Surrealist techniques can be used to inspire students to write creatively.

A practical way to use this would be to play a surrealist poetry game:

Each student gets 4 pieces of paper, and on each one writes:

  • Abstract noun
  • Concrete noun
  • Definition of abstract noun
  • Definition of concrete noun

Collect all the nouns in one pile, and collect all the definitions in a second pile.

Have one student read a noun, then another read a definition and so on.

This leads to some surreal poetry which can engage and inspire students to think creatively about writing.

Gareth Davies, who teaches English at Harris Academy, was inspired to suggest this teaching idea after hearing Kate Clanchy (Oxford Brookes University) speak about The Wonder Box at the New Teacher Subject Days 2016/17 Day 3.

Schools Programme members can download the resources from the event in the PTI Staffroom.

Want to discover more inspiring subject knowledge? See our upcoming courses and events for 2016/17, including our CPD subject days: Literary non-fiction, Frankenstein: Taming the monster and Shakespeare in context.

Find more knowledge nuggets here.

Image: By Courtney Collison via Flickr, licensed under fair us via Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/).