Creative Writing: Practice and Pedagogy

Creative Writing: Practice and Pedagogy

English 792: Section 013 credits

Online Delivery via D2L SPRING 2012

South Dakota State University

Instructor: Christine Stewart-Nuñez, Ph.D.

Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” As a writer and a writing teacher, my life-long goal is developing that supreme art. In this course, we will consider how to promote creativity andalso teach students to excel on standardized modes of writing assessment.We will discuss ways to respond to writing that encourages students to develop and revise, rather than “settle” for a grade. Further, we will explore ways to foster inquiry and motivation to write across genres—not just creative genres. To that end, participants will present their own research-inquiry into writing process theory and develop a curricular innovation project that integrates creative writing processes and techniques to help meet South Dakota State education standards.

Soren Kierkegaard wrote: “Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand . . . what he learns and the way he understands it.” Most likely, wepractice this method of learning by doing, and this course will hold us accountable for developing our own creative writing. Participants will learn—or build upon their existing knowledge of—writing process elements (invention, drafting, revision, and response) and review the importance of employing basic writing tools: image, tension, scene, detail, reflection, energy, and structure.To that end, participants will develop a small portfolio of original poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction to make their learning visible to me.

Required Texts:

*In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learningby Nancie Atwell {new for $34 via Amazon.com}

*The Practice of Creative Writingby Heather Sellers {new for $37 via Amazon.com}

And ONE of the following: –choose based on your grade level of expertise—

*Risking Intensity: Reading and Writing Poetry with High School Studentsby Judith Rowe Michaels {new for $24 via Amazon.com}

Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle Schoolby Georgia Heard{new for $17 via Amazon.com}

About the Professor: I earned my B.A. in English Education (minor in writing) from the University of Northern Iowa in 1995. I taught 9-12th grade creative writing, literature, linguistics, and composition at a private Turkish school in Tarsus, Turkey from 1996-1998. I took my M.A. in literature from Arizona State University in 2000. For one year I taught English/Language Arts at a public high school in Tempe, then at a charter high school in Paradise Valley. After completing my Ph.D. in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2007, I moved to Brookings to teach at SDSU. I am the author of four books of poetry, numerous published creative nonfiction pieces, and handful of book reviews, and a few pedagogy articles in process….