Self-Story, Self-Worth and Self-Sufficiency:
A Creative Writing Session with Adult Basic Education Tutors
1. Introduction: from belted misspeller to writer of the story of the belted misspeller.
2. Reflections on the Story To Tell Project at the Energi Drop-in Centre, St Monans:
a collaborative venture between creative writing and Adult Basic Education.
4. Not learning and learning from the past: correcting errors and encouraging play.
6. In search of an integrated model of creative and literacy learning: self-story, self-worth
and self-sufficiency.
8. Anatomy of a Poem exercise and discussion.
9. Conclusion: towards a therapeutic future of self-value.
A Creative Writing Session with Adult Basic Education Tutors
1. Introduction: from belted misspeller to writer of the story of the belted misspeller.
2. Reflections on the Story To Tell Project at the Energi Drop-in Centre, St Monans:
a collaborative venture between creative writing and Adult Basic Education.
- If you have lived a life, you have a story to tell.
- Life experience is an innate source of creative self-expression.
4. Not learning and learning from the past: correcting errors and encouraging play.
- Learning models that emphasise linguistic and intellectual structure at the expense of creative and self-expressive elements neglect the crucial role of personal awareness and self-experience in the formation of a person’s learning world.
- The teaching of literacy skills can benefit from the complementary teaching of creative expressional and experiential skills. A blend of both methods can combat a correctional mentality and methodology in educational practice that, in its worst form, leads to the loss of any correlation to the source of language itself: the creative spirit and inquiry of ordinary people.
6. In search of an integrated model of creative and literacy learning: self-story, self-worth
and self-sufficiency.
- The process of self-story can be described as the exploration and manifestation of a person’s identity, experience and awareness through creative self-expression.
- Through this process of self-story a person can move from their creative centre into an environment of self-worth, acknowledging and being acknowledged for their personal value as a creative being.
- Through this process of self-story and self-worth, a person can move with greater confidence into the social worlds of language and communication, thereby enhancing their sense of self-sufficiency.
8. Anatomy of a Poem exercise and discussion.
9. Conclusion: towards a therapeutic future of self-value.
words and pictures © 2011 John Brewster music ℗ 2011 John Brewster graphics public domain, courtesy of wpclipart.com and karenswhimsy.com
