Creative WritingScot Esposito

“The principle goal of education is to create men [and women] who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done - men [and women]who are creative, inventive

and discoverers.” Jean Piaget

“Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more

interesting.” Edward de Bono

“Creativity takes courage.”

Henri Matisse

Warmers

Writing Prompts

A place you really love Swimming

Chocolate cake

An elderly person Dancing

A film that has changed your life

How you feel when you are listening to all of your

favorite songs in a row

Haiku

What’s the “kigo” in these poems? What’s the season?

A mountain villageunder the piled-up snow - the sound of water.

- Shiki Masaoka

Waterfall near meHeavy heat is all around – Insects drink my blood.-Scot Esposito

“I am . . . ” Poem

Who do I miss? What was beautiful? What hurt? Where did I play? What delighted me? What surprised me?

What do I wish they could know about me? What is the prettiest place?

What is expected of me? What are my responsibilities?

What do I deserve? Where do I hide?

What did I see that no one else saw? What do I want to be?

How have I been spoiled? What role do I play?

What is the loveliest sound?

I, Too, Sing America

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I’ll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody’ll dareSay to me,“Eat in the kitchen,”Then.

Besides,They’ll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed - -

I, too, am America. - Langston Hughes

I, Too, Sing _____________

I, too, sing _____________.

I am the ________________.They

______________________When

_____________________,But I _______________,And _________________,And _________________.

Tomorrow,I’ll _________________When ____________________.Nobody’ll dareSay to me,“__________________,”Then.

Besides,They’ll _________________And be __________________

- -

I, too, am _________________.

Character Development

Tico Feo was 18 years old and for two years had worked on a freighter in the Caribbean. As a child he’d gone to school with nuns, and he wore a gold crucifix around his neck. He had a rosary, too. The rosary he kept wrapped in a green silk scarf that also held three other treasures: a bottle of Evening in Paris cologne, a pocket mirror and a Rand McNally map of the world. These and the guitar were his only possessions, and he would not allow anyone to touch them. Perhaps he prized his map the most. At night, before the lights were turned off, he would shake out his map and show Mr. Schaeffer the places he’d been – Galveston, Miami, New Orleans, Mobile, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands – and the places he wanted to go. He wanted to go almost everywhere, especially Madrid, especially the North Pole.

Truman Capote. A Diamond Guitar in The Complete Stories of Truman Capote. 2005. Vintage Books.

- and not only then did he arrive at his real treasures, each carefully wrapped in cloth and embedded in nests of crumpled paper and shredded rags: the silk handkerchief of a pagan goddess of ancient Soghdia, given to a forgotten hero as a token of her love; a piece of exquisite scrimshaw work on whalebone depicting the hunting of a stag; a locket containing a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen; a leather-bound hexagonal book from the Holy Land, upon whose tiny pages, in miniature writing embellished with extraordinary illuminations, was the entire text of the Qur’an; a broken-nosed stone head from Macedonia, reputed to be a portrait of Alexander the Great; one cryptic ‘seals’ of the Indus Valley Civilization, found in Egypt, bearing the image of a bull and a series of hieroglyphs that had never been decoded, an object whose purpose no man knew; a flat, polished Chinese stone bearing a scarlet I Ching hexagram and dark natural markings resembling a mountain range at dusk; a painted porcelain egg; a shrunken head made by the denizens of the Amazon rain forest; and a dictionary of the lost language of the Panamanian isthmus whose speakers were all extinct except for one old woman who could no longer pronounce the words properly on account of the loss of her teeth.

Salman Rushdie. The Enchantress of Florence

Tico Feo (1) ____________ (be) 18 years old and for two years (2)____________(work) on a freighter in the Caribbean. As a child he (3)_______________ (go) to school with nuns, and he (4) _______________ (wear) a gold crucifix around his neck. He (5) __________(have) a rosary, too. The rosary he (6)_________(keep) wrapped in a green silk scarf that also (7) ________ (hold) three other treasures: a bottle of Evening in Paris cologne, a pocket mirror and a Rand McNally map of the world. These and the guitar (8)_________ (be) his only possessions, and he would not allow anyone to touch them.

Tico Feo was 18 years old and (1)____two years had worked on a freighter in the Caribbean. As a child he’d gone to school with nuns, and he wore a gold crucifix (2)_____ his neck. He had a rosary, too. The rosary he kept wrapped in a green silk scarf that also held three (3)______ treasures: a bottle of Evening in Paris cologne, a pocket mirror and a Rand McNally map of the world. These and the guitar were his only possessions, and he (4)______ not allow anyone to touch them.

The girl stooped as she came out of the cave carrying the big iron cooking platter and Robert Jordan saw her face turned at an angle and at the same time saw the strange thing about her. She smiled and said, “Hola, Comrade,” and Robert Jordan said, “Salud,” and was careful not to stare and not to look away. She set down the flat iron platter in front of him and he noticed her handsome brown hands. Now she looked him full in the face and smiled. Her teeth were white in her brown face and her skin and her eyes were the same golden tawny brown. She had high cheekbones, merry eyes and a straight mouth with full lips. Her hair was the golden brown of a grain field that has been burned dark in the sun but it was cut short all over her head so that it was but little longer that the fur on a beaver pelt. She smiled in Jordan´s face and put her brown hand up and ran it over her head, flattening the hair which rose again as her hand passed. She has a beautiful face, Robert Jordan thought. She´d be beautiful if they hadn´t cropped her hair.

Ernest Hemingway. For Whom the Bell Tolls

Cadavre Exquis

• David could not believe what he saw when he opened the door. (Dec 2006)

• Mark opened the envelope, read the letter and immediately started to pack his bag. (Dec 2008)

• Helen was very surprised when she met her neighbor for the first time. (June 2007)

• Tina was very excited when she heard she had won the prize. (June 2005)

• As soon as Steve saw the guitar in the shop window, he knew he had to have it. (Dec 2004)

• When I arrived at the party, I knew immediately that something was wrong. (Dec 2002)

• Michael closed the door and knew at that moment he had made a mistake. (Dec 2001)

(All examples from FCE past papers. UCLES.)

http://www.burtonstory.com/connect.php

The Five Senses

The Five Senses

Sight

Touch

Smell

Hearing

Taste

In the period of which we speak, there reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable to us modern men and women. The streets stank of manure, the courtyards of urine, the stairwells stank of mouldering wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlours stank of stale dust, the bedrooms of greasy sheets, damp featherbeds, and the pungently sweet aroma of chamber-pots. The stench of sulphur rose from the chimneys, the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneries, and from the slaughterhouses came the stench of congealed blood. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth, from their bellies that of onions, and from their bodies, if they were no longer very young, came the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and tumurous disease. The rivers stank, the marketplaces stank, the churches stank, it stank beneath the bridges and in the palaces.

Sight Smell Touch Taste Hearing

Nouns

Verbs

Adjs.

Color poem

(selected color) is ....

(selected color) is ....

(selected color) is ....

(selected color) is ....

(selected color) tastes like ....

(selected color) smells like ....

(selected color) sounds like....

(selected color) feels like ....

(selected color) looks like ....

(selected color) makes me ....

(selected color) is ....

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson375/PoemTemplates.pdf

Silver is sultry.

Silver tastes like a privileged spoon.

Silver smells like a fancy banquet.

Silver sounds like the tin tin tin of an old banjo.

Silver feels frigid and frying.

Silver looks ancient.

Silver makes me inquisitive.

Silver is Dior.

Silver is shiny.

Silver is never a bore.

Silver is not gold.

-Scot Esposito

• Creativity is not something you are born with. It is a skill that we can all learn, and it is the teacher´s responsibility to foster it.

• Teachers should fully participate and actively share in all activities.

• Before starting an activity, let students know if they are going to have to share what they write or not.

• Teachers must appear enthusiastic and remain supportive at all times.

• If students are having trouble with a lack of vocabulary, tell them not to worry and they can write words they don´t know in L1 and later use a bilingual dictionary (or the teacher) to find the English translation. Spontaneity is the key here.

• Use and exploit short texts from real English literature. Talk about writers who write in English.

• Talk about writers and literature that students are studying at school in L1.

• Teaching creativity is also teaching a life skill - it has implications for teens far beyond the EFL classroom.

sesposito@bcn.ihes.com