JALT 2017: Four Corners Tour
Malu Sciamarelli, Brazil
Malu Sciamarelli has been working in Brazil for over 20 years as an English teacher, materials designer, translator and consultant for publishers. Currently, her main interests are writing and using her own short stories and literature in her Creative Writing classes. She is an active emember of the C Group. E-mail: malusciamarelli@gmail.com
JALT (The Japan Association for Language Teaching) is an excellent opportunity to meet professionals in the area, share ideas, and collaborate to support excellence in language teaching. Bearing that in mind, I was in Hamamatsu as a delegate in 2012, and again as a presenter in Kobe and Tsukuba for JALT 2013 and 2014. In 2017, it was a great honour to be invited as a featured speaker at the main conference and the four corners tour on behalf of the C Group (www.creativitygroup.weebly.com)
The main theme of all my presentations was creativity in the English language classroom, especially focused on reading and writing. How do we define creativity when it comes to writing in our classrooms? Can creativity be taught? How fundamental is creative writing in education? What benefits do language learners stand to gain from being able to write literary pieces in English? What about the role of the creative writing teacher? Do practicing creative writers make more successful creative writing teachers? Such questions were at the heart of my workshop Creative writing: essential, not supplemental. However, I did not provide any definite answers to those questions. What I did was help illuminate some of the issues underpinning the use of creative writing in the language classroom as well as share some practical classroom ideas. What can creative writing teach us about creativity in general? As Alan Maley once said, ‘The creative spark is what ignites the fire of learning.’ Without it, we are left dull, demotivating, routine teaching. So creativity is always the answer for me when teaching. However, most teachers do not know how to encourage creativity in the classroom because they think that only special people are creative. This is a myth: everyone has creative capabilities that can be encouraged and developed with great discipline. Creativity is not just wild chaos. Constraints are important as well as creative energy. Teachers must have in mind that creative activities can be quite simple and they should not be afraid of using them.
The creative spark is what ignites the fire of learning.
Without it, we are left dull, demotivating, routine teaching.
(Alan Maley)
My second presentation, the talk Literature for all: creative texts for every class, I showed how the use of extracts from classics to modern literature enhances students’ creative writing, develops their imagination, and increases motivation when learning English. Literature also exposes students to complex themes and fresh, unexpected uses of language. A good novel or short story may be particularly gripping in that it involves students in the suspense of unravelling the plot; a play may engage students in complicated adult dilemmas; a poem may elicit a powerful emotional response from students. If the materials are carefully chosen, students will feel that what they do in classroom is relevant and meaningful to their own lives.
Don't be satisfied with stories,
how things have gone with others.
Unfold your own myth.
(Jalaluddin Rumi)
My last participation in the main conference was in the Literature in Language Teaching SIG Forum, Creativity, Poetry, Stylistics, and Culture. In Creativity through Literature, my aim was not to define creativity. It was to share some thoughts on how to promote creative thinking, to get out of the box and generate ideas by literary projects. To do so, I started by proposing some questions and sharing my views. Then I used what I call the ‘Pyramid of Creativity’ adapted from the Hierarchy of Imagination by John Maeda as the basis of all the literary activities in my classes.
Here are two activities of mine following the ‘Pyramid of Creativity’ described above:
- Writing your Drawing: Ideas for a Lesson
Fully described and available at: http://old.hltmag.co.uk/aug17/less02.htm
- Writing Poetry about places
Fully described and available at: http://malusciamarelliblog.weebly.com/creative-writing/diary-of-a-creative-writing-teacher-8
To follow up these writing exercises, I went on to reading poetry with my students, choosing William Wordsworth’s poems. I chose Wordsworth to illustrate my writing exercises because as a romantic poet, Wordsworth took interest in the world around him and our engagement with it. He celebrated the power of mind to internalise the natural world and be strengthened by it. His poetry asserts the power of a subjective, individual response to the world and this is part of my focus of bringing Literature into the English language classroom: Literature for personal enrichment (in addition to Literature as the basis for language learning).
After the main conference, my tour began in West Tokyo at the International Christian University High School with the workshop Reading in a Global Age organised by the West Tokyo Chapter. In this workshop, we looked at the established reading practices we use in the classroom with our students to help them make sense of what they read. We discussed the difference it makes when we read poems, short stories, or novels in a print book, on a tablet, on an e-book reader, and on a smart phone. As participants engaged in discussions about these reading processes, I pointed out that the physical qualities, internal structures, and technological operations of various medias affect us in different ways. So clearly reading literary texts in different media means reading differently. We could even say we are reading a different text.
As they reflected on these differences, I presented newer, computer driven techniques to get an introduction to what it means to read literature in the digital age and to be a social reader:
- Hyper-Reading: a non-linear reading strategy that can take us in multiple directions which cannot be foreseen at the beginning of the reading process. Its main techniques are filtering, skimming, pecking, imposing, filming, trespassing, de-authorising, fragmenting, juxtaposing, and scanning.
- Social Reading: a collaborative form of online reading in which several internet users read the same text, comment on it, and respond to others' comments. Social reading promises to break with the practice of solitary reading and turn reading into a truly interactive, collaborative process, and an exchange among equals.
I believe that the most important part of the workshop was when the participants and I experimented on the activities of hyper-reading and social reading and discussed whether hyper- reading and the collaborative practice of social reading truly enhance our understanding of literary texts and whether they will ever replace solitary reading.
The second part of the tour was at Hirosaki Gakuin University in Hirosaki, organised by Iwate Chapter. There were two workshops: one for students on How to improve Reading and Writing Skills, and another one for teachers on Creative Writing in the English Language Classroom.
In the workshop with the students, I first listed some reasons why we read and write: to learn something new, to give information, to communicate, and for fun. Then students discussed and presented what their main reading and writing challenges were. After that, I told them the only way to improve their reading and writing skills is to read and write more. Each type of practice supports and strengthens the other, being equally important. Moreover, I dare say that in an age overwhelmed by information, the ability to read, understand, and write, in other words, to organise information into knowledge, must be viewed as equivalent to a survival skill. I went on to present a list of tips to help them focus and start to read and write more frequently. We concluded the workshop by doing some creative writing activities and reading them out loud.
The second workshop for teachers was about creative writing and the role it plays in the English language classroom. My main objectives in this workshop were to help illuminate some of the issues underpinning the use of creative writing in the classroom, share some practical ideas, and help encourage teachers who have been working with creative writing to continue with their practices and perhaps reach out to even more teachers. In the first part of the workshop, I explored the essential benefits of using creative writing in the language classroom, its benefits for students and teachers, and what it can teach us about creativity in general. In the second part, the participants were invited to write a series of poems and stories which proved that everyone has creative capabilities that can be encouraged and developed with constraints and great discipline, as well as creative energy.
The third part of the tour was at Tottori University in Tottori, organised by Tottori Chapter. The workshop Creativity and Playfulness in the English Language Classroom was based on my chapter “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation” in the new British Council’s publication Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom: With reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, edited by Alan Maley and Nik Peachey. In this chapter, I point out that the playfulness approach is based on childrens’ natural way of interacting with their world and it goes go a long way to creating a more inclusive learning environment and more effective schools in general. This approach contributes mainly to problem-solving, creativity, perspective-taking, and the development of language. In this workshop, I emphasized that for play to happen, students need time, permission to take risks and make mistakes, and permission to explore new pathways. In addition, as teachers we need to: accept and acknowledge the value of play and creativity; offer activities and role-modelling; encourage creative thinking, active engagement, and critical thinking skills for children to learn a language through play. We concluded the workshop by doing some activities from the book as well as new ones.
The last part of the tour was at Fukui University in Fukui, organised by Fukui Chapter. The workshop presented there was Reading in a Global Age in which I introduced a new way to approach talking about reading and reading itself.
Although the workshop was the same as West Tokyo Chapter, the discussions and reflections were not. While I was presenting and interacting with other teachers, I remember one of the lessons taught at a tea ceremony in Tottori. Kiyono, my host, told me amongst other things, to treasure that moment for it would never be repeated. This is what was written on the wall:
“Ichi-go – Ichi-e” meaning “one opportunity, one encounter”
Each encounter we have with a person or group of people will never be repeated. Even if we meet with those people regularly, that one particular encounter with them is unique. Isn’t it exactly what happens in our classrooms?
Leaves dancing to the wind’s song,
have such a wonderful frolic.
Circling, floating, flying along,
their whirling is so symbolic.
I see the little leaves dancing,
each one looks like a student.
I stop, smiling and listening,
how similar is their amusement.
I enter the woods and see the leaves,
still whirling round and around,
happily dancing and scampering
before gently landing on the ground.
I look and appreciate the lovely quilt
the little leaves made on that day,
knowing it was this time only,
never again will I see it this way.
My special thanks go to Alan Maley from the C Group for the constant support, for Jim Wright from Pilgrims for facilitating my trip, and for JALT Literature in Language Teaching SIG for also contributing financially to my visit and for inviting me to be their featured speaker. It was an incredible honour.
I would also like to thank Mary Burkitt for organizing my tour and for the JALT West Tokyo, Iwate, Tottori, and Fukui Chapters for inviting me to present and showing me more about the local Japanese culture. My deepest gratitude.
I dearly value the friendships and partnerships made and insights gained at JALT and I am sure they will go beyond these workshops and meetings, leading to better understanding and appreciation of our profession from an international stance. Co-operation between JALT and the C group is now well-established and we look forward to continuing this in future years.
References
Maeda, J. (2011). Redesigning Leadership (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life). Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Maley, A. (2012). Creative Writing for Students and Teachers. Humanising Language Teaching Magazine. Year 14; Issue 3; June 2012. Available at: http://old.hltmag.co.uk/jun12/mart01.htm
Maley, A. & Peachey, N. (Eds.) (2015). Creativity in the English language classroom. London, British Council. Available at: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/creativity-english-language-classroom
Maley, A. & Peachey, N. (Eds.) (2017). Integrating global issues in the English language classroom: With reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. London, British Council. Available at: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/integrating-global-issues-creative-english-language-classroom
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