During the course of any creative writing programme I conduct, about two or three times, I ask children to stop and reflect on everything they’ve felt and everything they’ve done during their sessions with me. Now that we’re one month into my online programme, it was time. And as usual, I could not stop smiling when I read their work.
Afreena, 11, listed everything she’s learnt – from acrostic poems to rebuses. She remembered the list poem she wrote, the limericks we read and all the literary devices we worked with. Her reflection was simple, clear and straightforward; I loved it.
Sunandini, 9, did something quite beautiful – she wrote a story! The whole story was a grand metaphor for the creative writing programme and I can quite honestly say that I’ve never read such an original reflection! Here are a few snippets.
A few weeks back, I boarded The Great Grammar Express. I walked to my compartment and opened the sliding-door. Inside, a girl with a green suitcase was settling in. I sat down on the spacious berth opposite to the other girl’s. A lady with short hair got in the compartment and said ‘I am your instructor for this writing journey, Ms. Vanessa’.
I’ve shortened it a bit, but isn’t that just a lovely beginning? The reflection continues in the same vein. Read on!
After a while we stepped out of the train [since it had stopped] for a short walk. We found we were in the limerick lane and actually discussing limericks by Edward Lear. The train then whistled and we rushed to get in. Once settled, we tried our hand at writing a five line limerick. I felt I could have written a better limerick with a second try.
I’m not going to share the whole thing here, but I can quite honestly say I enjoyed reading all of it. Sunandini also shared answers to a few questions I asked to push them to write their reflections. The piece she feels was the best she wrote is one that I admired too.
A little background before I share the poem: we used Shel Silverstein’s Magic to work on strong verbs. I love his teaching resources; they serve as wonderful material for poetry workshops. After reading his poem, I asked the girls to write a poem of their own, which uses eight strong verbs in two sentences – look what Sunandini came up with.
And finally, a reflection like this, from 10-year-old Ruchiranana, always warms my heart. How can I not be happy when a child says there was nothing she didn’t like during five hours with me?
As each session goes by, I’m so glad I ventured into this online creative writing programme. It gives me so much joy!
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