What have I learned about idea development? Well, in class Thursday we explored a couple different ways of generating ideas. I thought the idea of how to generate ideas for our family theme song was particularly helpful. I’ve made plenty of lists defining my major personality traits, but I’ve never been told to write a sentence using each one and then find ways to connect them—making something like the verses of a song.
I also enjoyed the group story writing of “The Grossest Ice Cream Ever.” I guess this activity was more of a way to open our minds to the idea of generating ideas…if that makes any sense at all. During this activity, I realized that by providing a title, like “The Grossest Ice Cream Ever” for our students, we have sped up the process of idea development. Even though some groups, like mine, didn’t use the title, having the story subject and the option to use Dr. Harris’ title, gave us a definite direction, and allowed us to focus our creativity toward the writing of the story, before worrying about a title. I think it’s fair to say, that the class wasn’t provided a title, the activity would have taken much, much longer, and perhaps failed to serve its purpose.
It's important to remember the kinds of things that our professors do, even when it's as simple as giving us a title, when asked to write a story. Imagine how stumped we might have been if she hadn't given us that direction...Imagine how our students will feel if we don't give them this same sense of direction.
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I, like you Kayleen, have also had to make lists of my personality traits but have never had to make connections between them. The activity was very helpful and it was interesting to see how the connections came together. I know this is an activity that I will want to keep in mind and use in my classroom to help my students develop deeper ways of thinking when generating ideas for writing.
ReplyDeleteKathleen, thank you thank you thank you! I missed class on Thursday due to an unexpected emergency and your wonderfully expressed blog helped me to have an insite to what was missed. I made a list of my traits and wrote a sentence using these words and I found myself finally pushing forward with ideas for my song! Great way to generate ideas! Providing students with direction is so beneficial to helping students come up with creative writing ideas.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thanks!