This podcast introduces fun creative writing activities that help develop divergent thinking (creative mind) skills while building collaboration, developing students’ identity as writers, and undoing the myth of genius (only geniuses are truly creative) that gets in the way of creativity, especially in writing. These short activities can also be used as divergent practice while seeming like little more than “fun” creativity, as they more gamified and can be learned easily. Both freewriting and these short games can be a way to develop divergent thinking skills over time before taking on the more significant project of divergent reading games presented in Podcast 4. The games in this podcast include: Nonsense Paragraph, Surrealist Q & A, Conditionals, Problem/Solution with Word Bomb, and Exquisite Corpse.

Article on using the games in a Norwegian high school: https://papers.academic-conferences.org/index.php/ecgbl/article/view/1385

Dylan Thomas Dominoes, an advanced game using some of these concepts: http://www8.uis.no/fag/DigitalGamesForReadingLiterature/www/docs/

Metaphor Mapping, an interface for exploring texts using these ideas: https://www.allencjones.com/metaphor-mapping.html

You can find a transcription here (pdf, opens in new tab)