also possible to modify the exercise to have students re-write a scene in an existing work from a different character's point of view.

Imitate the writing style of a favorite author.

• A classc exercise. This activity can help students practice their ability to write with a distinct voice as well as begin to understand what goes in to making a given authorial voice “unique.” These considerations can help students start to develop their own voice as well.

• If students do not have their own stories to use for this exercise, you might consider providing an excerpt from a well-known story for your students to rewrite in another author's style.

Describe a conventional object in a non-conventional way.

• In this activity, students must write a passage describing an everyday object without using any of the vocabulary ordinarily used to describe it. Given how many objects that can be chosen and how many restrictions you can impose on students' responses, there are virtually infinite variations of this project.
  

• Here is an example of how this project might proceed. First, think of a common object (e.g., an apple). Now, think of three adjectives that describe that object (e.g., red, juicy, and round). Finally, free-write a description of that object without using any of the three adjectives initially used to describe that object.

• Note that this can student responses can be either prose or poetry.

Experiment with using unusual sentence structures in writing.

• Having students write under unusual grammatical constraints can help them become more flexible writers. This is another endlessly customizable activity, though some choices will probably be more generative than others.

• For example, you might have students write a short, 500-word scene using only simple sentences containing a single clause. Then, you could have them write the same scene using only compound sentences. Afterward, you could have students reflect on how the rhythm and musicality of the language changes when the structure of the sentences changes.

Free-write around a made-up word.

• Have students invent a completely fictitious word that sounds like it could mean something, like “Snordricioius,” for instance. Have students then write a short poem, or short scene, that uses that word. Instruct them not to define their word explicitly in their writing. Instead, they should try to make their writing connote the definition and “feel” of the word via context. 

Write two versions of a mini-fairy tale.

• First, have students write a very short story (e.g., 500 words, if even that) that begins “Once upon a time,” and ends with “And they all lived happily ever after.” Then, have students write the same story, but have it end this time with “And they all lived miserably ever after.” Instruct them to change whatever they need to in order to achieve this new ending. By reaching very different conclusions from the same starting point, students can practice modifying the key components of story structure: conflict, rising action, and so on.

• This exercise can be modified to use a variety of endings. Feel free to use a different ending than the one we've suggested here.

Take a character from a pre-existing book, movie, or television show and drop them into a haunted house.

• Students should write short (e.g., 500 word) responses to this prompt. What would this character do in this situation? Where would they go? What would their strategy? This exercise can get students to consider characters' personalities, backstories, and motivations, which are important considerations when actually creating an original character. Moreover, this exercise can illustrate how “character drives plot,” and not the other way around.

Do a memory write.

• This activity asks students to write about an aspect of a recent reading that stuck in their memory. They should write “I don’t know why I remember...” and then continue writing for fifteen minutes, or however long feels necessary. Writing about one's own memories can sometimes spark creativity in ways that students may not realize, as memory is a key impetus for creative work, regardless of genre.

（10）Discussion Forum Practices for Writing Classes

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers around the globe had to quickly find creative ways to recreate the classroom setting via online media. While the crisis did highlight the potential of cutting-edge technology for continuing educational endeavors outside of the classroom, the strengths of older, simpler options like discussion forums also became clearer. Discussion forums, which allow students to participate asynchronously (i.e., when they are free to do so) and do not require a powerful internet connection, proved especially helpful for students spread across disparate geographical areas.

This page shares some simple suggestions for using these reliable platforms to facilitate open, welcoming class discussions in remote creative writing classes. However, several of these suggestions can be implemented in other kinds of writing-focused classes (or even non-writing classes).

Require students to respond to each other’s posts

In an ideal world, students would be so engrossed in digital course discussions that they would not need any extra incentive to participate. In reality, this is rarely the case. Thus, it can be wise to make a small portion of students' grades contingent upon their regular participation in forum discussions. This ensures not only that students regularly reflect on course readings and activities via discussion, but also that students are able to learn from their peers' perspectives.

There is no single "correct" number of posts to require from students. That said, one sensible approach is to require students to create one new thread and make one reply to another student's thread per week. This way, students are forced to reflect not only on their own their own understanding of, e.g., a set of course readings, but also on others' understandings. This is also a good way to ensure a steady minimum level of discussion each week.

Have each student “present” on a key reading by writing about it at length

It’s common in writing courses for instructors to ask each student to lead a discussion of an important theme, reading, or concept at least once per semester. On a discussion forum, this assignment can be replicated in similar way to how it would be handled in-class. Simply assign each student a specific day to present on a specific theme, character, genre, etc. Instead of presenting orally, the student can write a long post in the discussion forum covering his or her main points. Prior to the first “presentation,” however, talk with the student about how best to lead peer discussions of their work. For example, you may want to direct students to provide a few discussion questions at the end of their post for their fellow classmates.

You may also consider a hybrid approach that uses the discussion forum in conjunction with other technology. For example, students can post their writeup on the discussion forum, then hold a question and answer session via a video conferencing app like Zoom. In cases like this, however, it’s important to choose technology that are freely available to all students (including those with poor internet connections) and to provide tutorials on the use of the technology when appropriate.

Use the board to build logistical redundancy into your course

Crises that force instructors to switch to online instruction—like the COVID-19 pandemic—affect students in various ways. Some students, for instance, will not ask questions of the instructor as freely as they would have in an in-person classroom. Others may check their course site for their assignments, but forget to check their email (or the reverse).

Be considerate of your students as they work to make adjustments. One way to do this is to treat your course’s discussion forum—where students will ostensibly need to go to complete their assignments—as a redundancy for important information like course announcements, assignment guides. In other words, post important messages, documents, and announcements on the board in addition to wherever you’d normally post them. One easy way to do this is to use the “sticky post” feature included with most discussion forums, which allows you to make important posts remain at the top of the board.

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