Need a quick creative exercise? Have your students analyze titles, write titles, and come up with titles based on descriptions.
A title is an important part of an artistic product. It acts as a doorway into the piece, be it a movie, song, novel, play, or other artistic work. A bad title can drive an audience away, or give the wrong impression. On the other hand, pick the right title and an audience will connect immediately.
Exercise One: Picture Inspiration
Use this exercise to practice creating a variety of different titles based on one picture.
- Share a photograph. You can use one of the ones provided in the download or come up with one of your own.
- Distribute a copy of the picture, project it or use a smartboard.
- Have students take a few minutes to study the photograph. Encourage students to analyze every inch of the picture. What’s going on? What just happened? What happened a long time ago? What is the when and where of the photo? What year is it? What’s the landscape? Who’s in the photo? If there isn’t anyone in the photo, think about who’s taking the picture and why. What might be happening outside the frame?
- After looking at the photo, give students two minutes to brainstorm as many thoughts about the picture as they can. They can use their drama journals, or the brainstorm sheet provided in the download. Emphasize to students that they shouldn’t self-judge or censor their thoughts. Get everything down on the page.
- Now, students will come up with a variety of titles for the photo. All the titles will have a different focus but use the same picture as source material. A title sheet is provided in the download.
- Title One: Come up with a title that you think best describes the picture.
- Title Two: Create a title that defines the dominant emotion in the picture.
- Title Three: Use a line of poetry or a song lyric as inspiration for this title.
- Title Four: Write a title that rhymes.
- Title Five: What is the one word that captures this picture? Come up with a title that is just one word.
- Title Six: Create a title that has a symbolic connection to the picture rather than a direct connection.
- Title Seven: Create the absolute worst title for this picture.
- Title Eight: Think about the person taking the picture. Come up with a title that describes the emotional state of that person.
- Title Nine: Think about the person taking the picture. Come up with a title that hints at an upcoming action of that person.
- Title Ten: This piece is a comedy. Create a comedic title for this picture.
- Title Eleven: This piece is absurd. Create an absurd title for this picture.
- Title Twelve: This piece is a futuristic drama. Create a title that suggests the time and tone of the picture.
- Title Thirteen: Come up with a tragic title for this picture.
- Title Fourteen: Come up with a title that includes the name of the picture location.
- Title Fifteen: Come up with a title of your own choosing!
- Divide students into groups and have them share their titles. What are the similarities and differences?
- Bring the class together to discuss the exercise. Emphasize to students how the same picture can inspire different titles. There is no one way to create.
Click below for extended instruction for this exercise with handouts, sample pictures, and discussion questions.
Exercise Two: Title Analysis
Give students a title and have them practice close reading by analyzing a title. Use this example as a template and use whatever title you wish!
- Give students a title. For example: Romeo and Juliet
- Have students close read the title by answering the following questions. With close reading, you read a text more than once, and that may seem challenging with a short title. But, the point is to take something that seems simple and dive deep. You may find there’s more than what meets the eye, even in a title.
- First Read
- Give students a “What” question: What is happening? Or a “Who” question, like Who is this play about?
- Second Read
- Give students a “How” question that looks at structure, language, or word choice.
- What does Shakespeare suggest with the word “and”?
- Third Read
- Give students a “Why” question that considers why the playwright made the choices they did. What was their intention?
- Why has Shakespeare used this title for the play?
- Put students into groups and have them share their answers. What are the similarities and differences in their answers? What did they learn about the play simply by analyzing the title?
Exercise Three: Name that movie!
- Hand out brief descriptions of movies or plays. Choose older works; you’re looking for movie descriptions that your class wouldn’t be able to identify immediately.
- Based on the description only, have students create a title for that movie.
- Put students into groups and have them share their titles. What are the similarities and differences between the titles students have come up with? Did anyone come up with the real title?
- Share the real title with students and discuss. Do they think the title fits the description? Do they like the title? Why or why not?
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IMDB.com is a good place to get short and concise movie descriptions, for example:
- A lawyer in the Depression-era South defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice. (To Kill A Mockingbird)
- Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency. (The Shawshank Redemption)
- A small-time boxer gets a once in a lifetime chance to fight the heavyweight champ in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect. (Rocky)
