Creative Writing at Explore the Arts

Some of you may remember that last summer I volunteered at the Explore the Arts camp in Greenville, SC. I was thrilled when the camp's director, Donna Shanks-Major, asked me to teach the creative writing class this year. 

I had two classes: the first one consisted of eleven 6th-8th graders who wrote and published a camp blog. After receiving instruction about Muscle Words and the Who? What? Where? and Why? of reporting, they practiced observing and taking notes in a "Paint on Canvas" class. They wrote it up, received my edits and feedback from their peers, revised, and then moved on to observing other classes running concurrently in the Fine Arts Center. I hope you take a few minutes to read our blog; I'm proud of the way in which they learned how to incorporate figurative language and specific details into their work.

Photo courtesy Joanna Henn

The second class included seven eager 4th and 5th graders who came ready to write a story. (When they introduced themselves quite a few said they'd been "writing their whole life.")  Using lesson plans from my book, Teaching the Story: Fiction Writing in Grades 4-8,  I taught them how to Create a Character, Set the Scene, and Plan a Problem. They were each anxious to start their stories--many had constructed intricate plots in their imaginations before coming to class. 

We used some of the artwork displayed on the Fine Arts Center's walls to prompt their imaginations. In this exercise, they were looking at these pictures and imagining what the story was behind each character. I asked, "Who is this person?" and "What is she feeling or thinking?"

Photo courtesy Claire Natiez

When we studied setting, I asked the students, "What could happen here? What is the mood of this picture?"

This painting

inspired this descriptive paragraph:

The tornado rushes by as howling winds blows dust into the air, and tress bend against the wind. Gritty sand rushed into his mouth every time he took a breath. There was suddenly a chill in the air as hail pounded upon him. Suddenly all he could see was darkness. When he woke up it seemed that all of his bones were aching. Jeffrey L., rising fifth grader. 

I taught them these young writers the basics of writing fiction and they taught me how to dab. 

Photo courtesy Lydia Hammond

I'm not sure who was enriched more this week!

The Art of Growing Artists- Part III

It's been a pleasure to share images from my week volunteering with Explore the Arts camp at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC. If you missed it, here are the first and second posts. Thanks to all who have left comments and vicariously enjoyed my week.

Apart from talented instructors, one of the things that amazed me was the venue for this camp: the Fine Arts Center itself. It was like attending camp in a museum with one major difference: instead of entering gallery rooms off the halls filled with glass, pottery, exotic quilts, and lithographs, students walked into fully equipped art classrooms and studios. 

Here is a peak into more of the classes:

The creative writing instructor, Laura Gerhiser Hensel, is my new friend who suggested I volunteer at the camp. During her class, upper elementary and middle school students focused on the basics of figurative language and incorporating the five senses into various writing exercises. Writing both poetry and prose, students invented new words, played with phrases, and explored synesthesia. 

Laura leads a story telling exercise:

Here is a poem Ari Carroll, a rising seventh grader at Hillcrest Middle, wrote:   

Show Stopper

I remember pancakes and doughnuts

And marathons of Saturday morning cartoons.

I remember wondering if I could ever draw that well.

Syrup, thick and slow, sliding off the counter and perfectly into the bag on the floor.

pages and pages vanquished by sugary goodness. A true killer.

I remember yellow humanoid bunnies and tuxedo-wearing demons and alien cats named Fifi.

Being excited for my first commission.

Waiting all day,

I ran upstairs after dinner.

And drew and redrew every painful frame.

I decided enough was enough, and I pressed into the paper a little too hard.

I remember the explosion, the ink everywhere, and the fun I had, letting the crazy take over.

I remember waking up on the floor too early, only to edit the frames together.

Triumphantly, I released  the animation.

Ari Carroll is an aspiring artist and writer who enjoys writing sci-fi, drawing humanoid cats, and role-playing with friends. 

***********

Upstairs, artist Yoshiko Moon taught her young students Japanese art including print making, origami, and several different ink techniques. 

Downstairs, Candice Bryant led kindergarten through third graders in musical theater. 

And while Katy Cassell, the metals instructor at the Fine Arts Center, led a teen and adult class on Printing Techniques in Enamel,

Katy demonstrates an enameling technique.

A VERY hot enameling kiln.

a few doors down, Ted Mickens showed students how to make a plaster bank, create spin art, sculpt figures from wire, and sculpt foam blocks,

Ted Mickens at work.

and Amanda Griffith taught animal portrait painting.

 



Coordinating 20 teachers, over 200 students, and 16 high school volunteers, is like juggling balls, rings, clubs, and a few fire sticks. To do that takes someone with a passion for arts education and a love for children. It takes a person like Donna Shank-Major.

During the academic year Donna teaches design at the Fine Arts Center. But for over 15 years, she has been the juggler making sure that each Explore the Arts student receives a quality experience.  

Donna is flanked by volunteer Georgia Stickler (left) and
student intern, Bonnie Campbell (right).

In 2007 Donna added classes for high school students and the following year opened them to adults. Now teachers can take a class and receive professional development points/hours toward recertification.  

Donna, along with her staff of highly qualified instructors, created an atmosphere of exploration, engagement, and collaboration which stretches and grows each participant. The result is a week of diverse art instruction which parallels Greenville itself: a city with more art, music, and drama than I have time to appreciate. 

But Explore the Arts was a good beginning.

Celebrate Poetry Month with An Abecedarian Bedtime Chronicle

When my children were young, I used to make up ABC stories for them at bedtime. Beginning with "A" I would invent a story that used every letter of the alphabet. Until I read Carole Weatherford's poem, I didn't realize that I was being an abecedarian.

In honor of Poetry Month, I am sharing Carole's poem here. She is hoping to publish this as a picture book; can't you see the pictures in your mind?

Go ahead and try writing an ABC poem or story with your students or children. You never know what you might come up with--abecedarian poems and stories Abound Beyond every Corner! And if you or your class writes one, please let me know. I might post it here!

A Bat Cave

by Carole Weatherford

Attic.

Barn.


Cave.


Darkness descends. Eerie.


Fanged, gothic,


hungry insectivores



jet,


and kite,

lunging


for mosquitoes;


millions by the moon.

These “night owls”


prey


‘til quenched,

and return to roost


by sonar.



Takeoff-ready,


upside-down,



vampire wannabes,


exhausted,



yawn.


Zzzzzzz.



©2011 Carole Boston Weatherford. All rights reserved.

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There is nothing new under the sun

The writer of Ecclesiastes (1:10) said that first, but having just finished reading Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, I must share this quote from the biographical notes. Plath wrote this about her book of poetry that was repeatedly submitted and rejected under ever-changing titles:

"Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing, which remark I guess shows I still don't have a pure motive (O it's-such-fun-I-just-can't-stop-who-cares-if-it's-published-or-read) about writing…I still want to see it finally ritualized in print."

Sigh. Doesn't that ring a bell for all of you aspiring writers out there?

If you haven't read Plath's book which is based on her own life and struggles with severe depression, I recommend it to writers, teachers, and high school students. Her language choices excel and her use of similes is stellar. "I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo" she writes, describing her life in New York City. Her vivid description of her inner turmoil gives the reader a front row seat into mental illness during a time (the 1950's) when electroconvulsiveshock treatment had become widespread.

Plath's main character's decisions to lose her virginity as well as her suicide attempts are graphic and therefore this might not be a book for everyone.

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“That’s the way it was”

Attending an all black school, worshipping at an all black church, not being served at restaurants where Caucasians ate, going to the back of the bus…these were all normal part of Madie Smith's everyday experiences growing up in Charlotte, NC in the 30's and 40's.

Last week I began my research for my young adult novel which will take place in 1951 in Charlotte by visiting some places on the African American Heritage Tour in Charlotte. Madie, a friend of my writing compatriot, Linda Phillips, agreed to join us for the day. After nosing around downtown Charlotte and seeing where buildings such as St. Michael and all Angels Episcopal Church and Good Samaritan Hospital used to be (they were torn down when the Panthers Stadium was built in the early 1990's) we headed over to the historic Cherry neighborhood. There we found Mt. Zion Lutheran Church which was erected about 1896 and continuously served as a religious center until a contractor recently bought the building. In a city that is famous for tearing down historic properties in the name of urban renewal, this was one of the first jewels we saw that day.

After lunch, we headed to the Grier Heights neighborhood. We were excited to find the Billingsville School that is now home to the Grier Heights Economic Foundation. One of the few remaining Rosenwald Schools, this school is a memorial to the philanthropy and foresight of Julius Rosenwald. Disappointed that the doors were locked, we continued on to the Arthur Grier House, where George Wallace, executive director of the Grier Heights Foundation and his best friend since birth, Eugene Grier, Arthur Grier's grandson, were walking out to their cars.

Talk about a great moment in the life of a writer researching her first young adult historical novel!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Wallace and Mr. Grier and heard stories of a swimming hole where white boys joined their black peers since "Big Boy" (as it was locally known) was the deepest hole around; stories about both grandparents who worked on Governor Cameron Morrison's plantation where SouthPark Mall now presides; and stories about Mr. Grier's grandfather's funeral business that also ran an ambulance for the black community.

That's the way it was in Charlotte, NC. As a story lover, I can't wait to hear more. Stay tuned, and as I hear them, I'll share them with you.

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National Middle School Conference Report

9000 middle school teachers and administrators. Hundreds of workshops stuffed into 2 1/2 days. Ten enormous rows of vendors selling everything from excellent writing lessons plans Maupin House to interactive maps Rand McNally, to spicy popcorn used for fundraising, to worldwide travel experiences for students. Add several roving reporters for The Conference Insider who desipte being dwarfed by the adults swarming around them navigated the exhibit halls as if they were in middle school....and you have the 2007 National Middle School Conference in Houston.

Was I overwhelmed? Slightly.
Stimulated? Without a doubt.
Excited to be a part of an event that drew educators from as far away as Seoul and as close as Louisiana? You bet.

Hands down this was the largest conference I have participated in and was rewarded by the opportunity to speak with dozens of educators about Teaching the Story. The response to my question, "Do you have time to teach creative writing?" was mixed. Many shook their heads sadly and admitted that preparing for standardized testing and or district mandated curriculum precluded time for creative writing. Others were excited about finding a book like mine and commented that they'd never seen anything like it (always heartening for an author to hear!) and were looking forward to using it. One teacher declared that she didn't care about the test: she taught what her she thought was important and her students consistently performed well. A seventh grade teacher said that in an exit poll her students invariably wished they had written a short story. A school outside Wilmington, NC offers creative writing in the 9th block; although the instructor admitted that gothic poetry was the frequent genre of choice.

I discovered that 7th graders in Kentucky and 9th graders in Canada had to write short stories. (Frankfort and Alberta here I come!)

I was tutored throughout the conference by my roommate and fellow Maupin House author, Jane Kiester (pictured above). Random gleanings from her 30+ years of experience:

• Middle school teachers love to have fun by working together. They love to laugh, giggle, sing, and do calisthenics while they're learning. It's important they do some type of activity every 10 minutes. No wonder they are so high energy!
• Make back-up overhead transparencies of all powerpoint presentations. Glad I listened!
• I have a found a way to make revision (usually a boring and dreaded chore) fun.

What can I say? I'm addicted to wordplay and now to blogging and sharing this experience with all of you!