Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of poems, digital art, and accompanying analytical essays authored by four college students taking an advanced Spanish as heritage language. This paper highlights the ways in which creative writing, along with digital tools for artmaking, can enhance the teaching of language literacy to heritage learners. It proposes that creative writing opens up simultaneously meaningful and transformative experiences for students: they engage with the performativity of creative writing, use their voices beyond the constraints of specific genre conventions, engage with critical language awareness exercises, and become motivated to use their writing in order to reach out to the wider Spanish-speaking communities outside the classroom. Digital technologies played a key role in the creative process, as they provided a range of artistic tools and flexibilities that enhanced and complemented the power of the written word. The paper aims to contribute to the pedagogy of Spanish heritage courses and to expand the notions of literacy and writing under which we work in the SHL classroom.
Highlights
Recent pedagogical models for teaching writing to Spanish heritage learners (SHLs) have emphasized the importance of providing scaffolded instruction where they are introduced to the conventions that conform to the stylistic spectrum from spontaneous conversational speech to formal written discourse (Beaudrie et al 2014; Burgo 2020; Chevalier 2004; Ignatieva and Colombi 2014; Mrak 2020; Potowski 2005)
Through the content analysis of poems and accompanying analytical essays by four college students, I aim to show that creative writing assignments provide students with important and transformative learning experiences
Discuss the main findings and advocate for the inclusion of creative writing assignments, and creativity in general, both as part of SHL signature pedagogy (Parra 2014) and as a way to invite teachers to critically reflect on the notions of literacy and writing under which we work in the SHL classroom
Summary
Pedagogy” (Beaudrie et al 2020; Parra 2014), educators have become interested in pedagogical frameworks that enhance students’ writing voices beyond specific genre conventions to allow them to build their literacy capabilities and become active participants of wider communities of practice. Through the content analysis of poems and accompanying analytical essays by four college students, I aim to show that creative writing assignments provide students with important and transformative learning experiences They open up opportunities for them to: (a) work with literacy and language writing skills in flexible and sophisticated ways; (b) engage with the performative force of writing (Owens 1993), allowing them to embrace different positions and voices as authors (Tavalin 1995); and (c) strengthen a sense of connectedness with their classmates (Rovai 2002) and broader communities, needed more. I discuss the main findings and advocate for the inclusion of creative writing assignments, and creativity in general, both as part of SHL signature pedagogy (Parra 2014) and as a way to invite teachers to critically reflect on the notions of literacy and writing under which we work in the SHL classroom
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