J.B. Mitchell – Brainsparking right through the COLD!
This past January and February in Winnipeg was COLD. (Fiction editors will tell you not to overuse ALL CAPS, but I simply can’t write about January/February in any other way than…COLD!). Indoor recess was the name of the game and I think we were all starting to forget what fresh air felt like. Thankfully, at J.B. Mitchell school, we had our creativity to keep us warm, right? Or should I say… “WRITE”?
I had the pleasure of working with the grades 3-6 students and teachers of J.B. Mitchell for four weeks this COLD winter – two weeks at the beginning of January, and two weeks at the end of February. There were nine classes in total and a dizzying array of creative projects going on. In fact, here they are (take a deep breath!):Animal Fables (Grade 3s), Animal Diaries (Grade 3s), Arctic Animal Fables (Grade 4s), Short Stories (Grade 4s), Legends (Grades 4s and 5s), Pourquoi Tales (Grade 5s), Miraculous Memories Stories (Grade 5s), Fractured Fairy Tales (Grade 6). Whew!
In every class, we journeyed along in the writing process together. I showed you how I do it for my novels, and by watching you work, planning with teachers, and immersing ourselves in the forms you were writing the process twisted, turned and meandered according to your particular project. Of course, one of the most important steps in the process of writing a particular kind of story is reading as many stories in that genre as you can – that’s why your teachers and I encouraged you to read and study the art of fables, fairy tales, fractures fairy tales, memoirs, diaries, pourquoi tales, and legends. Reading and writing are like best friends – they go everywhere together and they help each other out. 🙂
Over the course of those first two weeks
, we got started on our stories. There was lots of planning, plotting, reading, dreaming, and brainsparking to do. It was fun to watch your stories begin to come to life even in those first few days. Then, I went off for a few weeks to visit some other schools and do some writing and re
vising of my own. That’s when you and your teachers rolled up your sleeves even further and plunged your hands into your drafts. I don’t have to tell you or your teachers that this was a lot of work,do I? I will tell you that when I came back in February, I was very impressed with what you had accomplished! But, the process wasn’t over, was it?
For our final two weeks, we explored all sorts of techniques to make our writing shine: choosing juicy words; shaping our writing so that we were “showing” more often than we were “telling”; planning the perfect opening hook for our stories, and more. Learning how to revise your own writing and be your own constructive critic is a very important skill, and I was pleased to watch you practice and grow. And of course, through it all we were giving one another positive and constructive feedback.
Your teachers helped you continue the journey toward creating a published piece. This meant MORE hard work by students and teachers alike. (You told me about the technical hurdles to overcome which often happens when so many people are working at once and when technology, designed to make things easier, doesn’t always cooperate Grrr!.) However, you persisted. With patience and dedication, you kept going and – wow! The results spoke of all this effort and truly let the creative aspects of your stories shine!
I was honoured to be able to attend an event at the end of May celebrating all of your creativity and effort. This is what I saw: multimedia, narrated ‘photobook slideshows’ complete with great artwork; bound, printed storybooks complete with original artwork; 3-D clay dioramas in vibrant colours, gorgeous anthologies with photos you collected from relatives and friends; colorful, stunning one-page story posters, and fables accompanied by a key image from your story or a small photo book of story events.
Thank you to the students and teachers of J.B.Mitchell for inviting me along on your creative writing journey, and to celebrate with you at the journey’s end. Of course, it isn’t really an end to your creative writing – I’m hoping it feels more like a ‘hook’ that will keep urging you forward.
All the best – till we meet again!
Karin 🙂
