This document describes a 10-week project to motivate high school students aged 15 to engage in creative writing through examining works of art and literature. The project had two phases: phase 1 used abstract art as a stimulus for short stories, and phase 2 used literature as a stimulus for poems. Selected materials included paintings by Magritte and Papayiannis. Student responses showed positive emotions, engagement, and authentic self-expression. The project helped students view their creative potential differently and fostered experimentation and non-judgment in the student-teacher relationship.

1. Enter Cezanne’s
Painting

2. “The house was so
mysterious, it was built
between high trees that no
one had planted. In the dusk
the mountains looked like
dark giants that everyone was
afraid of. The wind was
blowing so hard that the
leaves of the trees were falling
down, and as a consequence,
the trees were stark-naked.
This place really scares me…”
Athena, ( individual work)

3. Motivating Students into Creative Writing
through Art and Literature
Maria Barberi
International House John Haycraft
Classroom Exploration Scholarship
IATEFL 2016

4. How can the teacher motivate learners into Creative Writing
by encouraging them to respond to
selected works of Art and Literature?

5. GREEK STATE SECONDARY
SCHOOL
LENGTH OF
PROJECT
10 weeks
AGE 15 years old
LEVEL OF
COMPETENCE
B1 – B2 in CEFR (The Common
European Framework of
Reference for Languages )
NUMBER OF
STUDENTS
25

6. THE PHASES
PHASE I
Art as stimulus to literary narratives
PHASE II
Literature as stimulus to poems
Abstract Art and Poetry

7. SELECTED MATERIALS AND ACTIVITIES
MOTIVATION
ATTITUDE NOVEL RESPONSES
• Positive emotions
• Enthusiasm
• Effective group work
• Concentration
• Persistence
• Sensitivity
• Ingenuity
• New insights
• Authentic creative self
expression

8. Selected materials

9. The Shipwrecked
Day 30
It’s been a month since
the ship sank. I wonder
where the rest of the
crew is. They might be
dead. I’m on the west
side of the Island. There
is a statue here just like
the one on the east side.
These statues work like a
compass. I think I can
draw my own map and
find my way back to
Spain.
(Group work, inspired by R. Magritte’s
painting ‘The Sirens’ )

10. no
27%
yes
65%
no
answer
8%
Would you write a short
story on your own in your
free time?
no
yes
no answer

11. PHASE II
Literature as Stimulus to Poems – Abstract Art
and Poetry
“To give an Author to a text is to impose upon that text
a stop clause, to furnish it with a final signification, to
close the writing” ( Barthes,1967)

12. Poems out of Prose – New Year’s Day
The poets’ view
2016 Haiku
Here's your haiku
Please give me your good
wishes
I am running short
(Konstantinos, individual work)

13. Abstract Art and Poetry

15. STUDENTS
• Students were made aware of their Creative Thinking
potential
• Creative writing is a high form of Autonomy in its own
right
NEW PERSPECTIVE IN STUDENTS –TEACHER RELATIONSHIP
• Tolerance towards Experimentation
• Non judgmental attitude on the part of the teacher
• The text as “ a location of an on going dialogue”
(Dunlop, 2007) )
• Creativity , a sensitive process…

16. It has been an incredible journey of
exploration….
Thank you
Paintings by E. Papayiannis
used after kind permission of the artist

17. Questions?
mabarberi@gmail.com