Three Poems a Week: Creative Writing in the Computer Classroom
Instructor: Andy Jones, University Writing Program, College of Letters and Science
Description: Albert Einstein once said that “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” I propose to teach a Freshman Seminar that guides students through a series of take-home and in-class writing assignments that remind them of their intuition, individuality and creativity, topics rarely discussed in the large lecture courses frequented by UC Davis freshmen. Using excerpts from Creativity - Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach (edited by Behn and Twitchell), and examples of books and websites that combine art with poetry, I will challenge students to write ambitious and honest poems. We will focus on avoiding clichés, surprising the reader, and revealing the fresh and stimulating observations and reflections of a bright poet, an inventive author, and a creative thinker.
Students will meet and write in a computer classroom so that we can take full advantage of the myriad anthologies and other resources available on the web. As most creative professionals showcase their work on the web, we will find inspiration for poems on our virtual tours of museums, architectural marvels and concert halls. We will also use the news sites and blogs to inspire poems that take on political and social issues. By the end of the quarter, students will use classroom computers to create a digital and paper collection of their work (see “Format”).
For this course students will also be expected to share their creations with real-world audiences. Each student will mail a packet of three poems to one or more real-world audiences, such as an actual literary journal or other relevant publications. Class participants who see their poems rejected by expert readers will continue to explore the place of creativity in their lives and in their world during the summer of 2007 and beyond (as the mailings are returned). The instructor will provide envelopes, addresses and postage to ensure that even the least confident students will send their work out for review.
Format: The seminar will meet at 21 Olson Hall on Mondays from 12:10-3:00 for eight weeks. Class time will be divided up between lectures by the instructor, review of student work, and composition and revision of student work. Students will also be expected to attend two or more of the following “creative performances” for a total of about five hours:
A poetry reading (repeated up to twice for credit)
An art gallery (especially an art gallery opening)
A performance at the Mondavi Center
Some other musical or theatrical performance on or off campus
A public lecture on a topic in the arts, humanities, or Technoculture
A comedy club / performance by a comedian
A foreign film with subtitles
Class participants will write two “journal entries” responding to these creative performance field trips. In addition to attending all class meetings, carefully reading assigned texts, and completing the weekly writing and journal assignments, during week seven of the quarter, students will also read/perform a revised original work and discuss their research for the class with the instructor on the radio. Finally, students will create a “book” of their work as well as a 500-1000 word introduction that contextualizes their creations and thoughts about creativity. Each student will purchase a reader a Navin’s Copy Shop that includes excerpts from The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach and Creativity - Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and other works. Grading: In-Class Writing Exercises (10%); Final Portfolio (40%); Oral Exam (10%); Introduction to your collection of poetry (about four pages) (20%); Report on the two field trips to a “creative” performance (10%); Preparation of manuscript for outside consideration (10%).
About the Instructor: Andy Jones has taught for the UC Davis Department of English and the University Writing Program since 1990. In addition to teaching classes on poetry, film theory, science fiction, literary criticism, and writing in the professions, Andy has also taught advanced English 100P, the advanced poetry workshop, and Writing Across Media for the UC Davis Technocultural Studies Program. Always interested in cross-disciplinary thinking and studies, Andy interviews many authors, performers and pundits as host of “Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour” on radio station KDVS. In 2006 the Associated Student of UC Davis named Andy “Educator of the Year.”