Direction for Teachers of Creative Writing

(continued from page 5)

by Dan Lukiv

I, too, had an experience in school, in grade seven, in which our teacher read fiction aloud, and that experience, like Arthur's, encouraged me to become a writer. Jack Hodgins (1993) also had a somewhat similar experience. The Ministry says "the learning environment should...foster enjoyment of language in all its aspects" (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, p. 2). For Arthur, his being read to fostered such enjoyment. The Ministry's (1992) Primary Program: Resource Document says, "Resource implications emphasize...reading to children" (p. 182).

Because of the flowing nature of being read to, generally an uninterrupted flow of words, Theme Two relates to Theme Three.

Theme Three. Arthur was encouraged to become a creative writer through events in school that promoted the wonder of uninterrupted language experiences. These experiences allowed him to consider his own thoughts and feelings without having to step out of his considerations to answer teachers' questions. For Arthur, these experiences were definitely beneficial and encouraging. The Ministry (1996a, 1996b, 1996c) does refer to many videos--plays and movies--and to much reading material that could serve as excellent resources for uninterrupted language experiences.

Arthur said, "The very first experience I had was a film, and it was in grade one, and I was five years old, and it was a film about a milkman. [Laughs.] And I was intrigued by the images on the screen, but also by the voice. I remember it almost seemed like one of those CBC announcer's voices." When Arthur used the word intrigued, as he often did, he often implicitly referred to wonder as part of the experience. In fact, in participant review, Arthur chose the word wonder as opposed to intrigue as the emotional element of Theme Three. Wonder takes the curiosity of intrigue and adds surprise, even astonishment.

When Arthur discussed Theme Two and Theme Three with me in participant review, he agreed with me that both are related through sound-based events. But he believed that Theme Three needs its own category apart from Theme Two. Theme Three does not require any sound-based events, as in the case of uninterrupted reading events.

In grade ten he watched Romeo and Juliet during a class visit to a theatre in Vancouver, BC, and that uninterrupted event also encouraged him to become a creative writer. He revelled in the sound of the words and the imagery. These uninterrupted language experiences likely relate to flights of imagination fuelled by the connotative and imagistic value of words, but in Arthur's mind, confirmed through participant review, these flights are elements of Theme Four.

Theme Four. Events in school that promoted the intrigue and wonder of flights of imagination fuelled by the connotative and imagistic value of words encouraged Arthur to become a creative writer. Sometimes those events were simply Arthur left alone by his teacher to "daydream," to play with words in his head that a poem or story brought to his attention. He said, "[I] looked out the window, formed pictures in my head." Sometimes Arthur had been left alone by the teacher to experience intrigue over the "connotative meanings and the association with the rest of the sentence and the paragraph" that the teacher and class had been considering.

The Ministry in effect supports such events through comments such as "the learning environment should stimulate students' imaginations" (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, p. 2). Arthur's intrigue lay in the ability of those events "to arouse and hold [his] interest or curiosity" (Intrigue, 1992, p. 514), and his wonder lay in the ability of those events to create "a feeling of mingled surprise and curiosity" (Wonder, 1992, p. 1132).

Theme Five. Arthur was encouraged to become a creative writer by events in school that promoted the excitement of verbally punning and joking and of informing others about what he had read and learned. Direction related to this theme from The Ministry comes from the following: Students need "to manipulate language for...expression....[and] students should...have frequent opportunities to talk...about what they have learned...from a variety of stories, poems, essays, documents, and other media" (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, p. 3).

Arthur said, "I remember punning as early as grade...two or three...I was twisting the language to suit myself and making jokes." By grade six, he "was becoming the class clown." His sense of the ludicrous and incongruous, his "humorous use of a word in a way that suggest[ed] two or more interpretations" (Pun, 1994, p. 591), and his celebration of "the foibles and inconsistencies of human nature" (Wit and Humor, 1993, p. 217) had brought him reinforcement that he had thoroughly enjoyed, that he had found exciting. "There was great humour," he said about a senior English teacher's class. "[My teacher] encouraged humour in me. She encouraged me to say things. Because I would often say weird things and get the kids laughing." I asked, "So her validation of humour: You feel that encouraged you to become a writer?" "Yes....I think that writing involves a huge sense of humour. Humour is a sense of the world."

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