Creative Writing Cookbook

CREATIVE WRITING

cookbook

Creative Writing Cookbook, 2016

Authors: Ilona Olehlova and Inese Priedīte

Layout and illustrations: Deniss Jershov

Published by Estonian UNESCO Youth Association in coopera-

tion with Piepildīto Sapņu Istaba and Cooperativa Braccianti

creativelearningcookbook@gmail.com

creativelearningcookbook.tumblr.com

ISBN 978-9949-81-249-3 (print)

ISBN 978-9949-81-250-9 (epub)

ISBN 978-9949-81-251-6 (pdf)

Contents

CREATIVE WRITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

THE TOOLKIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CREATIVE LEARNING COOKBOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

ABOUT THE AUTHORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

SOME TIPS FOR FACILITATING CREATIVE WRITING SESSIONS . . . . . 10

How to Use SCAMPER in Text Editing 13

BREAKING WRITER’S BLOCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Unnished Sentences 17

The Sadness of the Blue Rabbit 18

Rhyme Googling 18

What If Your Friends Had Secret Life 19

Anniversary 19

If Colours Were Humans 20

Fantasy Trip 20

WRITING EXERCISES FOR DEVELOPING COMPETENCES

Communication in Mother Tongue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Looking for Metaphors 21

Collage Poems 22

Shorter Than a Tweet 23

Writing is Rewriting 24

The Words Now and Before 24

Street Talks 25

Communication in a Foreign Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Freewriting in a Foreign Language 27

Strange Words 28

This publication has been funded with support from the Euro-

pean Commission. This publication reects the views only of

the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible

for any use which may be made of the information contained

therein.

Multilingual Poetry Reading 28

Word Puzzle 29

The Devil is in the Detail 31

Synonyms and Antonyms 31

Learning to Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Heroes and Anti-heroes 33

People Who Make a Difference 34

Your Journal is Your Teacher 35

Awakening Senses 36

Sense Your Mate 38

Letter to My Child 39

Social and Civic Competences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Mood Writing 40

Alphapoems 41

Don’t Ask Where I’m From, Ask Where I’m Local 42

Change of Perspectives 43

Walking in the Shoes of Another Person 44

Manifesto 45

Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

A Ship in Harbour is Safe, But That’s Not Why Ships are Built 46

A Bird in the Hand 47

100 + 1 Characteristics of Entrepreneur 48

Freewriting Marathon for Entrepreneurs 49

My Project: My Story 50

We’re All Made of Stories 53

Cultural Awareness and Expression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Recipe of Myself 54

Cultural Proverbs 55

Meeting With a Stranger 56

The Danger of the Single Story 57

Survival Guide for a Visitor 58

First Kitchen 59

Mathematical Competence and Basic Competences in Science. . . . 60

Making It Easier 60

What If? 61

Constructing Knowledge 61

Letter to the Explorer 62

The Story of the Formula 63

Field Trips 64

Digital Competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Let’s Go Viral 65

World Without Likes and Fans 66

Genius and Social Networks 66

Internet Meets Creative Writing 67

Urban Haiku 68

Web Citizens 69

WRITING FOR BETTER CONNECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Sell Yourself 70

Stories of Our Names 70

Words that Rhyme with You 70

Breaking Walls 70

Silent Poem 71

Clean Head 71

In Your Shoes 71

Personalisation of the Conict 71

WRITING FOR REFLECTION AND CREATIVE EVALUATION OF

LEARNING ACTIVITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

What Would Animals Think? 72

Postcard to a Friend 72

Collective Poems 72

Give and Get 73

Going Home 73

Metaphoric Evaluations 74

LITER ATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Creative writing is any form of writing which is written with

the creativity of mind: ction writing, poetry writing, cre-

ative non-ction writing and more. The purpose is to ex-

press, whether it be thoughts, experiences or emotions. Rath-

er than simply giving information or inciting the reader to

make an action benecial to the writer, creative writing is

written to entertain or educate someone, to spread aware-

ness about something or someone, or to simply express one’s

ideas and opinions.

The only type of writing which is not creative is when you write some-

thing that you totally don’t care about. Even business writing and

formal letters are still creative, but if you write something you don’t

care about, it will be uncreative, without substance.

James, Estonia

Creative writing is also a great learning tool, a means to ex-

plore the world around us and challenge assumptions. Crea-

tive writing exercises and workshops offer much more than

just the training of writing skills. In professional life, creative

writing might help you nd new ways of presenting knowl-

edge and experience to various target groups, and to improve

your skills of persuasion. For educators, creative writing pro-

vides a great way to broaden the curriculum and give stu-

dents new, different challenges. Creative writing enhances

our imagination and understanding of strategies that help

us to create original ideas and new solutions to challenges

we face. Thinking about personal growth, creative writing

also provides us with a means to become more comfortable

with sharing our own thoughts, to get to know oneself bet-

ter, to explore our own strengths (and areas we may need

to improve), how to get in touch with feelings, as well as to

improve self-condence and self-esteem. Writing can help

us to nd self-forgiveness and healing. Let’s explore further

some of its uses and benets!

Creative Writing

The goal of this toolkit is not to make you or young people

you work with great writers. It was created with the aim to

give you an opportunity to try out different creative writ-

ing tasks, broaden your imagination and gain inspiration

for new methods to use in your own work. This toolkit was

designed for people working with young people–teachers,

youth workers, non-formal education trainers and facilita-

tors–who are looking for new ways to engage young people

and provide them with opportunities and challenges for per-

sonal and professional growth.

There are thousands of shorter and longer creative writing

exercises, and we wish to share some of them in order to give

you an idea of how you could use creative writing for devel-

oping the life-long learning competences of the young people

you work with. Thus the structure of the toolkit reects the

eight life-long learning competences as dened by the Eu-

ropean Commission: communication in mother tongue and

communication in foreign languages; learning to learn; so-

cial and civic competence; sense of initiative and entrepre-

neurship; cultural awareness and expression; mathematical

competence and basic competences in science and technol-

ogy; and digital competence. Descriptions of the exercises

include information about the preparation needed, instruc-

tions about how they can be conducted and also ideas for re-

ection and discussion. In the toolkit you will also nd short

writing prompts that help warm up creative thinking and

start the writing process, exercises that help to foster group

dynamics, as well as exercises for evaluating and conclud-

ing different learning activities. As such you have enough

material to combine exercises that help develop a particu-

lar competence with warm-up and evaluation exercises, cre-

ating unique sessions that meet the needs of your learners.

Note that the given time for each task is approximate and

depends on the number of people in the group and the or-

ganisation of the sharing process. You will also notice that

most of the writing exercises offer practice that would help

to develop more than one competence, so you might nd

what you are looking for in an unexpected place.

The main materials that are needed to complete these exer-

cises are pens and paper. If something else has to be provided,

it will be mentioned in the description of each exercise. We’d

like to encourage you to use pen and paper, instead of com-

puters and mobile devices– the structure, smell and colour

of the paper and ink helps to set different moods and might

provide extra inspiration. Using pen and paper is more em-

bodied and thus more engaging.

The Toolkit

I can give much more emotion when writing on paper, and for me

it’s so important. I can see in my handwriting if I’m angry, bored, in a

hurry, when I wrote it, and it gives so much more than just the letters

on the screen that you can read afterwards.

Heili, Estonia

Exercises included in this book are suitable for young peo-

ple, starting from the age of 15, and adults. Exercises can

be adapted for younger people and children. You can make

them easier or more complicated by removing or adding some

rules. For instance, the participants might explore various

types of text structure: chronological, ashback or non-line-

ar. They might write their texts from a rst or a third-person

point of view, as well as challenge themselves and write the

text from an omniscient or objective point of view. Learn-

ers might be asked to write in a foreign language or t their

writings in a certain amount of characters to learn to ex-

press themselves in a more concise way. All the exercises can

be done alone, but some are more fun to do together with

other writers. Treat these exercises as ideas to be explored;

there is a lot of space left for creative adaptation and play!

This booklet was produced within a strategic partnership

project named “Creative Learning Cookbook”, implement-

ed in cooperation between non-governmental, non-prot

organisations from Austria, Estonia and Latvia, with nan-

cial support from European Commission.

“Creative Learning Cookbook” started in late 2014 and will

end in late 2016. Within this strategic partnership there were

three international training courses–one hosted by each

organisation–and one forum on creative learning methods,

several local workshops, as well as the publishing of a num-

ber of online resources and three toolkits. You’re reading

one of them right now.

The main aim of the project was to raise the quality of edu-

cational and training activities in the context of formal and

non-formal education by developing approaches and meth-

ods in innovative teaching, training and learning whilst sup-

porting the exchange and dissemination of best practices

and creative educational tools.

A large part of the exercises included in this toolkit were

tested or developed during the international training course

“Creative Writing+” on creative writing and how to use it

to enhance learning and creativity in life, youth work and

classrooms that took place in Latvia, in 2015, and gathered

Creative Learning Cookbook

19 youth workers and educators. You might want to check

out participants’ feedback on the entire course before ex

ploring the creative writing tasks we used:

My world got bigger once more. I have used some of the exercises

we did in the training course in my everyday life, for instance, short

writing tasks to open my creativity and let the mind go free. I redis-

covered the power of writing and reading at the same time. How

important it is to let yourself go from the different screens from time

to time, to see what is actually happening in the world. I’ve started

to take writing more seriously. Not by becoming more serious, but

by making myself understand that writing really HELPS and is not

a waste of time in any shape or form.

Heili, Estonia

The training course opened up a whole new world of words for me.

I am a lot more condent in voicing my ideas creatively in writing.

Also the personal development element of the course was very im-

portant for me. I had a chance to enhance my self-awareness and

condence, and build important connections to interesting people.

Eszter, Austria

I learned many tools connected to creative writing which I can use

for our seminars, therefore this training experience resulted in very

practical knowledge. Since creative writing has never been a delib-

erate activity for myself and I’ve never wanted to become a writer, I

enjoyed the revelation that I’m actually capable of creating a mean-

ingful text in just 15 to 20 minutes.”

Laura, Latvia

Most of the exercises were really illuminating and useful for me. It

gave me a chance to get out of my usual background and life and

rejuvenate in some ways. I have already summoned up my courage

and written an article for a newspaper, which I haven’t done be-

fore and which could be traced back to the training, where I under-

stood the need to speak up more and more publicly. So that’s one

thing, having more courage to speak up for the values I hold dear.

Another thing is to encourage others do the same. I’ve thought that

if I could come up with an idea how to fund it, I could hold semi-

nars and workshops of writing for active young people, so that their

voice could be heard more in the society – concerning environmen-

tal issues, discrimination or health issues. It was very inspiring and

uplifting in every sense and I have been to several of these kinds of

events abroad, but this one was without doubt the most meaning-

ful and practical for me.

Kaisa, Estonia

I learned several methods that I want to apply in my future work as

a teacher. For example, I would like to use poetry slam in order to

enhance my students’ condence. I discovered how to use the tool

of writing in my personal life – to clear my thoughts by using free

writing. Also, the training course enhanced my self-condence as

there where several occasions where I needed or wanted to speak

in the group, which I normally don’t enjoy that much.

Lisa, Austria

We are grateful to the participants of the training course

“Creative Writing+” for their contributions to this booklet

and valuable feedback:

Agnese Glaudane,

Lisa Großkopf,

Anete Jasmane,

Mārtiņš Jaunpetrovičs,

Heili Johanson,

Kaisa Kase,

Laura Leimane,

Liis Lohur,

Anna Mossolova,

Arvis Ozoliņš,

Solange Pellicano,

Vera Penz,

Eszter Tóth,

Marcus Vrecer,

James Montgomery Wollen,

Uliana Zakoretskaya,

Laurita Źalimaite.

Ilona Olehlova

In youth work from 2010.

Loves creative writing especially as a tool of intercultural learning.

Obviously interested in developing and sharing tools, methods and techniques

based on creative writing.

Normally spending the days by delivering trainings, workshops or writing ap-

plications or reports.

Absorbing inspiration from various sources including TED or street talks, for-

eign magazines, old photographs.

Obsessed by looking for new ways of education.

Learning by making mistakes.

Edits her own stories repeatedly.

Hates trafc jams and airport security controls.

Loves listening other peoples’ works created during workshops.

Observing the world around.

Valuing participants interest and involvement.

And, for more information recommending to check out SALTO or LindkeIN prole.

Inese Priedīte

International trainer facilitating personal and organizational growth since 2007.

Nothing makes her happier than feeling that her work matters.

Experienced coordinator of art, social and educational projects.

Studied media and communication and has worked as a journalist, a public re-

lations consultant, a content writer and a translator.

Empowers others by holding space and being present.

Proposes to challenge our assumptions more often.

Researches embodied learning approaches and possibilities to combine work

with movement and writing.

If you want to give her a present, send a gift card from a book shop.

Enjoys activities in nature.

Dreams of becoming a social entrepreneur.

Is not ready to settle for something that doesn’t bring joy and happiness.

Travelling has been the most important school she has attended. Not grad-

uated yet.

Experimenter.

About the Authors

Focus on creating a safe learning environment and establish

clear rules that protect it. Make sure that the atmosphere

or the group development stage is suitable for the activi-

ty. If you work with a new group, plan time for ice-break-

ing and team-building activities. To get the most out of the

creative writing, learners should feel relaxed and condent

in each other’s company. Look for ice-breakers that t with

your theme. Ask each participant to share what they need to

feel safe and be productive in a group and establish with the

group an agreement that ensures provision of those needs.

Practice behaviours yourself that you expect from the group.

Practicalities matter. Nothing kills participation more than

physical discomforts, including rooms that are cold, mus-

ty, lack windows or enough space. Make sure that the place

where you work has enough light and participants can feel

comfortable there while writing. Breaks and eating are an

important part of the learning process. Choose inspiring and

original venues for the sessions that support your themes

and visit them before running your activities.

Know your learners. Tailor your method to the needs of your

participants, being sensitive to how differences in age, expe-

rience, ability and cultural background among people in the

group affect the way they engage with the exercises. Collect

information also about participants’ expectations, person-

al and professional aims and think how activities you offer

might help them reach their goals.

Be clear about the aim of the activities. Not all the writing

exercises have important aims. Some of them are there to

promote fun, playfulness and break creative thinking blocks,

to explore ideas or characters. However, know what you hope

to achieve with using one or another exercise, and often it

might be helpful to explain it also to the participants, es-

pecially if you work with people who prefer to be in control

(as opposed to just going with the ow) and need clear argu-

ments why it is important to do one thing or another.

Help learners to deal with their inner critic. Nothing will

squash imagination in creative writing quite like the belief

that everything you write isn’t good enough. Introduce par-

ticipants to the idea of the “shitty rst draft”–explained by

Anne Lamott in her book “Bird by Bird”–to get them beyond

the terrifying expectations of the inner critic.

Dare to be authentic and vulnerable. Sharing your personal

stories, including those which people often choose to keep

with themselves will also encourage people around you to

share more of their emotions and experiences. This can help

encourage people that often remain silent, giving space for

untold stories. If you’re not willing to be vulnerable your-

Some Tips for Facilitating Creative Writing Sessions

self, you can’t expect others to be, and without allowing our-

selves to be authentic and vulnerable we lose a lot of per-

sonal growth opportunities that creative writing provides.

Encourage the sharing of written texts. It is a great oppor-

tunity to learn from the work of others. Moreover, sharing

is great way for participants to increase their condence

and it motivates them to write something interesting and

creative. But remember, sharing needs to be done in safe

and supportive environment as the stories are often con-

nected with personal experiences. Think about the form of

sharing. It can be done in smaller groups, such as in trios or

pairs, to build-up the participants’ condence step by step,

until they’re comfortable sharing their work in front of the

whole group. Of course, keep in mind that not all learners

will want to share, and that’s ne. Creative writing can be a

very personal experience, and learners shouldn’t be forced

to share their work.

I really liked when we did poetry reading out loud on the stage, be-

cause it forced me and it forced some other people to cross their

boundaries and step against their fears. People should learn how

to express themselves. It’s good if they write, but they should have

the courage to speak out.

Liis, Estonia

Train learners’ listening skills. Listening is an important part

of creating writing activities. Encourage and help learners

to listen and pay attention. Smart phones and other devic-

es should be switched off during the writing sessions. You

might include in your sessions some listening exercises as

well. You’re probably aware of term “active listening”. In the

context of creative writing, especially if used with personal

growth aims, it can be useful to also learn more about com-

passionate listening which allows us to create a safe space

where individuals can talk honestly about what they’re go-

ing through and how those experiences are affecting them.

Make sure each person receives equal space and acknowl-

edgement. There are always people in the group who like to

speak rst, louder and longer. Encourage more silent peo-

ple in the group to share their texts. Silent people often

have great ideas they in fact would like to share, they just

lack condence, and what can help a lot is the encourage-

ment from someone, or sharing in a smaller group at rst.

If the person doesn’t want to share you might ask them to

just briey state what the main topic or idea was that they

wrote about. This leads to a better understanding about of

how the person is working and what are the possible issues

they are facing. It provides them with at least a little prac-

tice of expressing themselves.

Focus on the process and not result. When we use creative

writing to reach different professional and personal devel-

opment aims the literary quality of the learners’ texts mat-

ter much less than the process of writing and sharing. Un-

less you aim to improve learners’ language competences, put

critical feedback on the grammatical and literary qualities of

the texts aside. Writing is often connected to personal ex-

periences, so be tactful when commenting.

Make it playful. One of the key characteristic of creative

writing is the willingness to play with language. Fun and

playfulness help creative ideas to sparkle. Include energisers

and games to build an informal, relaxed atmosphere.

Be exible. Creative writing should be a uid exercise. As

such, it’s important to be exible with requirements and

expectations. Some participants will immediately take to

an assignment and have no problems completing it. Others

might have trouble nding inspiration and prefer to do dif-

ferent tasks. The most important part of facilitating creative

writing is to get participants writing on a regular basis and

to capture their interest in all that writing has to offer. Al-

lowing participants to ne-tune their assignments so they

can write about topics that interest them will keep them en-

gaged and excited.

Keep journals. If you work with a group for a longer peri-

od of time, encourage your participants to keep journals to

have an opportunity to reect on their progress in writing.

These journals might also be available to facilitators who

can provide feedback on the texts. Besides, journal writ-

ing can be a means to discover what matters to you. It is a

self-directed source of inner development. A journal can be

a place of discovery, learning, emotional relief and insight.

It is almost impossible to write a journal and not nd out

more about yourself.

Don’t force people to read it aloud, but at the same time it’s im-

portant that some sort of feedback is provided even if it’s silent. Fa-

cilitate exchanging with someone else in the room, and come back

with suggestions, just to see how the text looks through somebody

else’s eyes.

James, Estonia

Foster good feedback practices in the group. Although the

main aim of the exercises included in this toolkit is not to

improve participants’ writing skills, often learners still might

want to receive feedback on their texts. Thus learning how

to give and receive feedback becomes an important part of

the creative writing process. Introducing learners to guide-

lines of how to give and receive feedback might be a good

start. In order for some people doing creative work to main-

tain their ow, they need immediate and positive feedback. If

feedback is not delivered in a supportive manner, it can stie

their ow or cut it off completely. It’s important to remem-

ber that critiques are meant to improve output rather than

hinder the progress, and this is a good reason to avoid feed-

back during the creative process, and work with it when the

author is able to distance themselves more from their work.

A good approach to give feedback on creative work can be

to say YES to what’s already been done and look for ways to

modify the outcome. You might explore the creative think-

ing method called SCAMPER as a tool to give constructive

feedback on creative work and also as an editing tool. It’s

based on the idea that at any point in a creative-thinking

situation, alone or in a group, novel solutions emerge when

those involved force themselves to think in an arbitrarily

different way. For that reason, using any or all of the sev-

en thinking approaches listed below can help produce sur-

prising and sometimes very useful results. Keep in mind the

principle of force tting. If you can’t think of anything in

response to the SCAMPER prompt you’re using, then force

a response, no matter how ridiculous it seems, and think of

ways to make the non-logical response work.

How to Use SCAMPER in Text Editing

SSubstitute

Remove some part of the text and replace it with something

else.

CCombine

Join, afliate, or force together two or more elements of your

writings and consider ways that such a combination might

move you towards a better text.

AAdapt

Change some part of your text so that it works where it did

not before.

1 This exercise is an adaptation of the SCAMPER method as described by Michalko, M.

(2006), Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques. Berkeley: Ten Speed

Press. Page: 72

MModify

Consider many of the attributes of the thing you’re working

on and change them, arbitrarily, if necessary. Attributes of

the text include: length, language, layout, style, main char-

acters, plot, viewpoint, genre, time perception and form, be

sides others.

PPut to other use

Think about why your text exists, what can it be used for,

what is it supposed to do? Challenge all of these assump-

tions and suggest new and unusual purposes. Modify the

intention of the text. If you wrote an article for a newspa-

per, could it become a letter to someone? Could a ghost sto-

ry become a wedding speech?

EEliminate

Arbitrarily remove some elements of your text. Simplify and

reduce it to its core functionality.

RReverse

Change the direction or orientation. You might move the

nal of your text to the introduction. You could go back-

wards in time. You could turn your characters upside-down,

for instance, replace female characters with males, or sci-

entists with artists. You could also modify the sequence of

different actions within your text and then reconnect them

to make sense.

Creative writing goes hand in hand with imagination; where-

as imagination requires some means to be triggered in the

rst place. Writing can be difcult, and it’s not only writ-

ers who suffer from so called writer’s block. Students have

papers to write. Organisations have grant applications to

write. Businesses have copies to write. No matter who you

are, you’ve likely sat in front of a blank page without any

idea of how to start. There are a few techniques that can

come to your rescue.

Work in diverse environments. Sometimes the reasons why

blocks appear can be connected with the environment around

you. It can be too noisy, lacking light or maybe it can be too

quiet or too dark. Step away from your writing and go some-

where you love to be, or even better, to some place you have

never visited before. Don’t work only near the desk. Write

in cafés, clubs, beaches, libraries, basements, museums, for-

ests, public transportation, etc. Write in places where you

can meet intriguing characters, hear interesting dialogues

and gain new experiences for yourself.

The most crucial ingredient in creative writing for me is everything

that we can put under the word honesty. Honesty to yourself, your

own thoughts, opinions. And, to make it more honest, more free, you

also need to put aside the past, and put aside the future, and focus

only on this moment, somehow you become very conscious of what’s

happening, of your thoughts, feelings. We were the most creative

when we were young, as children, so currently as young adults we

start to loose creativity, and the only way to get it back is to get back

to yourself. When you become very honest, when you understand

why you are writing, that’s the most important thing. Be yourself, be

honest, and all the creativity you can imagine starts to come out.

Martinš, Latvia

Move your body. The cause of the blocks can be also our

physical situation. We can feel tired, sick, not able to con-

centrate, and this is where physical activities and a healthy

lifestyle comes to the centre of attention. Did you know that

inspiration for many famous art works was found during the

walk? Go outside, do sports, stretch, build things, doodle,

paint, learn massage, dance or work in the garden. Physical

activities move not only your body, but also your mind and

can help deal with different kinds of blocks easier.

Avoid distractions. If we work in a group, one of the causes of

writer’s block can also be fear of judgement or lack of a safe

environment. Or just people chatting with you and offering

other distracting activities. One of the solutions might be

to nd a place where nobody will disturb you. Then turn off

your phone. Unplug yourself from internet. Know the people

who block you and don’t let them inuence you when you

have creative work to be done.

Breaking Writer’s Block

Explore clustering. Clustering is technique that can be used

to stimulate ideas and break creative thinking blocks. It is

also called webbing or mapping. The rst step of cluster-

ing is to write a keyword or phrase in the middle of a sheet

of paper. The keyword can be connected with the topic e.g.

if an article should be about trafc the keyword can be car.

If the essay should be about human rights the keyword can

be human.

The keyword is the beginning. Circle it and write down a new

word or phrase that comes to mind, connect it with a line to

the word that sparked it. The most important part is to keep

going, do not restrict yourself and go on until you ll the

page, or your previously set time limit (3–5 minutes) runs

out. Check out the words that you wrote down. You can, but

you do not need to, include them in your writing on the topic.

Freewrite. Freewriting is a technique based on continuously

writing for a set period of time, without paying too much at-

tention to things like spelling, grammar rules or technique.

The main purpose of freewriting is not to produce a perfect

text, but to break the blocks. Write without worrying about

what other people might think. Tell your truth on paper,

even if you choose not to share it with others in the group.

Don’t cross out or revise as you go, just keep writing. Whilst

freewriting, you may nd yourself writing lines and expe-

riencing ashes of inspiration that wouldn’t have occurred

if you’d spent three hours in front of a computer, thinking

about what to write. It could reveal some thoughts and ide-

as you never knew you had.

I love the free-writing idea, because you just spit out everything what

you have on your mind. And when you repeat some idea ve times,

then you start to think, perhaps there is something there, what am

I trying to say? It’s really good for self-analysis, and then you can

also explore the issue with other people.

Anete, Latvia

Use creative writing prompts. The hard part of writing is

starting, and creative writing prompts do that for you. A cre-

ative writing prompt is a simple technique or a few words or

phrases you can use as a starting point for your creative writ-

ing. Once you’ve begun to write, and used the prompt for in-

spiration, you’re off on your own. Creative writing prompts

are a great means to build condence in writing and come

up with ideas for blog posts, stories, poems and other crea-

tive pieces. These short writing exercises can be sufcient for

learning activities that aim to develop the learners’ mother

or foreign language abilities, as well as creativity. The prin-

ciples of freewriting are often applied when working with

writing prompts. In the following pages you will nd sever-

al writing prompts. Take a pen and do them! The maximum

time for each of the prompts is 5 minutes.

Communication in your mother tongue is the ability to ex-

press and interpret concepts, thoughts, feelings, facts and

opinions in both oral and written form. It also involves inter-

acting linguistically in appropriate and creative ways with-

in different social and cultural contexts. Creative writing

contributes a lot to the development of this competence as

it includes writing and reading, talking and listening prac-

tice, and provides specic tools that help us to become more

skilful in the use of language. Exercises offered in this chap-

ter are aimed at learning to express oneself better in your

mother tongue and training participants’ creative thinking.

Looking for Metaphors

Aim

To develop learners’ abilities to notice and force connec-

tions, and use metaphoric expression. The exercise can also

be used to explore and gain new insights into a chosen topic.

Preparation and materials

You will need paper cards in two different colours to cre-

ate two sets of words. One set of words (different objects)

should be written on one set of cards and the other set of

words (various activities or concepts) should be written on

cards of a different colour. Prepare at least 10 cards in each

Communication in Mother Tongue

colour. You can choose random objects and activities or di-

rect participants’ focus towards a certain topic. These will

be the words participants will combine during the task.

Time

20 minutes including time for sharing metaphors.

Instruction

Ask one volunteer from the group to pick two cards–one from

each set–without looking at the words. Ask the whole group

to nd a connection between these two words and write

down new metaphors by using the following construction:

“[ACTION] is like [NOUN] because…”, for example: “WRIT-

ING is like SKY because it hides much more than we can ever

imagine.” Allow participants the freedom to modify the se-

lected concepts, like “Creative Learning Cookbook’s” par-

ticipant Kaisa did: “TEACHING is like making children eat

GARLIC– despite all your efforts and explanations that it’s

good for them, they still want to have candy or ice cream in-

stead.” You can also work with nouns only, as another par-

ticipant Eszter: “Some relationships are like a rubber band,

you can stretch them for a while but only till they tire, dry

out and fall apart completely.”

Questions for reection

This task is suitable to warm up for longer writing exercises,

however you might use it to start a discussion about ques-

tions such as:

– What are the benets and risks of using gurative

language?

– How can noticing and forcing connections help us to

develop creative ideas?

– How does using metaphors help us to become more

clear and persuasive in communication?

Collage Poems

Aim

To explore different genres of poetry and encourage the cre-

ative expression of the participants. Creating collage poems

can be used also as a team-building exercise, if performed

in a small group.

Preparation and materials

Provide each participant or each team with the following

materials: scissors, glue sticks, old magazines and newspa-

pers, different types of paper. Also prepare several examples

of collage poems. You might check out the work of Tristan

Tzara who advocates a “cut-up” method of composition in

volving cutting out words from a newspaper and drawing

them randomly from a hat to create a poem: www.poetry-

foundation.org.

Time

The minimum time for creating a poem is 30 minutes.

Instruction

Share several examples of collage poems with the partici-

pants. After an explanation of the technique, give them un-

restricted space to work individually or in groups on their

collage poems– to cut out words from the available materi-

als and use them freely in the process of creating new poems.

If the group is more experienced, you can give instruction

as to what kind of poems the learners should create, for in-

stance, haiku, hymn or limerick. After creating poems, en-

courage participants to recite the poems to others, or organ-

ise an improvised exhibition of the works.

Questions for reection

You might encourage the participants to share their work on

social networks and receive feedback from larger audienc-

es. Some of the questions for reection you might ask your

participants include:

– Is poetic expression old fashioned?

– What would be some unusual but good situations to

use poems?

– How did working in a team inuence each participants’

creativity?

– Were there some obstacles that enhanced or blocked

creativity?

Shorter Than a Tweet

Aim

To improve participants’ abilities to express themselves in

a concise, but inuential manner.

Preparation and materials

Prepare several examples of the shortest stories in the world.

Time

At least 30 minutes.

Instruction

You can tell that this exercise was inspired by the six-word

story that is shorter than many story titles: “For sale: baby

shoes, never worn.” According to some sources Ernest Hem-

ingway is the author, according other sources the real author

of this short story is unknown. After sharing this, perhaps

some of the other most famous example can follow: “The

smallest cofns are the heaviest.” “I met my soul-mate. She

didn’t.” “Strangers. Friends. Lovers. Strangers.” Then ask the

participants to write down their own story that is no longer

than six words. Invite them to share their stories with the

group. Short stories can be also be illustrated and nished

as art works to be exhibited or published on social media.

Questions for reection

You might connect the exercise with the professional and

personal development of the participants by asking them to

describe themselves, or the next ve years of their life, in

one sentence. You might also ask them:

– What could be some approaches and techniques to

make your texts more concise?

– What can help you to identify and understand things

that make your text bulky?

– How can we use short stories to present ourselves and

the work we do?

Writing is Rewriting

Aim

To improve participants’ abilities to tighten up their work

and edit texts of their own and other people.

Preparation and materials

Pen and several sheets or paper for each participant, or com-

puters.

Time

Minimum time is around 90 minutes: 20 minutes for writing,

30 minutes for rewriting and the rest of the time for com-

parison of the texts and discussion.

Instruction

Ask participants to write a story starting with the sentence

“I woke up in the morning and looked in the mirror. I could

not believe what I saw…” After writing for a limited amount

of time—up to 20 minutes—several participants can share

their stories. After sharing, ask participants to go back to

their work and rewrite it. After rewriting, participants share

and compare both their stories.

Another variation of this exercise would be to ask partici-

pants to exchange short texts amongst themselves and re-

write the stories of each other, thus collecting different ex-

amples of how the same text can be adapted and improved

through the collaboration of two or even more persons.

Questions for reection

– What are your experiences with rewriting your work?

– What do you think are the benets of rewriting?

– Do you think that rewriting has any negative aspects?

The Words Now and Before

Aim

To increase participants’ curiosity about the process of de-

velopment of their mother tongue.

Preparation and materials

Prepare words that were used during certain period of time,

e.g. the 18th century. You could work with newspapers by

preparing a selection of texts from old articles. Participants

will need access to the internet, etymology dictionaries, glos-

saries, etc.

Time

The minimum time is 90 minutes.

Instruction

Give the participants several words that were frequently

used in some particular period of time, for example, in the

18th century. Ask them to research the words. For the re-

search, the participants can use access to online vocabular-

ies and dictionaries focused on the development of the lan-

guage. Learners should explore the meaning of the words

and their development through time and after use all the

given words in a story or poem.

A variation of this task is to give the participants copies of

a newspaper article written in a time period of your choice

and ask them to rewrite it so that it could be published in

one of today’s newspapers.

Questions for reection

– What inuences language development?

– How do you think new words are created?

– What might be some creative or business uses of old

and forgotten words?

Creative writing can be used for increasing vocabulary, familiarising

oneself with different sentence structures, to learn to emphasise

different details of argument, for example, or even just simply con-

structing argument. The more you write better you get at it.

James, Estonia

Street Talks

Aim

To increase participants’ curiosity and their ability to ex-

pand their vocabularies. With the help of this exercise, par-

ticipants will also learn to create and develop characters

based on different inputs.

Preparation and materials

Depending on participants’ prior knowledge you might need

to explain the term “slang” and the forms of gurative lan-

guage you want them to pay attention to.

Time

Before receiving the actual writing task, participants need at

least a few days to conduct interviews. The minimum time

for the session–sharing impressions from the interviews,

creating characters and discussion–is around 90 minutes.

Instruction

Invite participants to become street reporters for a certain

amount time, for example one week. Ask them to conduct

interviews with representatives of various groups of people–

it can be people of different ages, professions, from differ-

ent regions, etc. The interviews can tackle some real issue(s)

within the participants’ communities, or it can be a simple

interview about living in a certain place and what people like

and dislike about it. The participants can work individually

or in team. During the interviews, the participants should

pay attention to the language that people use– the expres-

sions, metaphors and similes, the slang words they use, also

their way of speaking, using voice, creating sentences. Sug-

gest that they note down all of these language related details.

After the interviewing period is over, ask participants to use

their notes as a starting point for creating characters. In this

case, written portraits of ctional persona, respecting each

group of people participants interviewed, that are based on

observations about the language and speech of real people

belonging to these groups. Participants can share some of

the portraits and compare how well they managed to grasp

the essential characteristics of people from different groups.

Questions for reection

– What kind of role does language play in the

development of characters?

– How can you make sure your characters use expressions

that t to them?

– How does the choice of words and usage of language

inuence our perception of a person?

– What kind of impression would you like to leave

about yourself and do characteristics of your language

support this impression?

Communication in a foreign language shares the main skills

of communication as used in the mother tongue. Communi-

cation in a foreign language also calls for skills such as me-

diation and intercultural understanding. Foreign language

teachers will nd most of these creative writing exercises

helpful if performed in a language different to the learners’,

regardless of the initial purpose of these exercises. Here we

offer activities that will help to expand participants’ vocab-

ularies in a foreign language, explore different languages

and improve their condence in expressing themselves in

foreign languages by allowing them to practice writing and

speaking in a playful atmosphere.

Freewriting in a Foreign Language

Aim

To encourage participants to write in a foreign language and

to help them overcome the fear to do so.

Preparation and materials

Paper and pen for each participant.

Time

The minimum amount of time is around 30 minutes.

Instruction

Writing restrictions such as grammar and spelling rules of-

ten push a lot of known vocabulary into passive, not active

use. Explain to the participants the aim of freewriting. Tell

them that they will be freewriting in a foreign language.

Then invite them to write everything they can in the select-

ed foreign language for 10 minutes, not paying strict atten-

tion to grammar or spelling. Encourage them to include ran-

dom words and phrases in their texts, even when they are

not sure about their actual meaning and usage. After writ-

ing, the participants can pick some interesting phrases or

ideas from their texts and share them with others.

Questions for reection

There is a saying that learning a language is a bit like climb-

ing a mountain. It may be enlightening to discuss with par-

ticipants how reaching the top of the mountain can be done

more easily:

– How condent are you using foreign languages?

– What obstacles decrease your condence and how could

you overcome them?

– What is most challenging for you in the process of

learning a new language?

– Which way of learning a foreign language works best

for you?

Communication in a Foreign Language

Strange Words

Aim

To increase participants’ curiosity and ability to expand their

vocabularies in foreign languages.

Preparation and materials

Choose several words in a foreign language which the par-

ticipants will include in their texts. Selected words should

not be known to the learners. Based on the level of experi-

ence of the group, selected words can be chosen from mate-

rials that the group is studying, or it can be words randomly

selected from dictionaries or found on internet, for example,

“logolepsy” (an obsession with words), “scripturient” (hav-

ing a consuming passion to write) or “metanoia” (the jour

ney of changing one’s mind, heart, self or way of life). Great

source of new words can be found at out pinboard.

For a group who just started to learn a new language, sim-

ple words might be more suitable.

Time

10–15 minutes for writing, plus time for sharing.

Instruction

Share one of the words with participants. Make sure that no

one knows the meaning of the word. The task of the learn

ers is to write down a denition of the unknown word. Af-

ter writing, the participants can share their texts and com-

pare their denitions. Then the actual meaning of the word

can be revealed.

Questions for reection

You can conclude the exercise by asking participants to in-

vent games and other fun and creative methods for learn-

ing new words in foreign languages.

Multilingual Poetry Reading

Aim

To increase interest in getting to know different cultures

and exploring cultures through language.

Preparation and materials

This activity requires that participants prepare before the

session. Ask each participant to choose his or her favour-

ite poem in a foreign language that he or she would like to

recite in front of others. If the group includes people from

different countries ask each participant to recite a poem in

their language to provide the others an opportunity to ex-

plore their fellow participants’ languages.

Time

Time can be adjusted to the number of participants and

length of the session.

Instruction

Ask the participants to recite their chosen poems in front

of others. After each reading a short discussion about the

meaning of the poem can follow, and participants can also

share how the speaker made them feel, what emotions were

communicated. Another focus point of the discussion after

reading poems can be readers’ non-verbal communication

and para-linguistics, and whether or not it helped to com-

municate the meaning of the poem to others. It is also inter-

esting to ask participants what were the reasons they chose

one poem or another– it can reveal more personal experi-

ences and stories, increase appreciation of poetry, and also

help to better understand the culture of the participant in

the instance of intercultural groups.

Questions for reection

– Do we need to speak in the same language to

understand each other?

– How could you use different elements of non-verbal

communication (gestures, intonation, volume, speed

of talking, facial expressions, eye contact, touch,

body posture and breath, etc.) to support your verbal

communication?

– People can misinterpret non-verbal language that

is culturally different from their own. Has this ever

happened to you? Describe what happened and your

reaction(s) to the incident.

To end the session on a high note and in a fun way, you might

divide participants in groups and ask them to write a poem

in an invented language and recite it to others. This can be

used to put into practice some of the suggestions from the

discussion on non-verbal expression.

Word Puzzle

Aim

To increase participants’ writing skills in a foreign language

and broaden their vocabularies. Tasks like this also help to

practice making connections, which is one of the main cre-

ative thinking strategies.

Preparation and materials

Before the session, prepare a list of words (templates) that

the participants will need to use in their writing. Each par-

ticipant should receive one list of words. Select words in line

with the level of knowledge of the participants. If the par-

ticipants are studying some particular subject, the words

can reect the area of their studies. Also, the number of the

words can be adjusted. If you wish to challenge your par-

ticipants, you can use more words. If you want them just to

warm-up, less than 10 words will be sufcient.

Time

Time can be adjusted. The activity can have a short time

limit and serve as a warm-up for other exercises, or partic-

ipants can get more time to write their stories.

Instruction

Spread copies of the templates. Ask participants to write a

text and include all the given words without changing their

place on the sheet. After writing, participants might share

their stories to reect how the same inputs can lead to dif-

ferent results.

Questions for reection

Ask participants what they can do to improve their writing

skills in foreign languages outside of school or language

classes.

The Devil is in the Detail

Aim

To improve participants’ abilities to deliver a clear message

in a foreign language, and how to notice and describe details.

Preparation and materials

Pictures of various objects. They can be objects that we use

daily, as well as pictures of more unusual things.

Time

30–45 minutes for writing the texts, plus time for sharing.

Instruction

Each participant receives a different picture, or several par-

ticipants receive the same picture. Ask them to write a de-

scription of the object in the picture without naming it di-

rectly in the text. After writing, propose that participants

share their texts and invite others to guess the object. If more

participants were describing the same object, the description

can be shared one after another to compare different styles.

Questions for reection

– What can help you to deliver a more precise message in

a foreign language?

– How can we prevent misunderstandings in

communication due to limited abilities to express

ourselves in a foreign language?

– What knowledge should we have about a person we are

communicating to, in order to be more efcient and

successful in the communication?

Synonyms and Antonyms

Aim

To expand participants’ vocabulary in a selected foreign lan-

guage. This exercise is also great to enrich participants’ abil

ities to communicate in their mother tongue.

Preparation and materials

Each participant needs access to online or printed diction-

aries of the language which they’re learning. Dictionaries

of synonyms will be especially helpful.

Time

90 minutes for writing texts, plus time for sharing and re-

ection.

Instruction

Ask the participants to write down a text describing their

experience of learning a foreign language. The length of

the texts can be restricted to 200 words. When the texts are

completed invite participants to rewrite their own text by

replacing as many words as possible with their synonyms.

Participants should thus be provided with dictionaries sup-

porting the learning of new words. Some of the texts can be

shared in the group. Ask participants to also write down all

the new words which they learnt while rewriting the text.

One more round can be added by asking the participants to

rewrite their texts once more, but in this case they are asked

to replace as many words as possible with their antonyms.

Questions for reection

Learning a new language requires effort, patience and a lot

of practice. Some people easily get bored or loose motiva-

tion and persistence. Ask participants what motivates them

to learn a foreign language and give them a chance to hear

each other’s motivation, which can help to strengthen their

own. You might ask also:

– What are your main motivation killers in the context of

learning a new language?

– How can you overcome these motivation killers?

– What approaches and strategies could we use to make

the language learning process exciting in the long

term?

Learning to learn is the ability to continue in learning. This

competence includes awareness how we learn as individu-

als, identifying opportunities, as well as the ability to over-

come obstacles in order to learn successfully. Exercises in

this chapter are aimed at helping participants to become

more aware of their learning needs and encouraging them

to explore and use all their senses in the learning process.

Heroes and Anti-heroes

Aim

To provide the participants with a creative framework for

self-reection and identifying their strengths, abilities, skills

and talents. This exercise can also serve as a needs analysis

that can be used as a basis for setting further learning ob-

jectives and developing a personal learning plan.

Preparation and materials

It can be helpful if, before this writing exercise, participants

do a personal SWOT analysis. You will need pen and paper

for each person. In a variation of this exercise, you also need

a tripod, a camera and someone who’d assist participants

with taking photos.

Time

60 minutes.

Learning to Learn

Instruction

Explain to participants that the purpose of this exercise is

to increase their self-awareness. Participants should work

alone and their task is to create a new superhero, describe

them and write a story about some event in which the su

perhero demonstrates their powers. The essential element

of the activity is that the superhero should be the partici-

pants themselves and the powers of the superhero should be

based on participants’ actual skills and talents. Invite par-

ticipants to imagine that there’s an article published in the

newspaper about the abovementioned event. Suggest a ti-

tle for their article, such as “The world is looking for a mys-

terious hero”.

After writing their superhero stories, divide the participants

into groups of 2–3 people and ask them to share their sto-

ries within these small groups. If the participants know each

other well, they can also give each other feedback on the list-

ed skills, strengths and abilities to support the personal de-

velopment of each other.

Variation. Before the actual writing exercise, participants

should have listed their strengths and weaknesses. Focusing

more on strengths than weaknesses is a positive approach

to reaching one’s aims. However, it’s the weaknesses that

undermine us and sometimes even diminish the strengths

we have. Sometimes we’re only able to access our strengths

when our weaknesses are not in the way. Thus, one of the

best strategies for self-improvement is to focus on the devel-

opment of a few main strengths or talents while eliminating

the weaknesses. Ask participants to think about their aims

and dreams, then decide which would be the three strengths

most important for them to continue to develop and which

three weaknesses should be eliminated. Then invite them to

create two characters– hero and antihero. As in previous var-

iation participants should develop a character exaggerating

their actual traits– three strengths and three weaknesses

as selected before. The character of a hero should represent

the best they can become, meanwhile the antihero– their

worst. When introducing the writing task ask participants

also to think about a visual image of hero and antihero, and

using accessories, face expressions and posture together

with photographer create two photos that would represent

the hero and the antihero. Ask participants to share photos

or stories, or both, but tell them in advance that there will

be no obligation to share their stories. Make sure that after

the workshop participants receive both photos.

Questions for reection

– How well do you know your strengths and weaknesses?

– How can you become more aware of your strengths and

weaknesses?

– Should we focus more on developing our strengths or

eliminating our weaknesses?

To conclude this activity, you can ask participants to brain-

storm ideas and create a learning plan that aims to develop

their strengths and eliminate their weaknesses.

People Who Make a Difference

Aim

To help participants understand what qualities make some-

one a good teacher or mentor and explore who’ve been their

role models, in addition to how these people have inuenced

their learning and personal growth.

Preparation and materials

List of questions on the board or printed cards.

Time

40 minutes.

Instruction

Ask each participant to choose one person who has had the

biggest positive inuence on their learning and development.

Offer them a list of questions to create a written portrait of

this person. These might include: What is the expression

on this person’s face? What is this person’s body posture?

What is this person’s voice and mood? What impression of

this person do you get from looking at them? What feel-

ings rise up in you when you see this person? Why do you

feel this way? What strikes you most about this person? If

this person could do anything they want, what would it be?

Why do they want to do this? How would they deal with ob-

stacles that might stand in their way? How does this person

treat other people? How do they react in a crisis situation?

What motivates them? What is this person known and re-

spected for? What was it about this particular person that

led you to choose them over others? Invite participants to

share some of the portraits.

Questions for reection

– What makes a person an inuential role model?

– What qualities and strategies could you borrow from

the person you described in order to reach your own

dreams and aims?

– Do you have a mentor? If so, what traits are you

seeking in a mentor and why?

– What kind of personal support do you need in your

learning process?

– What are some things you do that you believe can help

other people learn?

I do generate some thoughts and ideas on a daily basis, and very

often they come into my mind and those thoughts stay there or go

away. And, I see creative writing as a tool that will help me to write

down those ideas and thoughts I have, on paper, so I can later de-

cide either to work on them or to pass them away.

Arvis, Latvia

Your Journal is Your Teacher

Aim

To learn to use a journal for learning purposes and to encour-

age the regular practice of both self-reection and writing.

Preparation and materials

Designated notebook for each learner.

Time

10 minutes per day.

Instruction

Learning diaries are a well-known and exploited tool in non-

formal education and there are a lot of approaches concern-

ing how to use them. Here we offer a 10 day journal challenge,

and anyone can take it. This challenge requires a particpant

to freewrite exactly 10 minutes every day, for 10 days with-

out a break.

Questions for reection

If you offered the journal challenge to a class or group of

people, after 10 days you can encourage sharing and dis-

cussion about the experience. You might ask what were the

benets of regular self-reection? Is self-reection impor-

tant? Participants can be asked to review their writings and

set new learning objectives, as well as design a learning plan

for themselves.

Writing has a kind of therapeutic power over me. If you write, then

you can’t do anything else besides it at the same time, so there is

no multi-tasking, and it’s an amazing feeling.

Heili, Estonia

Awakening Senses

Aim

Our sensing bodies see and feel far more than we realise.

Senses are important instruments of our intelligence and the

medium through which we perceive the world. It is through

our eyes, ears, skin, muscles, and organs that we feel, see and

respond to all that is around us; thus knowledge is largely

based on sensory perception. The main aim of this activity

is to increase participants’ awareness about the importance

of all the senses in their learning process and to encourage

them use all their senses in the process of inquiry.

Preparation and materials

You will need to prepare cards in 10 different tones of one

colour, per two participants. Also, make a selection of in-

strumental songs that will be used. If possible, it should be

a song that is not well-known to the participants. Scarves to

cover participants’ eyes would be helpful. You can also pre-

pare some background information about different senses

and concepts that help to explain the role of senses in the

learning process.

Time

2.5–3 hours. Plan around 30 minutes for each exercise, in-

cluding time for sharing some of the texts.

Instruction

The following short exercises are examples of how to help

participants explore different senses. You can change their

order or replace some of them with other writing prompts,

based on the work with senses. You can also implemented

some of them. Time for sharing texts should be provided af-

ter each exercise. When all the tasks are done, a discussion

focused on the importance and benets of using all sens-

es can follow.

SIGH T. Make-up catalogues can be quite a resourceful place

to gain inspiration for different titles of colours such as “Red

Fox”, “Impatient Pink” or “Mauve Madness”. Divide par-

ticipants into pairs and give each pair 10 cards in different

tones of the same colour, for instance, 10 tones of blue. Ask

SMELL. Ask the participants to describe their favourite sea-

son by smell without revealing which season it is in their

text. When descriptions are read, participants can guess if

the text is about spring, summer, autumn or winter. If time

allows, you could ask them to also describe the smell of dirty

clothes and shoes, and what this smell means to them.

TASTE. Ask the participants to describe the taste of some

common food to a person who is not able to taste– to de-

scribe the taste of orange, coffee or chocolate.

them to imagine themselves as copywriters working for a

cosmetic brand and they need to give names to each of these

ten colour tones.

HEARING. Invite the participants to nd a comfortable po-

sition, close their eyes and listen to an instrumental song.

When the song ends, ask them to write down a text reect-

ing feelings and associations that the song evoked in them.

Time for writing can be limited to 20 minutes. The name and

story of the song can be revealed after some of the stories

were shared. We’d suggest using Max Richter’s “Sarajevo”.

It is amazing, what a song can create in your head, how something

that another person says can inuence you and help to create this

world of characters and even locations – just out of nothing.

Anete, Latvia

TOUCH. Divide participants into pairs. Pairs should have

their eyes closed. Give them a material from which it is pos-

sible to create different objects, such as clay, wet sand, plas-

ticine or even paper. The task of the pair is to work togeth-

er—while having their eyes closed and not talking—to create

a sculpture from the material. Give them 10–15 minutes to

work. As the working together includes touching each oth-

ers’ hands, give them a writing task to describe another per

son based on touch and the cooperation experience during

this blind and silent exercise.

Questions for reection

– Are you using all your senses when learning?

– Which senses are the most important and helpful for

you to learn?

– How would your world change if you lost one of your

senses and how could you adapt?

– How can working with senses help us to produce more

creative results– ideas, art works, questions, texts?

Note: Hemingway has suggested that “it’s your object to

convey everything to the reader so that he remembers it

not as a story he had read but something that happened

to himself.” Often, we are using just visual inputs in the

process of writing, but a story that we can feel needs to

so much more than a visual one. It should also address

sounds, scents, tastes and physical touch. Did you know

that smell is the most nostalgic sense? Using all ve sens-

es makes writing more real, more relevant, more believa-

ble. Also, in the case of learning, it is important to provide

possibilities to work with different senses, thus enabling

the learners to record the new knowledge better.

Sense Your Mate

Aim

To encourage using all of the senses in learning, as well writ-

ing process, and to establish a closer connection among the

participants in the group.

Preparation and materials

It is recommended that this exercise is used as a conclud-

ing exercise of the previous series of sense explorations, and

even if you want to use it alone it would be good to use some

of the previous exercises for warming-up. If the group is ex-

perienced the task might be used as a separate exercise, fo-

cusing on group dynamics. To use this exercise, make sure

that there’s a safe environment in the group and participants

are respectful and comfortable with each other.

Time

30–40 minutes.

Instruction

Divide participants into pairs or trios and ask them to de-

scribe each other using ve senses, which means that partic-

ipants should describe how the other person looks, sounds,

smells, tastes and feels. There are two main approaches par-

ticipants can use to complete the task. 1) They can ask each

other for permission in case they decide to smell, taste or

touch each other and use their direct observations, or 2)

through metaphoric expression, for example, “if this per-

son was a drink they would be…”. The nal texts should be

shared within the teams, and you can offer the option of

reading to the whole group.

You can apply the same structure also to explore different

subjects that participants are learning about, for instance,

nature objects in biology classes, materials in art classes,

and so on.

Questions for reection

Refer to description of the previous exercise.

Letter to My Child

Aim

To practice reection.

Preparation and materials

Craft paper for writing letters, pens, envelopes. Depending

on the experience of the group, you might need to explain

the term “reection”.

Time

30 minutes.

Instruction

No doubt, most of the young people receive a lot of instruc-

tion and advice at school, at home and from media. What if

we challenged them and put them in a role of an advisor?

Use this exercise at end of some important learning expe-

rience, such as international exchange or training course.

Ask each participant to write a letter to their child– the one

they might have in the future. Ask them to think of some

important lessons in life they’ve experienced and refer to

those lessons in the letter. Letters can remain anonymous

and be exchanged among the group members, so they can

take a look, but ensure that all the letters travel back home

with their authors. If you have a chance, you might collect

them and send them to the participants several years later.

Questions for reection

– How important and present is reection as part of your

daily life?

– What methods or approaches do you use to organise

your personal reection?

– What do you do with observations and conclusions that

are outcomes of reection?

– Is it possible to transfer the experiences of one person

to another and learn from the mistakes of others?

Social and civic competences include personal, interperson-

al and intercultural competence. They cover all forms of be-

haviour that equip individuals to engage in social and work-

ing life. Moreover, they are also about an active commitment

to democratic participation and conict resolution. Exercis-

es included in this chapter are focused on cooperation, em-

pathy, a sense of belonging and the growth of communities.

Mood Writing

Aim

The main aim of the exercise is to provide a space for self-

reection and development of empathy skills. It can be also

used as a creative exercise to explore how individual people

in the group are feeling at any given moment and nd out

the mood and energy of the group.

Preparation and materials

Markers, crayons, watercolours, papers for writing and draw-

ing, pens.

Time

Around 30 minutes, plus time for sharing.

Social and Civic Competences

Instruction

Give each participant a sheet of paper and ask them to draw

their mood at the moment. Drawing should take no more

than 5 minutes. It is not about drawing perfectly, it is more

about putting down on the paper the rst emotions that

come to their mind when the task is introduced. When the

participants are done, ask them to exchange their drawings,

take a look at the drawing they received and write a short

story inspired by it.

If the group is together for a longer period of time, like in a

training course, this task also works very well as an open-

ing activity for the day. In this case, ask the participants to

draw the mood with which they woke up and after exchang-

ing drawings, give them the opening sentence of a story:

“When I woke up in the morning I felt…” After writing texts,

the participants can share the stories, and the authors of

the respective drawings can say if their mood was reected

in the stories or not.

Questions for reection

You might invite participants to reect how their actions

and moods inuence people around them and to what ex-

tent the mood and actions of others impact them. Questions

to discuss might also include:

– What can you do to ensure a good atmosphere amongst

people around you?

– How would you like people to feel when they are

working or communicating with you?

– How do you react in situations when someone is

negative, aggressive or very critical towards you?

Creative writing is the best way to express emotions. Sometimes young

people experience some blocks, and writing can help to overcome them,

just by giving them a chance to express themselves. The writing can be

just for them, without sharing, and it is very therapeutic.

Solange, Austria

Alphapoems

Aim

The exercise fosters creative thinking and the abilities to

draw connections between different concepts and actions,

but if used as described here, the main aim of the task would

be to improve cooperation amongst people within a group or

team. Take it as an example of how creative writing exercis-

es might be adapted to the needs of team-building.

Preparation and materials

Prepare two ip-chart sheets with all the letters of alpha-

bet written on it, one under another. You might need only

two of them, but it’s also possible that a group will require

more. You will also need a few markers.

Time

60 minutes.

Instruction

The idea of an alphapoem is simple. The group has to write a

poem together, each line starting with another letter of the

alphabet, from A to Z. Give participants a challenging time

limit, for instance, a group of 20 people might get 3 min-

utes to create a poem. Provide time up to 10 minutes for the

group to agree upon a strategy of how they will solve this

challenge. Then go for it! If the group is successful, invite

them to read the poem. If participants don’t succeed invite

them to revise their cooperation and try again. If the sec-

ond attempt fails, and if the group wants to revise their ap-

proach and cooperation to try once again, then do so! Don’t

fear failure, if the group so decides.

Questions for reection

After writing the poem, facilitate the reection of the group

on their work and cooperation as a team. You might ask ques-

tions such as:

– Did you feel involved in the activity?

– Do you think that you succeeded as a team?

– What was source of success or failure?

– What could be done better during this exercise?

– How could we improve further cooperation and

communication in this group?

– Are you more effective and creative in a group or when

working alone?

– What rules and practices should exist in the group so

that the creative thinking of its members thrives?

After reection, you might suggest that the group make an

agreement, drawing up rules or guidelines for better coop-

eration.

And, now it’s your turn to create an alphapoem. Use the tem-

plate provided on the previous page!

Don’t Ask Where I’m From,

Ask Where I’m Local

Aim

To foster the reection of the participants on the issue of be-

longing and various elements that shape our sense of belong-

ing, including the role of environment, people and culture.

Preparation and materials

The activity is based on the TED Talk of writer and photog-

rapher Taiye Selasi. The talk can be found and download-

ed on the website www.ted.com. You will need a computer,

speakers, a projector and a screen.

Time

90 minutes.

Instruction

Open the activity by asking the participants a question:

Where are you from? Participants should respond one by

one. Write down their answers on the board, or ask someone

to help you with that. Use those answers as inputs for fur-

ther discussion. Then let them watch the TED Talk of Taiye

Selasi. After the speech ask the participants to write a text

that would answer to the question: Where are you local? The

participants can decide about the form. Texts are shared with

a larger group and discussion on issues such as self-aware-

ness, identity in connection with rituals, relationships and

restrictions dened by Taiye Selasi in the talk should follow.

Questions for reection

– Where are you from and where are you local?

– Which question would you ask when you meet someone

new?

– Do you feel a sense of belonging to the place where you

live and the people around you?

– What helps us to develop sense of belonging to a place

or group of people?

– Do you think that people can belong to more than one

place?

– What do you most connect with? Why?

– How do you know you have connected with another

person or group of people?

Change of Perspectives

Aim

To develop empathy and awareness of the importance of dif-

ferent perspectives on the same issue.

Preparation and materials

You will need several photos of different situations captur-

ing at least two characters. Use photos from magazines or

newspapers and prepare each of them in 2–3 copies.

Time

60 minutes.

Instruction

This is an individual exercise. Each participant receives one

photo. Several participants can receive the same photo, but

they should not be aware of it. Ask participants to describe

the situation from the perspective of both characters in the

image. The photo might represent just one episode of their

stories. Suggest that participants should develop the char-

acters and events further, then invite them to share some

of the stories. If the same image was used several times, en-

courage all the people who had this image to read their sto-

ries and later on you can explore the factors that inuenced

their different interpretations of the characters and situa-

tions. You might use a similar exercise to facilitate analysis

of some current events in your country.

Questions for reection

– What helps us to understand other people better?

– Why is it important to be aware of different

perspectives people might have on some issue(s)?

– How can we reach a common understanding between

people who have different perspectives on the same

situation or issue?

Walking in the Shoes of Another Person

Aim

To develop empathy and understanding of others. If per

formed in intercultural group, this exercise also provides an

opportunity to learn more about life and habits in different

countries. For a new group (or a group that is not very close),

sharing personal schedules can help to bring people closer

and improve interpersonal understanding and connection

within the group.

Preparation and materials

Large sheets of paper and drawing materials can be pro-

vided, so participants can also draw a timeline or schedule

for their day. Be aware that drawing will require more time.

The exercise might have a more specic learning objective,

for instance, gaining a better understanding about the life

of specic group of people. In this case, you might prepare

cards in advance with roles that participants should take.

Participants will need access to online or off-line materials

that will help them to gain more knowledge about a given

group of people.

Time

60 minutes or more depending on learning objectives you set.

Instruction

Ask participants to describe an ordinary day in chronolog-

ical order and include as many details as possible. You can

give them a sentence starter: “Each day I wake up at… and…”.

In the description they can include their concerns, point out

things that make them feel worried or angry, like trafc jams,

long queues or grumpy neighbours, and activities that make

them feel happy, like going out with friends or doing hob-

bies. When nished, ask them to rewrite their ordinary day,

but as someone else. Offer them the chance to change their

sex, age or occupation, etc. Give participants the opportu-

nity to choose whom they will become, or provide pre-pre-

pared roles, depending on learning objectives. When n-

ished, participants might share both texts in pairs or trios.

Questions for reection

– How did the descriptions change and what was it like to

become someone else?

– It is difcult to perceive the world around us from

different perspectives? What would make it easier?

– Why is important to see the world from different

perspectives and what can we learn from other peoples’

viewpoints?

– If you could change places with another person for one

day, whose life would you like to experience? Why?

Manifesto

Aim

To facilitate participants’ reection on social or environmen-

tal issues that matter to them and to develop their abilities to

prepare texts that are addressed to larger audiences. It also

aims towards effecting changes in attitudes and behaviours.

Preparation and materials

You will need examples of several manifestos, papers, pens,

materials for drawing, making collages or other artistic ex-

pression.

Time

60 minutes.

Instruction

Introduce and discuss with the participants the term “man-

ifesto”. The word itself has a strong political meaning, thus

the activity can be adjusted and implemented also in class-

es of history or civic education. Besides manifestos relat-

ed to politics, we can nd many manifestos for creative life

and encouraging people to pursue their dreams. Participants

can become familiar with several creative manifestos, for in-

stance, the Holstee Manifesto. After sharing the concept and

examples, ask them to create their own manifesto. Suggest

that they dene the aim and target group of the manifesto

rst and then work on the text and design. Participants can

work individually, in small groups or as one team.

Questions for reection

– What are the changes you would like to see in your

community?

– Considering who you are at the moment, what can you

do to improve the lives of people around you?

– How can you get others to accept your ideas?

A sense of initiative and entrepreneurship is an individual’s

ability to turn ideas into action. It includes creative problem-

solving and innovation, in addition to project management.

Exercises offered in this chapter can be used as an aid to em-

power young people to innovate and start their own enter-

prises or social initiatives. As entrepreneurship requires some

risk taking and positive attitudes towards change, these ex-

ercises encourage people to dream, to dare and to travel to-

wards unknown places.

I think that people have so many ideas, and they would like to share.

Creative writing can really be a good opportunity for someone to

present some project or some idea, just because not everybody can

say it out loud, not everybody can have the condence and enough

storytelling skills. If young people know how to write and how to

write creatively, they will easily reach their goals in any kind of so-

cial life and job environment.

Uliana, Austria

A Ship in Harbour is Safe,

But That’s Not Why Ships are Built

Aim

To develop a positive attitude towards taking risks and fail-

ure as means to learn and improve.

Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship

Preparation and materials

Several quotes or photos about risk and fear.

Time

The minimum time for the activity is 45 minutes.

Instruction

This is an individual task. Give each participant a quote or

photo on the topic of risk and ask them to include the quote

in their story. Provide an opening sentence for the story: “I

couldn’t make a decision so I went for a walk. Passing through

the city I noticed a poster stating “A ship in harbour is safe,

but that’s not why ships are built”. The sentence made me…”

When the texts are done, invite some of the participants to

share and continue with a discussion on taking risks and

overcoming fears.

Questions for reection

– What is your attitude towards taking risks?

– How can we assess risks in order to understand which

might be harmful for us?

– Do you experience fear of failure?

– What is your approach to dealing with this fear?

A Bird in the Hand

Aim

The aim of this exercise is to increase learners’ awareness

of their resources and enhance their creative thinking and

problem-solving skills.

Preparation and materials

Depending on the age and prole of the group, it can be help-

ful to introduce them to different categories of individual

resources, thus building their understanding that their re-

sources include much more than nancial and material ones.

Time

At least 40 minutes.

Instruction

This exercise can be done individually or in pairs or trios, if

you feel that participants might need creative support and

ideas from others. You can point out in the opening talk

that entrepreneurs start with what they have. They look at

who they are, what they know and who they know, instead

of waiting for the time when all the resources to reach some

goal will be obtained. So an entrepreneur does not start with

a given goal, but with the tools they have. Before the main

exercise, ask participants to write down in 10 minutes, 33

individual resources that they have. Preparing this list of re-

sources can be quite a challenge, but participants shouldn’t

be critical towards their ideas. The time pressure is there

to help deal with participants’ inner critic. When 10 min-

utes have passed, regardless of number of resources in the

list, ask participants to pick one of their personal resources.

After, give the participants the following starter sentence:

“One day a man came to me and gave me 100 white sheets

of paper and two black markers, and it changed my life…”

Ask them to write a story how with help of these resourc-

es (100 sheets of paper, two black markers and one personal

resource each person selected) they changed their life. Ask

participants to read some of their stories.

To conclude the activity, you can introduce participants to

research about entrepreneurial thinking and the common

characteristics of entrepreneurs. An interesting read which

inspired this exercise is the research of professor Saras D.

Sarasvathy “What makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial?”,

available online at www.effectuation.org.

Questions for reection

– What are the most important resources you have? What

could be possible uses of those resources?

– Which strategy do you think works best to gain success

in some eld?

100 + 1 Characteristics of Entrepreneur

Aim

Creating characters is an important element of creative writ-

ing. In this exercise, common character building questions

are used to facilitate reection about what qualities one

needs to become a successful entrepreneur.

Preparation and materials

Flip-chart paper and markers, paper and pens. Draw on the

ip-chart your version of the character building template or

demonstrate it on the screen.

Building a Character from Scratch

Decide if you want your entrepreneur to be female or male

and how old they are.

Truths and lies

Write ten ‘factual’ statements about your character– what-

ever comes to mind rst, for instance, they work hard, they

are kind, and so on.

Write ten ‘lies’– statements that you think can’t be true, for

example, they hate to be with other people.

Back-story

Name: Children:

Age: Political views:

Appearance and style: Hobbies:

Health: Temper:

Attitude to religion: How other people see him or her:

Education: Opinion of themselves:

Special abilities: Important traits:

Marital status:

Relationship

In which ways would your character behave differently when

interacting with:

parents enemies

men lover

women his or her team

friends competitors

Additional Questions

– What habits help them to be successful?

– How do they dene success?

– If you asked about their greatest dream, what would

your character say?

– What’s a secret dream that they wouldn’t tell you

about?

– How do they deal with failure?

– What makes people follow and support them?

– How did they behave at school?

Time

90 minutes.

Instruction

Participants work in small groups. The aim of the exercise

is to understand what habits and qualities should we try to

develop in ourselves in order to become successful entre-

preneurs. Ask them to create a prole of a good entrepre-

neur using the provided template. Once the general prole

is completed, invite learners to invent different quotes about

and around entrepreneurship that this successful entrepre-

neur might have told the mass media, his team, a group of

young people, a child and a dog. Invite participants to share

the quotes they liked the most.

Questions for reection

– Can anyone become an entrepreneur?

– What are the most crucial competences one should

have to become an entrepreneur? Where and how can

you develop those competences?

– What qualities of a good entrepreneur do you have?

– What are the bad habits that you should change in

order to become more successful in your chosen eld?

– What do you still need to learn and practice more?

Freewriting Marathon for Entrepreneurs

Aim

To use writing for gaining deeper insights into different

themes related to entrepreneurship and initiative.

Preparation and materials

Paper, pen and text marker for each participant. Timer.

Time

45 minutes.

Instruction

Introduce participants to the concept of freewriting. Then

give them the following starter sentences to write. Partici-

pants should be given 3 minutes to work with each sentence

before switching to the next. Let participants know when they

should switch to next sentence starter:

To start something new is…

I would like to change…

The world would be better if…

The way I can help is…

The business ideas that inspire me are…

I could also become an entrepreneur if I…

The thing I’ve been dreaming about for a long time is…

The team that would help me to do what seems impossible…

I can succeed because…

The question I want to ask myself is…

In next 12 months I want to focus on…

When time for writing runs out, ask participants to revise

their texts and underline the most interesting or important

thoughts and points. Freewriting marathon is a good start to

dig deeper into one’s own thoughts and emotions regarding a

topic, to warm-up thinking and get more focused. There are

hundreds of possibilities how to continue the session. You

can ask participants to develop and rewrite their most im-

portant ideas and thoughts in the form of tweets to encour-

age the exchange of ideas and thoughts within the group and

share them with a wider audience. You can ask them to use

these texts as a basis to formulate their personal vision and

aims they’d like to achieve within a given period of time, or

you can continue with a brainstorming session to create a

new business or project idea(s).

Questions for reection

– Where there some surprising thoughts you came up

with during the writing process?

– What did you understand about yourself?

– Do you feel ready to step out of your comfort zone and

start something new? If not, what stops you?

– What help and support would you need to make the

next step? Where can you get it?

While working with young people, it’s really important that they can

switch on their imagination. Creative writing exercises can boost their

creativity and it can result in better experimenting, observing the

world around them. I think it’s very important for young people, so

they can nd what they really want to do in their life. If you asked

me what was one of the main mistakes I made in my life that pre-

vented me from discovering what I’d really like to do, it was a lack of

taking action, doing, trying things. So if someone boosted my imagi-

nation somehow, I know I’d try more, I’d dream more, imagine more

things and therefore maybe come to where am I now a bit earlier.

Mārtiņš, Latvia

My Project: My Story

Aim

To offer a creative framework for developing ideas for new

projects.

Preparation and materials

Prepare to speak about the main elements of storytelling and

assist participants in gaining a full understanding of those

elements. Some of the books you can read to learn more are

Fog’s ‘Storytelling. Branding in Practice’. Use a story every-

one knows as an example. Before this writing exercise, par-

ticipants should have brainstormed ideas for projects and

chosen one they’d like to develop more. The idea doesn’t

need to be very clear, but there needs to be one. Depend-

ing on the character of the workshop participants, they can

work alone or as a team.

Time

90 minutes.

Instruction

Writing and implementing a project has a lot in common with

an adventurous story. If you are preparing a project propos-

al you need to respond to questions similar to those asked

when writing a story. Get the participants familiar with the

main elements of the storytelling—setting, characters, con-

ict, plot and message—and ask them to develop their ideas

using the same framework:

Setting | Context of the project

It is important as a writer to be able to clearly describe where

the story is happening. Look at the big picture and take the

time to develop multiple settings within the world that you

created. Convey logistics by the description of your setting.

Include location, historical timeline, season and so on. In

project development, setting stands for describing place

and social context, where the project would be implement-

ed: basic information about the place, statistics, trends, in-

formation about unmet needs, current challenges and so on.

Characters | Team and target group

Great stories focus on well-developed characters. Spend time

guring out what you want them to be. Creating well-round-

ed major and minor characters will drive your story forward

and develop the plot. Ask authors of the project idea to de-

scribe themselves as the main heroes of this story– their

competences and motivation to realise their idea. What are

special abilities and powers of each character in the team

and what role will they have in the upcoming adventure? En-

courage participants to spend some time describing the re-

lationships between the characters in the core team– it can

be a good way to reect on the teamwork in their team now

and set some guidelines for the future. Ask learners to de-

scribe their target group(s). And, make sure they don’t for-

get some other important characters in their story.

Conict | Challenge to solve and goals to achieve

A story is boring without some kind of conict. Your plot

would never advance if your characters didn’t face any ob-

stacles. If you’re having trouble with coming up with a con-

ict, ask yourself “What is stopping my characters from get-

ting what they want?” In the context of storytelling, conict

is an obstacle, event or person that destroys the balance and

peace in the life of our main hero(es). Ask participants to de-

scribe the problem and the need their project will address.

What aims will they set to solve the challenge? Are there

some villains or monsters to combat?

Plot | Plan of the activities

Simply put, the plot is the main story. It’s what’s happen-

ing. You can think of the plot as cause and effect: one action

leads to another. Build every scene upon the next. Don’t in-

clude anything that doesn’t propel the plot forward toward

your ending. Ask participants to prepare a plan for the ac-

tivities within their project and describe what results each

of the planned activities will bring. If you want them to work

on more details, introduce a basic plot structure: exposition

or beginning, rising action, climax, falling action and con-

clusion. Let them decide for themselves what will stand be-

hind those terms in their project.

Message | Promotion

Good stories have strong message that audience recalls for

long time. The message of the story is an ideological or moral

statement that works as a central theme throughout the sto-

ry. It is imperative to develop a clear dened message. With-

out a message there really isn’t any reason to tell your story.

With storytelling it is important to tell a story to commu-

nicate a message that is reective– that touches an audi-

ence and is relevant for them. Stick to one message per sto-

ry. Stories with more than one message becomes confusing

for audiences. As with stories, good projects, businesses or

social initiatives need a strong message. It can be a struggle

to nd and formulate it. But give it a try! Ask your partici-

pants once again what’s their motivation to do this project,

what they hope to achieve and what they want to tell to the

rest of the world with their activity? If the project makes it

to the implementation stage, a clear message will help main-

tain the promotional activities and communication with me-

dia and stakeholders. At this stage you can also ask partici-

pants to work on a plan for how they will get their message

across– how the project will be promoted?.

Ask participants to describe their project idea in the form of

a story. It can be imaginative, it can be funny, it can include

a touch of fantasy, because this task relates to the stage of

idea development and our crazy, sometimes silly fantasies

can lead us to novel ideas. Once the stories are done, remind

participants to give them a title and invite them to read

their stories, improve them, and discuss where these could

be published– how can participants gain the resources and

support needed to implement their project idea? Then you

can also introduce them to concrete application forms and

invite them to rewrite their stories—this time as project ap-

plications—to be submitted.

Questions for reection

– What are the criteria of a good project?

– What are the other elements of the project that should

be discussed and described in addition to what we’ve

done?

– What are the next steps you’re going to take to make

your idea come true?

Can creative writing save the world? Sure, creative writing can save

our inner world because we’re forced to listen to our own thoughts.

When we do creative writing in a group, it gives us a possibility to

speak out our thoughts that we normally ignore, and it helps peo-

ple in the group to become more expressive and also more em-

phatic towards others. Creative writing makes you a more creative

person and therefore we would have more innovation as result, and

we need innovation to change the world.

Liis, Estonia

We’re All Made of Stories

Aim

To improve participants’ self-awareness and empower them

through writing stories about themselves.

Preparation and materials

There has to be a lot of personal support and openness with-

in a group to offer participants this powerful exercise. Be

sure that there is a safe environment, enough support and

also the right mood for deep self-reection and analysis in

the group. This exercise is also rather complex and requires

good self-reection and observation skills, thus it is more

suitable for experienced learners.

Time

90 minutes.

Instruction

We’re all made of stories, some of which serve our develop-

ment while others hinder us. The destiny and future of our

world depends on the stories we believe in. Ask your par-

ticipants to recall the main story they tell about themselves

(to themselves or to other people) and put it on paper. Tell

them that there will be no obligation to share before they

start to write. Allow around 30 minutes for the self-reec-

tion and writing. Then give another 30 minutes to write an-

swers to the following questions:

– Are you a hero, a villain or a victim in this story?

– Describe how this story you tell about yourself

inuences you– does it inspire and strengthen you, or

restrict, make feel bad and loose belief in yourself?

– Are there some stories you believe in that are holding

you back?

– How could you rewrite those stories that are holding

you back as more encouraging ones? Think. What

have you learnt from your failures and mistakes? Have

criticism and negative attitudes from others helped you

to improve? Have bad events made you stronger? How

can your painful experiences help empower and inspire

others to get better?

Questions for reection

Ask participants to share their main impressions and emo-

tions. Was it difcult to become more aware of the inuence

of stories on ourselves? How can we distinguish stories from

facts and get to the core of ourselves or some issues? Give

participants time into split in pairs or trios and exchange

their stories and more impressions if they would like to.

Cultural awareness and expression means the ability to ap-

preciate creative expression of ideas, experiences and emo-

tions in a range of media, such as music, performing arts,

literature, and the visual arts. Cultural awareness is also

linked with intercultural competence. As creative expres-

sion underlies all the exercises in this toolkit, this chapter

provides ideas for activities to build awareness of cultural

issues; to facilitate reection on identity; to explore values,

norms and taboos of different cultures; to raise awareness

about the roots of stereotypes, prejudices and discrimina-

tion; and, to contribute to ghting discrimination and so-

cial exclusion.

The proposed activities can easily be adapted to the needs

and interests of various target groups. They might be used

as starter activities to open sessions focused on intercul-

tural learning, especially if there is a need to support shar-

ing personal experiences within the group. The activities

can be implemented in mixed intercultural groups, but also

in groups involving participants coming from the same en-

vironment. Tasks can be helpful when working with inter-

national volunteers as a means to encourage reection on

their experiences while living in a different country. In the

process of implementation, it is important to consider that

some of the participants’ stories can reveal important life

Cultural Awareness and Expression

experiences, thus a safe learning environment is crucial.

Taking into consideration the group dynamics, the partici-

pants can share their texts with the whole group, or in pairs

or trios, to support sharing in a more personal and comfort-

able atmosphere.

Recipe of Myself

Aim

To encourage the participants to reect on elements of per-

sonal identity and the process of its forming.

Preparation and materials

Prepare to introduce the participants to the term “identi

ty”. Depending on the learning objectives, you might refer

to different theories of identity, for instance, the theory of

Eric Erikson

. Also one recipe as an example for inspiration.

Time

At least 45 minutes.

Instruction

To open the activity, remind the participants that each of us

is different. We all have different experiences, we all come

2 For more information you can check out following book: Erikson, H., E. (1994), Iden-

tity and the Life Cycle. USA: W. W. Norton & Company.

from different backgrounds, different cultures, etc. Explor-

ing one’s own identity is an important to step in the pro-

cess of self-awareness. Invite participants to make recipes

of themselves by asking them what the main ingredients

which they are built from are? Before participants start to

write, introduce some examples.

Give participants 20 minutes to write their texts and then

invite them to share.

Questions for reection

– How you think our identities are created?

– What makes us who we are?

– What would you consider to be the most important

element of your identity?

– Under what circumstances our identities are changing?

Cultural Proverbs

“If you want to know a people, know their proverbs.”

Aim

To reect on various elements of cultures and to better un-

derstand differences and similarities between the cultural

heritage of different countries. This exercise is more suita-

ble for intercultural groups.

Preparation and materials

Prepare several cultural proverbs as an example and write

them down on a ip-chart. Examples:

Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it

Native American proverb reflecting

the importance of the land

Hope dies last of all

Mornings are wiser than evenings

You might use this exercise to introduce an iceberg model

of culture

. In this case, preparation includes preparing of

presentation of the model. You will need also pen and pa-

per for each participant.

Time

At least 45 minutes.

3 You can read about Iceberg Model of Culture in SALTO publication Training Kit on In-

tercultural Learning. See page 18.

Instruction

In the opening of the exercise, introduce several cultural

proverbs and ask participants to share examples from their

own countries. While sharing, the participants can also say

if the same (or an equivalent of) the example proverbs can

be found also in their own languages. Then ask each per-

son to choose one of these proverbs and allow 20 minutes to

write a story about the selected proverb. Participants might

write about the situations in which these proverb are used,

their personal experiences when this proverb turned out to

be true or not, or they can also write a story that would ex-

plain the role of the proverb in their country, or imagine or-

igin of this proverb. When stories are completed invite the

participants to share their texts.

Questions for reection

– What do you think are the main elements of cultures?

– Can all the elements be seen easily?

– How can we get to know these elements which we can

see and how do we learn about invisible ones?

– What are the invisible elements of your own culture?

– Why do you think that some proverbs are common for

more cultures while some of them not?

A fun exercise to do when you have an international group. It would

also be interesting to choose one proverb everybody knows and write

about it – to see how differently people think about one thing, or

what thoughts they get.

Liis, Estonia

Meeting With a Stranger

Aim

To develop the abilities of the participants to deal with cul-

ture shock, as well as to reect on the process of entering a

new culture and the challenges connected with it.

Preparation and materials

This activity can be used as a starting step for a discussion

about culture shock and entering other cultures. A presenta-

tion of the reasons and phases of cultural shock can be pre-

pared and shared after or before the writing activity.

Time

60 minutes.

Instruction

Ask the participants to share their experiences from situ-

ations where they encountered a new environment for the

rst time. If they don’t have experience of visiting or living

in a different country, they can also share experiences con-

nected with entering a new class or working collective. Af-

ter a brief sharing session, give participants 30 minutes to

write a short story about one of their encounters with stran-

gers. When done, invite them to share some of the stories.

Questions for reection

– How does moving to a new country differ from entering

new collective (class, training group, working place,

etc.) in your own country?

– Do you think that we can prepare ourselves for culture

shock? If yes, what do you think this preparation could

look like?

– What are some of the problems that might occur in

multi-cultural communication? What are the benets

of communication and collaboration with people from

cultures different to yours?

– What is the responsibility of each person forsending

accurate messages when they communicate with

someone from another culture?

– What is the responsibility of the listener or receiver

when they communicate with someone from another

culture?

The Danger of the Single Story

Aim

To increase participant’s understanding how stereotypes

and prejudices are being created, the origins of discrimina-

tion and to increase participants’ intercultural awareness

and tolerance through discussion and the sharing of per-

sonal experiences.

Preparation and materials

You will need to show the TED speech of novelist Chimaman-

da Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story”, available online

at www.ted.com. The session can be opened with an expla-

nation of the terms “stereotype”, “prejudice” and “discrimi-

nation”, and the process how they are created. With the help

of this speech you can also tackle topic of assumptions, as

well as challenging and breaking them.

Time

60 minutes.

Instruction

Open the exercise with the TED speech of novelist Chimam-

anda Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story”. After the talk

make sure that the participants understand the concept of a

single story. Then give the participants 20 minutes to write

their own “single story”– with themselves or someone else

as the main character. It can be a single story about some-

one, some group of people or themselves. Ask participants

to write about the moment they rst understood that it is

a single story. Allow time for 2–4 participants to read their

stories for the whole group and encourage further sharing

in pairs or trios.

Questions for reection

– Is it possible for humans to be free of stereotypes and

prejudices?

– Have you experienced situations where you believe

someone had an inaccurate perception of you due to

cultural or other reasons? How did you react?

– How are stereotypes and prejudices connected with

discrimination and social exclusion?

– What can we do to combat discrimination and

exclusion?

Survival Guide for a Visitor

Aim

To encourage participants to reect on their identity and

the process of forming it, the place from which they come,

in addition to the process of integration and assimilation.

Preparation and materials

In addition to pen and papers, you can also provide materi-

als for artistic visual expression.

Time

60 minutes (time can be adjusted). Participants can be asked

to write the most important ve pieces of advice for surviv-

al, if there is a time limitation.

Instruction

Decide if participants will work individually or in teams.

Their task is to write a guide for visitor visiting their city, re-

gion or a country. At the beginning ask them to focus more

on things that would help any visitor to feel like a local. The

guide does not need to include just text, it can include col-

lages, drawings, poems and quotes. It can also provide a vo-

cabulary of words and phrases that are essential to know.

Questions for reection

The prepared material might be later used to create a blog

post or video that can be shared with the wider public, with

the hope of it being helpful for those who’re coming to your

country. After reading some of the guides you might ask par-

ticipants also questions like:

– How easy or difcult was it to write about your city,

region or country?

– How did you decide what information foreigners should

know?

– Should newcomers adjust to the new environment or

stick to their own customs and traditions?

– Should people judge others according to their own

cultural norms? Why or why not?

Writing down things gives us the possibility to analyse what we do

and it’s always good.

Heili, Estonia

First Kitchen

Aim

To explore other cultures through personal stories and ex-

periences. In order to support the intercultural learning of

the participants, this exercise should be offered to intercul-

tural groups. In diverse national groups, it might help to ex-

plore and better understand the lives of different social and

age groups to those of the participants.

Preparation and materials

Pen and paper for each participant.

Time

At least 45 minutes.

Instruction

Whoever you are and wherever you’re from, we all have one

thing in common– kitchens. Ask participants to close their

eyes and ask them to remember their rst kitchen. You can

ask questions to help them remember different details. After

you have spent seven to ten minutes rebuilding participants’

childhood kitchens, ask them to open their eyes and write

down everything they saw. Allow them to write for around

20 minutes, and then ask them to read their pieces. Reading

in pairs or trios might be more suitable to give participants a

chance to ask questions to one another and chat about what

it was like to be a child in their families and their countries.

Questions for reection

You might suggest that participants have conversations in

small groups or pairs, or even individual reection focused

on questions such as:

– How have your experiences in childhood inuenced

your present thinking and activities?

– How does your cultural environment inuences your

thinking and activities?

– How does your environment foster or block creative

thinking, innovations and change?

If these questions seem to be too complicated for your tar-

get group, just ask, what are the teachings of their families

and cultural heritage that have been most important and

helpful to them?

Mathematical competence is the ability to apply mathemat-

ical thinking in solving problems in everyday situations.

Competence in science is the ability and willingness to use

the body of knowledge and methodology used to explain

the natural world, to identify questions and draw evidence-

based conclusions. The following writing exercises aim to

facilitate the learning of various science subjects, as well as

to enhance learners’ abilities to work with academic texts

and data, and to explore how technology shapes their life.

Making It Easier

Aim

Understanding that writing an academic text is a skill that

must be learned. An academic text is easier to understand

the more closely it resembles narrative text, with a focus on

goals and human agents. The aim of this exercise is to learn

to transform an academic text into a text that is better read-

able and understandable. This exercise can also be used as

an aid to build participants’ understanding about a specic

topic, for instance, climate change.

Mathematical Competence and Basic Competences

in Science

Preparation and materials

Prepare an academic text (articles from academic journals, the-

ses, research papers, monographs, etc.) for each participant.

Time

60 minutes.

Instruction

Distribute the academic texts. Each participant can receive

the same text, or several texts can be shared amongst the

group. Academic writing is expected to be precise, semi-for-

mal, impersonal, and objective. As such, they are often texts

we don’t read on a regular basis and can nd difcult to en-

gage with and memorize. The task of each learner is to re-

write their academic text in a more popular voice, without

changing its essence, losing the core information or the main

message. Give participants a genre and target group to work

with, such as children’s stories, comics, etc. It can even be a

single tweet. The principal task for the participants is that

the rewritten text is attractive and understandable for the

dened target group, yet still true and accurate.

Questions for reection

– What are the main features of academic text?

– What features can be useful to adapt in other types of text?

– When you consume non-ction content on the internet

or in mass media, what do you do to be sure that the

information provided is accurate and true?

– What are the most reliable sources of information?

What If?

Aim

To learn about different subjects and develop the critical think-

ing of the participants.

Preparation and materials

Prepare questions connected with the eld that participants

are studying. Within the task, participants are asked to write

a movie script outline. To facilitate this process you can intro-

duce participants to the major plot points, as described by H. R.

D’Costa in his Kindle book “Sizzling Story Outlines”.

Time

90 minutes.

Instruction

Participants can work individually or in the teams. Give each

participant or team a “what if” question which is related to the

subject you’re exploring. The questions can be connected with

astronomy, chemistry, physics, geography, biology, or any other

domain of science. What would happen if the Sun disappeared?

What if the Earth rotated twice as fast? What if the amount

of oxygen doubled? What if you fell into a black hole? What

if a giant asteroid hadn’t wiped out the dinosaurs? What if

humans were twice as intelligent? What if all the cats in the

world suddenly died? What if you only ate one type of food?

Give them time to research the question and ask them to

present its outcome to the rest of the group in the form of

an action movie script outline.

Questions for reection

– What questions about the world and humans are you

wondering about at the moment?

– What could be the ve main reasons to study natural

sciences?

– What is the role of technology and science in your life?

Constructing Knowledge

Aim

To develop knowledge about a specic topic together. Learn-

ing to work with academic text sources and write academ-

ic texts.

Preparation and materials

Prepare and present participants with guidelines about how

to create an encyclopaedia entry. You will also need com

puters and internet access.

Time

At least 90 minutes.

Instruction

Ask participants to create new entries for an encyclopae-

dia about a specic issue. The main issue and topics of the

encyclopaedia can be adjusted to the subjects that the par-

ticipants are currently exploring, but choose something for

which there is no existing encyclopaedia. It can be fun or

serious, from an encyclopaedia of acid rain to an encyclo-

paedia of sarcasm or teenage love, but participants should

follow at least three main guidelines for creating their en-

cyclopaedia entries: 1) avoid subjective comments or infor-

mation that cannot be veried, 2) provide references to at

least three academic text sources and 3)do not plagiarise.

Participants can also receive the terms which they need to

describe, or they can brainstorm and decide by themselves,

using for instance the clustering technique. A strict amount

of characters for each entry can be given. This activity is a

great opportunity to involve the whole group in collaborating

on the same topic. Thus, the exercise also promotes team-

work, communication and leaderships skills. When the en-

tries have been prepared, ask participants to put them to-

gether, illustrate and nish their encyclopaedia, which can

be shared among the group and even with the wider pub-

lic as an e-book.

Questions for reection

– How would you estimate your knowledge about world

around you?

– Do you tend to base your activities and behaviours on

your beliefs or scientic facts?

– Do you try to verify your beliefs and assumptions and,

if so, how?

– Are there any common assumptions you do not believe

in and would like to challenge?

Through creative writing I learnt to formulate things better, to come

up with structure for myself and work that I’m doing.

Mārtiņš, Latvia

Letter to the Explorer

Aim

To increase participants’ interest in science and invention,

as well as developing knowledge about important scientic

works and inventions.

Preparation and materials

This exercise includes both research work and working with

literature and writing. Give participants at least one week

to choose a scientist and explore their work.

Time

40 minutes for writing and sharing.

Instruction

Most of us have favourite actors, singers, writers, but do you

know many people who have their own favourite scientist?

It’s about time to pick one! Let each participant choose a

scientist, explorer or inventor who has done something im-

portant or inspiring. Ask participants to conduct research

on the work of their chosen scientist. After the research has

been done, ask each participant to write a letter to their sci-

entist, expressing how the work of this person has changed

the world (or the life of the participant), in addition to what

qualities the participant appreciates most in this person. The

letter should be detailed and based on information collected

during the research, with the aim of increasing participants’

abilities work with data. Invite participants to share their

letters. Note that you can ask participants to choose scien-

tists from the past and explore how the outcomes of their

work continue to inuence us in the present, or to choose

anyone– it might reveal some stories of scientists in their

families and circle of acquaintances.

The activity can also be adjusted in the way that each par-

ticipant receives a concrete name to cover a specic topic.

This task can be used as an aid if you want to build learners’

understanding about strategies, techniques and habits that

contribute to a person’s creative problem solving and inven-

tion abilities. If you wish to focus on this objective, provide

each participant with the name of an inventor to research.

In this case, the research should be focused on the think-

ing and habits of the given person. Based on the collected

data, participants can create a ctional character and then

pair up to develop a ctional Twitter conversation between

two such characters, for example, what would Leonardo da

Vinci discuss with Thomas Edison?

Questions for reection

– Why do we tend to appreciate the work of pop-culture

and sport gures more than the work of scientists?

– What could be done to make science and scientists

more attractive and interesting to the general public?

– What is your relationship with science– are you

interested in research and inventions, or even

becoming a researcher or inventor yourself?

The Story of the Formula

Aim

To raise participants’ willingness and abilities to work with

mathematical modes of presentation: formulas, graphs and

charts.

Preparation and materials

Choose a formula, graph or chart for participants to work

with.

Time

60 minutes.

Instruction

Depending on your subject, provide participants with a for-

mula, model, graph or chart and ask them to translate and

present the given data as a text. You can decide on the gen-

re depending on how much you wish to challenge the par-

ticipants (i.e. poem, love letter, blog post, etc.). Participants

can also draw connections between the given formula and

their life whilst exploring these connections in their text.

Questions for reection

You can facilitate a discussion about the importance of math-

ematical competence in daily life and ask participants where

it is needed outside of education. Or revert the exercise! What

would be the formula for your creativity? What is the formu-

la of a good team? What would be formula for a good day?

Field Trips

Aim

Field trips are a great source of experiential learning. When

we are given an opportunity to explore and inquire in a nat-

ural setting we are better able to understand the different

elements of our stories and sparkle our imagination. Field

trips also give writers a chance to learn professional terms,

jargon and other specics. The aim of the exercise is to raise

participants’ interest about a particular subject through com-

bining eld trips and creative writing.

Preparation and materials

This exercise requires you to organise a eld trip to a place

that would help participants explore the subject they are

learning. If they’re learning about the Middle Ages, you might

visit an archaeological excavation site. If they’re learning

about food, visit a farm. If their subject is literature, join a

writers’ residence or creative writing workshop.

Time

One day.

Instruction

Here preparation is the most complex part. Once you’re on

the trip, tell participants that their task is to collect infor-

mation about the subject and use it to write the rst three

pages of a fantasy novel. Encourage them to combine facts

and real characters with imaginary beings and places. It’s a

game where there’s no place for too many rules and guide-

lines. It’s up to them what should be in those rst few pages.

Questions for reection

Suggest that participants brainstorm about experiences and

people from their own life that would provide a good start-

ing point for a novel.

Digital competence involves the use of modern technolo-

gies for work, leisure and communication in both a condent

and critical manner. Exercises in this chapter bridge crea-

tive writing and new technologies aiming to help partici-

pants learn to use online resources and mobile devices for

creative production, virtual collaboration and as a resource

to reach their personal or professional aims.

Let’s Go Viral

Aim

To improve participants’ abilities to write copy for different

social media and deliver their messages to large audiences

with the help of social media.

Preparation and materials

Access to the internet, cameras, computers, materials for

drawing. Be prepared to share some tips on how to attract

interest and engage an audience on social media. Market-

ing models such as AIDA can be introduced to support par-

ticipants in content creation. A more complex (yet helpful)

framework is also Jonah Berger’s STEPPS to viral content.

Time

60 minutes for an introduction and preparing the posts.

Digital Competence

Instruction

Perhaps you have seen all those cute inspirational quotes on

social media. Invite participants to take part in a 24-hour

team competition. Divide them in teams of 3, ask them to

think about their areas of common interest, then prepare

their own inspirational quote, write it, design it and format

it as an image– one quote per team. All the teams should

publish their quote on Facebook at the same time. The win-

ner of the competition is the team whose post gathers largest

number of likes and shares within 24 hours. It means, teams

will need to develop a strategy for promoting their post.

Questions for reection

– What kind of posts from other people and

organisations do you share on your social media?

– What elements make your content much more likely to

be shared?

– How should we address our target audience to reach the

desired communication outcome?

– What strategies and techniques help us to promote our

content on social media and reach more people?

World Without Likes and Fans

Aim

To raise participants’ awareness of the impact of social me-

dia on their lives.

Preparation and materials

Papers, pens for participants, ip-chart.

Time

45 minutes.

Instruction

Open the activity with a discussion on the most used so-

cial networks in the group. List them on the ip-chart. Af-

ter the discussion, ask participants to choose the social net-

work they use the most and write a personal journal entry

starting with following sentence: On Friday I woke up and

[THEIR CHOSEN SOCIAL NETWORK] had disappeared. Eve-

ryone was saying that it will never be available again. I was…

Allow 10 minutes for writing and suggest that they include

in the text how they would they react, adapt and what would

change in their life. A few texts can be read.

Questions for reection

– What are positive and negative aspects of using social

networks?

– Should using social networks in education be supported

or not?

– Do you think that we are using modern technologies

effectively in the learning process?

Genius and Social Networks

Aim

The best context for this exercise might be a literature class

at school, offering a fun way to explore the works of famous

writers from the past that are included in the curriculum.

However, it can also deepen participants’ understanding of

writing for different online media and adjusting their con-

tent to the selected communication channel. It might also

be used to learn about important historical personalities, or

to explore the styles of famous visual artists from the past.

Preparation and materials

Prepare a list of the 4–6 writers from the past that are known

to the participants and whose works they have read in pre-

vious classes.

Time

30 minutes for writing. More time may be required if par-

ticipants’ knowledge about the selected author(s) needs to

be supplemented. In this instance, participants can work in

small teams, thus helping each other.

Instruction

Ask the participants to imagine what these authors would do

if social media was available to them? What kind of thoughts

and creative work would each of the writers publish? What

would be their favourite social media channel? Participants

should write one paragraph about each author, describing

what this person would do on social media.

Questions for reection

– How has social media changed literature and writing?

– Which activity would you choose to focus on, if there

were no computers and internet?

Internet Meets Creative Writing

Aim

To explore creative writing resources available on the inter-

net and learn to use them in one’s process of writing. Getting

to know these online tools will also help understand some

of the main techniques used in creative writing.

Preparation and materials

Computer and internet access for each participant.

Time

60 minutes for exploring the resource and writing the text,

and 30 minutes for sharing.

Instruction

There are a lot of online creative writing resources offering

exercises, tips and opportunities for collaboration and shar-

ing. Depending on the size of the group, ask participants to

work alone or in the team. Give each individual or team one

creative writing resource to explore. Ask them to prepare a

brief overview of the resource for the rest of the group, fo-

cused on what was the most useful and interesting. Also, ask

participants to produce one text using the given online tool.

Here are some of the resources participants can explore:

Easy Street Prompts

Can You Say It In 6 Words?

First 50 Words – Creative Starts

Story Bird

Folding Story

Writing Exercises

REUPP

Protagonize

Questions for reection

You can ask participants’ if they’d prefer to work with com-

puters, or with printed books, images, pens and paper? How

do the tools they choose inuence the content they produce?

We are sometimes too used to technology and we don’t meet each

other face to face, and therefore it starts to be difcult just to com-

municate, because people get used to being on their own and con-

veying information from other channels, not through touch, voice, eye

contact. Creative writing is a chance to really explore what they feel

and maybe share it with others.

Anete, Latvia

Urban Haiku

Aim

To learn to shoot and edit photos and create video presen-

tations, as well as to explore new technologies as a means

of creative expression. This exercise is best done in trios

and thus also provides also practice of teamwork and crea-

tive collaboration.

Preparation and materials

Participants/groups will need at least one camera and com-

puter equipped with the software you want participants to

explore. Coaching from a professional photographer during

the learning process would add value, but it is not necessary.

It will be easier to carry out this exercise in an urban envi-

ronment. Prepare to introduce your participants to differ-

ent forms and examples of haiku.

Time

2 hours for photographing and at least 90 minutes for cre-

ating the nal products.

Instruction

Divide participants into trios. The rst stage of the exer-

cise is to ask them to go explore an urban environment and

make photos of at least 50 different words– from signboards,

ads, posters, grafti and so on. Each photo should show one

word. Participants should also make a written list of words

they have. When participants return, explain that the task

is to use the words in the photos to write at least one hai-

ku. Groups should have a chance to shoot additional pho-

tos in case they miss some important word. Teams can also

be encouraged to exchange photos. When the haiku is writ-

ten, participants should edit the photos they need and com-

bine them in a video. Music can be added. Different software

can be used for this, depending on tools you know and want

your participants to learn. For example, they might learn to

work with Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop for edit-

ing photos and Windows Movie Maker, or even Prezi or Pow-

erPoint, to create their animated haiku.

Please, note that using the traditional form of Japanese hai-

ku might be unnecessarily complex, so participants can write

lunes– short poems also known as the American haiku.

There is a variant lune created by the poet Jack Collom. His

lune is word-based and has the structure of 3 words in the

rst line, 5 words in the second line and 3 words in the -

nal line.

Questions for reection

– After sharing the work you might ask participants how

did the environment inuence content of their work:

did it inspire some topic or idea – and what else could

be rich sources of ideas for creative work?

Web Citizens

Aim

To develop participants’ abilities to contribute to online dis-

cussions and commentaries in a constructive and responsi-

ble manner.

Preparation and materials

For a while, a simple reminderabout thinking before you

speak has been travelling around the internet. Though we

don’t know anything about its origin, we still nd it use-

ful– let’s call it a THINK model. It suggests to ask ourselves

ve questions before we speak. Is it True? Helpful? Inspir-

ing? Necessary? Kind? You can nd a lot of visual examples

of this on Internet and prepare a poster for presentation of

the model. You can also prepare additional materials or exer-

cises that would help to explain the terms “citizenship” and

“digital citizenship”, and provide some best practice guide-

lines for digital citizenship.

Time

Up to 30 minutes for writing and feedback and 30 minutes for

discussion.

Instruction

Suggest that each participant nds one online article on a

topic that has attracted their attention and is important for

them– it can be news article, commentary or even a social

media post of their friend. Present them the THINK mod-

el and ask them to read existing comments on their chosen

text. Then, ask them to write their own comment in lines

with THINK model guidelines. Give 10 minutes for writing.

The next step is to divide participants into trios. Each person

in the trio should provide feedback to the other two about

whether or not the text meets the criteria set by the model.

Participants might improve the text of the comment togeth-

er and then post it. Wait and see if there is any immediate

reaction. Continue with sharing impressions and reection.

Questions for reection

– What are the differences between citizenship and

digital citizenship?

– Why is citizenship important online and ofine?

– What have you noticed about comments on internet

pages?

– What subjects tend to generate a lot of comments?

– What tone do comments take on the internet pages

that you have seen?

– What happens when someone forgets that real people

get their comments?

– Do you think that posting comments on an internet

articles is a good way to engage in conversation and

exchange ideas?

– What can we do to become more inuential digital

citizens?

The relationship among members of the group you work

with can impact how much people are willing to share their

writings, ideas and reections, thus inuencing the learn-

ing outcomes of the entire group. Here are some more cre-

ative writing prompts that aim to help us establish a better

connection amongst people in the group– from exercises to

learn names and get to know each other, to developing more

emphatic and harmonious relationships. We welcome you

to try these exercises by yourself to build your own writing

practice, and then adapt them for the needs of your work-

shops or classes.

Creative writing tools are really great for establishing a good at-

mosphere in the group. It might provide more quite people with a

chance to unfold their skills and bring themselves a bit more into

the life of the group, as well as help to solve some challenges of in-

tercultural communication.

Eszter, Austria

Sell Yourself

Write a short advertisement text with the aim of advertising

yourself, pointing out your competencies, experiences and

other great qualities. The text should be shared with the au-

dience in the form of TV or radio advertisement.

Writing for Better Connection

Stories of Our Names

Write a short story about your name– how you got your

name, what’s the meaning of the name or about your rela-

tionship with your name. Repeat your name in the story no

more and no less than 10 times.

Words that Rhyme with You

Write a four line poem about yourself using words that rhyme

(or almost rhyme) with your name. There are a lot of online

tools that you can use to help nd rhyming words, syno-

nyms and other forms of creative word play such as Rhyme

Zone and Rhyme Brain.

Breaking Walls

Think and write down what prevents you from establishing

a good connection and interacting with other human be-

ings. All these elements can be seen as bricks that form a

wall making us feel alienated or uncomfortable with others.

How high is your wall? What can you do to break it down?

Who and how could help you? If you do this exercise with a

group, ask them to focus on being in that particular group

and visualise this wall by writing each obstacle on a post-

it note and putting them all together. Then guide a discus-

sion of what should be done in order to break down existing

walls and prevent the construction of the new walls amongst

the people in the group.

Silent Poem

For this exercise you will need at least one more person.

Write together a 12 lines poem without speaking with each

other, or using other forms of communication. Just write!

Read aloud the nished poem together. In work with groups,

the poem can represent impressions about some activity, or

serve as a short team-building exercise.

Clean Head

Perhaps you have experienced moments when you can’t fo-

cus on work at hand because there’s something else taking

your thoughts. When it happens in group work, things can

go much worse because we tend to distract each other or get

frustrated about the lack of focus from our team mates. Thus,

this exercise is suitable for mornings or moments when you

feel that group can’t focus on their work. Give each partici-

pant a sheet of paper and ask them to write down everything

that they nd disturbing or distracting at the moment. These

might be some issues back home, relationships, tiredness,

and so on. The form of the writing is not important because

these texts are not for sharing. When nished, participants

are asked to create a circle, take their papers and destroy

them as metaphor for cleaning their heads from things that

disturb them, to start the session with a clean mind.

In Your Shoes

The exercise can be done at the end of the workshop, or in

moments designated for reection on learning activities or

group cooperation. Divide participants into pairs. Ask each

person to reect on some particular experience by writing

about it from perspective of their partner. Pairs shouldn’t be

allowed to communicate during the writing. Invite pairs to

read to each other and share their feedback and questions.

Then offer a chance for those pairs who wish share their

texts and outcomes of conversation with the entire group.

Try this at home! Do a similar task together with your friend,

lover of family member. Choose one activity you did togeth-

er, and imagine how it felt for the other person.

Personalisation of the Conict

Sometimes working together brings about conicts. This

task is suitable for people who’re open to look at their con-

ict together with an honest (and also a bit humorous) mind.

Imagine that your conict is a human being. Your task is to

create a character that represents your conict and write

down a story about them, describing how this character was

born, how they become stronger and what makes them weak.

Personalise one conict you experienced.

Opportunities to use creative writing for reection and eval-

uation are endless, so why not to try make evaluation forms

of different learning events more creative. The following ex-

ercises can be used as individual activities or integrated in

the written evaluation forms.

Creative writing is a great tool for reection, for putting thoughts in

order, for putting emotions or feelings into words, which are not al-

ways easy. It’s also liberating to share it with others.

Vera, Austria

What Would Animals Think?

Ask participants to reect on a training course, class or work-

shop, writing a short text about the work of the group from

the perspective of some animal. If there are animals around

the place where you work, suggest writing for the perspec-

tive of one of these animals, or just ask participants to write

from a perspective of a bird which might be watching them

through the window. Try at home! Choose the animal or in-

sect which might have seen you today and write about what

it saw and what it thought about your activities.

Postcard to a Friend

At end of the longer learning event, give each participant a

postcard and ask them to write a card to a friend. Provide

them with a sentence starter and ask to include the actual

address of the friend. Exhibit the cards so participants can

see impressions of others and then post them on your par-

ticipants’ behalf to their friends.

Collective Poems

This is a longer evaluation exercise. Divide participants in

groups of 3–5 people and give them a topic you wish to col-

lect their feedback on, for example, their learning outcomes

or emotions during some activity. Poem writing happens

in silence and around a ip-chart. Each person contributes

one line at a time, without discussing it with the others. Af-

ter reading the line, the next person continues. Ask them to

write in the circle, ensuring that the reections of all the

people in the team are evenly represented.

Writing for Reection and Creative Evaluation

of Learning Activities

Give and Get

This exercise provides framework for one’s reection about

their contribution to the work of the group. Ask each person

to write how they have helped others today and how others

have helped them. Encourage them to be as specic as pos-

sible. Now we invite you to write 5 minutes about your what

you have gained and what you have contributed:

Going Home

This individual evaluation exercise can be a part of the -

nal evaluation after longer learning activities. Invite partic-

ipants to imagine that they returned home and met some

friend. What would they tell them? What would the friend

ask? Ask participants to complete the dialogue boxes.

Metaphoric Evaluations

Ask participants to compare some specic learning experi-

ence with movies, songs, food or other categories. Provide a

sentence starter, for example: “If this training course was a

meal, it would be…” Participants can share their texts with

the whole group or in smaller teams. Here are some exam-

ples written by the participants of Creative Writing+ train-

ing course:

… it would be a sushi dinner because everything was neatly wrapped

and nicely executed with a tremendous amount of ease and expe-

rience, but upon trying a piece you would still be surprised about

the taste and discover something new with every bite.

Anete, Latvia

… it would be a wedding cake with many layers, as each day real-

ly strongly connected to the work of the previous days and gradu-

ally introduced the group to more challenging activities as the end

got closer.

Eszter, Austria

… it would denitely be a sh dish, because you have to eat it slowly to

get out all the bones and really enjoy the taste of it. And with some

strawberries you can eat whenever you have the wish, because you

just can! No-one forced anything on you at any point.

Heili, Estonia

Try it out and write about this toolkit:

Share some of your writings with us, by posting to the Face-

book page “Creative Learning Cookbook” or using hashtag

#CLC2016 on your social media accounts. We’ll be glad to

explore your creative work and impressions about using cre-

ative writing in educational work with your target group(s).

Treat exercises in this toolkit as seeds and see what can you

grow from them, and don’t hesitate to share and use the sup-

port of like-minded colleagues.

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Benke, K. (2010), Rip the Page! Adventures in Creative Writing. Roost Books.

Bolton, G. Field, V., Thompson, K. (2006), Writing Works: A Resource Hand-

book for Therapeutic Writing Workshops and Activities. London: Jessica

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D’Costa, H. R. (2015), Sizzling Story Outlines: How to Outline Your Screen-

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Deutsch, L. (2014), Writing from the Senses: 60 Exercises to Ignite Creativ-

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Donovan, M. (2012), 101 Creative Writing Exercises.

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Ellis, S. (ed.) (2009), Now Write! Non-ction. New York: Penguin Group.

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Literature

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