9th– 13th/10/13- Creativity in Narrative Writing

                       Wow! What an informative week we had to learn about how one writes an effective narrative writing piece. My colleagues and I shockingly learned that we could make use of descriptive writing when we are doing narrative writing. This was surprising to me because previously, I never thought about narrative writing pieces including descriptive pieces. How when I heard this it caused me to recall the times that I used figurative language to describe characters and the setting when composing a narrative piece.  

                      I had previously known that narrative writing is a form of writing that contains interesting events based on different elements such as the characters, the setting, and the plot, just to name a few, of writing. However, after this week’s lectures, I am more cognizant that a good narrative piece must be so engaging to the point where it makes the reader transported into another world or era and feel as if he or she is directly a part of the story. Furthermore, Mrs. Lazarus used a creative an innovative strategy of getting my classmates and I more comfortable to write an excellent narrative writing piece by giving us the topic ‘Johnathan Learns His Lesson’ and having us brainstorm and describe how we would go about creating a plot structure for this narrative writing piece. I loved this strategy, and I will definitely be ‘copying’ this tactic to use in my classroom.😉

(image retrieved from www.giphy.com)

2nd - 6th/10/23- The Writing Process: A Closer Look at the Pre-Writing Stage

                We ‘dived’ back into another session involving the writing process in our LIT102: Promoting Writing in the Primary Grades. I was fascinated by the way in which our lecturer Mrs. Lazarus, demonstrated how one can use a cluster, which is a graphic organizer, to effectively generate ideas in the pre-writing stage. We were further informed by Mrs. Lazarus that one can generate ideas using this tool. This class further gave me the realization and understanding that the purpose of the pre-writing stage is to gather ideas pertaining to a specific topic.

                  Additionally, we were also notified that the ‘key’ area that should be focused on during the pre-writing stage is one’s audience. The understanding that audiences can vary makes me reflect that my students can write composition pieces with the intended audience to be not just me as the teacher but also their peers, parents, principal and even the general public. I am now more intent on making my students aware that they are not specifically writing to please me as the teacher because this may put intense pressure on them mentally and, as such, diminish their love for writing.

                As a teacher, more aware of the importance of the pre-writing stage, I will encourage my students to select topics that interest them based on their own experiences. I will, however, provide a series of topics that they can choose from as well. This knowledge that it is recommended that I do so encourages me to provide them with activities such as drawings that may even lead to picture discussions, brainstorming exercises, and a video that comes out of a story or read-aloud activity that can enhance their writing abilities. I will also introduce my students to different formats of writing, such as brochures, letters and even posters, to get them excited and interested in writing.

                  The following video portrays how effective brainstorming can be used in the prewriting stage of the writing process when students are given the option of choosing a topic of their interests and based on the choices given by the teacher.