Main Language Of International Circulation

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction.............................................................................................................5

Chapter 1: Creativity..............................................................................................7

Chapter 2: Creative Writing................................................................................16

Chapter 3: Teaching Creative Writing in secondary school............................32

Conclusions............................................................................................................44

Bibliography..........................................................................................................46

Introduction

In the past few years, the teaching of English has become more and more important. English is the main language of international circulation. You cannot go anywhere abroad if you do not know English, at least at the level of conversation. I think that there should be laid more stress on the importance of teaching properly this language, in order to prepare students who go study abroad.

Until recently, in Romania, the teaching of foreign languages was seen as an optional, unimportant course. Even the English teachers were not that interested in teaching foreign languages; they used to give grades only on reading, omitting the other aspects of the language. All the students had "A", but they could barely speak in English. However, the world is developing quickly and we are, after all, a European country, member of the European Union. Nowadays the knowledge of a foreign language is crucial in surviving in a European country. The tourism has developed a lot in the past few years and foreign tourists come to visit our country more and more often. So, one has to deal with English everywhere.

My topic for my diploma paper is "Creativity". I chose this topic because I think people have forgot to be creative nowadays and creativity is the "sugar and spice" of life. Being creative is a necessity in a world, dominated by money, greed, poverty, scandals, evil. In these crucial moments of crisis, we need to be better, to help one another, to become more selfless, in order to be able to surpass the obstacles. Creativity is a way of life, a way of living, a way of embellishing the world around us.

Now, the level I am addressing is that of secondary school children (that means children between eleven and sixteen years old). This category of children is already formed in terms of language, their basic structure is already set and they are old enough to think about pretty complex issues and to ask surprising questions. At this age, they ask a lot of questions and they have a very developed sense of fairness about what happens in the class and begin to question the teacher’s decisions. It is important to cultivate cooperation and not competition between them. They need other children’s presence, rather than to "fight" with each other for different rewards and prizes. If you use this method of ambitioning them, you may have children who will feel rather excluded and angry on the one who won the prise that might have been his. At this age is recommendable to use a lot of games and creative activities, because information is easier to be remembered from practical activities that they also find fun.

Chapter One: Creativity

According to Oxford English Dictionary, "creativity" means "involving the use of skill and the imagination to produce something new or a work of art". From a pedagogical point of view, creativity is the act of transforming new, imaginary ideas, to reality. It is a complex process that involves the whole personality of the student and that can be developed within the school or by attending extra-curricular activities.

Actually, creativity is a way of solving problems, which implies flexibility and adaptability of the thought. Being creative makes your life a lot more interesting and more fun, makes you let go of everyday problems easier. Being creative is letting go the certainties and allowing yourself to express freely, without any boundaries or rules.

Nowadays people should understand life is too short to consume your nerves and resources on every problem that comes your way; everybody is concerned with finding better paid jobs, earning raises, gaining money, buying a new car, building an enormous house, not thinking that youth is rapidly passing and that years don’t ever come back.. People should learn to live for the moment, let go of troubles and try to enjoy life more, without any evil thoughts and envies on the neighbour’s new car or new wife. There are more important things in life. And most of the best things one needs in order to be happy are free: love, hugs, kisses, smiles, friends, sleep, laughter and good memories.

One must learn to appreciate what they have, because it can always get worse. We should learn to be happier, to stop arguing about silly things that fade with the time. We are only passers-by in this life, we are not the centre of the Universe, we are born, we grow up, we grow old and die. So why do not make this life worth remembering and telling to our grandsons and granddaughters as an example to follow?

In the past years, the educational system is trying to change, to pass from the traditional methods to the modern ones, which are more effective and lay stress on imagination and creativity, rather than learning by heart all kind of information. The traditional methods are teacher-centred, focus on sending information, on learning by heart information, induce passivism of the students, promote competition and the classes are pass in a tense atmosphere. On the other hand, the modern methods of teaching are student-centred, focus on researching, not just sending information, the students are actively involved in the teaching process, promote cooperation between colleagues and the democratic relations of leadership. Modern methods of teaching are usually based on children’s creativity and capacity of solving problems and finding answers.

The modern methods involve the usage of all sort of creative activities, which are very useful in opening children’s appetite in creating. Creative activities are very important in developing skills and stimulating children’s imagination. In addition, the children will be more attracted to learn because there is nothing imposed, there are fewer rules to follow and, in principle, any form of creative answer is accepted, as long as it sticks to the topic. If the learning process is seen more as a creative one, the children will be more interested in school and will not be so terrified by homework and by being evaluated by the teacher.

The teacher’s attitude in class is very important to the good functioning of the classes. Of course, the most important thing when it comes to teaching is a very well preparation of the teacher. A good teacher must know very well what he is talking about, so that when students ask questions, he will know to give a satisfying answer, or else he will be perceived as a non-informed person. If the teacher has a bad day and the students notice it, the class is carried on, in a tense atmosphere, the children feel bored or sad. If the teacher is active and creative, the children tend to be the same: they find answers quickly, they are willing to respond to questions, the whole class is carried on, in an alert atmosphere.

It is demonstrated that a teacher with good sense of humour is more appreciated and loved by his students than a rigid one. When the teacher makes jokes, the atmosphere in class becomes more familiar and the stress is easier to bear. If the teacher also shows interest in his students, they will become more active and interested as well; a good teacher tries to remember his students’ names, he appreciates the progress they made, the interest in his subject.

An important aspect that a teacher must keep in mind is to avoid children’s boredom. At young ages, it is difficult to keep children’s interest alive for too long. For this matter, the teacher must be spontaneous and surprise the students with new activities. On the other hand, a class stuffed with all sort of activities can be very tiring. Such classes cause the exhaustion of students. Therefore, the classes must be balanced in activities, pauses and jokes, teacher talking time and student talking time.

The teacher that is constantly rejecting the diversity of ideas and solutions to different problems has the effect of driving his students’ intellect and imagination to the direction of his own thoughts. The ideal teacher must be very open-minded, creative, spontaneous, he must surprise his students each time he has the occasion.

Of course, he also needs to provide an environment that bursts with creativity, with colour, with ideas. He must teach the children they must not be afraid to fail, because failure is sometimes a step forward and it is a perfectly normal phenomenon: every human being makes mistakes and errors, every human being is allowed to correct his faults, to be sorry, to ask an apology.

Making mistakes does not make you stupid, makes you a perfectly normal human being. Many times, the corrected errors are easier to remember than the explained rules. It is a lot easier to remember what you practiced than what you memorized. It is a lot easier to find the rule by starting from the practical example you can recall from your memory.

In order to develop efficiently students’ creative potential, some obstacles need to be surpassed:

-cultural blockages: conformism (of the student or that of the teacher), mistrust in creativity and exaggerated appreciation of logical thinking,

-methodological blockages: rigid rules and methods, early criticism,

-emotional blockages: the fear of failure, the hurry to accept the first idea, discouragement, the exaggerated tendency to outshine the others, anxiety about deadlines.

These blockages can be surpassed by explaining the children that they are allowed to make mistakes and to ask questions if there is anything that they do not understand. The teacher will answer willingly to their questions, but when there are things that they had already learnt, he asks the others in the class to give the answer.

The best-known active learning techniques of developing children’s imagination and creativity are Brainstorming, Phillips 6/6 Method, 6-3-5 Brain Writing Method, Panel Discussion, Role-Play and Free Writing.

Brainstorming Method

Brainstorming is an efficient method of group creativity, meant to create a large amount of ideas for solving a specific problem, by gathering a group of persons who tell spontaneously their solutions. The main idea of this method is that many people together work better than alone in generating ideas, because they might get inspired one from the other and they will come to a large amount of solutions in the end.

The activity starts with a clear presentation of the problem that needs to be solved. Then the participants are asked to formulate ideas about the problem. Each student must tell everything that goes through his mind about the theme of the discussion. The teacher plays the role of the leader and writes all the ideas on the blackboard. At the end of the class, the ideas gathered are debated and the valuable ones are elected as solutions.

Phillips 6/6 Method

This method is applicable to a larger group of persons, up to sixty. The participants are divided into subgroups of six persons, who will debate the problem for 6 minutes. Each subgroup chooses a leader who writes down the ideas and the final solutions. After the six minutes have gone, each leader expresses the solution that his group arrived to. All the solutions are wrote down on the blackboard and discussed, to find the best of them.

6-3-5 Brain Writing Method

The students are divided into groups of six, each of them proposing three ideas in a maximum time of five minutes. The teacher formulates the theme and each child writes down three solutions. Each student passes his answers to the one on his right, taking the sheet of the one on his left, for bringing improvements to the ideas he receives. The sheets spin five times, until all the others see the propositions of each member. At the end of the class, the best ideas are chosen from the large amount of propositions.

The Panel Discussion Method

A group of five up to seven persons is chosen to talk about a certain topic. This group, named "panel" must be very well prepared on the subject to be debated. The others listen silently the discussion, but they can intervene by sending written notes to the "panel", of different colours, containing suggestions or personal opinions. After receiving the notes, the panel resumes the discussion, relying on the suggestions received. The teacher, along with the panel formulates the conclusions of the discussion.

Role-Play

The method consists of theatrical improvisation on an established theme. Role-play can be used to all levels of age. It can be used for helping children integrate in society, for introducing them to the attitudes a certain job implies, in order to form the capacities of improving the professional role. By playing social and professional roles, the children can verify their own qualities of expression and their vocational orientation. After the roles have been played, the participants discuss the role-play, the interactions and the social and educative conclusions are drawn.

Free Writing Method

Free writing is a very useful and productive method when it comes to finding new ideas and new perspectives. Free writing consists of writing for five up to fifteen minutes your thoughts on a sheet of paper, in order to find inspiration and to clear your mind of problems.

The use of these methods during the teaching process brings a number of advantages. The teaching-learning activities no longer seem boring or frightening but rather attractive. The children are encouraged to communicate with one another, to work together, to cooperate. These methods can make the students better thinkers, better "creators". As a teacher, you can use a lot of tools and ways to make the lessons more enjoyable and to build relationships between the children and between you and your students.

By being all the time involved actively in the teaching process, by trying to innovate and to facilitate the access to knowledge, by not giving up but rather by pushing your students to do more you prove yourself to be a real teacher. Students need to feel that they go to school for fun and not because it is compulsory or that their parents say so. As teachers, we have to know how to stimulate their desire to become important people.

The main benefits of the modern methods I presented are that students are placed in the middle of the educational process, their needs are listened and they are taught to learn by doing, think outside the box and ask for help when they really need it. The students are encouraged to cooperate, to do their best to make it work. Team spirit is extremely important in nowadays society as well as the ability to communicate fast and accurate what you have to say.

The improvement of the creative side of the children does not depend only on the teacher. The parents should get involved into this process too. The parents can help their child’s creativity development:

- by providing an environment that allows the child to explore and to play without exaggerated restraints,

- by trying to adapt to their child’s ideas, without imposing him the ideas of the grownups,

- by accepting the unusual ideas of their child, without judging his different way of solving a problem

- by using creative manners of solving the everyday problems

- by giving him enough time to explore all the possibilities, to pass from the common ideas to the original ones.

- by encouraging the process, not the goal

- by allowing their children to take risks, to question any idea, to see things from a different point of view.

Chapter Two: Creative Writing

What does creative writing mean? Why is it important to teach creative writing and to have a course of creative writing in every school? The first chapter of this paper will deal with answering these questions. First, we should deal with what these two words mean: "creative" and "writing". According to Oxford English Dictionary, "creation" means "the act or process of making something that is new, or of causing something that did not exist before"; "creative" means "involving the use of skill and the imagination to produce something new or a work of art."

The same dictionary defines the verb "to write" as: "1. To make letters or numbers on a surface, especially using a pen or a pencil. 2. To produce something in written form so that people can read, perform or use it, etc." According to Oxford English dictionary, creative writing is "the activity of writing poetry and fiction, especially as an educational subject." Therefore, creative writing refers to the activity of expressing originally one’s feelings and thoughts using imagination and creativity.

The difference between "writing" and "creative writing" is obvious: one can write on any subject, but it takes creativity and a lot of imagination to create fiction, poetry, stories and novels. For example, every student does his/her homework; he/she writes a few thoughts without thinking too much about the result-that is not creative writing. However, in order to be a reporter, one must be acquainted to the rules that need to be followed, in order to create a good piece of writing. As for a journalist, one must study very well the subject of the article, so the public will not receive the wrong information. If you write fiction, you can make up a story, but still, you must know how to structure it, in order to captivate the reader, to make him want to read the book entirely; some writers have this talent, others try to build it in time. Therefore, the concept of "creative writing" refers to any piece of writing such as poem, novel, story that was created by someone who had a lot of imagination, a lot of ideas to write about.

Romania’s educational system is mainly teacher centred, using traditional methods of teaching, ignoring most of the time the children’s will or ideas, constraining them to learn by heart and to take for granted what others say. They are not expected to create anything, they are taught to imitate, to reproduce what they are told. Children’s sense of creativity is repressed, their opinions are not accepted and they are not encouraged in any way to develop this skill.

Creativity is a capacity that can be improved through time, by exercising writing and reading a lot, especially literature. There are a lot of differences between traditional and modern methods of teaching. The traditional methods are teacher-centred, focus on sending information, on learning by heart information, induce passivism of the students, promote competition and the classes are pass in a tense atmosphere. On the other hand, the modern methods of teaching are student-centred, focus on researching, not just sending information, the students are actively involved in the teaching process, promote cooperation between colleagues and the democratic relations of leadership. Modern methods of teaching are usually based on children’s creativity and capacity of solving problems and finding answers.

Children nowadays are usually very open-minded and they are happy to express their own points of view, their opinions and their thoughts. We all know that bright witty, loud, extrovert children usually dominate all classes. These dominant children are very ambitious , competitive and they tend to exaggerate when they know the answer to the question the teacher asks. As a teacher, it is easy to be captivated by such enjoyable children, and sometimes you forget about the others. There are other children who would like to express their feelings too, but they have certain fears: that of not being good enough, that their answer is not what the teacher expected or that maybe somebody else could give a better answer than theirs.

There are a lot of students who can express their feelings a lot easier by writing, than by talking. They may have that fear of talking in front of everybody or the fear that their answer might not be the right one, but the teacher should encourage them to talk or to read what they wrote before, even if the answer is not the expected one. In order to involve these children n the teaching process too, the teacher should ask the class to solve exercises by writing the answers down on the notebook and then share them with the class.

The teacher should offer his young learners the opportunity to express themselves, he could use their curiosity and their interest towards what is new to attire their attention on the learning process. Questions like "What do you think about...?" or "What is your opinion upon...?" should not miss from creative writing classes. Children can be asked to discuss different subject matters in groups, to write the main ideas on a sheet of paper and afterwards to share their conclusions with the other colleagues. This way, children can freely express their points of view upon different subjects, without fearing the superiority of the teacher.

When teaching a new lesson, a new concept or term, children should be asked what do they know about it or, if they are not familiar with it, what do they think it means and why. This way, the teacher involves learners in the teaching process and gives them the opportunity to share their thoughts. Another advantage of this technique is that they do not only memorize a definition, they struggle to find a meaning for that new word, so they understand and remember easier the meaning, using their own words.

In a course of creative writing any opinion is accepted, there are no wrong ideas and good ideas: everyone can express their feelings. Any work of art is valuable, from a certain point of view. Every author regards life in a certain way, his work is influenced by his experience, by the environment he grew up in, by the relationship with other people (family, friends, acquaintances etc), by important events in his past, etc. The same way, different events in people’s lives influence their way of thinking, the priorities in their decisions. People are all different, every person is unique and each individual has his own personality, way of thinking, ways of solving problems, hobbies.

Children are like little grown-ups, they imitate what they see and the teacher ought to adapt to their personalities and needs and to optimize the learning process for each of them. The teacher plays a very important role in his students’ life, growth and education. Children see the teacher as a model in their life, they admire his qualities and his knowledge. Therefore, the teacher must take his role seriously and accept the challenge of being his students’ model. He must be aware of the influence he can have upon young children and not abuse it or exaggerate with his authority upon children.

Therefore, every opinion is to be taken into account, none should be rejected. If you, as a teacher, constantly reject children’s opinions, to imposed ideas, you prove to be a rigid person, discouraging the children to come up with original ideas, making them believe that what they think is wrong. The teacher plays a very important role in children’s life, growth and education: he is perceived by his students as a superior person and can easily influence their young minds.

The teacher should be conscious of his qualities, of his great power of changing ways of thinking and to try to let children think for themselves, not to take for granted everything they are told. The children must know that they can argue upon any statement, they can question any theory and can imagine anything. Teachers must know the language they are to teach; they must be able to use the language themselves and have an insight into the rules that govern its form and the factors that affect its rules. At the same time, they need to know the skills they are going to perform. It is useless to ask your students to complete a task you cannot do yourself.

Einstein once said "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." As long as you still have imagination, you can go anywhere you want and do anything you desire. By imagining, you can create a perfect world and if you are skilled, you can change it, by creating stories and fiction. Another important element in creating fiction is language. One must know to use appropriate language in different occasions, to adapt words depending on the context we want to use them. With friends, we can use any words we want, counting on the fact that they know what we mean without explaining too much, because of the background we share. However, in a formal context, we must use a very different type of language, using academic words, longer phrases, more explanations, etc. Therefore, you cannot start writing if you cannot handle the language itself.

The problem is how to approach creative writing, taking into account the development of technology, the new way of thinking of children nowadays. If you ask a child to write you a short story, he will certainly write something about robots, laser fights, guns or anything related to these subjects. You will not find a child to write a tale with princes, white horses and fairies. Technology has developed a lot in the past 20 years and this affects the children’s perception upon life, they cannot understand the way of thinking of their parents, of the grownups in general.

For example, during my teaching practice, a thirteen-years-old girl was asked to write a short story, on any subject, and to present it in front of her colleagues, during the English class. She wrote a story entitled "Chuck Norris for a day"; she imagined what she would do if she had the power of doing anything she wants with no consequences or boundaries, using all sort of gadgets. This proves the creativity a child gives proof of, and the gap between generations, present everywhere in our life.

Therefore, the teacher must not underestimate the capacity of creating of the children, he should always give credit to his students, give them the chance to rise from the ranks, to prove their capacities in front of the class. In addition, the teacher must know how to correct the mistakes without discouraging the student, without compromising him in front of his colleagues, without making him feel bad for making minor errors. Children must be encouraged to share their thoughts even if sometimes they do not really get the correct idea about a certain subject. Young learners are full of ideas, they can give alternatives to any solution, they have interesting and innovative ideas, sometimes very different from the ones of the older generations.

Reading is an important source of developing children’s imagination, creativity, personality and thinking. The problem is that children nowadays do not really like to read anymore; they prefer watching TV instead of grabbing a book and begin to read. Mass media has its good parts, but for children it is actually harmful, especially when the parent exaggerates by leaving his child in front of the television for hours, so he will be able to finish his project/ work or whatever.

When a child is watching TV, his brain is being passive, just receiving information, watching the pictures that move in front of his eyes. However, when a child reads, his brain is fully involved in the process of thinking as he tries to picture the action in the book/ novel, as he tries to imagine how the characters look like. The processes that occur in a child’s brain help him to develop his language (he encounters new words and searches their meaning), his imagination, his creativity (he can use ideas from what he read and develop them in order to fit his new topic), he finds information about different subjects and his knowledge improves.

Children who spend all their time in front of the television or the computer tend to become introverts, they get isolated from the real world and they find it hard to integrate into social groups. Therefore, a child who reads a lot is more mentally developed than one who just sits in front of a television to watch cartoons or whatever.

Children’s preferences are nowadays very different from the ones we had fifteen years ago: aliens and their spaceships replaced the charming princes on white horses, superheroes with supernatural powers replaced fighting knights who saved ladies from evil dragons; of course books adapted to present requirements. The problem with these new subjects is that they are not educative anymore.

The teacher has to encourage his students to read those books that teach them how to appreciate their value, how to respect the others, how to difference the evil from the good and even how to create something of their own (for instance, literary creation). Unfortunately, nowadays seems to exist a terrible freedom in writing and this is not beneficial because there are no rules to follow, everybody writes about any subject, they do not create for pleasure, but for money or publicity and this destroys the writing process and the audience’s expectations as well. This leads to a general state of confusion among readers because there is too much information and too many writers and it is difficult to separate the good ones from the less experienced or creative ones. .

If children read more or see more they are more likely to be able to create something really good because they can choose from the diversity of topics that others wrote about. After reading an average amount of books, one should know how to separate a quality literary piece from a poorly written one. Therefore, the teacher must encourage children to read as much as they can or as much as their time allows it.

The necessity of creative writing classes is often questioned by children and by other teachers too. Here is the answer: children need these classes in order to make students think on their own and afterwards put their thoughts on paper. A course in Creative writing does not have to address precisely to those who have a native talent, but to anyone who wants to introduce himself or herself to the world of literature, to the rules behind a book or an article. It is desirable that everyone could attend, at a certain point of their lives, a course in creative writing, because the main aspect of it is to stimulate the positive dimensions of the human being and his thinking.

Even if the student does not become a writer, the course can still help him in everyday life, teaching him to look at a problem from other sides. Such classes are perfect in helping students develop their personality. It can help them become better thinkers, to grow more organized because a great part of writing consists of knowing how to organize your message, in order to make your audience follow your line of thought.

A course in Creative writing can change mentalities, improve the relationship between teachers and their students and make learning process more interesting and easier. When a child shares his personal experience or his own thoughts and ideas with the teacher and the entire class, a connection is established between the three; the little "writer" trusts the others to tell a secret or to narrate an event. It is said that most writers tend to write from their own experience, telling the stories of their lives or expressing their own opinions and perspectives on certain subjects or ideas. The bottom line is that a writer cannot write about something he / she did not live or experience, he / she did not hear or something about or something he / she did not believe in. Through writing, everyone can express his feelings: anger, sadness, happiness or anguish. Everybody knows it is a lot easier, especially for emotional persons, to send a letter or a text message instead of telling face to face the one you love, you have an important announcement to make or an important decision you have taken. Therefore, it is a lot easier to express your emotions by writing.

Some people argue saying that it is harder to write nonfiction rather than creative literature. Nonfiction denotes a writing that is about real people, real facts with nothing imaginary in it. In other words, nonfiction is reality while fiction is reality and imagination in the same time. A creative work requires more efforts than a nonfictional one. We all can write nonfiction pieces, but only a few of us can really create something relying solely on their imagination. The students need to read as much creative writing as possible in order to understand how far the human imagination can go. Nonfiction has its positive side since it presents real facts that we all know and can rely on. We all need a getaway from daily troubles, from the routine that rules over our lives. We all need a place where imagination is stimulated. The students need a better world, even if only on paper, they can learn to have faith that something will change and they can create the world of their dreams , only using their mind power.

Whenever we are trying to make life meaningful, we are being creative. We would all like to live forever, but we are aware that it is not possible. The only way to become "immortal" is to leave a certain legacy behind when we die, consisting in artistic creations that will stay alive, reminding the others about the person who wrote them. For example, the well-known poet Mihai Eminescu, even after twelve decades passed from his death, is still internationally renowned as the greatest Romanian poet. Even if the time passed and the world has changed a lot since Eminescu wrote those poems, there still are people who appreciate his work. Even if he was not rich, even if he had no special abilities, he had this talent to write in such a manner to sensitise the reader. In the chaos of our existence, creativity looks like a life belt, making us change something for our mental welfare.

It is said that the creative process exists in all of us and it just needs to be developed and stimulated in order to be able to create. There are a lot of persons who may not think they are creative or who may not feel capable of creating anything, but, in fact those are the ones who can become great creators. This is the exact attitude a teacher of creative writing should have, in order to encourage his students to write or at least to try it. In the beginning, the teacher should teach them a few rules regarding the creative process, encourage them and make them understand the process itself. It is very likely that the inherent talent inside them reveals.

However, inherent talent is not sufficient when it comes to create. Talent must be developed by hard work, a lot of ambition and determination or else it is a complete waste. You could be the best student in mathematics or physics, but without any training, this talent is lost. Talent is a quality that needs permanent attention and permanent maintenance. You cannot take it for granted nor rest solely on the fact that your professor says you are gifted. The road from "hero to zero" is usually paved with laziness and self-sufficiency. The same applies when t comes to writing  talent is not enough perseverance is the key. A good command of the language, inborn talent, ability to foresee the expectations of the audience are necessary ingredients in order to be able to call yourself a writer. Another crucial detail is the ability to really tell a story  this is actually the deal breaker when it comes to writing.

A Creative Writing Course is suitable for every level; we can adapt its content in order to suit the necessities of the students. So, it may be taught from the very first years of study and in the following grades. The bottom line is that no matter when it is taught, it brings numerous benefits to the students who attend it. The course may start with a lot of speaking exercises and discussions on different subjects. Gradually, students’ critical thinking develops and they are soon able to put their thoughts on paper. The topics for discussion should be at first more general, accessible to every single child; for example their hobbies. When given the task of debating on a certain topic, not all of them find it easy to express themselves, especially in a foreign language. However, they must not be allowed to refuse taking part on such tasks, but rather encouraged to participate, with all the risks of making mistakes.

Mistakes are often perceived as a sign of stupidity, especially among the younger children. They must know this is a wrong perception of making errors! Everyone can make a tiny mistake out of inattention or simply because he focuses too much on a certain thing and is careless to the others. Even the teacher can make mistakes! It is more important to discover them on time, so that they will not be repeated again.

The children must be aware that they are allowed to make tiny mistakes, as long as they keep in mind the correction and they try not to repeat it again. In addition, they must know that even the teacher can make a mistake sometimes, that they can draw his attention upon it, and that they can ask any question. If the teacher does not have an answer yet, they will receive an explanation as soon as possible. A dictionary in class can be very useful, because children can search on their own for the words they need or they do not know. Now, back to the subject, one can be very hesitant in the beginning, so it would be advisable that the first steps we take refer to one’s ability to communicate in the teaching language. We may start with simple sentences and messages that have to be translated from one language to another. Since people generally think in their native language, the ability to translate and to transfer the message accurately must be developed. These first steps are very important and they must not be skipped! The next step would be the elaboration of messages only in English. The children are asked to think and speak using only English, without going back to their native language. These two early phases only cover the ability to communicate orally. After this ability is mastered, children may be taught how to express themselves in writing. At the early phase, they may be asked to reproduce simple oral commands and afterwards they might be asked to express inner feelings, thoughts, hopes, expectations, using only English. At all levels creative games, word games, music and any other materials are very useful in order to facilitate the learning process. Lastly, the children can dare to create literary works of their own.

Another important aspect the teacher must keep in mind is the necessity to constantly determine the children read. It is impossible to be a writer if you do not constantly read. Therefore, the teacher must select a list of compulsory readings, covering all literary genres and all literary periods. Only by having a solid cultural background o person might aspire to become a writer. It is essentially important that children understand the entire mechanism that hides behind the writer: a writer does not always get up early in the morning or late in the afternoon and the ideas pop out of his mind and he just puts them on paper. On more than one occasions, the writer has to do a lot of research in order to prepare his work. It is hard to write about things you have not encountered yet, or about places you have never been. Therefore, a writer must be well informed in order to create a valuable piece of writing. It is pretty easy to write carelessly about mediocre subjects, but it is hard to give the best a writer can give through his work.

We may think that this type of course is easier to teach to more advanced students, assuming that they have already assimilated a lot of information and that they have a certain background knowledge. However, considering the real situation, that children tent to skip compulsory readings and to read summaries and watch movies instead, I think it is better to teach Creative Writing from early grades, when children are more receptive and more opened towards learning and reading. If the Creative Writing course teacher is able to draw his students on this way of creativity, of discovering things, those children will have an appetite for creating and will be very interested in this field; they will also become young students with a solid cultural background, with no problems of communication and with a strong personality.

A Creative Writing course does not imply that every student must become a famous writer. The aim of such course is that of helping students discover creativity and use it in order to embellish their lives. Creativity is not constraint to literature, but it can apply to everyday life. People need to be creative when they have to deal with different problems from work, when they have to find solutions, to come up with different ideas in order to succeed in everything they do.

Learning in school to analyze a problem from more than one perspective would be a great achievement one could hope for. Grown-ups and students alike are used to react at the first impulse without giving too much thought to the consequences of their action. Every choice you make, changes your life for a certain period of time. Some bad choices have long-term consequences and change your life forever. One needs to act cautiously in life and think twice before taking any risks. Therefore, it is my strong belief that a Creative Writing course has a lot of benefits and that, if taken seriously, it can influence one’s life forever! For sure, it will not make each and everyone a writer, but it will develop their ability to express themselves accurately.

We live in a world where communication is the key to almost all the problems. We find ourselves forced to translate our own words, to reshape our messages because the one we are talking to does not understand; we need to find the appropriate words, to select them in order to fit the context and our interlocutor receives the exact message that we want to transmit. The lack of understanding appears because of our diminished ability to be concise. Therefore, we all need courses that help us structuralize our thoughts; special classes that help us deconstruct and reconstruct the workings of our mind. Communication starts in our minds and if our minds are not organized, the messages we create and want to transmit to the others cannot get through accurately.

A creative writing course can also help students master the ability to communicate in another language. We live in a multicultural world and we need to know as many languages as possible, in order to communicate independently. The ability to think in a language that is not your native one is a pretty complicated process and it takes a lot of practice to master it. Some will never master this ability, but the simple fact that they can utter words in a foreign language, built in simple line, express messages is already a gain. Anyway, writing about something that you like is an important step forward in the creative process and it can bring nothing but success.

The last chapter of this paper will deal in dept with what creative writing entails and how we can effectively teach it. It is a complicated process but its benefits are not to be neglected.

Chapter Three: Teaching Creative Writing

In the previous chapters, I have written about the concept of "Creative Writing" and what aspects teaching such a course imply. I have tried to show how important it is for children to attend a course in Creative Writing.

The third chapter offers a personalized approach to teaching creative writing. I will present several manners in which the teacher can organize a creative writing course. We will also offer examples of activities and lesson sequences. Any optional needs a good introduction, but somehow a creative writing one needs a perfect introduction. After all, when we decide to teach others to play with words, we have to master this art. The truth is that nowadays we do not have enough time to fulfil our dreams. It is hard to start searching about writing, to find good examples of books to read, to encourage ourselves to work alone. That is why we consider that this type of course could be useful in a school.

A large variety of subjects is taught in schools so why not have a creative writing course as well? Our students learn Mathematics, History, English, Music, Sports, etc, so why cannot we teach them how to create? A lot of people will probably say that this kind of course could not be taught to all classes of secondary school, but only to the children that have talent. This is a wrong presumption, because creative writing is like Music classes or Sports or even Drawing classes. Not all the students have good voices, but Music is a compulsory subject in our schools. Not all the students are talented in Sports, some can hardly move, but even so, they study Sports in school. Not every child can draw or could become a famous painter, but Drawing classes are also compulsory. So why not study Creative writing as well? Of course, not all the students become famous writers, but at least, if they decide someday to start writing, they will remember that they have learnt about this and things will be easier for them because they have a starting point.

Throughout the schooling experience, a person studies a lot of subjects of minor importance for their academic future and even if one admits this thing, one does nothing about it. What teachers can do is to help children think of their own, to put their thoughts on paper in the most special way they can imagine. They do not have to learn anything by heart, all they have to do is to be cooperative, to think positive and to give their best when it comes to creating. In order to begin the creative process, the students must answer these five crucial questions:

What do you understand by "writing"?

Would you like to become a writer?

What would you like to write about? Give at least three examples.

What do you think people write for? (fame, money, to impress someone, to express themselves)

What would you prefer to write: fiction or poetry?

After the first steps are completed and the children are already accommodated with the language and they are capable of handling it, they should be asked to write a short story. The first important question they would have to answer to is "What do we understand by a short story? What is it?". Well, a short story is a prose fiction, shorter than the novel, usually with few characters, with few incidents, happening in a short period of time. A short story focuses on a single plot, a main theme and a few characters. Why choose this genre? One reason is that it gives the teacher the opportunity to check all the students’ works. A novel, for example would be quite difficult to write in a single term or school year. A short story can be checked and at the same time, the students can learn the techniques necessary for writing a novel.

When comes to fiction, especially short stories and novels, the writers share a lot of strategies in creating the fictional world. Therefore, we can talk about point of view, about characters, plot, setting and themes both when we are interested in short stories and novels. The short story is recommended because it is easier to keep the children’s interest alive in a piece of work shorter, than in something as long and as complex as a novel. If they will be able to write a short story, they might be able to progress and write a novel someday.

If the students understand and master the rules of writing a story, then it would be much easier for them to write a novel. Even though a novel implies more complex things than a simple story, the basic ideas the writer needs to take into account are almost the same: the place and the time of action, the characters, the point of view, the setting, etc. Knowing these things one could easily start writing a novel. Of course, much study is required, but the basis is set and one has the starting point.

It is important that children understand that fiction is a representation of life and not its imitation. Observing the real life, understanding the human feelings and the relationships between them, a good writer can transform real and ordinary experiences into great, complex fiction. Through fiction, the writer tries to find a meaning, the truth of real life in fiction, the writer can transform his experiences in all aspects he can debate a feeling of high level. He can help himself rediscover through fiction what he could not relieve in real life.

So, fiction can be seen as an antidote to routine, to ordinary feelings, to ordinary ways of seeing things. Fiction can be an anchor, or like a life belt in front of the indifference and solitude. So, writing does nothing wrong, but helps the writer to be a step in front of the others.

The whole creating process begins from an idea about something that fascinates the future writer, who is willing to write about it. It is best to write every idea on paper, so that you will be able to see all of your thoughts since the whole process begun and to decide which ones suit your final decision. But where do ideas come from? Ideas and inspiration may come when you least expect, in ordinary places or when you look out the window and you remember something you thought you had forgotten. An important element in finding and recording ideas can be a diary. There you can write down all sorts of thoughts and things that could make up a really good beginning for your story. There you can keep all your thoughts and memories, you record all your experiences that would have been otherwise probably forgotten. And those experiences may constitute an important material for writers. You can start writing using your experiences and then, as you progress you can change subjects, you can come up with unreal facts and you can imagine other topics for your piece of writing. In fact, you can write about anything you wish as long as you know how to use the words in order to obtain the effect you wanted on the reader.

You can also use photos to get inspired, newspaper, other stories you know, you can use anything in order to find something to write about. Every writer has his own style, his own way of using language, his own way of expressing emotions, feelings and situations. You should observe all the details from everyday life with a writer’s eye. There are your ideas, your material. Take a notebook and write down what you see, hear, perceive, feel and maybe one day you will use it as a subject for a work of your own.

There are some important things that need to be taken into account: the noise, the view, the room, the things that one likes to have around when creating. The environment plays a very important role in the process of writing. Depending on each individual’s preferences, the place where you write should be inspirational, beneficial for the writing. Some have no problems with the noise around them and can concentrate even if there are disturbing factors around them. These persons feel the need to hear noise around them in order to get inspired, so their working place might be in front of the television or in the proximity of a crowded street. But there are others that need silence, peace and the right mood to be able to find their inspiration to start writing. Therefore, the place where you write can influence your thoughts. If you write in your room and you hear your parents quarrelling in the other room, it is impossible that this does not have an impact on you. I believe the writer needs to feel comfortable, in order to be able to share accurately his thoughts.

Another important aspect when teaching the children to write is to set them deadlines, so you also train them to respect such boundaries in the future when they would get deadlines from their publishers. Learning to respect deadlines is also a very important lesson, because we all meet such things everyday and the learners will be already accommodated with them by the time they will grow up; they learn to be punctual and to keep their promises.

For writers is very difficult to find the proper moment to start creating. Usually, once you start writing, you realize you have lots of ideas, if you try to concentrate on nothing else but your work. Even if it is difficult to find the proper moment to start, you should make an effort. Realizing that they have only a short time left until the deadline is like a cold shower to those who keep postponing their work.

A great writer is also a great reader. An experienced reader can differentiate the good books from the others. If you like a book very much, you get captivated by it and you retain a lot of details and facts that impressed you, without putting any effort. One must learn to analyze a book from a writer’s point of view. We must pay attention not only on the plot and on the characters, but on the style, on the language, on the emotional influence the text has upon the reader as well. Being able to see all these things in a fictional text is a step forward in becoming a better reader and afterwards a better writer.

When reading another author’s book, you can easily find mistakes; you might not like certain aspects like long and tiring descriptions, complex and difficult sentences, ways of presenting things, characters, etc. Therefore, you, as a writer, can avoid in your own creation the things you did not like, as a reader, about a certain work of another writer. This will improve your critic skills and will help you analyze better your own work.

The main character of a story is one of the most important things and you must pay attention when you build it, because it makes, in fact, the whole story. The main action revolves around the characters. You must know how to make it sympathetic to the reader, so his interest on the story will stay alive. Of course, different types of persons will be your readers and maybe not all of them will like the character that you chose. Even if your character is a good one or an evil one, you must be able to help the reader understand its actions. Poorly built characters might harm the whole story.

A key element in building the character is mystery. If you keep a dose of mystery, the reader will be curious to find out what you have not told yet about it. If a character is complex, the reader does not know what to expect from it and he will read the whole book. As a writer, you have to be very careful when you create your marionette. You have to know very well all its secrets, all its thoughts, everything. The secret is to tell only some information, and let the reader discover the rest of it, in order to keep the mysterious note. Choosing the name of your character could be a real challenge. If you like a certain name, feel free to use it, but be careful to the things it inspires when you hear it. The importance of a character’s name is debatable. Some people expect the name of a character to be connected to his role in the story or to its personality.

After choosing its name and introducing it in the story, you also have to decide upon the method that you want to use in order to characterize it along the story. There are two possibilities: the direct method and the indirect one. Using the direct method, the reader is told directly through description of the writer or of other characters as well, the personality of the character.

A good writer should let the reader discover by himself the character’s personality, using the indirect method. This can be done through the action itself, because the way a character talks, acts or does different things tells a lot about its personality. The thoughts of a character are very important because many times, people say one thing and do another. This way, by knowing the character’s thoughts, the reader can judge and characterize it himself. The readers usually love to have the opportunity to be judges of characters, to have freedom of interpretation.

Using the indirect method for characterization, you give the audience the chance to have a personalized reading and interpretation of the story. The same character can be perceived in many different ways; all the readers are different and they understand things in different manners. One reader can find a character fascinating while another can find it extremely boring. The bottom line is that we all have different opinions and that is why tastes are not to be questioned.

The point of view used in a story is also very important because it influences the reader’s perception of the text. The point of view chosen helps the writer keep the reader inside or outside of the action; it all depends on your decision of letting him feel involved in the action, along with the characters, or just watch from the outside. A narrator can be objective or subjective, omniscient or just a pawn in the assignment of telling the story.

For the first person point of view the whole action passes through the eyes of the narrator, who can be one of the characters (main or secondary) and you have to use, obviously the first person: "I". A very important aspect that needs to be taken into consideration is that the whole story is seen through the eyes of the person who is telling what she saw and nothing more because the "I" narrator has not the power to see behind closed doors.

The third person point of view concentrates on a single character. In this situation, you have two possibilities of narrator: the objective or the omniscient one. The objective narrator is telling the story in the third person and the reader gets only the information that the narrator himself knows. He cannot tell the reader about the thoughts and feelings of the other characters. In other words, the reader sees the story through the eyes of a certain character.

The omniscient narrator knows all his characters’ thoughts and feelings; he has unlimited power over his characters. The reader can get all the information he needs about all the characters, if the narrator wants to reveal it. In this case, you can have two situations too: the subjective omniscient narrator or the objective omniscient one. The subjective one can imply certain things about some characters, he can tell his opinion sometimes about facts, he can directly characterize the characters. The objective omniscient narrator is just an observer of the action, he is somewhere outside the story; he cannot comment or tell his opinion upon the facts.

The objective point of view implies that the narrator cannot read characters’ thoughts and the reader only focuses on the action itself and on what the characters tell or do. This way the readers can interpret the action in whatever manner they want, they can discover the characters’ personality by only relying on facts and interactions between characters. The point of view influences directly the reader and his perception on the text.

The dialogue is another important aspect and a subject of debate. The dialogue is usually used to tell some facts in a short time, to prevent the reader’s boredom. How much dialogue is it necessary in a story? There is a difference between comics and novels and that difference rests also on the amount of dialogue. Of course, its importance cannot be denied. Long descriptions can be boring, but too much dialogue can harm the story also and might make it hard to for the readers to follow the story line. After all, theatre plays are meant to be watched and not necessarily read. Therefore when writing a prose piece you need to be careful with the amount of dialogue you use.

The dialogue must leave impression of a real talk, so abbreviations are allowed. You will not write in a dialogue "did not" or "was not" , but "didn’t" and "wasn’t", just like in speaking. Through dialogue you can build relationships, you can destroy them; you can make the reader hate your character, because its language is too complex or because it uses a certain dialect. Children should be encouraged to listen and analyze some dialogues or read samples of conversations taken from stories. Then, they can be asked to decide on the importance of dialogue in that story and on how a dialogue should be written. A good dialogue should be as short and as realistic as possible and it is very important that it does not contain too many useless details that could dull the reader.

According to Dianne Doubtfire, the "ingredients" of creating a good story are:

-an original idea

-believable characters

-a convincing background

-a good opening

-conflict

-suspense

-shape

-a satisfying ending

Without these "ingredients", the story will not be complete because all of them are strong connected to one another. If you miss one of then, the story might not be well received and the readers will not appreciate it. It is not enough to have strong characters and a convincing background if there is no suspense to make the reader want to read more.

Another aspect the writers must take into consideration is the setting. It can help the readers to get into the action of the story. It should be described as accurate as possible in order to make them understand better and integrate the better in the action. When you choose the setting you have to be very careful, because it has to be related to your whole story, especially to your theme and action itself. A writer has to see all the scenes, has to know them very well, in order to describe them properly. If the readers can see through your eyes the exact world that you planned to create, that means that your job has been well done. You have to choose the details that count; the readers do not need long descriptions of the setting, or else they will get bored.

After the children are given these basic information, and after repeated writing activities, the children might be ready to create their own short story. After finishing the story, it should be read several times, not only by its writer, but also by other people. Attention must be paid to all the details: grammar, punctuation, clichés, clumsy phrases, the way in which the work is organized, the layout and of course, style. The work must be revised when you are not tired, so that you can concentrate to correct the possible mistakes. It is important to read your story as many times as possible, so you can realize what should be changed or added and to find grammatical, spelling mistakes.

Then you should decide upon the title. During the writing process, you may have had a lot of ideas about the title of your story, but the proper moment to choose it is when you had finished it. The readers tend to choose the books they read by the title, so you must be able to find one to express the main idea of your story.

Conclusions

My paper approached the topics of creativity and that of creative writing. I tried to stress out its importance in the educational process and the numerous benefits it would bring if introduced to schools. I began by setting the theoretical basis, by defining the key terms: creativity, creative writing. I strongly believe that it is very important to help children find their inborn creativity and explore it. They shall learn to be creative every day, to build a different way of thinking and managing the problems.

I also stressed the differences between traditional and modern methods of teaching. The modern ones are more recommended than the others, and hopefully they will be used more often in the next years, so that our children will be educated