Date: Fri 30-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-story-Campbell-writing

Full Text:

Inspiring Young Writers To Explore Their Dreams

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Campbell Dalglish inspired fourth and fifth graders at Sandy Hook School to

explore their hopes and dreams as a basis for meaningful stories.

Once the students had a strong reason to write, he introduced them to

techniques for developing exciting, believable stories with colorful

characters.

Campbell explained how stories don't just describe a culture, but they propel

a culture. He said that culture is based on news stories, dramatizations and

films, and he told the youngsters that "news is one constant story,

revolutionizing society."

While looking at an article on the ten movies that have "rocked the world,"

Campbell explained that films are really stories, and some of these stories

impact the whole country.

He described how ambitions, conflicts, dreams, and wishes fuel great stories

and dramatic real-life events alike, then showed the kids how to reach within

themselves and express their own strongly felt ideas.

Campbell had the students write about a wish, a dream, a lie, a secret and a

truth, a method he uses himself, in order to recognize dramatic and emotional

ideas that can spark a great story.

He said that he likes to think that stories come from people learning to

recognize some kind of spiritual truth.

Campbell was particularly intrigued to learn of Kimberly Solheim's ambition.

This fourth grader from Mrs Toomie's class wants to become the first woman

President of the United States.

A close friend of Campbell's, actress Jane Atkinson who played the role of the

mother in Free Willy , wants a movie part about the first woman President.

Once the group had some starting points for stories, Campbell had the students

make up lists of the related words describing the best and worst that could

happen.

Then he asked a student to call out one word. The next student called out a

word related to the first one, and so on.

The students soon recognized that by having one idea lead to another, it

became easy to remember a long list.

One student said, "I remember, it went, `water, ocean, vacation, thirsty,

water, protein, healthy, health food, vitamins, shapes, answers,

questions...'" repeating the words just spoken around the room.

Then she asked, "why would `vacation' make you think of `thirsty'?"

Campbell grinned and said, "Just as in a story, it is the unexpected

connections, the things that don't seem to fit that are the most intriguing.

These can unfold into fascinating stories," and he went on to create one on

the spot.

Campbell said that "as storytellers, we create conflict, pain, in order to

show characters dealing with problems and overcoming them."

In the last of the three workshops with Mrs Toomie's class, Campbell was

prompting the class to enliven a story (about stampeding horses) with

emotional involvement from the characters.

He then asked the class about the basic reason for writing a true story, a

movie or a romance.

Shannon Reed's answer may have come as a bit of a surprise. She said, "The

point is to get more money than you begin with!"

Campbell said that he gets a lift from teaching younger writers.

He loves their energy, their sense of discovery and awe in the world around

them and their refreshing perceptions.

Campbell also believes it is very important to teach good writing skills.

He said, "Kids are the youngest breed of storytellers and they will be keeping

track of us in the near future."

These writing workshops, along with other cultural arts programs at the

school, are sponsored by the Sandy Hook School PTA.