Hello,
Working as a private tutor I have the luxury of spending unlimited time to create individual lessons for each of my students. That being said, I also appreciate the constraints put on classroom teachers to do the same. I would like to share my latest success story for all teachers to try-out with their budding writers of all ages.
My student, Miles, has just finished the 3rd grade and enjoys the usual outdoor sports and activities. He is also an accomplished pianist for his age. Miles especially likes to create his own music, adding his own creative vocal syncopations for emphasis. One Saturday morning at the end of our session together he started to play the piano while we waited for his dad to pick him up. I asked him about the song he was playing and what it meant. That’s when my own light bulb went off!
It seemed so obvious after the fact, but of course music tells a story. Every movie has a soundtrack to accompany the film’s story. Every song has a title to represent the story in the music. So, I asked Miles to read some of his favorite poems from Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends and then write music to accompany the poems. This seemed do-able to him especially since he is particularly fond of reading poetry. The poem he chose was, “Sick”. His music was very creative with highs and lows, just like the plot in the poem.
Next, I asked Miles to choose a favorite piano piece or create a new piece of music and then write the story the music was telling. Of course there was some initial resistance – it was writing, after all. Miles first chose a song called, “Jazzy Toccatina”. Here is his short story:
As you can see, Miles outlined the plot into beginning, middle, and end as well as noting the location and characters. Great work, Miles!
Not every student is a musician but all students enjoy listening to music. And every song has a story to tell. The key note to tell students is that there is no right or wrong way to write the story they hear in the music. When I taught in the classroom, I would often play music during our writing time. I chose from a wide range of genres and they all inspired the young writers within. The freedom to choose their story to write was liberating and fun!
I’m very proud of Miles and his writing accomplishments. All it took was a little time on my part to discovery the back door to his creative writing process.
Happy Writing,
Kathleen
