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Teaching Historical Analysis through Creative Writing Assignments

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Title: Teaching Historical Analysis through Creative Writing Assignments
Language: English
Authors: Peterson, Janine Larmon, Graham, Lea
Source: College Teaching. 2015 63(4):153-161.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 9
Publication Date: 2015
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Creative Writing, History, History Instruction, Assignments, Instructional Effectiveness, College Students, College Faculty
DOI: 10.1080/87567555.2015.1052725
ISSN: 8756-7555
Abstract: Incorporating creative writing exercises in history courses can heighten students' critical reading and analytical skills in an active learning model. We identify and define two types of possible assignments that use model texts as their locus: centripetal, which focuses on specific context and disciplinary terms, and centrifugal, which address paradigms in human experience. Imitative assignments that include emphasis on form or structure provide a clear framework for assessment. We provide models for both types of assignments in history survey courses, including our reflections on final analysis of the projects, means of assessing them, and qualitative evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach.
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 40
Entry Date: 2015
Accession Number: EJ1078153
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0110319064;cte01oct.15;2019Feb22.09:39;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0110319064-1">Teaching Historical Analysis through Creative Writing Assignments. </title> <p>Incorporating creative writing exercises in history courses can heighten students' critical reading and analytical skills in an active learning model. We identify and define two types of possible assignments that use model texts as their locus: centripetal, which focuses on specific context and disciplinary terms, and centrifugal, which address paradigms in human experience. Imitative assignments that include emphasis on form or structure provide a clear framework for assessment. We provide models for both types of assignments in history survey courses, including our reflections on final analysis of the projects, means of assessing them, and qualitative evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach.</p> <p>Keywords: creative writing; historical analysis; imitation exercises; pedagogy</p> <p>Teaching history survey courses is challenging, in part because students must engage with texts that are often temporally, culturally, and/or stylistically foreign to their experience. Incorporating imitative creative writing assignments is a means by which students can learn critical analysis of the sources as well as the region and period being studied. We posit two ways to approach and analyze a text in imitative assignments to foster this understanding. The first is centripetally, or via an inward-pulling force, which asks students to go "back" in time, to step outside one's own experience, and imagine oneself in a specific historical context. The second is centrifugally, or via an outward-driving force, which asks students to project general ideas or themes of the text into a larger context, and thus to discover points of reference in which the concerns or values of the past resonate with those of the present. While our thoughts on this subject are shaped by our experience as professors in a four-year comprehensive college and our examples are specific to medieval and early modern history survey courses, our goal is to provide other educators ideas for how to formulate creative writing assignments according to these theoretical models and incorporate pedagogical assignments in college classrooms, particularly in the fields of the humanities and some of the social sciences. We do so by discussing the use of creative writing as group work; outlining the two models through specific examples of how to implement each approach in a history course; and reflecting on larger issues of assessing and evaluating the benefits of these assignments.</p> <hd id="AN0110319064-2">CREATIVE WRITING AND THE HISTORY CLASSROOM</hd> <p>The application of creative learning techniques to facilitate student comprehension in courses that do not traditionally use them is not a new idea. Dr. Art Young was one of the forerunners in this field and explored the uses of creative writing in his role as a participant in the Teaching & Learning Creatively Project at Clemson University. The project at Clemson developed out of a prior Poetry-Across-the-Curriculum (PAC) and a Communication-Across-the-Curriculum-Project (CAC), instituted in 2000 and 1990 respectively, and resulted in an edited collection, <emph>Teaching and Learning Creatively: Inspirations and Reflections</emph> (Connor-Greene et al. [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref1">7</reflink>]). In addition, teachers interested in pedagogy have individually explored using creative writing in different disciplines for the past twenty-five years (Goma [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref2">14</reflink>]; Kirkland [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref3">19</reflink>]; Dowling Jr. [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref4">9</reflink>]; Vess [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref5">27</reflink>]). This essay builds on this work by suggesting a theoretical framework for categorizing the types of exercises that could be assigned to specifically address the goal of understanding primary source texts.</p> <p>While the scholarship has firmly established the value of using creative writing to inspire students to "think in insightful and unconventional ways" about a subject (Young et al. [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref6">29</reflink>], 16), nevertheless creative writing may seem on the surface to have no place in some classrooms, particularly the history classroom. History is popularly thought to teach students to "uncover" facts, not create it as a primary source. Yet many historians, influenced by the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, psychology, and literary criticism, adhere to the idea that rather than "revealing the true essence of past reality, historical narrative imposes a mythic structure on the events it purports to describe" (White [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref7">28</reflink>], 113). In this view, history is primarily an exercise in interpreting evidence, itself partly a creative act. Far from dispassionately uncovering a treasure trove of objective facts to be memorized, history rather demands that, "the subjective, critical, present self must enter into an active dialogue with the past for even the simple delineation of what counts as 'fact'" (Vess [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref8">27</reflink>], 45). This "dialogue" can occur just as well through a creative assignment as through a standard analytical essay. The History Learning Project at Indiana University, for instance, created, utilized, and evaluated an exercise in which students were asked to produce a visual assessment of a source to represent the themes, concerns, and social conditions of a historical primary source (Diaz et al. [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref9">8</reflink>]). Creative writing assignments therefore can be incorporated into history courses, as well as any other discipline primarily based on the interpretation of evidence, as a highly effective pedagogical tool to hone critical thinking and analytical skills. In addition, both majors and non-majors in survey courses on medieval and early modern Europe often come with very little knowledge about the pre-modern past. Students in non-Western courses have similar issues. The particular challenge in these courses is how to make the concerns, values, and conditions of such distant and in many ways integrally different societies seem present, real, and in some way immediately significant. Assignments that function "centripetally" and "centrifugally" address the dual concerns of reading primary sources in these classes: to demonstrate that understanding the past is a subjective act, as is the creation of texts, and that context can highlight not only differences but also similarities in geographically and chronologically varied societies. These terms we propose are a suggested general framework for structuring assignments based on the intended pedagogical result, as described in detail in the model assignments below.</p> <p>A more common concern of most instructors is how to address different learning styles while maintaining a focus on discipline-specific material. Using a group project format for creative writing assignments can address this issue. Group projects are routinely utilized in a variety of disciplines, particularly in communication and the arts, the social sciences, and the sciences. Their value in terms of aiding achievement and productivity is well-noted (Johnson and Johnson [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref10">16</reflink>]; Smith and MacGregor [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref11">26</reflink>]; Gokhale 1995; Bruffee [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref12">4</reflink>]; Michaelsen, Knight, and Fink [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref13">21</reflink>]; Jones and Jones [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref14">18</reflink>]). They are less frequently used in some humanities classrooms, such as history, especially when there is a significant grade attached. There are many benefits of using this format for creative writing assignments, although students can be distrustful of group projects and their concerns mirror those of some instructors. Students are concerned that they will not get along with their group members, particularly if they are not able to choose their colleagues, while professors are wary of contributing to personality clashes or ineffective work if students are allowed to form their own groups. A group project lacks initial appeal for students who fear it will require significant time meeting outside of the classroom; teachers are hesitant to set time aside during class periods and cutting out content as a consequence. Finally, there is the fear by both parties that some group mates will unfairly end up bearing the brunt of the work and this onus will go unnoticed and not reflected in a group grade.</p> <p>Each of these concerns is easily addressed. If the project occurs during the second half of the semester, the instructor usually has a good sense of not only student skill strengths but also their personalities and the dynamics between individual students. It is not difficult to avoid pairing those who seem most prone to conflict or, in contrast, those friends who might team up and exclude the input of others. One can place students with good writing skills with those who are more creative but less skilled at writing, or combine students that are more shy and reserved together rather than with outgoing and assertive types that might stifle the former's contributions. Having the project occur over the course of several weeks means that occasional class time can be set aside to work on the projects without infringing excessively on the content or trajectory of the course. Working in groups also means that if a presentation of the project is a component of the final grade usually only one class session (of circa seventy-five minutes) needs to be set aside. Groups who opt to work on the project outside of class (whether in person, via email, blog, GoogleDocs, Facebook, a wiki page, or by some other means of communication) will undoubtedly reap the benefit as reflected in their grade, but doing so is the group's own choice. Finally, the concern about one or two people carrying the responsibilities of the group is a valid one. This potential problem can be mitigated by assessing the project on multiple levels, with important elements being the presentation in which everyone must participate and personal contributions through a written self-assessment, both of which merit individual grades.</p> <hd id="AN0110319064-3">CENTRIPETAL HISTORY ASSIGNMENT</hd> <p>Assignments that are centripetal move inward, asking students to "become" part of what they are studying. They must "enter" a specific place, author, or text—something that has occurred, existed, or been created in the past. The centripetal assignment thus forces students to be situated in a particular context. It helps them think about audience, genre, bias, agenda, purpose, and values, and incorporate past terms or language into their experience. In sum, it prompts close reading and critical evaluation of texts, knowledge of content material, and a realization of historical distance, preventing anachronism in intellectual pursuits and instilling the need for specificity in their understanding of the modern world. To do so, the student becomes the author of a text or story that is supposed to have been written at a time in the past. They shift from becoming spectators to history—watching or reading as somebody describes a version of events, conditions, and causes—to being participants in the creation of history, as some theorists suggest constitutes the act of "doing" history (Oakeshott [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref15">23</reflink>], 111–112). For the account to be believable students must logically analyze the responses, activities, and thoughts of both themselves in the guise as the imaginary author and the characters they will create to reflect the society under study. To do so students must research both primary and secondary sources in preparation for the assignment. In addition, they have to contextualize persons, places, and events of their story so that the fictional account is not anachronistic. This type of creative writing assignment, therefore, addresses the "nuts and bolts" of history while simultaneously teaching the process of engaging in historical inquiry.</p> <p>One example of this type of assignment used in a "Medieval Europe" class is a group project in which groups composed of four to six students collaborate on writing a hero's tale. It is based on two types of sources: a non-fiction conduct book of chivalric behavior written by a knight, and several fictional medieval stories as examples of hero tales. The project asks the groups to reverse the traditional use of primary sources: rather than looking at literature to identify chivalrous qualities, they must take the chivalrous qualities the conduct book identifies and turn it into literature, using the stories as models for the <emph>topoi</emph> and the form of such tales. The project has three elements: the tale itself; a presentation to the class; and a self-reflexive assessment. The first part is creating a fictional tale of five to seven pages (though often the page length goes substantially over as the students become engrossed in the project). Groups choose two or three chivalric qualities from the conduct book and decide upon a hero and storyline that emphasizes these significant characteristics of heroic conduct. In addition to the story, groups have to present their final product to the class. Every group member has to participate in the presentation. Although it is not required, groups take this seriously and add another level of creativity to the project by creating powerpoints or posterboards that incorporate both text and image. They also write a two- to three-page individual reflective essay about the process and what they learned.</p> <p>This assignment puts the centripetal issues of identifying bias, agenda, audience, and purpose front and center because it requires students to initially assess the conduct book that describes knightly characteristics. The book was written by a noble and provides a clear example of one knight's interpretation of the code. Groups have to select one or two characteristics that they believe are the most significant or outstanding qualities, based on their assessment of the author's evaluation, and to justify their choices in the presentation and reflective essay elements of the assignment. In justifying the qualities they selected, they are forced to take into account who the author was in terms of vocation, social class, and background, as well as how those considerations affect his goal in writing the book and who he hoped would learn the lessons he wanted to impart.</p> <p>The assignment also aids student growth in the area of identifying cultural values and norms, dictated by when and where a text was produced because it asks them to survey varied model texts. While the conduct book gives an outline for chivalric behavior, the stories themselves challenge whether there was an actual recognized "code," for often the heroes of these tales epitomize a variety of contradictory qualities or act in a manner that does not seem chivalrous. Nevertheless, these stories were part of court culture and/or collective memory of the culture, and so their peculiarities must be accounted for. The models of medieval tales can be as varied as a Scandinavian saga, French romance, a verse rhymed tale with supernatural elements, and an Arthurian romance. By asking students to compare the model texts against the conduct book, and choose one text to emulate in their story, the groups have to consider the texts' historical contexts to decide which model they will use and why. The creative choices they make in the composition of the story furthers this lesson in recognizing the specificity of time and place in the expression of societal values. Groups must consider: What is the geographic area and cultural background of the period in which it is to take place? What will their hero look like? What is the purpose or possible moral of the tale? What actions or events are will occur? How many other characters will there be, and who are they? This process requires a deep assessment of the context of the model text to avoid anachronism.</p> <p>The purpose of using a variety of models is to not only help students obtain an understanding of the genres and how these stories differed depending on time and place of creation, but also how those considerations dictated the form or structure of the source. This inclusion of form fuses the two previous considerations: that of authorial purpose and that of historical context. Groups have to imitate a specific model in their own tale to complete the assignment. This requirement asks students to think more critically about the connection between the characteristics of the place and time their group chose to depict and how those characteristics were predominantly presented through the form of their model text. The elements of form, and the constraints of form, are therefore acknowledged and place their creativity within a more analytical framework.</p> <p>There are many other examples of how this centripetal assignment could be incorporated and used for model texts from different historical contexts. Another example for a medieval course could be based on inquisitorial manuals with the aim of creating a transcript or autobiography of a heretic, using as model texts the accounts of forcibly converted Jews and condemned heretics. For courses about other time periods, students could be asked, for instance, to create diary entries of someone in the nineteenth century, using as models a civil war diary and the diaries of a midwife and mill worker. Another possibility could include an early modern European conduct book paired with short novels as model texts or Turkish Ottoman advice letters for princes. Assessment would be based on the historical accuracy of the content they create and their reflections on why they chose their model text and how their choices fit in to the probable life of their creative subject. This centripetal assignment could also be modified to address current cultures or subcultures that produce written texts, broadening its usefulness to other humanities or social science fields in particular.</p> <hd id="AN0110319064-4">CENTRIFUGAL HISTORY ASSIGNMENT</hd> <p>Centrifugal assignments work the opposite way of centripetal ones. Instead of asking students to retreat into a text and its context, they require students to use a text as the starting point for a concern or issue that resonates with and is relatable to contemporary experience. In this process students remain focused on a source that is contextualized within geographical, cultural, linguistic, political, and economic conditions, but must make wider connections that take the student out of the specificity of time and place. The focus is on identifying and addressing the larger ideas, cycles, themes, constants, and shared issues between the past and the present. Centrifugal-type activities help to teach students about archetypes and paradigms, constants within human experience, and enduring questions about humanity and the cosmos. The centrifugal creative writing assignment challenges master narratives and encourages deeper consideration of paradigms, yet does so while illuminating the dissonances between the specific manifestations of those paradigms. This endeavor can be adapted easily to a consideration of two different contemporary societies, rather than just one in the past.</p> <p>An assignment that encourages this kind of critical thinking is one in which students take a text written in the past and transpose it into the modern world. For a survey on "Early Modern Europe," a creative project that fulfills this goal is based on a classic text, Voltaire's <emph>Candide</emph>. As a leading figure of the Enlightenment, Voltaire is concerned with the idea of "progress" and the bettering of his society. In order to effect the positive change he desired, Voltaire first had to identify the negative aspects of his world. His sarcastic, satiric commentary of early 18<sups>th</sups> century society (including some real events, people, and places) did just that by critiquing sexual mores, politics, the pre-modern military state, customs, religion, and specific philosophers, amongst other things. In the group project format again, students "rewrite" or translate his critique into the modern world. They read <emph>Candide</emph> and choose one or two of Voltaire's specific critiques of 18th century Europe, ones that recur throughout the text and that they consider particularly significant. They create a fictional "chapter" of five to seven pages in which these same elements are criticized, but are done so within the context of cotemporary society. The groups could either take one specific chapter (all of which are very short) and just rewrite it, or be more creative and create an entirely new chapter or series of episodes. Literary form, therefore, is a conscious element in this project no less than in the centripetal kind of assignment. This assignment has the same three aspects to assessment as in the previous model: the story, a presentation, and a reflective essay that includes an assessment component.</p> <p>In this assignment students advance their analysis of the issue of change over time, particularly through the self-reflective essay. The idea that "history repeats itself" is an idea many students hold. Yet if history does repeat itself then obviously humans have learned nothing (and implicitly suggests they will always learn nothing) from historical events, so why bother to study it? Rather, context is the key issue. It is the specific historical context that alters the repetitive elements of the past that are the result of enduring paradigms or (arguably) constants within human nature and puts a slightly different cast on seemingly similar events, their causes, or their outcomes. This requires a close reading of a historical text and analysis of its society, as well as deep consideration of the contemporary world. Besides justifying their choices and assessing individual contributions, the self-assessment should discuss the ease or difficulty of transplanting this early modern critique into today's world. This element of the reflective essay "closes the loop" between the intent of the assignment and the pedagogical outcome (Middaugh [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref16">22</reflink>]). While identifying the criticisms places students within the specificity of time and place, addressing whether transposing Voltaire's criticisms to today was easy or not in the self-assessment asks students to make a comparative consideration of historical context. For instance, were Voltaire's criticisms easy to fit because they still exist? Or was it difficult to make the critiques "fit" because the world is too different?</p> <p>Using the form of one of Voltaire's chapters as an outline or inspiration furthers the grounding in context and a reconsideration of similarity and difference across time as the groups decide what they must change to make the story plausible in a modern setting. To create the modern version, students have to consider such questions as: How would the protagonist Candide travel today? What types of people would he encounter that would exhibit the qualities being critiqued? What setting would be most conducive to clearly articulating the concerns they are depicting? Form is the nexus where the students' personal/experiential self, in terms of their subjective creativity and personal expression, meets their intellectual self, on the terms of their objective ability to think about issues and read texts critically.</p> <p>There are many other model texts that could be used for what we have identified as assignments that use a centrifugal creative process to teach content and the essence of discipline-specific inquiry. For instance, assignments based on early modern utopian literature also require students to make connections between the past and the present and reflect on the underlying similarities and surface differences (or, as one of my student groups once argued, surface similarities but underlying differences). Ethnographic texts, such as European accounts of the Mongols or early settler accounts of the Native Americans in the colonies would work well to achieve the project goals. Works like these could incorporate not just chronological but also geographic distance while asking a similar question: is the process we go through when we encounter a group "foreign" to our experience the same as it was in the historical past? While the model assignment and the above suggestions address projects that ask students to make connections across time, these types of assignments would also work well across geographical space. Particularly intriguing would be an ethnographic text from a non-Eurocentric viewpoint, in which the Europeans or Americans (or other dominant culture) is the "foreign" that is described and critiqued. Students would then have to put themselves in the place of a non-western culture and not just address if the process of identification similar across time, but also if it is similar across cultures.</p> <hd id="AN0110319064-5">ASSESSMENT</hd> <p>Two issues regarding assessing creative writing assignments outside of the creative writing classroom have already been noted: student concerns about lax students riding the coattails of their more responsible peers, and instructor concerns about grading a creative work in a discipline that is analytical and content-driven. Student fears are addressed by dividing the project into several components to derive each student's grade. An individual's grade can be comprised of the average of three to four different grades, two-thirds to three-quarters of which is an individual assessment and only one-third to one-quarter (the story) a joint group effort. For professors, the emphasis on form or structure, a crucial aspect of primary sources that has been somewhat neglected in previous studies on the uses of creative assignments outside of the creative writing classroom (see literature above), serves as a framework that corrals the imaginative content. The projects are creative in terms of fusing an analysis of sources with an alternate means of presenting their salient points, but the imitative aspect of the projects frees the instructor from considering the structural aspect of the assignment in assessment.</p> <p>The grading of the types of group projects outlined above is in three parts: the story, the presentation, and the reflective essay. Since these types of creative writing assignments are very specific, short rubrics or "check boxes" for each aspect, with room for comments, works well and allows for an averaging of the grades for each part to arrive at a final grade. The parameters of genre and/or structure or form in these assignments free the instructor from grading on creativity to focus on grading on content and how well the students fulfilled the assignment requirements. Form is inextricably tied to content. For instance, the prose-poem (or <emph>prosimetrum</emph>) form was believed to have specific cognitive as well as aesthetic qualities (Johnson [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref17">17</reflink>]); epistolary documents or romances are forms that are specifically chosen based on an author's intention; and "shaped" poems that use both formal construction and free verse (where the words on a page are as much like a painting as "lines") provide both a visual and literary message. This is a difficult concept to explain, much less comprehend aurally. Utilizing form or structure as an aspect of creative writing assignments means that students must carefully study the model text. During an initial meeting to compose this essay a Chinese fortune cookie warned us, "No man ever yet became great by imitation." Nevertheless, as Renaissance humanists understood with respect to their relationship with classical authors, imitation is where greatness often begins, whether the person doing the imitating knows it or not. Form or structure also serves as a "safety net," an assurance that assessment is not arbitrary but has real and measurable components. The students know this fact, which then not only leaves room for their imagination and personal expression but also reassures anyone who might have concerns because they are not "creative" people or who might object to the assignment because this is a history course. The examples discussed above include model texts that have a definite structural component and therefore provide clear criteria for assessment, a critical component to ensure that the teacher's goal meets the intended outcome of the assignment (Gallagher [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref18">12</reflink>]).</p> <p>The tales themselves are assessed on whether the qualities selected the primary sources are identifiable and clearly depicted in the story; if there are elements in the tale that contradict other aspects or ideas discussed in the book (thus forcing them to read and consider the whole work); and if their story is free from anachronism and is similar in style and content to the genre of text they selected. The group presentation must clearly identify the qualities or issues they focused on, describe the storyline and how it allowed their choice to be emphasized, and answer the audience's questions fully. The emphasis is on the content, or what they learned about the ideals or critiques of the period or place in question, and how those values were expressed in the source. The individual reflective self-assessment has three parts. First, it explains why the group selected a particular characteristic or concern and how it is highlighted in the story, but also justifies the choices the group made (e.g., what rationale did they have for opting to include a troll in a story conforming to the saga genre, or why did they choose to have Voltaire's El Dorado the United States rather than a less-developed and personally-known country). They are held accountable for their choices and explaining them clearly. The self-assessment is the part of the assignment in which the goal of facilitating students to "think in insightful and unconventional ways" in their analysis of sources is demonstrated, through integrating the creative and the intellectual aspects. Second, it incorporates an aspect of self-assessment of their own critical thinking as they reflect on the ease or difficulty of the project. Third, it includes an honest and clear evaluation of the individual student's contribution to project as well as the contributions of his or her peers, including what grade they think each person should earn based on involvement, effort, and ultimate result. This requirement makes students accountable to each other and divides responsibility so that there is no fear of the project resting on just one person. Students are brutally honest regarding their own or others' shortcomings as well as giving credit to those who truly rose to the occasion. Students receive a group grade for the first section (the tale) and individual grades for the presentation, self-assessment, and contribution. Each section is separately assessed and then averaged for a final personal grade. In this way each group member benefits from the strengths of the others in the creation of the tale but the totality of the assignment does not rest on the group effort. Individual analysis of the project and participation in the presentation gives students definite ownership of their personal final grade.</p> <p>Beyond providing accountability, the individual assessment is actually the most important aspect of the entire project in its reflection and clear articulation about what was learned in the process. In short, it provides the framework for a metacognitive process, one in which learners critically assess their own thinking and learning (Flavell [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref19">11</reflink>]; Bransford, Brown, and Cocking [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref20">2</reflink>]; Pintrich [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref21">24</reflink>]; Scardamalia et al. [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref22">25</reflink>]). It is in essence a process paper, in which students go beyond the content of the texts that were read and discuss how they identified the deeper issues in the texts, problem-solved how to portray those issues, rationalized their choices, and came up with strategies based on comparative thinking. The comparative element—thinking about an author's background and purpose, relating it to a different society or to a modern background, and thinking about how one did that – asks students to objectively view their own reactions and attitudes. Thus students become more nuanced in viewing ostensible differences and in becoming cognizant of this higher level of critical thinking in themselves (Chick, Karis, and Kernahan [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref23">5</reflink>]). The self-assessment overall encourages "conscious meta-strategic level of H[igher] O[rder] T[hinking]" (Zohar and David, [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref24">30</reflink>], 179).</p> <hd id="AN0110319064-6">EVALUATING EFFECTIVENESS</hd> <p>Evaluating the effectiveness of using creative writing to foster historical analysis and critical thinking about different places and times is limited to qualitative data. The self-reflective assessments, however, do provide qualitative evidence that students a) benefit from this approach in terms of honing particular critical thinking skills as well as recognizing the analytical steps they took during the process, and b) engage with the subject matter. Examples from student reflective essays show both "metacognitive awareness" (Flavell [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref25">10</reflink>]) and active learning (Bonwell and Eison [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref26">1</reflink>]) through a high level of engagement in the creative assignment.</p> <p>Essays for the centripetal project on knight's tales show that students did take the time to not only delve deeply into idealized medieval codes of conduct but also, independently from that assignment's parameters, thought comparatively about the process, which nurtures the ability to recognize the process of critical thinking on a meta level (Chick, Karis, and Kernahan [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref27">5</reflink>]). This outcome is demonstrated by the fact that some students engaged in a deeper analysis than the assignment asked to explore perceived idealized versus experienced values. For instance, one reflection stated, "To quote George Orwell's <emph>Animal Farm</emph>, 'Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.'...Today we see the abuse of power is almost inevitable, whether in government, in the church, or in corporations. This element of corruption that is prevalent today did not exist in our tale" (P. D. [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref28">37</reflink>]). Similarly, another student noted, "In [our tale], society is very organized and everyone knows his or her role...competition as we know it today does not exist as people...will not hurt others nor cheat to be successful" (J. B. [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref29">32</reflink>]). Another response is suggestive of an analytical understanding of the effects of authorial background and bias - in this case, their own backgrounds as authors in writing these tales. One student wrote, "The story we wrote will never completely represent everything a knight was supposed to experience because the times are totally different now" (L. S. [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref30">35</reflink>]). Yet while the centripetal assignment's major goal is one of historical specificity, the instructor cannot always anticipate the outcome, proving that learning is not a one-way street from professor to student. This realization hits home upon reading, "When I was reading through the texts I found the interpretations of appearance the most intriguing...I saw an ease of connection attributed to the fact that humans judge others based upon appearances – we conceptualize people with labels—even if they are stereotypical because it helps us make sense of our surroundings and existence in the world" (L. G. [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref31">34</reflink>]). While this quote is opposed to the surface aim of the centripetal assignment—to be situated in time and place—it clearly demonstrates the deeper goals of using creative writing assignments, that of fostering critical thinking skills that go beyond a superficial understanding or approach to historical context or the value of studying history. In this case thinking about their group's specific choice led the student "to places of greater questioning, acknowledging the complexities of identity," as Chick, Karas, and Kernahan [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref32">5</reflink>] reported was a goal of metacognition in the classroom.</p> <p>Similarly, how the comparative element fosters the metacognitive process is seem in several examples from assessments based on the centrifugal Voltaire assignment outlined above. A student reflected, "My group chose to focus on human greed...When Voltaire was alive people were worried [about] finding gold to make them wealthy. During Hurricane Sandy people began to hoard gas, because of the gas crisis...human greed is something that everybody can easily relate to, since everybody has experienced it" (L. K. [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref33">36</reflink>]). The understanding of the concept of greed and how it affected a past society during the waning years of the era of exploration was enhanced by comparing it to an example drawn from their experience in the contemporary world. Another student clearly analyzed the issue of marrying for money rather than love that is presented in Voltaire's work by comparing it to modern society: "The world as Voltaire depicts it still has some representation today...In today's society many people have become outraged by the efforts of the gay and lesbian community to try to gain legal marriage rights. Many argue this would destroy the purpose and wholeness of marriage...continued marriage's [<emph>sic</emph>] for the immoral purposes of money and power are the true blemishes upon the sanctity of marriage. It is for this overall importance and continued presence that the critique of love and marriage is still applicable in today's society" (R. C. [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref34">39</reflink>]). This assessment displays not only close reading of a source and reflection of the process of doing comparative historical analysis. It also reveals that the process led to a larger reflection on contemporary politics, fulfilling the history discipline's implicit goal of "enabling students to make sense of the world they are inheriting" (Marist College History Program Description [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref35">20</reflink>]) to become thoughtful citizens through analyzing historical issues and contexts.</p> <p>Finally, the assessment essays provide evidence that students felt the projects were a valuable experience and were engaged in the process. Taking ownership of work as an active learner is often the first step towards comprehending the material but is also recognized for aiding the metacognitive process by "unfreezing" students from past experiences and assumptions (Brown and King [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref36">3</reflink>], 245–247). Frequently one reads a statement similar to the following: "This project helped be [<emph>sic</emph>] gain knowledge of chivalry.... Consequently my understanding of the reading and our class discussion was increased as well" (P. Y. [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref37">38</reflink>]). There is always the concern that comments to this effect are included in an effort to please the professor. Other responses, however, demonstrate that students engaged in and appreciated the endeavor: "Once we set the stage, it was very easy to place the [chivalric] characteristics into the story and allow them to show more openly rather than just describing them as De Charney does. We probably could have written 20 pages on the characteristics. In fact, we all became so invested in our story that we had to cut some down" (L. B. [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref38">33</reflink>]). One student noted, "I originally thought it would be easy to translate Voltaire into our modern world, but it was actually kind of difficult. Not difficult because the issues don't exist anymore, because with the exception of a select few, they still do. It was just difficult because there were too many examples to choose from" (S. B. [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref39">40</reflink>]). The link between active learning and what has been called higher order thinking is evident in the following report: "As we linked or added our ideas together I saw more and more how we as humans might not have changed as much as we would like to believe" (F. C. S. [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref40">31</reflink>]). The assessment paper led to the student's reflection on the process, the value of collaborative learning, and an objective re-evaluation of previously held beliefs. All of these activities foster those critical thinking skills that help us understand the world in a more thoughtful way.</p> <hd id="AN0110319064-7">CONCLUSION</hd> <p>We have tried to offer in this essay 1) a theoretical framework for thinking about types of creative writing assignments and how they function to enhance student comprehension and analytical abilities, and 2) specific models of assignments to address particular concerns about how they may be incorporated, formatted, assessed, and their outcomes evaluated. The "centripetal" and "centrifugal" approaches described here are just two ways of identifying the ways in which creative writing assignments can function. There are many other means by which assignments could be described and categorized, but we find these terms useful for examining the concepts and types of analysis that can be taught through creative writing activities, specifically in history courses but more broadly applicable. What we consider significant is that these approaches are not only source-driven but also closely tied to specific texts. In other words, the assignments are most valuable if they are based on a foundation of imitation, rather than asking students to make the giant leap to creating a totally organic piece of work from general content culled from a variety of different sources. To do so requires a deeper level of comprehension and understanding than many students in survey courses are able to attain due to a lack of knowledge and experience. It also becomes more difficult to assess as creativity becomes a more important element of the project. The source-specific, imitative assignments focused on in this essay require a consideration of form or structure. Incorporating this element allows the instructor to tie a particular goal to a specific intended outcome so there is a clear pedagogical purpose that can be assessed and graded.</p> <p>The unifying elements for assessing creative writing assignments is the use of self-reflective analytical essays as a component of the projects and strict guidelines that allow the instructor to grade on content and analysis rather than creativity. The self-assessment paper asks students to reflect on both the content and creative process and forces them to consider the purpose of the assignment within the scope of the history discipline. Through justifying their creative decisions, moreover, students must take responsibility for their final product, creating an active learning environment. The elements of assessing the process—the story itself, the presentation, and the analytical essay—are based on criteria that is clearly delineated, focused on content, and distributed to the students. The weighting is firmly situated towards the concrete requirements and the individual contributions to a group grade. In this way students, and instructors, have no pressure of being graded or grading on "creativity" or of unfairness based on a single grade for the whole group. This format allows the creative writing assignment to be utilized by a variety of disciplines, even those traditionally outside of the humanities. The imitative exercise of a model text makes this possible, as a firm foundation for deeper critical analysis. As the well-known quote ascribed to Oscar Wilde states, "The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates." Creative writing assignments can encompass both activities, but assess the learning of critical analysis on only one.</p> <ref id="AN0110319064-8"> <title> REFERENCES </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref26" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Bonwell, C., & J. Eison. 1991. Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom AEHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1. Washington, DC: Jossey-Bass.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref20" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Bransford, J. D., A. Brown, & R. Cocking. 2000. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref36" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Brown, S. W. & F. B. King. 2000. "Constructivist Pedagogy and How We Learn: Educational Psychology Meets International Studies." International Studies Perspectives 1: 245–54.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref12" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Bruffee, K. A. 1998. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref23" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Chick, N., T. Karis, & C. Kernahan. 2009. "Learning From Their Own Learning: How Metacognitive and Meta-affective Reflections Enhance Learning in Race-Related Courses." International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 3: 1–28.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Clemson University Teaching and Learning Project. 2006. Retrieved January9, 2011, from <ulink href="http://virtual.clemson.edu/caah/teachingandlearningcreatively/tlc/history.html">http://virtual.clemson.edu/caah/teachingandlearningcreatively/tlc/history.html</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref1" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Connor-Greene, P. A., C. Mobley, C. E. Paul, J. A. Waldvogel, L. Wright, & A. Young, eds. (2006). Teaching and Learning Creatively: Inspirations and Reflections. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" idref="ref9" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Díaz, A., J. Middendorf, D. Pace, & L. Shopkow. 2008. "The History Learning Project: A Department 'Decodes' Its Students." Journal of American History 94: 1211–24.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref4" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Dowling, Jr., H. F. 1985. "Imaginative Exposition: Teaching 'Creative' Non-Fiction Writing." College Composition and Communication 36: 454–64.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Flavell, J. H. 1979. Metacognition and Cognitive Monitoring. A New Area of Cognitive-Development Inquiry. American Psychologist 34: 906–11.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Flavell, J. H. 1985. Cognitive Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Gallagher, K. 2011. Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Gokhale, A. A. 1995. "Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking." Journal of Technology Education 7: 22–30.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Goma, O. 2001. "Creative Writing in Economics." College Teaching 49: 149–52.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Indiana University's History Learning Project. 2011. Retrieved November28, 2014, from <ulink href="http://www.iub.edu/˜hlp/index.html">http://www.iub.edu/˜hlp/index.html</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Johnson, D. W. & R. T. Johnson. 1989. Cooperation and Competition: Theory and Research. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Johnson, E. 2008. "Father Boethius: Chaucer and The Problem of Prosimetrum." In Townsend Center Newsletter. Retrieved March14, 2015, from <ulink href="http://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/pubs/april%5fmay2008.pdf">http://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/pubs/april%5fmay2008.pdf</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Jones, K. A. & J. L. Jones. 2008. 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"Group Project Assessment," Medieval Europe course.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> L.G. Fall 2013. "Group Project Reflection," Medieval Europe course, Marist College.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> L.S. Fall 2013. Untitled, Medieval Europe course, Marist College.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> L.K. Fall 2012. "Candide Reaction Paper," Early Modern Europe course, Marist College.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> P.D. Fall 2013. Untitled, Medieval Europe course, Marist College.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> P.Y. Fall 2014. Untitled, Medieval Europe course, Marist College.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> R.C. Fall 2012. "Group Project Assessment," Early Modern Europe course, Marist College.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> S.B. Fall 2012. "Candide Project Overview," Early Modern Europe course, Marist College.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Janine Larmon Peterson and Lea Graham</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref18"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref19"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref21"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref22"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref24"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib37" firstref="ref28"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib35" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib34" firstref="ref31"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref33"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib39" firstref="ref34"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref35"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref37"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl27" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref38"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl28" bibid="bib40" firstref="ref39"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl29" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref40"></nolink>
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  Data: Teaching Historical Analysis through Creative Writing Assignments
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Peterson%2C+Janine+Larmon%22">Peterson, Janine Larmon</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Graham%2C+Lea%22">Graham, Lea</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22College+Teaching%22"><i>College Teaching</i></searchLink>. 2015 63(4):153-161.
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  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Creative+Writing%22">Creative Writing</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22History%22">History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22History+Instruction%22">History Instruction</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Assignments%22">Assignments</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Instructional+Effectiveness%22">Instructional Effectiveness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22College+Students%22">College Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22College+Faculty%22">College Faculty</searchLink>
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  Data: Incorporating creative writing exercises in history courses can heighten students' critical reading and analytical skills in an active learning model. We identify and define two types of possible assignments that use model texts as their locus: centripetal, which focuses on specific context and disciplinary terms, and centrifugal, which address paradigms in human experience. Imitative assignments that include emphasis on form or structure provide a clear framework for assessment. We provide models for both types of assignments in history survey courses, including our reflections on final analysis of the projects, means of assessing them, and qualitative evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach.
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      – TitleFull: Teaching Historical Analysis through Creative Writing Assignments
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