Creative Activity in the Classroom: Reimagining Literature
Creative activity in the classroom encourages students to interact with literature in a new imaginative way that breaks the traditional reputation that literature classes hold. In this spotlight, we feature two professors who incorporate creative assignments into their courses from writing fanfiction, to exploring storytelling using various web and technology advancements, these approaches to learning unlock a new wave of creative freedom and allow students to engage with texts not only as readers, but also as creators.
Dr. Hannah Jorgensen has a passion for merging the digital evolving world with rhetoric
and composition in her courses. In ENGL 30523: Popular Literature Fan Fiction, students became "aca-fans" as they learned about the origins of fanfiction and were tasked with generating their
own. By combining academics with digital creativity, students tapped back into skills
with technology they may have once lost, while also challenging themselves with the
incorporation of rhetoric and composition. Dr. Jorgensen's technique with including
digital media in the classroom is to "help students understand limitations in technology and see how their interpretation
is still vital in understanding differences in analytical texts". With Dr. Jorgensen's passion in including experiential learning in the classroom,
students have left with a meaningful impact of skills that extend beyond the classroom.
"The possibilities felt limitless, we had the creative liberty to make the class our own and get the most of it by the choices we made." - Shelby Ackerman, English Major '27
In Dr. Yingwen Yu's ENGL 10803: Indigenous Horror Stories, students were able to use their creative freedom to create projects that consisted
of Powerpoint presentations, screenplays, podcasts, comic strips, editorial articles,
children's books, documentaries and more. Students used their voices and passions
to create products in the classroom that showcased not only their academic skills
but also their creative skills. In this course, Dr. Yu gave students the freedom to
decide what they wanted to do for their assignment, and because of this, "students were encouraged to learn new skills or bounceback into skills or interests
that were once dimmed". 
"As an English Major, the feeling of writing a certian way consumed me. I thought I had to write a certain way, but with this, I learned that there is not only one way to express thoughts and communication comes in different ways." - Former ENGL 10803 Student