My students and creativity

My students this semester have been particularly awesome. I don't know whether it's because it's the spring semester and I have a better attitude all around, or because I enjoy the content of my classes more, or what--but these kids are great.

My co-worker William and I are both teaching a writing class, and we've been focusing on creative writing. The kids will be writing a short story in the next couple of weeks, but first we wanted to give them the tools to get started. We've talked about tone, diction, setting, and just lately we had a class on inspiration. How will the students be inspired, and how will they start their own stories? I brought a whole mess of objects and photographs to class and set up stations around the classroom. The students had to go to each object, photograph, or piece of music (I had youtube cued to The Flight of the Bumblebee) in pairs and write down a setting, character(s), and conflict based on whatever thing was at that station. Before the kids did that though, we did a practice round. I had one kid pick an object out of a paper bag, and as a class, we brainstormed.

Here are some winners:

Object: A Valentine's Day garland of hearts
Setting: The DMZ
Characters: A North Korean Soldier and a South Korean soldier
Conflict: The soldiers see each other every day; they stand eye to eye across the border. They begin to develop an "intimacy" for each other that cannot be explored because, well, they are soldiers from warring countries, and because you're not allowed to be gay in Korea. To show his feelings, one of the soldiers strings a garland of hearts across the fence between the two countries.
Awesome.


Object: A sparkly red heart ornament
Setting: Finland. A university.
Characters: Mimi the Professor and Freeman the Student
Conflict: Freeman has somehow come in possession of a ruby-covered heart ornament. Mimi the Professor sees this ornament (where, how, or why is unknown) and covets it. The students were vague on this one, but it seems as though Mimi the Professor wanted to sell the ornament and keep the cash. I think the best part of this story are their names.


Object: Green umbrella
Setting: Korea
Characters: Girl and Boy
Conflict: Boy spontaneously gives Girl an umbrella for no reason one day. Boy tells her to keep it with her in case of a rainy day. Girl is surprised and flattered; she assumes he must really like her. She keeps the umbrella with her as Boy told her. One day it starts to rain. She pulls out her umbrella and opens it up. Turns out the umbrella is made out of netting, and she gets soaked. Boy did not like Girl after all. In fact, Boy hated Girl.


Object: Condors Rugby tie.
Setting: Rugby field in Chicago
Characters: Gaddafi and Obama
Conflict: Gaddafi and Obama are both team captains for their country's respective rugby teams. They are playing a momentous game of rugby--the result of which starts a war.
The students did not say who won or lost the game, but regardless, war was imminent.

Once the students got past the fact that there were no right or wrong answers (which is something they are used to, expect, and sometimes crave) in terms of creativity, they came up with some great stuff. They all just started their first drafts the other day, and already I've seen robots with names like ADH-113, love stories, murder mysteries, and a character named Clodia Caraway. Clodia. Ha. How can you not love that?