Full Teaching Blog – Young Creatives.
From Friday 30th October, I will be delivering seven one-hour sessions on creative writing, song-writing and covering basic poetry, using music, imagery and figurative language. We will be looking into different writing styles, Basic English literature and researching different musiciansin the first few sessions. This will give me a great chance to get to know the students, their ability and also their taste in music. We will then go onto to doing 3 sessions using images to develop ideas, which will be brainstormed and then the words chosen will be put into a song/poem. The images give the students a chance to imagine the concepts and will lead to great discussions. The concepts I have chosen for the 3 sessions are peer pressure/bullying, your future once leaving school and your role model. These subjects will not only lead to great expression on important topics for the age group but also will also hopefully give the more confidence and understand in each topic. In the last 2 sessions, the young people will chose one topic for themselves, either one of the above or their own topic and write a song about, rehearse it and perform it to the class in the final session.The main objective of my lessons is to help the students learn how important creativity is once leaving school. As I failed most of my GSCE's at school and am now working as a teacher, it sets a great example that through creative writing, I’ve managed to get a potential career teaching in a school. The sessions will also help the students express themselves and give them more confidence in day to day situations, I.E socializing, job interviews, etc. Obviously with music and songwriting being the main skill learnt by the students, I will subliminally pushing for the factors that will help the young people in the future. Skill in the students will not change the end achievement and I will try to treat students equally.
Each section below will explain what I did in each session and how it went with the students participating in the lesson.
Session 1 - Introduction.
0-5
Introduction: I will start the course by introducing myself to the class and telling them a bit about myself. I will briefly speak about my experience at school and how using creative writing helped me form a potential career when I was in a position where I didn't know what I wanted to do with my future. I will then go onto speak about the main objectives of the courses and some of the steps we are going to take together to reach them.
I found that after feeling rather nervous, the introduction went a lot better than I anticipated. I spoke about my career as a musician and shows I’ve done along with the artists I’ve played with. The students were quite excited by my story. They were also very excited by the thought of writing and performing music. Some of the students had written before and some weren't so confident. I made it clear that as long as can express yourself you can write music. I also spoke about me failing my GSCE's and going on to getting a job teaching through expressing myself creatively, which the students appeared to relate to.
5-10
Ice Breaker: I will then get each student to participate in a simple icebreaker introducing each member of the class and something about them, helping me to learn their names and personalities.
I always find this icebreaker can be quite awkward for students that lack confidence as they struggle to think of something about themselves. I am going to look into a better introducing icebreaker, one that doesn’t put people on the spot.
10 - 20
Video of Bru-C: I will then play a short video of myself rapping to a camera about my life story. It touches on school, family life, confusion about the future and working hard. I'll then talk in more depth about my time at school, as I didn't do very well, but then go on to say that it is never too late too turn things around, as you can use anything to do that. I used creative writing. I'll then ask for any questions and move on.
Playing the video went really well, it impressed the students and gave them a real insight to what I do musically. It seemed to gain a level of respect, which was needed as some of the students became quite disruptive to begin with.
20 - 30
Icebreaker: I will then carry out my second icebreaker. As it is the first session I don't want too rush into any song writing and take my time to get the students in a creative mood, thinking outside the box at any given opportunity.
This icebreaker is called "The Desert Island" and is slightly competitive. I will split the class into groups of 4, getting each group to draw a stick man on an island on an A3 sheet of paper. They will then, in their groups, choose 5 items that the man can have with him on this desert island. Whether musical, or for survival. There are 5 items that he would need, and I’ve added in my own musical object (Guitar, instrumental, wind up vinyl player, etc). Whoever gets the most correct items wins a prize.
The Icebreaker started slow, a few students picked it up quicker than others, but after I did a brainstorm on the board with a few hints and clues about what kind of items you’d need, the rest of the class came with some great creative ideas.
30 - 50
Artist research: The students will then get on computers and research their favourite musical artist and fill out a bio/review of their favourite star. This helps me to understand what type of music each student likes and how much interest they have in music. If a student isn't into music that much I can then focus on making the opening lessons on writing about what they like, It also helps to understand the pace at which the students can work and their ability within English writing and gathering info.
The artist research started off quiet slow. A lot of students struggled with finding an artist and also finding basic information about them, similar to the icebreaker, some found it easy and others didn’t. Next time I do it ill-use a bigger time scale to finish the task.
50 - End.
Recap: I will then recap on the session and explain the reason we haven't done any song writing, as I wanted to spend a session getting to know the pupils. I will also recap on the video I showed the students and explain how important it is to be creative. I'll also talk about the next session, in which we'll be looking at figurative language, i.e. Similes, metaphors, onomatopoeias, etc and using them in creative writing.
The recap went well, I think starting the sessions without any songwriting made the students even more eager to write in the next sessions, especially after seeing me deliver songs I had written.
Overall the first lesson was a success, although I w I managed to get through the lesson, completing each task set out before hand. I wasn’t happy with my lack of confidence at times, I also stumbled through a few sentences, and this is something I need to work on for the future. I also think this comes down to not completely rehearsing what to say and delivering each lesson, I didn’t make this a priority when lesson planning, but I will take this into consideration in the future.
Session 2 - Figurative Language
0 -5
Recap, Lesson Plan.
I started the lesson by recapping on the first sessions and reminding the class what we had done. I also briefed the class on the lesson plan ahead, asking the class what they know about figurative language and explaining how important it can be in creative writing to describe phrases, stories, etc and help the listeners or readers get the feel of the subject.
The lesson started with a lot of the class being disruptive. A lot more than the following week. I struggled to control the class at first but the teacher assisting me managed to calm the class down as I explained the lesson plan.
5 - 10
Icebreaker
10 - 30
Fig. Language: I then asked the class what they know about figurative language. I explained how important using figurative languagewas in creative writing to describe phrases, stories, etc and help the listeners or readers get the feel of the subject. ThenI got the class into groups of four and hand out the quiz cards, in which they'll have to match each form of figurative language on the cards with the name and description of what each card represents. We will be looking at similes, metaphors, personification, hyperboles & symbolism.
The card game went really well on one hand and not so great on the other. Some of the class took to it really well, they managed to piece most of the cards together and came up with some great examples of metaphors that weren’t on the cards, while on the other hand some of the class didn’t take part whatsoever and failed to put the cards together.
30 - 45
Figurative Language in song-writing: I will then get each student to get into pairs and write a short verse for a song, poem, or simply a sentence using each form of figurative language. It doesn't have to be about anything but I'm going to push to get the pairs to write about a topic, possibly joining the lifestyles of their chosen artist they researched. It won't have to rhyme, although I will help them make each verse flow, but it isn't based on skill or ability and we won't focus on whose is better.
The songwriting was the best part of the whole lesson. Everybody participated, not everyone wrote a huge amount but they all put in a lot of effort and understood the writing process.
45 - 55
Performing Poems: I will then get each pair to come to the front of the class and read their poem, either together or one of them will take lead. I think this will help the students to become more confident amongst one another and help them to work together in teams.
As I expected, not everyone wanted to perform the poems /raps they had written. A lot of the class became shy when I asked them to come and perform and in the end, only one student performed what they had written
55 - End: I will then recap on the lesson, explaining why figurative language is so important when song-writing and its good to have understanding of it. I will also briefly talk about the next 3 sessions in which I will want students to get into teams and venture into creative writings on different topics, using imagery and music as inspiration.
On a whole the lesson went well, it was the first session in which the class took part in song writing and every student wrote something, so I was very happy. However, the class was very disruptive and at times I struggled to control them. I am going to have work on controlling the class and being stricter with pupils.
Session 3
0-5
Recap/Lesson goals: I will start the session by recapping the last session on fig. Language and how getting into teams helped each student discovers the benefits of using it in creative writing. I will then go onto explain the objectives and outcomes of the next 3 sessions, which we will be doing creative writing, using imagery and music, also working in teams. I have picked 3 topics for us to write about which are: The student’s futures (After School, College, etc), their role models and peer pressure. Swell as learning about creative writing, these topics will hopefully lead to great discussions between the students about where they're going after school, who inspires them and making the right decisions.
5 - 15
Icebreaker – The Interview
I started the session with an icebreaker called the interview. In this icebreaker, the class was divided into teams, each team given large sheets of paper. On the sheet of paper, each team had to draw a man/woman that was going to a job interview, smartly dressed, with notes of what type of attributes you would need for an interview. (I.E, manners, confidence, vocab).
The icebreaker was the best I have ever done. Both teams came with strong ideas and completed the task within the time limit set.
15 - 20
Explain song-writing using Imagery: I will now lay out 4 pictures that resemble the first topic the students will be writing about, which is their future. I will explain what each picture means to me and how I often use images to write songs, by brainstorming words that come to mind when looking at them and putting the words into sentences. The pictures will be of, a man with a lot of money, a man with no money, a man in a happy job and a man with no job or homeless.
The explanation was interrupted by a lot of talking by the group, which was quickly dismissed by the teacher assisting me on the session. I believe the young people could relate to the topic. Most of them were around14 or 15, soon leaving school and seemed to be concerned or have plans for their future.
20 - 30
Imagery Brainstorm: I will then get the students in to groups of 4/5 and get them to brainstorm words, which come to mind once looking at the pictures about their futures. This will help the students not only come up with some great words, but will also lead to great discussions about their futures after leaving school.
The brainstorm was extremely successful. All of the students gave input on the topic, some positive and some negative, which lead to great discussion and seemed to give everyone a good idea for their songwriting before we started any writing.
30 - 45
Write song/poem in groups: The students, in their groups will then use the words they have written in a brainstorm to put into a poem, verse for a song about their future. I will go round assisting the groups if they need help, usually I get students to write a sentence each using their word, it doesn't always have to rhyme.
45 - 55Performing their poem: I will then choose one person from each group to come to the front and read their poem, rewarding them with a prize of sweets/chocolate, which they can eat after the lesson.
55 - End
Recap / Next session: I will then recap the session by making the students aware of how important it is when creative writing to work with people around you to get different ideas for a song/poem, as sometimes other peoples opinions can be effective in a positive way. I will also briefly explain why it is important to think about your future after leaving school. I will then talk about the next session, in which we will be using the same method on writing on a different subject.
Session 4
0 - 5
Recap / Discuss session: I will start the session by recapping on last weeks group writing session and talk about today's session which will focus on writing about the students role models. I again think this will lead to interesting conversation, as most students will pick a parent/guardian while others may be inspired by a musician, actor, teach or friend.
5 - 15
Word-search of musicians/instruments/etc: The icebreaker for the session will be a word-search using words around the topics we have discussed over the last few sessions, i.e. figurative language, poetry, rap, singers, instruments, etc.
15 - 20
Play Skepta - Mom: I will then play a video of well known UK rapper named "Skepta" performing his song called "Mom". This song is about his Mum and how she is the main role model in his life. This will help the students who just see rap musicians talking about a lot of negative things in a more positive light, as Skepta, who usually is known for "Gangster Rap" has made a song all about his mother.
20 - 30
Imagery Brainstorm: I will then get the students in to groups of 4/5 and get them to brainstorm words, which come to mind once looking at the pictures about their Role Models. This will help the students not only come up with some great words, but will also lead to great discussions about their Role models.
30 - 45
Write song/poem in groups: The students, in their groups will then use the words they have written in a brainstorm to put into a poem, verse for a song about their role models. I will go round assisting the groups if they need help, usually I get students to write a sentence each using their word, it doesn't always have to rhyme.
45 - 55
Performing their poem: I will then choose one person from each group to come to the front and read their poem, rewarding them with a prize of sweets/chocolate, which they can eat after the lesson.
55 - End
Recap / Next session: I will then recap the session by making the students aware of how important it is when creative writing to work with people around you to get different ideas for a song/poem, as sometimes other peoples opinions can be effective in a positive way. I will also briefly explain why it is important to know who your role models are and appreciate them to the fullest.