Teaching Creative Writing 522
Through the Faculty of Creative Writing, UBC
September 2010- April 2011
Professor Ray Hsu
Course Description and Syllabus Excerpt
The classroom is our work of art. How do you teach in a discipline that has no explicit theory or methodology? Is there any truth to the adages, “Writing can’t be taught”? Or, “Those who can’t, teach”? In this course, you will develop your own teaching philosophy. Over the course of the year, you will feel increasingly prepared to teach in a variety of contexts by balancing intuition and knowledge…
…We’ll survey the scholarship of teaching and learning in the Creative Writing classroom. We’ll learn about the fundamental skills needed to run a Creative Writing classroom, including how to draft a good writing assignment, how to design a workshop, how to facilitate group critique, and how to hold an office hour. We’ll discuss the teaching of Creative Writing across different contexts, including primary and secondary schools, undergraduate and graduate programs, medical school, and ESL. We will invite exemplary teachers to discuss tips and strategies.
You will examine your own simultaneous identities as both student and teacher: how does your experience of being a student inform your thinking and practice as a teacher?
- Teaching practicum and class participation: 50%
- Teaching portfolio: 50%
For a look at the complete syllabus, please click on this link: 522B Teaching CRWR syllabus
My Experience
This course was the perfect place for me to think about myself as an artist-teacher, as well as develop teaching strategies and ideals. I spent much time working on my ideas about teaching—talking about them, reading other’s ideas, reflecting on current and past experiences etc. For example, consider the journal excerpt below:
Every writer who wants to teach is plagued by the question, “Can writing be taught?” For most writers taking degrees in creative writing, this question seems redundant, even ignorant. Can painting be taught? Can cooking be taught? Can shoemaking be taught? Of course. In essence, this is what people are actually asking: “How did the literary genius’ that I’m acquainted with get to be so brilliant and insightful?” This is more a question of biography and personality type than a question about teaching. Genius is an intangible (yet fascinating) notion that I am concerned with as a writer, but am not overly concerned with as a teacher.
The core components of each class were:
- Discussion of readings on the pedagogy of the writing workshop, history of the creative writing program/degrees in academia, etc.
- Decompression about our teaching practicums (how they’re going, problems, solutions, points to ponder)
- a new writing prompt (a mini lesson on how to teach a writing technique) given by a classmate
Within these three main components, each student in the class contributed their knowledge and asked their most intriguing questions. By the end of the term, I felt as though I was part of a family and a comrade in the league of writer-teachers who work to understand “the writer as teacher.” It was life-changing, fascinating. It was a blast.