To spark student creativity during a narrative literacy topic on imaginary settings, students were given the chance to  create an image using a digital photo-editing program. We discussed many imaginary settings from different popular worlds such as Narnia, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. The objective was to create a setting for a fantasy world by finding a landscape photo and using the website pixlr.com to edit it. Students worked together in groups of four to create different images and the results were fantastic. All the students had so much fun playing around with the different technologies the site had to offer. It was a great way to get their creative juices flowing. The following week the images were projected on the whiteboard and used to create freeze frame images. The groups worked together to come up with a scene for their setting and designed a freeze frame to be used as the spark for their creative independent write. Some of their work is displayed below.

 

Not all students are creative. Some have a hard time getting their thoughts down on paper and some have a hard time using their imagination. By integrating more than just writing into a creative writing unit it was more likely that each student would be influenced and motivated on some level that interested them personally.