The power of creative and
reflective writing in learning
A little experiment
“Remotely Operated Vehicle”
The value of handwriting
• Research suggests handwriting increases brain activity,
hones fine motor skills, and can predict a child's
academic success in ways that keyboarding can't.
• That might be because putting ink to paper stimulates
the Reticular Activating System, or the RAS. “The RAS
acts as a filter for everything your brain needs to
process, giving more importance to the stuff that
you're actively focusing on that moment — something
that the physical act of writing brings to the forefront.”
Results
• In children who had practiced
writing by hand, the neural
activity was far more enhanced
and "adult-like" than in those
who had simply looked at letters
or typed them out.
• "It seems there is something
really important about manually
manipulating and drawing out
two-dimensional things we see
all the time," says Karin Harman
James, assistant professor of
psychology and neuroscience at
Indiana University who led the
study.
Writing, reflecting, storytelling, creating
• A second task: 5-minute journaling
– Don’t lift your hand from the paper
– Don’t edit
– Don’t stop
– Don’t question what you’re writing
NO-ONE WILL HAVE TO SHARE SOMETHING THEY
DON’T WANT TO
Scientific journals?
A memory or image from the workshop
Something I feel I have learned
Some thought-provoking incident or question
My ongoing project
• Exploring the role of
creative writing
(and the writer) in
marine conservation
education and
animal protection
The idea and theory
• That having people create stories and narrative
around marine conservation and marine animal
protection will lead to improved learning and an
increase in pro-environmental behaviour, such as
reducing pollution, contributions to marine
conservation activities
• “According to Uri Hasson from Princeton, “a story
is the only way to activate parts in the brain so
that a listener turns the story into their own
idea and experience.”
Initial project
Poems from the ecological web
Let’s write some poems
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[Line 1: Self and Earth]
[Line 2: one thing from elements]
[Line 3: one thing from animal kingdom]
[Line 4: choose from elsewhere, plus any
associations, memories, feelings that fit]
• [Line 5: self and/or sea]
Some humpback Lunes
The lune is also known as the
American Haiku. It was first created
by the poet Robert Kelly. He settled
on a 13-syllable, self-contained
poem that has:
• 5 syllables in the first line,
• 3 syllables in the second line
• 5 syllable in the final line
trees never wander
but still spread
across open fields
Word store
Point to ponder and discuss
• On using narrative-based learning…
“The study found that students do exhibit learning
gains, that those gains are less than those produced
by traditional instructional approaches, but that the
motivational benefits of narrative-centered learning
with regard to self-efficacy, presence, interest, and
perception of control are substantial.”
McQuiggan et al (2008), ‘Story-based Learning: The Impact of
Narrative on Learning Experiences and Outcomes’, online
How you could include creative or
reflective writing in your class
1. Five minute journaling
• activity is the prompt, but 3 ‘guides’ at instantiation, 1minute and 3-minutes
• Lead to final selection in class near end of programme from
journal themes for longer 20-minute narrative writing, 3
‘guiding’ prompts at instantiation, 7- and 14-minutes into
exercise
Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
Towndrow, P. & Ling, T. A. (2008) Promoting Inquiry Through Science Reflective
Journal Writing, Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education,
4(3), 279-283
How you could include creative or
reflective writing in your class
2. Creative Writing Exercises
• Leave time at the end of your activity for exercise
• Lead reflective discussion on the practice
– Lead with key learning factors
• Give relevant examples, e.g. poems or short stories
– Read through, explore two arcs:
» Plot arc (what happens)
» Emotional arc (what changes)
• Give students the choice of form:
– Poem, story, journal, newspaper story
– Take one key issue they want to write about
– Choose key elements
» CHARACTER, STORY ROLLERCOASTER, POINT OF VIEW
Two Minute Brainstorm
• What could we do with Ocean Acidification?
Outcome?
•
“Alex’s creative writing workshops have been a fantastic addition to the Your Seas outreach
programme. The children we worked with have learnt a huge amount about turning their
experiences into various styles of writing. The process of creating a piece of
writing allowed the children to really think, very honestly, about what
they have experienced on our whale and dolphin watching trips and
connect to the experience in a much stronger way. I have no doubt the
workshops have increased the impact of my work on these children. By
asking the groups to write from the perspective of the animals, after spending time in their
environment, helped all the children to make important links between their actions and the
marine environment/animals. Most importantly the workshops are fun and lively and the
children clearly loved it! Ripping up magazines, making story boards and even reading out
their work; they embraced it all fully! It was brilliant to watch such young children engage so
thoroughly in a writing task! I will be incorporating this workshop into all of my future project
work with schools.”
Resources
• Sandford Lyne, River of Words
St Mary’s College of California, Center for
Environmental Literacy
http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/center-for-environmental-literacy/river-of-words
• Columbia Teaching Creative Writing
www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/pdfs/creative_writing.pdf
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The Periodic Table, Primo Levi
‘Dolphins’, Carol Ann Duffy
Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
Towndrow, P. & Ling, T. A. (2008) Promoting Inquiry
Through Science Reflective Journal Writing, Eurasia
Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology
Education, 4(3), 279-283
Old men ought to be explorers,
Here and there does not matter.
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity.
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty
desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise.
In my end is my beginning.
- TS Eliot, Four Quartets