Creative Expressivism: A New Vision for Teaching Writing
Samah Elbelazi, Libya and USA
Samah Elbelazi is a Libyan PhD Candidate in Composition and TESOL in Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has extensive experience in teaching English as a foreign/second language. She is interested in poetry, creative writing and using technology to teach ESL/EFL writing. Her current interest is using poetic inquiry in a feminist research to facilitate the voice of Libyan Muslim women. E. mail: samahlibya@gmail.com
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Introduction
Expressive pedagogy
Voice in ‘Expressivist Pedagogy’: express&create
Imagination
Pedagogical implications: Overview
‘Creative Expressivism’ in the classroom
The role of the teacher
No more textbooks, then what?
Conclusion
References
Tate’, Rupiper’ and Schick’s (2001) book, A Guide to Composition Pedagogies, was my introduction to theories of composition. Our evening class starts immediately as the sun waves goodbye. This course is no ordinary one. We leave our world, our life and live somewhere else. As a student in this class, I live among the books and with their writers, I actually live in the lap of composition. We learn to free our voices so they can be heard. We learn to express ourselves as graduate students, as members in a family and as future writers. Dr. Claude Hurlbert’s English 833 course at Indiana University of Pennsylvania is the place for new, ambitious writers to hone their creative skills when writing. Though this paper is not solely about English 833, I cannot speak about expressivism without referring to the class. It became a space where my understanding of writing and teaching was reborn.
With this paper I intend to send a message to all teachers of writing and to their students. A message that asks them to go beyond what they have in their books, to discover what they read and to use imagination as part of this process of writing. I wrote this paper by using my imagination to go beyond the materials I read. I set my thoughts free and let my pen do its job. My message involves going beyond the 1960’s school of expressive pedagogy and stretching its aspects by adding creative writing to it. Creative Expressivism is the name I gave to this new school, which means teaching creative writing by expressive pedagogy. To put in another way, creative writing and expressive theory will be joined together in one school. I think if writing is taught by Creative Expressivism, we would witness a revival of an old school in twenty first century. In this paper I want to wake the expressive theory up and dress it with 2000s styles. Here, I will discuss the expressive pedagogy with relation to creative writing. Also, I will offer insights of the pedagogical implication for “Creative Expressivism” in L2 writing classroom.
Expressive pedagogy has a long history that dates back to the 1960s. The most popular names in expressivist pedagogy are Peter Elbow, Ann Berthoff, Janet Emig, Donald Murray and Wendy Bishop. Burnham (2001) stated, “Expressivist pedagogy employs free writing, journal keeping, reflective writing, and small-group dialogic collaborative response to foster a writer’s aesthetic, cognitive and moral development” (19). All writing, defined by Burnham, can be fostered in the composition classroom, starting from free writing and extended to academic writing. In expressive pedagogy the rhetorical triangle places the writer in the center of its three elements: audience, message and language. The writer, being in the middle, has controls the other sides of the triangle and possesses stronger approaches toward the act of writing. To put it in another way, in this pedagogy writers have powerful positions within their texts. This freedom is in direct opposition to what Bartholomae (as cited in Fishman et al. 1992) called the position of the writer as “sucker” and “powerless.” (648). The expressivism school, gives the writer the authority to be in the center of the writing process. Another strength of the rhetorical triangle is that it situates writers in ways that they can equally make connections between the audience, message, and language.
Peter Elbow in Writing without Teachers (1973) said that when you produce and utter words, you have your own individual sound and your exceptional texture that can be the main source of power in your writing. As a pioneer in the school of expressivism, Elbow believed the act of writing involved writers’ individualities, and those individualities should be reflected in their texts. In other words, students have unique identities that empower their writing. These identities should be the center of the triangle. Other authors like Bizzell (as cited in Fishman et al. 1992) claimed that asking students to write about their daily life and express themselves harms their academic skills (648). In his defense, Fisherman (1992) stated that the connection between personal experiences and other language disciplines would interfere with the learning of academic discourse. Students come with different attitudes and experiences that are shaped and influenced by their culture or even their society. As teachers, we should bring our student’s experiences to life and give them the freedom to share these experiences and make it meaningful.
“Voice in writing is a locus for power”
Peter Elbow
In relation to creative writing, expressivist pedagogy is productive approach for this discipline. When I read I usually find the two words ‘express and create’ located together. To express yourself you need to create words. These words represent thoughts and expressions. According to Satrko (2001) “creativity is important to reshape the world in which we live.” (xi). Therefore, to write you need to express yourself, raise your voice in your text, and speak up so readers can hear you. Creative writing is not only literature; it is your ability to create yourself in any piece of writing. Burnham (2001) indicated that the presence of voice ‘etho’ in any form, explicitly or implicitly, works as an important element when expressivists examine writing. Voice in writing tells the reader who you are and explains what you want to say. In my opinion, voice in creative writing is very important because you cannot create if you exclude yourself from your text. You cannot create if you do not write what you like. According to Hagberg (1995) “voice is the heart of all writing. We can learn all the techniques available and write in all forms of genre, but if we are writing from someone else’s voice it will sound forced and inauthentic” (p.1). Voice in writing is the creative act in the expressivism.
“Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception”
Samuel Coleridge
I believe imagination is the storehouse for every single topic we want to write about. It is there in the mind, located somewhere with the other ideas. It is the space where we go freely. It is us in another place. Writing teachers should make an advantage of it. Berthoff (1981) claimed, “imagination is the name of form-finding and form- creating power. Such a theory of imagination can help us teach writing as a process because it can guide us in seeing how writing is analogous to all other forming” (p.28). According to her, writing is a process of making meaning. Imagination helps writers to make meanings of their visualizations and put them into words. Imagination gives writing life when the reader can take part in the writer’s imagination. In order for this relationship to develop, the language must relate to the reader; it should look, taste and smell the same as the writer anticipates it will. Ramet (2006) defined creative writing as “having the power to create an imaginative, original literary production or composition” (xi). Harmer (2003) also defined creative writing as an imaginative task (259). According to Harmer and Ramet, there is no creative writing without imagination, and there is no beneficial use of imagination without expression. Therefore, my rhetoric triangle for creative expressivism is as follows:
Placing writers in the middle gives them the flexibility to move amongst the three elements equally, allowing for the opportunity for writers to create a distinctive piece of writing. It is distinctive because every writer has a different set of imagination and a different way to express those sets, moreover, a different way to visualize concepts and create a new world. I believe that there is no writing without imagination. In order to get students to be interested in what they write then teachers need to tap into their imagination. One way to do this is the use creative expressivism, which places students within this learning triangle.
While writing this paper I asked myself: Why expressivism? Why not one of the many theories of the post process movement? I would say expressivism is not only a school for teaching but a school for life. I chose expressivism because the world needs it. Students in writing classrooms are oppressed with so many homework assignments and class tasks. They need time to express themselves, time to write what they want and to create their own worlds. As writing teachers we should give them this chance. Besides, It is writing that we teach and not history or math class where students refer to others more than they do themselves. As teachers we should give students a chance to raise their voices, hear themselves in their writings and position themselves with their unique identities in their text. As soon as students can express what they want, then our job as writing teachers seeks its fruitful results.
Hagberg in Wrestling with Your Angeles (1995) claimed that students should write the way they speak, which means to write as naturally as they can (p.2). To write naturally, means to relay your inner feelings on the page for the world to see. To write naturally means to be yourself when you write and to express your thoughts in the ways you see fit. Students in the writing class need to feel secure to write. They need to feel as natural as possible to write what they believe, not what their teacher ask them to be. As a second language learner I have written about many topics, but the most difficult of them are the ones I was asked to choose. Choosing a topic to write on was hard for me because I had never been taught how to be myself in writing. It was not only schoolteachers who interrupted my muse but it was also the many political, social, and cultural issues in Libya. In other words, our freedom of writing was very restricted. However, as writing teacher I will now encourage my students to consider these issues when writing instead of running away from them. Those issues are part of their individual identities that can be a source of inspiration more than an obstacle. Smith (as cited in Tate et al. 2001, p. 32) argues that the new theories of writing relies more on the view that humans are influenced by their social/cultural experiences and those determine identity.
“Writing and living and teaching are not separable”
Hurlbert & Blitz
Some people may argue against Creative Expressivism by asking, what do we expect students to write when they express themselves in their texts. Does anyone care about anyone else’s personal experiences? My answer: This is not what Creative Expressivism is about. It is more than relaying personal experiences through writing, though those experiences are the framework for it. Personal experiences and stories are very important in shaping the school of Creative Expressivism. However, the job of Creative Expressivism is to teach students to think critically and to empower their voice in their writing. My job as a teacher implementing Creative Expressivism is to assist more than instruct. It is also, how to integrate those experiences in writing.
In order to ensure that I assist students with their writing and not tell them how to write, I always begin class with a speaking task. Students need to listen to, compare and to discuss various topics from different perspectives and then write. Moreover, students need creativity in the classroom. Owns (2001) pointed out that “ my objective is to create a context where students, regardless of their academic interests, explore concerns shared by most of them, and where they do so in a manner that connects their thinking to a variety of cross-disciplinary texts” (pp. 173-174). Students need to read various topics about different subjects. They should read topics from history, geography and science to develop their mental ability and expand their imagination. What is more, students should be familiar with different elements and styles of writing before we ask them to write. According to Burnham (2001) teachers should teach reflection, and they should use journals from different disciplines to help students develop “intellectually, cognitively, and ethically” (p.21). These are just a couple of approaches that could be used to ensure that students are introduced to writing in a way that develops through their interactions and not trough their understanding of my lectures on the topic.
Creative expressivism is a methodology that could help guide students creative thoughts and start them writing with power. I see writing like a breath, which was compressed and finally released. The rhetorical triangle I listed before puts students in the center. Though the triangle espouses a teaching style that is meant to liberate students and their writing, without some guidance from the teacher this triangle would be a space where they might feel lost.
“Writing is not a trial but a celebration of craft”
Wendy Bishop
To use creative expressivism the classroom, teachers should have an inner belief that the theory will work. If teachers do not believe and, more importantly, understand their pedagogies, they will face difficulties in answering students’ questions and convincing them with the way they should participate. Hurlbert& Biltz (1998) pointed out in Letters for the Living “we cannot imagine why anyone would choose teaching as a profession unless he or she had a notion that educating people is somehow involved in making better neighborhoods, better communities, and a better world.” The teacher, as I wrote earlier, should be the helper: the garden guard who opens the door certain times per week, observes everyone, and, of course, offers help to them. The teacher should talk less and the student more. Every student has a story to tell, and he or she wants to have an ear to listen to him or her. Part of students’ listening audience should be their peers. Train your students to listen to each other and to read each other’s writing in class. In short, make the work the students do public in their classroom. As teachers, let them share their stories in their writing. Tell them that writing is part of them and shaped by them, so their position should be clear, as their voice should be loud enough. Take them from their privatize society and get their writing published as least in their school newsletter. Additionally, provide them with the appropriate journals to read and ask them to choose their own readings. Make writing class a creative expressive writing class where they hurry to come and write instead of being formal and boring. Teach grammar when it is really needed, because there is someone else to do this lesson. Teach writing as a creative task involving the whole person. In other words, show them how to make connection within the rhetorical triangle. When they do not like what you suggest, ask them to offer you with solutions. Give students liberty to help orchestrate how the class will go because they are all coming from different environments, even if they belong to the same culture and religion. Then, give them a space to reflect those identities in writing. Bishop (2004) suggested that “as a writer, you are yourself composed of your beliefs, and no two writers will view the world exactly the same way” (p.4).
Successful creative expressivist teachers always consider the imagination of their students when they teach writing. Imagination is a crucial element of success in all developed societies. I cannot imagine any new inventions without someone imagining them. Imagination does not mean being unrealistic or dreaming of the impossible; it is how to use your ideas to make life better, to make the improbable possible. While writing, imagination gives a chance to see the future, to search into it deeply and listen to the conflicting voices inside your head. Owns (2001) stated, “many of my students, of course, can’t wait for the future to get here. They predict continued economic growth, increasing tolerance among different cultures, and a heightened sense of respect for and awareness of community and environment” (p. 110). It is only imagination that takes you further from classroom and brings you back with energy to write. Gradin (1995) stated that to foster imagination in the classroom, teachers should give their students the freedom to move occasionally in the classroom and talk to each other (43). In other words, freedom creates space for imagination. Moving around the class relaxes students and gives them the feeling that they are not tide to one place or one idea. Moving from one place to another is one way to free students from the old traditional way of learning.
“Textbooks offer a no-geography. A no-place set out to take the place of a place”
Claude Hurlbert
As I stated earlier, change the class of writing from a formal ordinary class to a Creative Expressivist writing classroom. In this class, students are free to talk about what they like. It is very difficult to satisfy everyone’s need, however, as a teacher you should strive to reach a compromise with students. By arguing for a no- textbooks design I am providing teachers freedom to mingle among disciplines without being restricted by textbooks. I am a student myself, so I understand how students feel when they do not like their textbook. Textbooks can become nightmares instead of a guiding material.
Textbooks are often full of homework exercises and fill-in-the-blank questions. Writing students at the college level no longer need practice of this kind. They need to write in creative and expressive ways. To do so, students need a mediums and spaces to use their imagination. Journals, stories, poetry, movies, science fiction and history books open the door for students to relate knowledge to their experiences and then to write about it. Students have been studying various subjects along their academic life, and now it is time to apply what they learned. Owns (2001) argued that he seldom assign textbooks to the students, instead he selects various articles and chapters from the library.
How I approached my Introduction to Literature class is one example of how I abandoned textbooks and implemented Creative Expressivism in my classroom in Libya. I told students that in this course we are butterflies that move from one era to another, from one poem to another, from one novel to another. We take all the sweetness of those genres and come back to provide a sweeter piece of writing. Stepping beyond my literature course, I can imagine what the ideal Creative Expressivism syllabus might look like. First, each week would be divided into themes. Each week of the fifteen weeks in one semester should involve different subjects, like art, literature, science, geography and culture. As teachers we should discuss those themes with students and see whether they have any other ideas. Those themes should be elaborated by journals and books or even movies to be understood. Teachers could ask their students to read about a certain theme, for example, Sports, and make them share their ideas and articles in the class. Do not stop there, because this is not expressivism. Go beyond what they have. Ask about their vision about Sport in the next decades. Always, as Dr. Hurlbert says, ask, “What is next?”
In that sense they should learn how to use words to express their thoughts. They should learn what behind those words. They should learn how to create a world for their words. They have a lot to do in this writing class, other than writing itself. It is just like a spiritual class where imagination, expressions and creation start. Harper (2008) stated that students usually trapped by the words, and how the words look. Words are different and separate and they should be taught in this way. Students should learn how to use those words to express their unique individuality among the others. They should use those words in the fact that they mean what they want. Starting from words as the smallest unit in language will give another inspiration for writing. Additionally, teachers should provide their students with good models of writing; this task will help them to be “engaged in a craft conversation” (Bishop, 2001, p. xxi).
More about the themes as a teacher give students a chance to run from their societies and from their life to wherever they like. Even if they do not want to run, then ask them to say why? To describe what they like about their life. Those students really need to express what they need. They want to express the world from their eyes. As Hurlbert (2006) “as I construct my composition pedagogy, I try to create space for students to write locations in which to stand, to see, and from which to move” (p. 356).
“Writing is like painting a picture with words and lots of details”
Wendy Bishop
Writing is more than those written letters and words that are printed in a blank paper. It is what stands behind those words and what message we want to send to the world. It is the happiness and sadness we hide inside and we express it by those words. It is the release of the prisoned thoughts that are burned us inside. It is the position where we locate ourselves among others; it is the identity we claim. It is all and all and all. I cannot even find a good description for the word writing, for me it is my world, it is my territory, and it is the house I built long time ago. It is the experience we ever seek. It is love, life, hatred, sadness, joy and hunger. Writing is our past, our present and our future. Can you imagine the world without writing? Of course, no. Then, that is why we do writing, and teach writing.
‘Creative Expressivism’ is another way of looking at the theories of composition as means to view the world through different eyes. This school empowers students and gives them a chance to make a change to their societies. It teaches them imagination and how it should be used in writing; imagination that takes students from their privatized world. Moreover, Creative Expressivism teaches students to have a strong foot on the ground, to be free, to involve their identities with others, and also to have an opinion and point of view toward their lives.
This paper attempts to embrace both disciplines together, creative writing and expressive pedagogy. It explains how this new school might make a change and liberate writing.
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