Blog Post (2)
Kevin Hodgson introduces a very unique and interesting way to get students to engage with creative writing. In his blog post “6th Graders Learn to Write with Sound” he discloses to the audience a very special class lesson that he came up with that incorporates creative writing and new technology. Understanding that many students are far more interested in technology and music in his class, Kevin figured out a very creative way to use this almost ubiquitous interest throughout his class to assist him in getting his students interested in creative writing.
The app garage band is a fun music creating service on the computer that allows anyone to create essentially any rudimentary musical score or song. It presents users with a wide array of sound effects and beats to create your own artistic or just goofing around piece of music. It’s usually a device used in music or technology classes for obvious reasons. But Kevin recognized that this musical app could be the creative solution to a recurring problem that English students and writers of all levels often deal with- writers’ block.
One of the most common complaints when trying to get students to write and express themselves with fiction is “I don’t know what to write about”. For many people he creative spring isn’t as vivacious as it is for others. Some people are more practical or quantitative in their thought processes. As an English teacher, at any level, you are going to deal with students that fall on all areas of this spectrum, and it is your job to help them find a way to express themselves literarily and with strong cohesion. That is why I appreciate what Kevin Hodgson did, he took an app that strips away the scariness of writer’s block or lack of ideas and did so with a tool that students find fun and accessible. By encouraging his students to come up with a “onomatopoeia-ic” story that draws on a variety of different sound affects as the framework for the short narrative, Hodgson successfully batters down the wall that holds back creativity. I think that this is very useful as an encouragement for us as teachers; it is very possible to find a unique way to encourage creative writing and writing in general that engages students that range from Shakespearean in their imagination to the most straight forward thinker.
-- Mitchell
Kevin Hodgson introduces a very unique and interesting way to get students to engage with creative writing. In his blog post “6th Graders Learn to Write with Sound” he discloses to the audience a very special class lesson that he came up with that incorporates creative writing and new technology. Understanding that many students are far more interested in technology and music in his class, Kevin figured out a very creative way to use this almost ubiquitous interest throughout his class to assist him in getting his students interested in creative writing.
The app garage band is a fun music creating service on the computer that allows anyone to create essentially any rudimentary musical score or song. It presents users with a wide array of sound effects and beats to create your own artistic or just goofing around piece of music. It’s usually a device used in music or technology classes for obvious reasons. But Kevin recognized that this musical app could be the creative solution to a recurring problem that English students and writers of all levels often deal with- writers’ block.
One of the most common complaints when trying to get students to write and express themselves with fiction is “I don’t know what to write about”. For many people he creative spring isn’t as vivacious as it is for others. Some people are more practical or quantitative in their thought processes. As an English teacher, at any level, you are going to deal with students that fall on all areas of this spectrum, and it is your job to help them find a way to express themselves literarily and with strong cohesion. That is why I appreciate what Kevin Hodgson did, he took an app that strips away the scariness of writer’s block or lack of ideas and did so with a tool that students find fun and accessible. By encouraging his students to come up with a “onomatopoeia-ic” story that draws on a variety of different sound affects as the framework for the short narrative, Hodgson successfully batters down the wall that holds back creativity. I think that this is very useful as an encouragement for us as teachers; it is very possible to find a unique way to encourage creative writing and writing in general that engages students that range from Shakespearean in their imagination to the most straight forward thinker.
-- Mitchell