Re-imagining the ELA with Creative Non-Fiction:Igniting Students’ Passions and Creativity Through the Collage Essay
For this year’s pre-conference workshop, we will take participants into a “deep dive” into the compelling non-fiction genre of the Collage Essay. In a collage essay, says Peter Elbow, “you try to give your reader an experience of what you are saying rather than an explanation of it” (
Writing with Power, 1998). Richard Nordquist explains the Collage Essay in a March 2018 post on
ThoughtCo.com. “To use collage as a writer,” says Shara McCallum, “is to map onto your essay . . . the semblance of continuities and discontinuities associated with the art form” (in
Now Write! ed. by Sherry Ellis).
We will spend the evening discussing several powerful models and examples of Collage Essays. Our presenters will share their own Collage Essays, samples of students’ Collage Essays, models from classic authors (E. B. White, George Orwell, Annie Dillard, H.L. Mencken), as well as YA texts like
Animals by Don Le Pan and
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
Participants will be invited to begin planning their own Collage Essay. Teachers are invited to bring their own personal journals, composing devices, along with photo and quote collections.
As David Shields notes in
Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, “The very nature of collage demands fragmented materials, or at least materials yanked out of context. Collage is, in a way, only an accentuated act of editing: picking through options and presenting a new arrangement….The act of editing may be the key postmodern artistic instrument….”(Knopf, 2010, p. 349).
Three experienced MCTE teachers, from three diverse Michigan communities, will lead this year’s pre-conference session.
Please join
Toby Kahn-Loftus, North Central Michigan College,
Jim Kroll, L’Anse Creuse Public Schools, and
Danielle Marsh, Shepherd Public Schools, as they dive into the inspiring possibilities of creative non-fiction through composing Collage Essays.
