Breaking Open the Box: A Guide for Creative Techniques to Improve Academic Writing and Generate Critical Thinking

In her passionately-argued and critically engaging study of creative writing, Nancy Dafoe calls on her 14 years of experience as a writer and teacher of writing. Dafoe’s legacy to her students shines through in her efforts to eliminate what she calls “our collective inarticulateness.” Only when student writers feel personally invested in their writing can they become the voices who will leave their own legacy, Dafoe argues, and she clearly pursues the route to such a legacy through lively examples from her own experience and cogent theory. Writing is a means toward discovery; so is this book.

Mrs. Dafoe has improved my writing and critical analysis abilities immeasurably. Through her guidance, mastering the true power of the English language, I learned that the best writing is inextricably linked to creativity and that stretching the limits of language every now and then is desirable–not just acceptable. Learning how to use word play and complex metaphors effectively does not come naturally, but Mrs. Dafoe makes it extremely accessible. Her methods result in a whole new world of expressive and analytical skills; the creative methods she teaches are exhilaratingly free from illusions of constraint that separate good writing from great writing.

Nancy Dafoe is a brilliant secondary English teacher who motivates even the most reluctant student writers. In her book Breaking Open the Box, she shares her most successful strategy for engaging students in literary analysis and the analytical writing process: providing creative choice. After applying her strategy in my own classroom, I watched as my students threw themselves into their writing and blossomed as critically thinking intellectuals. Nancy’s is a must-read book for teachers hoping to help their students meet their full potential as writers and readers of literature.

Nancy Dafoe’s creative writing class provided an opportunity for existential growth that I have yet to find since. Whether we recalled the days’ absurdities, noted a meaningful quotation from another author, or simply mused about a meaningful observation, our journals were about our words, our thoughts, our dreams. We were always encouraged to be creative, and yet, in offering freedom, Mrs. Dafoe brought to her lessons a specificity that required us to hone in on meaning. By the end of each semester, I felt has if I had grown as a person as well as a writer. I was able to embrace my niche to quiet the heart, a moment to decipher the whirlwind of thought, and absorb the instruction to give each heartstring a voice.

Students have more to say than they realize, and being able to give them liberating choices with which to express ideas and feelings is cause for celebration. Thanks to Nancy Dafoe, teachers will no longer have to plow through piles of poorly written, unimaginative work by bored students who are not invested in their work. Breaking Open the Box restores a sense of play and discovery to the writing process. What better gift can we give our students and teachers than the means to clear and creative communication as well as the courage and pride that result?

This book is a gift of treasured strategies, experiences and effective practices for educators at all levels in developing the art and skill of writing with 21st century learners. In each chapter, Nancy Dafoe eloquently engages the reader with the voice of an experienced practitioner and the heart of a highly effective teacher by sharing valuable insights in igniting creativity in the teaching and learning of writing. Breaking Open the Box is a timely and much needed resource for our profession.