Mario is very relieved that 160 kilos of his papers  are now safely in Bratislava and will form the start of the of the Pilgrims-Bridges humanistic language teaching Archive. By next June we may have some documentation up on the Internet. We hope this will ensure that good “old exercises” become available again to the thrilling cohorts of  new young teachers in their 20’s. Do I dream too much?

Mario is currently exploring the work of Paul Matthews  In SING ME THE CREATION, published by Hawthorn Press.  This much used and seasoned  book offers you a plethora of ways of getting people to let their hair down and write from deep inside. Matthews offers  a feast of creative writing ideas. Also see https://www.hltmag.co.uk/aug18/creative-writing-exercises

                                       

Some readers may know the creative writing technique in which the WHOLE  writes to the PART

                                  The RIVER     writes to its BANKS

                                  The HOUSE   writes to the ROOF

                                  The DRUNK  writes to his LIVER

                                  The BOOK  writes to the CHAPTER

                                  The TREE  writes to the LEAF

Let me try and set out  clearly what you do in class .You ask the students to get up and mill round the room. You ask them to pick a partner but not someone they normally sit next to in class.  The pairs decide which of them will assume, say, the role of the tree and write a three paragraph letter to the leaf. The other student takes the role of the leaf and writes to the tree from a leaf point of view.

All go back to their normal seats and write their letters. On finishing they deliver their letter to its addressee. Both then write answers to the in - role letters  just received. They deliver their responses and come together with their partner to comment on the writing experience.

In a TT workshop on creative writing at the Pilgrims Summer Courses this last summer ,  2018, I suddenly realised that we could tweak the above  old exercise and create a new one in which

  The BEGINNING writes in role to the END and viceversa.

  The ACORN  writes to the old OAK

  The ARCHITECTURAL PLAN writes to the CATHEDRAL

  The DAWN writes to DUSK

  The SOUTH POLE writes to the NORTH POLE

  The FIRST PAGE  of the book writes to  THE LAST PAGE

The classroom procedure is the same as with WHOLE writing to the PART.

What follows is  a part of a correspondence  between   THE LETTER “ A” OF THE ALPHABET  writing to a BEST SELLING NOVEL:

Dear Bestseller book,

Have you seen? You’ve got it and now everybody wants you!

You are everywhere in book contests, reading groups, in any bookshop windows, in any TV talk shows.

Yesterday I saw some young people on the bus who were speaking about you and discussing what you had told to them. I got to know that you are read by professional readers and that soon people will be able to listen to “your voice” on audio books.

But have you ever thought about me? You have not thanked me at all and you have not even realised that I am part of your existence and part of your success too.

I am the letter “A “   which is the first letter of the alphabet and stands for ATCHIEVEMENT “ as well.

Bye

Letter A

 

In reply to the Letter A’s message  the “Best Seller book” wrote:

Dear Letter A,

I am glad to have you. Thanks for all the words that you have given me and made me who I am. I am a happy book full of great words and amazing ideas.  Thanks to you my pages are pictures describing a world full of colour, people full of life and amazing adventures that give the readers goose bumps. Having you as a part of me makes me feel useful and content.

I am glad to offer you a place to be and I’ll do my best to perfec t the aid that you represent. I’ll promise to carry this further as far as  I can. Very much looking forward to using you many times again.

Your Book.                                  

The general point I am trying to make is that , as beech trees spring from beech mast , and oak trees from acorns ,  so genuinely new and different exerc ises can sprout from hoary old ones. From the deep mists of the past I remember that I learnt the “theory” of this way of working  20 or 30 years ago from my colleague Tessa Woodward, editor  of  the Pilgrims magazine, THE TEACHER TRAINER. She told me something like this: “ Change some detail in a well-known exercise , try it with your class, and you may find a radically new classroom experience.”

Thank you Tessa!

 

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.