TEACHING ARTIST JOURNAL, 1, (4), 203 - 208Copyright © 2003, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Amanda Lichtenstein

Correspondence regardingthis article should go to:

Amanda LichtensteinFree Street Programs2719 N. Kimball #2Chicago, IL 60647alichtenstein@hotmail.com

Germania SolórzanoColumbia College ChicagoFiction Writing Department3115 South ShieldsChicago, IL 60616germaniasolorzano@hotmail.com(312) 326-1973

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n a quiet December morning, tucked intothe corner of the third floor hallway atCrown Academy of Fine Arts on Chicago’sSouthwest side, a small group of fifth

graders sit in a circle in a sort of trance, staring at the empty air.They remark, “I see it!” “I can picture that!” pointing eagerly. Infront of them is nothing but air, but they see a green, longnecked bottle with a crumpled dirty note inside. Were they hal-lucinating? No. But for a time, they willingly swapped cynicalfor magical. They left all disbelief at the door and entered into acircle where visions unfolded with clarity and enchantment. Asstudent writers in ACT/WRITE, an alternative approach to cre-ative writing in schools, these fifth graders were challenged to goinside their mind’s eye as opposed to moving tentatively aroundits perimeters. This green bottle became so real they could touchits contours, so real they could read the tiny scrawling on themysterious note resting inside.

As Teaching Artists at Crown, we had been asked (through acollaboration between the Office of Community ArtsPartnerships, Free Street Programs, and Columbia CollegeFiction Writing Department) to conduct workshops combiningtheater and writing activities that would inspire original, imagi-native writing. We would be working with two classes of fifthgraders and an eighth grade class for fifteen sessions each. Withonly fifty minutes once a week in classes with challenges of their

ABSTRACTHow theatrical imagination

can transform a deadly

learning environment into a

committed writers’ workshop.

Message in anImaginary Bottle:

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A Glimpse of aMagical TeachingMoment at Crown

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own, what we often faced in the first nine weeks was blank faces that masked a profounddisinterest and lack of skill in reading and writing. We faced “I don’t know’s...,” prema-ture declarations of “I’m finished!,” unimaginative references to pop culture, surface sum-

maries, and “writer’s block,”when the imagination seemed sofar away that it was inaccessibleto these young writers. They suf-fered an obstructed view of theirimaginations, and our TeachingArtist challenge was to help them

remove this block, and make room for their mind’s eye to see fully in all directions. Aswriters, we understand that it is crucial to be willing and able to see an image or storyunfold as part of the creative process. We determined that no matter how long it took,we would encourage these young writers to trust what they saw inside themselves, and todevelop those images with a sense of creative risk.

Half the workshop time was spent building the students’ imaginative seeing throughactive theater exercises. The students were engaged and eager in these activities, but themoment we asked them to write—it was as if the class was a large machine that suddenlylost its bearings with springs popping out and bouncing on the floor, cogs coming loose,and gears of thought suddenly screeching to a halt. The students were possessed withsudden impulses to walk across the circle in search of non-existent pens, pencils, note-books. Feet stomped across the room, distracting others who attempted the writing chal-lenge. Others had very specific and rhetorical questions—unnecessary writing questionslike “Can I write about…?” when the obvious answer was “yes.” Some students dideverything they could to avoid writing.

Over countless Mexican breakfasts at Los Comales in Pilsen, we discussed where theworkshop was breaking down and tried to identify the problem. After all, we had ledsuccessful writing workshops at other schools and couldn’t figure out why it was so diffi-cult for these students to get to the writing. We tried deep breathing exercises, gesturework, improvisational theater, visualization exercises and other games to try to stimulateimaginative seeing. We realized that we didn’t have everyone’s attention at any givenpoint and that there was a disconnect between the theater and the writing. We were dis-appointed as we read through our students’ work and came to the conclusion that theywere not seeing the story in their mind’s eye. Since part of our collaboration requires theuse of theater activities to drive the writing, we needed to find an activity that wouldmesmerize them in a way that other activities had not.

On this particular day in December, we focused on the basic building block of seeingwith an improvisational theater exercise called “sculpting.” After doing our usual warmup, which focuses on awareness of breath, body, and connection with others in the circle,we guided them through an imaginative exercise to see an object that was taking theirattention at the present moment—it could be a small or large, real or imagined object.As they stood with their eyes closed, arms loose at their sides, feet firmly planted to theground, the usual distractions in the classroom lost their power. A sense of stillness per-vaded the group, and we continued to coach them to see their objects in their mind’seye. We asked them to approach their object, to reach their hands out and feel its tex-ture, size and shape. Keeping their eyes closed, all our students extended their hands in

They suffered an obstructed view of their imag-inations, and our Teaching Artist challenge wasto help them remove this block, and make roomfor their mind’s eye to see fully in all directions.

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the air, reaching for these imaginary objects in the open space in the middle of the circle.Making sure that everyone had something to see, we dared our young writers to pick uptheir objects and feel its weight. How does this affect your body? How do you feel aboutyour object? This intensive visualization gave them the time they needed to go inside andtrust whatever images unfolded in their minds. No one had the time or impulse to“copy” someone else’s idea because they each had the space to create something entirelytheir own.

Amazed at their focus, we asked them to open their eyes briefly and begin to see theair in front of them as clay. We directed them to see themselves as sculptors who couldcarve their objects out in precise detail. “Sculpt your objects as clearly as you can in justthirty seconds,” we directed. “Keep an awareness of its color, size, shape, texture, andother details that make your object unique!” We suggested they find enough space in thecircle to carve out their objects without getting in someone else’s; they all turned theirbodies away from the circle and got to work. Without missing a beat, everyone facedtheir clay. Their arms, hands, and bodies began tracing through the air, using precisemovements to create their objects. We watched as they interacted with their works inprogress, walking around them, making sure to get the details they had developed duringthe visualization exercise. They worked quickly and efficiently, never breaking their focus,and when the time was up, they all faced back into the circle with smiles on their faces.Some were so eager and excited that they started jumping up and down.

We requested the fifth graders take their newly created objects and lift them into thecircle so that everyone could see them. One said, “I can’t move mine, it’s just too big!”Another said, “Mine’s really heavy too, I can’t move it.” “Okay, move it if you can,” wesaid, “otherwise, just leave it in its place, and we will look at it from there.” They allreturned to the circle with a keen awareness of their objects either next to or in front ofthem. By providing a strong model, we prepared them to present their objects to thegroup. “Look at this...” and our fingers pointed to the tip of a bottle, palms lying flat outin the air to hold it from the bottom. “Do you see this? It’s a green bottle with a longneck, do you see it?” We leaned in closer for them to get a good look. They leaned inwith us. As we spoke, we used our hands to gesture and demonstrate its length andwidth. Heads nodded. Even Sevvy, who in other workshops seemed the designated skep-tic, nodded his head with confidence. “I’m holding a green, glass bottle, and inside is abrown, dirty, crumpled note.” We pointed to the bottom of the bottle to make it clearwhere the note rested. “Oooh,” Jamie exclaimed, “I can really picture that...a note, like asecret note...” “Yeah,” Laquanda agreed, “I can see what you’re talking about...!”

From this exercise came a rich display of unusual objects—a gigantic elephant withvelvet ears, a magic trick-yo-yo, the largest red and blue bicycle in the world with a whaleriding it, a magic crayon that infuses whomever it touches with strength, a red candlethat turns people into animals, a triangle with an eyeball, a silky worm, a silver suitcasefull of money, a jeweled crown, a snakeskin belt, a bell with small twin hearts pumpingquietly inside it. Using gestures, they presented their objects to the group and made surethat each of us saw it as clearly as when they first saw it for themselves. After we heardabout everyone’s object, we asked them to quickly go to their paper and begin to writeabout an object that they saw clearly and distinctly in their mind’s eye. We told themthat it was okay to choose someone else’s object but that the most important thing was

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to write about the object with clarity. Tell everything you know about the object, includ-ing where it was first discovered, what it feels like to hold it in your hands, includingsize, shape, texture, etc. They wrote rapidly, with intense energy and focus, for the fiveminutes we allotted them.

The process of sculpting, writing, and sharing our visions continued for several moreminutes; in this way, the circle slowly filled with unusual, original ideas that they laterused as seeds for longer pieces. Students who had typically stuck with pop culture

references or wrote surfacesummaries had tapped intothe expansive wells of theirimaginations and took owner-ship of their original ideas.They captivated one anotherwith their visions; as they

conducted oral tellings of their objects, students listened attentively and were able torecall others’ objects in detail. In truly workshopping their ideas, these young writers feltfree to swap, share, and transform images given to the group as a whole. By the end ofthis section of the writing workshop, each student had written about two unusual objectsin detail.

Building on this intense focus, we asked them to view these objects as ingredients fora larger story. We asked them to develop a character that they had never seen before.They could choose among only four words (boy, man, girl, woman) and had to writethat word on the top of the page. Again, we led them through an intensive visualizationin which they had to see the person from head to toe, in a place, and decide what theyknew about this individual. Throughout the visualization, we periodically asked them totell the group what they saw developing in their minds. “I see a girl; she’s ten; she’s fromAlabama...” “I see a man. He like motorcycles. He standin’ near me...” “I see a boy. Hemy age, young and silly, but nobody likes him. He need a home, need friends, need aschool...” They continued to visualize this person in their minds’ eye and were coachedto see this character unfolding in front of them, so that they could let one idea lead tothe next without worrying about all the details at once. After spending some time visual-izing these characters, they wrote for another five or ten minutes, detailing all that theyknew about the person they’d seen in their minds, giving the person life on the page asthey wrote. We asked them to be aware of their characters’ habits, dreams, the objectsthey carried in their pockets, the way they walked, deepest worries and fears, biggestsecret, the way their bodies might look on the inside, what their hearts are made out of,and anything else that might make this person seem more clear on the page. One studentwrote about a character whose heart was made out of two tiny bells.

At the end of our fifty minutes, each had written more than they had in any otherworkshop. One student, Delilah, held up her smudged lined paper and exclaimed, “Lookit! Look how much I wrote today!” Another seemed pleased with the boy character hehad developed and came up to one of us afterward to show off his paper. Another stu-dent, Dina, asked if she could write more about her girl because she had more but didn’thave time to get it all down. These students were actively engaged in their characters’lives and continued to talk about them as well as the objects they had sculpted earlier inthe workshop. They referred back to the strongest images—“Oh, yeah, I want Sam’s sil-

Students who had typically stuck with pop culturereferences or wrote surface summaries had tappedinto the expansive wells of their imaginations andtook ownership of their original ideas.

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ver suitcase with the money in it! I wish I had it in real life!” “I remember Tyrone’s jew-eled crown; that was cool!” “Damien had a diamond in his hands, the biggest diamond! Iwish I could have had that in real life...” “I remember Kiandra’s silky worm! Ugggh!”Their excited chatter continued as we gathered our materials to leave.

Because the students were seeing their characters and objects so vividly, they werewilling and excited to continue working on these pieces in order to lengthen and develop them. Much of the material generated on this day continued to fuel writing inthe following weeks. Toward the end of our program, we selected the most engagingwork from each student and put it in an anthology for each of the classes we workedwith. Not surprisingly, much of the work from the anthology came from this magicalteaching moment.

On a January morning in the auditorium of Crown Academy, the microphone was inplace, along with 90 folding chairs set for our young authors to read their work to eachother and invited guests. As part of this celebration, each student received a booklet—ananthology of short stories entitled Open Your Eyes. Excitement filled the room as studentseagerly searched for their own piecesin the book. We introduced the Book Release Party by congratu-lating everyone for their hard workand encouraged each of them to see themselves as part of a community of Crown writers. Although somestudents were afraid to read into themicrophone, every student who had originally volunteered to read followed through withthe challenge. We reminded them, and they reminded each other, to breathe, to planttheir feet firmly on the ground. All the readers introduced their work and told the audi-ence the page number on which their work could be found—and the whole audiencequickly turned to that page, listening. Everyone’s ears were filled with imaginativemoments of story:

...He meets a girl with a braided wig and she touched his stomach and a circle appearedand it started glowing and she entered his body. And suddenly he grew wings and he real-ized that the woman was his mother and he had an angel inside of him and he felt likeshe came to help him with the skateboarding competition. (Fifth grade student)

There was a girl named Regina with a heavy blue desk and a suitcase full of money.She had a lot of money because she worked so hard. She was at home and she wantedto hide the suitcase in a secret place. She was strong and she could move the desk withone finger. (Fifth grade student)

One day this boy was walking in the mud. He got stanky feet and his toenails grew 3 feetlong. He got a wolf face and he’s wearing a hat. He’s 5 years old, no kidneys, no heart, nolungs, and many years later, one day, his shoes was telling him to take his shoes off, it’s adiamond in your toes! He finds a diamond in between his toes. He just noticed that hefound one. (Fifth grade student)

Because the students were seeing theircharacters and objects so vividly, they werewilling and excited to continue workingon these pieces in order to lengthen anddevelop them.

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Well I am in the hospital I was born in, St. Cabrini, and as soon as I opened my eyeswhen I was a baby I saw my grandmother sitting by her living room table wearing a pur-ple dress with red flowers. She was sitting there with a fishing rod in her hand about tothrow it into a room full of water. (Eighth grade student)

I go outside at 10:00 am and there’s a glass of water in the middle of the dust road inDallas, Texas and it’s 95 degrees and it’s raining, but none of the water is getting in theuncovered glass. Children are running and playing in the rain and acting as if it’s not evenraining. The sky starts to come down like walls closing in. The rain is getting harder andharder, but the kids don’t feel it. The sky comes completely down but the glass holds it up.Then there’s a glass cracking sound, and pitch black. (Eighth grade student)

He saw a Bear at the lake in his mind. He saw a huge never-before-seen animal in hismind getting ready to eat the bear. The jaguar ran over to the bear and pushed him in thelake. The bear was under the water for at least 2 minutes already. The jaguar told all theanimals to clear the forest and they did. Before they knew it, the large never before seenanimals came out of the woods. (Fifth grade student)

In this moment, there were no complaints about writing or reading. There were nounimaginative references to pop culture. In this moment, there was some laughter, someintense listening, and a pride in having published their work. They never would havegotten to this point if they hadn’t first mastered the most basic building block of writing,which is to see the story clearly. Witnessing their excitement over finding their names inthe book affirmed our commitment to creative problem solving. We took an overwhelm-ing situation and through our analyzing and discussing arrived at an innovative solutionthat made it worthwhile for everyone.

The students left the auditorium to return to their classrooms and autograph eachother’s books. Even though it was time for dismissal, they were no longer studentsresponding to the bell; they were published authors busy autographing each other’sbooks, and they didn’t want to leave.

Amanda Lichtenstein writes poetryand creative nonfiction, appearing innational and local literary magazines.She teaches poetry and performancewith Free Street Programs, The PoetryCenter of Chicago and UrbanGateways. She has worked collaboratively with GermaniaSolórzano for three years in buildingand teaching ACT/WRITE curricu-lum for Chicago Public Schools.

Germania Solórzano writes fiction(appearing in Hair Trigger andSleepwalk magazines) and teachesFiction Writing at Columbia CollegeChicago. In the ACT/WRITE pro-gram, she and Amanda Lichtensteinseek to create classrooms where stu-dents can explore their voices andideas through movement and writing.She has an MFA in Creative Writingfrom Columbia College Chicago.

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