Creative Writing is a course which is usually
being related to the use of language that is a part of verbal-linguistic
intelligence. In some students’ paradigm creative writing is like only using
verbal-linguistic intelligence in which students are expected to play words by
choosing diction as good as novelist or poets. However, creative writing is
more than choosing words to make a good writing. It is interesting to discuss
more about creative writing since there is still a paradigm that writing is
always related to verbal-linguistic intelligence. Actually, creative writing
can be related to all of the intelligences. Moreover, creative writing for
university students needs an approach which can lead the students to create
better quality of writing than in the level below. It is interesting to write
about the activities that university students can do for their creative writing
class. This essay will try to discuss the most appropriate approach to creative
writing course by focusing on some learning activities in creative writing
class for university students based on Multiple Intelligence theory.
Creative Writing and
Multiple Intelligences
According to Steven Mintz as cited in Teaching Creative Writing, columbia.edu,
creative writing class gives students opportunities for self-expression and
catharsis (any good ways to express emotion).
It can allow them to record emotions in words and explore human
interactions, and then transfer it into a form of writing. Besides that,
creative writing is not determined only on verbal-linguistic ability but also
all of the potential abilities that the students have. Creative writing gives
freedom to the students to explore their abilities deeper in order to create a
good writing which is also creative.
One of some approaches that can be used
appropriately in creative writing class is Multiple Intelligences. Multiple
Intelligences (MI) refer to a learner-based philosophy that characterized human
intelligence as having multiple dimensions that must be acknowledged and
developed in education (Richards, 2001; p.115). To implement MI theory the
lecturer activates the 8 intelligences that the students have. These are short
descriptions of the 8 intelligences, including:
Linguistic
Intelligence: Linguistics Intelligence refers to the ability to use language to
express particular feeling (Campbell, 2004:p.2).
Logical
- Mathematical Intelligence: According to Howard Gardner (as cited in Teaching and Learning through Multiple
Intelligences by Campbell, et.all., 2004:p.31 ), logical-mathematical
intelligence related to mathematical calculations, logical thinking, and
problem-solving.
Spatial
Intelligence: Spatial Intelligence reflects the ability to enable one to perceive
imagery and imaginary (Campbell, 2004:p.93).
Bodily
– kinesthetic Intelligence: Bodily-kinesthetic
Intelligence shows expertise in using one’s whole body to express ideas and
feelings (Armstrong, 2009).
Musical
Intelligence: Musical Intelligence refers to the ability of sensitivity of
pitch, melody, rhythm, and tone (Campbell, 2004:p.127).
Interpersonal
Intelligence: Interpersonal Intelligence is related to the ability to interact
and understand other people (Armstrong, 2009.
Intrapersonal
Intelligence: Intrapersonal Intelligence refers to the ability to understand
oneself, such as awareness of inner moods,
intentions, motivations, temperaments, and desires (Armstrong, 2009).
Naturalist
Intelligence: Naturalist Intelligence reflects to the ability to observe
patterns in nature, identify and classify natural objects, and understand
natural phenomena (Campbell, 2004:p.219).
Learning activities based on
MI
Creative writing course in university level
has objective to enhance students’ creativity and express it in a form of
writing with good language development. This course needs supporting approaches
in order to reach the objective so that the students can be optimal in
developing their ability in learning creative writing. As mentioned above,
Multiple Intelligences takes important role in the process of enhancing the
creativity of the students. Howard Gardner, as cited in Campbell’s book, 2004,
noted that creativity can be expressed through all the intelligences. Students
need to use their eight intelligences to explore their world and maximize their
creativity (Campbell, 2004; p.2). Moreover, Multiple Intelligences approach
proposes not to look language as limited to linguistics perspective only, but
also look and combine all aspects of communication (Richards, 2001; p.117).
As the lecturer of Creative Writing class,
it is essential to recognize this issue because by recognizing the lecturer can
decide the most appropriate activities for the class. Moreover, the lecturer is
expected to give students opportunities for the creative exploration of their
individual interests and talents in order to make a creative writing. In making
activities, the lecturer has to understand that the intelligences work together
so that some of the activities focus on more than one (Sólmundardóttir, 2008:
p.8). In this essay, the writer provides some activities based on MI theory
which can be applied in creative writing class. Those are:
1.
Free writing journal
A simple thing
that the lecturer can do in the class in giving the students opportunity to do
free writing. As the mechanism, the lecturer starts by providing a general
topic to the students, for example: personal feeling, bad day, interesting
place, and so on. Then, the students are
asked to develop the topic in a form of writing in a limited time. In the
particular limited time, the students write anything comes to their mind
related to the topic. In this activity, coherence and accuracy are not really
important so that the students only need to share their idea on a piece of
paper (Goldberg, as cited in Sloane, 2010).
Free writing
is the most effective and easy way to create a journal of writing because it
gives students freedom to writing anything comes to their mind in a particular
time (Elbow, 1973). According to Mary Lieske in her journal titled Free Writing Exercises, as cited in
Castle.ieu.edu, the main point of this activity is not to generate something
worth handing in but it is simply to generate something from general ideas to
specific points which the students want to work with. Free writing also has
benefits for the students to feel comfortable with writing, to discover thing
they want to write about, and feel that writing is fun (Elbow, 1973). This
activity, actually, related to the verbal-linguistic intelligence and
intrapersonal intelligence; it is because, besides facilitate the students to
put words based on their thinking, the students also have opportunity to
explore what they feel in the particular time and express their feeling in a
form of writing. Therefore, free writing activity is appropriate to start
creative writing in order to develop students’ idea to write (Lea, 2011).
2. Finding story in a song
and writing a critical thought
The second
activity which can be applied in creative writing class is finding story in a
song since every song has its own story which is conveyed to the listeners.
This activity, actually, has objective to help students use their senses in
understanding meaning which is provided in a form of song (Heather, 2000). As
the mechanism of this activity, firstly the lecturer provides a song in the
class and asks the students to listen and pay attention to the message by using
all their senses. After listening, the students are divided in a small group to
discuss the story in the song and retell the story in their own words in a form
of critical writing. Therefore, the students need to analyze the story, for
example, from what point of view the story is made, what conflict inside, what
resolution provided in the story, how the story ends, and so on. On the other
words, students can listen to a song and give a brief summary of its storyline
or theme in group and they might also contrast the cultural assumptions in the
song with those from their cultures (Campbell, 2004: p.139).
Actually, this
activity is related to the musical intelligence, verbal-linguistic
intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, and logical-mathematical
intelligence. While listening to the song, the students use their senses to
feel the atmosphere of the song which is related to intrapersonal and musical
intelligences. Then, while they make analysis of the story, they use their
logical thought to recognize the plot of the story in the song; it is related
to logical-mathematical intelligence. After that, while they make a critical
writing about the song, they use their verbal-linguistic to decide the diction
so that the writing is easy to understand. Moreover, through song the lecturer
can improve the students’ language skills. A song can serve as an excellent
tool in helping students to strengthen their written language skills, for
example giving background idea of what they want or they have to write
(Campbell, 2004: p.138). In brief, the activity above is good for creative
writing since it guides the students in developing critical thinking in order
to make their good writing in their level.
3. Field trip, observing
nature, and class compilation project
The third activity that can be applied in
creative writing class is having a field trip. According to Hughes and Moore
(2012), a field trip brings classroom study alive for students and helps them
remember and relate to what they have learned. Moreover, it provides rich
resources that can rarely be approximated in the classroom. It also helps the
students to connect their personal lives to the world. The purpose of this
field trip is to help the students finding inspiration outside the class. As
the mechanism, the lecturer makes simple field trip program for making class
final project of creative writing. First, the lecturer asks the students to
make a group of 6 to 8. In that group, the students are assigned to have a
field trip in the particular weekend and try to find inspiration by observing
nature in order to write something, for example, poems, short stories, song
lyrics, flash fiction, and so on. Second, in the field trip, they are allowed
to take pictures in order to document the situation and condition in the
location which might be their inspiration. Finally, the students are assigned
to make a creative writing based on the inspiration that they have got and
submit the writing to be collected as class compilation.
A well-planned field trip offers meaningful
learning experiences for many students, particularly when the trip is
integrated with areas studies in the classroom (Campbell, 2004: p.87). The
field trip becomes the general activity in which included other activities
inside it. On the other hand, as with any type of educational program
component, field trip should be designed around specific educational objectives
(Myers and Jones, 2004). The activity, actually, fulfill the purpose and
objective of the field trip in specific area of study. Those activities also
related to naturalist, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal,
bodily-kinesthetic, and linguistic intelligence
Implication
and Conclusion
Those activities above are made by
combining some intelligence. Furthermore, the activities are good and
appropriate to be implemented in creative writing class for university level.
Moreover, students have all of the intelligences that will be very helpful to
develop their creativity. An intelligence cannot stand alone, that is why the
activities above are related each other. The lecturer must consider that
creative writing is simply related to linguistic intelligence but to implement
as the learning activities the lecturer is suggested to consider all of the
intelligences. For the students, they need to recognize that creative writing
is never simply descriptive or imaginative but it also involves ideas, themes,
questions, and arguments. On the other words, it has purpose to express
thoughts, feelings and emotions rather than to simply convey information
(Steven Mintz). Therefore, it is good to implement Multiple Intelligence theory
in creative writing class for university students because it will help the
students to create a good quality of writing as appropriate as their level.
References:
Armstrong, Thomas. (2009).
Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom.
United States of America: ASDC Publications.
Campbell, Linda,
et.all. (2004). Teaching and Learning
through Multiple Intelligences. United States of America: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Elbow, Peter. (1973).
Writing Without Teachers. Retrieved
October 8, 2012 from http://nzr.mvnu.edu/faculty/trearick/english/rearick/exposwrt/Elbow%20Learning%20Without%20Writing%20Teachers.pdf
Forest, Heather.
(2000). Storytelling Activities and
Lesson Ideas. Retrieved October 9, 2012 from http://www.storyarts.org/lessonplans/lessonideas/index.html
Hughes, Langston and
Christopher Moore. (2012). Teaching
Strategies: Field Trip. Retrieved October 9, 2012 from http://www.learner.org/workshops/tml/workshop6/teaching3.html
Lea, Amber. (2011). Journal Writing Tips: The Benefits of Free
Writing. Retrieved October 9, 2012 from http://www.writingthroughlife.com/journal-writing-tips-the-benefits-of-freewriting
Lieske, Mary.
(_____). Free Writing Exercises.
Retrieved October 9, 2012 from http://castle.eiu.edu/~writing/freewritingexercises.pdf
Mintz, Steven. Teaching Creative Writing. Retrieved
October 3, 2012 from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/pdfs/creative_writing.pdf
Myers, Brian and
Linda Jones. (2004). Effective Use of
Field Trips in Educational Programming: A Three Stage Approach. Retrieved
October 9, 2012 from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc054
Richards, Jack C. (2001).
Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sloane, Paul. (2010).
Free writing: A Method for Unblocking
Creativity. Retrieved October 9, 2012 from http://www.bqf.org.uk/innovation/2010/02/22/freewriting-a-method-for-unblocking-creativity/
Sólmundardóttir, Anna
S. (2008). The Multiple Intelligences
Theory in English Language Teaching. Retrieved October 9, 2012 from http://skemman.is/stream/get/1946/1485/4473/1/adal_adal.pdf
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