creative writing on classroom

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How creative writing can increase students’ resilience, students can find strength and community in sharing their stories through writing..

Many of my seventh-grade students do not arrive at school ready to learn. Their families often face financial hardship and live in cramped quarters, which makes it difficult to focus on homework. The responsibility for cooking and taking care of younger siblings while parents work often falls on these twelve year olds’ small shoulders. Domestic violence and abuse are also not uncommon.

To help traumatized students overcome their personal and academic challenges, one of our first jobs as teachers is to build a sense of community. We need to communicate that we care and that we welcome them into the classroom just as they are. One of the best ways I’ve found to connect with my students, while also nurturing their reading and writing skills, is through creative writing.

For the past three years, I’ve invited students in my English Language Development (ELD) classes to observe their thoughts, sit with their emotions, and offer themselves and each other compassion through writing and sharing about their struggles. Creating a safe, respectful environment in which students’ stories matter invites the disengaged, the hopeless, and the numb to open up. Students realize that nobody is perfect and nobody’s life is perfect. In this kind of classroom community, they can take the necessary risks in order to learn, and they become more resilient when they stumble.

Fostering a growth mindset

One of the ways students can boost their academic performance and develop resilience is by building a growth mindset. Carol Dweck, Stanford University professor of psychology and author of the book Mindset , explains that people with a growth mindset focus on learning from mistakes and welcoming challenges rather than thinking they’re doomed to be dumb or unskillful. A growth mindset goes hand in hand with self-compassion: recognizing that everyone struggles and treating ourselves with kindness when we trip up.

One exercise I find very useful is to have students write a story about a time when they persevered when faced with a challenge—in class, sports, or a relationship. Some of the themes students explore include finally solving math problems, learning how to defend themselves, or having difficult conversations with parents.

I primed the pump by telling my students about something I struggled with—feeling left behind in staff meetings as my colleagues clicked their way through various computer applications. I confided that PowerPoint and Google Slides—tools (one might assume) that any teacher worth a paperweight has mastered—still eluded me. By admitting my deficiency to my students, asking for their help, and choosing to see the opportunity to remedy it every day in the classroom, I aimed to level the playing field with them. They may have been reading three or four grade levels behind, but they could slap a PowerPoint presentation together in their sleep.

For students, sharing their own stories of bravery, resilience, and determination brings these qualities to the forefront of their minds and helps solidify the belief that underlies a growth mindset: I can improve and grow . We know from research in neuroplasticity that when students take baby steps to achieve a goal and take pride in their accomplishments, they change their brains, growing new neural networks and fortifying existing ones. Neurons in the brain release the feel-good chemical dopamine, which plays a major role in motivating behavior toward rewards.

After writing about a few different personal topics, students choose one they want to publish on the bulletin boards at the back of the classroom. They learn to include the juicy details of their stories (who, what, when, where, why, and how), and they get help from their peers, who ask follow-up questions to prompt them to include more information. This peer editing builds their resilience in more ways than one—they make connections with each other by learning about each other’s lives, and they feel empowered by lending a hand.

In my experience, students are motivated to do this assignment because it helps them feel that their personal stories and emotions truly matter, despite how their other academics are going. One student named Alejandro chose to reflect on basketball and the persistence and time it took him to learn:

Hoops By Alejandro Gonzalez Being good takes time. One time my sister took me to a park and I saw people playing basketball. I noticed how good they were and decided I wanted to be like them. Still I told my sister that basketball looked hard and that I thought I couldn’t do it. She said,“You could do it if you tried. You’ll get the hang of it.” My dad bought me a backboard and hoop to play with. I was really happy, but the ball wasn’t making it in. Every time I got home from school, I would go straight to the backyard to play. I did that almost every day until little by little I was getting the hang of it. I also played with my friends. Every day after lunch we would meet at the basketball court to have a game. … I learned that you need to be patient and to practice a lot to get the hang of things. With a little bit of practice, patience, and hard work, anything is possible.

Originally, Alejandro wasn’t sure why he was in school and often lacked the motivation to learn. But writing about something he was passionate about and recalling the steps that led to his success reminded him of the determination and perseverance he had demonstrated in the past, nurturing a positive view of himself. It gave him a renewed sense of investment in learning English and eventually helped him succeed in his ELD class, as well.

Maintaining a hopeful outlook

Another way to build resilience in the face of external challenges is to shore up our inner reserves of hope —and I’ve found that poetry can serve as inspiration for this.

For the writing portion of the lesson, I invite students to “get inside” poems by replicating the underlying structure and trying their hand at writing their own verses. I create poem templates, where students fill in relevant blanks with their own ideas.

One poem I like to share is “So Much Happiness” by Naomi Shihab Nye. Its lines “Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house / and now live over a quarry of noise and dust / cannot make you unhappy” remind us that, despite the unpleasant events that occur in our lives, it’s our choice whether to allow them to interfere with our happiness. The speaker, who “love[s] even the floor which needs to be swept, the soiled linens, and scratched records,” has a persistently sunny outlook.

It’s unrealistic for students who hear gunshots at night to be bubbling over with happiness the next morning. Still, the routine of the school day and the sense of community—jokes with friends, a shared bag of hot chips for breakfast, and a creative outlet—do bolster these kids. They have an unmistakable drive to keep going, a life force that may even burn brighter because they take nothing for granted—not even the breath in their bodies, life itself.

Itzayana was one of those students who, due to the adversity in her life, seemed too old for her years. She rarely smiled and started the school year with a defiant approach to me and school in general, cursing frequently in the classroom. Itzayana’s version of “So Much Happiness” hinted at some of the challenges I had suspected she had in her home life:

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness. Even the fact that you once heard your family laughing and now hear them yelling at each other cannot make you unhappy. Everything has a life of its own, it too could wake up filled with possibilities of tamales and horchata and love even scrubbing the floor, washing dishes, and cleaning your room. Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness, help people in need, help your family, and take care of yourself. —Itzayana C.

Her ending lines, “Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness, / help people in need, help your family, and take care of yourself,” showed her growing awareness of the need for self-care as she continued to support her family and others around her. This is a clear sign of her developing resilience.

Poetry is packed with emotion, and writing their own poems allows students to grapple with their own often-turbulent inner lives. One student commented on the process, saying, “By writing poems, I’ve learned to be calm and patient, especially when I get mad about something dumb.” Another student showed pride in having her writing published; she reflected, “I feel good because other kids can use it for calming down when they’re angry.”

To ease students into the creative process, sometimes we also write poems together as a class. We brainstorm lines to include, inviting the silly as well as the poignant and creating something that represents our community.

Practicing kindness

Besides offering my students new ways of thinking about themselves, I also invite them to take kind actions toward themselves and others.

In the music video for “Give a Little Love” by Noah and the Whale, one young African American boy—who witnesses bullying at school and neglect in his neighborhood —decides to take positive action and whitewash a wall of graffiti. Throughout the video, people witness others’ random acts of kindness, and then go on to do their own bit.

“My love is my whole being / And I’ve shared what I could,” the lyrics say—a reminder that our actions speak louder than our words and do have an incredible impact. The final refrain in the song—“Well if you are (what you love) / And you do (what you love) /...What you share with the world is what it keeps of you”—urges the students to contribute in a positive way to the classroom, the school campus, and their larger community.

After watching the video, I ask students to reflect upon what kind of community they would like to be part of and what makes them feel safe at school. They write their answers—for example, not being laughed at by their peers and being listened to—on Post-it notes. These notes are used to create classroom rules. This activity sends a message early on that we are co-creating our communal experience together. Students also write their own versions of the lyrics, reflecting on different things you can give and receive—like kindness, peace, love, and ice cream.

Reaping the benefits

To see how creative writing impacts students, I invite them to rate their resilience through a self-compassion survey at the start of the school year and again in the spring. Last year, two-thirds of students surveyed increased in self-compassion; Alejandro grew his self-compassion by 20 percent. The program seems to work at developing their reading and writing skills, as well: At the middle of the school year, 40 percent of my students moved up to the next level of ELD, compared to 20 percent the previous year.

As a teacher, my goal is to meet students where they’re at and learn about their whole lives. Through creative writing activities, we create a community of compassionate and expressive learners who bear witness to the impact of trauma in each others’ experiences and together build resilience.

As a symbol of community and strength, I had a poster in my classroom of a boat at sea with hundreds of refugees standing shoulder to shoulder looking skyward. It’s a hauntingly beautiful image of our ability to risk it all for a better life, as many of my ELD students do. Recognizing our common humanity and being able to share about our struggles not only leads to some beautiful writing, but also some brave hearts.

About the Author

Laura Bean, M.F.A. , executive director of Mindful Literacy, consults with school communities to implement mindfulness and creative writing programs. She has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and presented a mindful writing workshop at Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth Conference in San Diego in 2016.

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How to Teach Creative Writing | 7 Steps to Get Students Wordsmithing

“I don’t have any ideas!”

“I can’t think of anything!”

While we see creative writing as a world of limitless imagination, our students often see an overwhelming desert of “no idea.”

But when you teach creative writing effectively, you’ll notice that every student is brimming over with ideas that just have to get out.

So what does teaching creative writing effectively look like?

We’ve outlined a seven-step method that will scaffold your students through each phase of the creative process from idea generation through to final edits.

7. Create inspiring and original prompts

Use the following formats to generate prompts that get students inspired:

personal memories (“Write about a person who taught you an important lesson”)
imaginative scenarios
prompts based on a familiar mentor text (e.g. “Write an alternative ending to your favorite book”). These are especially useful for giving struggling students an easy starting point.
lead-in sentences (“I looked in the mirror and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Somehow overnight I…”).
fascinating or thought-provoking images with a directive (“Who do you think lives in this mountain cabin? Tell their story”).

Don’t have the time or stuck for ideas? Check out our list of 100 student writing prompts

6. unpack the prompts together.

Explicitly teach your students how to dig deeper into the prompt for engaging and original ideas.

Probing questions are an effective strategy for digging into a prompt. Take this one for example:

“I looked in the mirror and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Somehow overnight I…”

Ask “What questions need answering here?” The first thing students will want to know is:

What happened overnight?

No doubt they’ll be able to come up with plenty of zany answers to that question, but there’s another one they could ask to make things much more interesting:

Who might “I” be?

In this way, you subtly push students to go beyond the obvious and into more original and thoughtful territory. It’s even more useful with a deep prompt:

“Write a story where the main character starts to question something they’ve always believed.”

Here students could ask:

What sorts of beliefs do people take for granted?
What might make us question those beliefs?
What happens when we question something we’ve always thought is true?
How do we feel when we discover that something isn’t true?

Try splitting students into groups, having each group come up with probing questions for a prompt, and then discussing potential “answers” to these questions as a class.

The most important lesson at this point should be that good ideas take time to generate. So don’t rush this step!

5. Warm-up for writing

A quick warm-up activity will:

allow students to see what their discussed ideas look like on paper
help fix the “I don’t know how to start” problem
warm up writing muscles quite literally (especially important for young learners who are still developing handwriting and fine motor skills).

Freewriting is a particularly effective warm-up. Give students 5–10 minutes to “dump” all their ideas for a prompt onto the page for without worrying about structure, spelling, or grammar.

After about five minutes you’ll notice them starting to get into the groove, and when you call time, they’ll have a better idea of what captures their interest.

Did you know? The Story Factory in Reading Eggs allows your students to write and publish their own storybooks using an easy step-by-step guide.

4. Start planning

Now it’s time for students to piece all these raw ideas together and generate a plan. This will synthesize disjointed ideas and give them a roadmap for the writing process.

Note: at this stage your strong writers might be more than ready to get started on a creative piece. If so, let them go for it – use planning for students who are still puzzling things out.

Here are four ideas for planning:

Graphic organisers

A graphic organiser will allow your students to plan out the overall structure of their writing. They’re also particularly useful in “chunking” the writing process, so students don’t see it as one big wall of text.

Storyboards and illustrations

These will engage your artistically-minded students and give greater depth to settings and characters. Just make sure that drawing doesn’t overshadow the writing process.

Voice recordings

If you have students who are hesitant to commit words to paper, tell them to think out loud and record it on their device. Often they’ll be surprised at how well their spoken words translate to the page.

Write a blurb

This takes a bit more explicit teaching, but it gets students to concisely summarize all their main ideas (without giving away spoilers). Look at some blurbs on the back of published books before getting them to write their own. Afterward they could test it out on a friend – based on the blurb, would they borrow it from the library?

3. Produce rough drafts

Warmed up and with a plan at the ready, your students are now ready to start wordsmithing. But before they start on a draft, remind them of what a draft is supposed to be:

a work in progress.

Remind them that if they wait for the perfect words to come, they’ll end up with blank pages .

Instead, it’s time to take some writing risks and get messy. Encourage this by:

demonstrating the writing process to students yourself
taking the focus off spelling and grammar (during the drafting stage)
providing meaningful and in-depth feedback (using words, not ticks!).

Reading Eggs also gives you access to an ever-expanding collection of over 3,500 online books!

2. share drafts for peer feedback.

Don’t saddle yourself with 30 drafts for marking. Peer assessment is a better (and less exhausting) way to ensure everyone receives the feedback they need.

Why? Because for something as personal as creative writing, feedback often translates better when it’s in the familiar and friendly language that only a peer can produce. Looking at each other’s work will also give students more ideas about how they can improve their own.

Scaffold peer feedback to ensure it’s constructive. The following methods work well:

Student rubrics

A simple rubric allows students to deliver more in-depth feedback than “It was pretty good.” The criteria will depend on what you are ultimately looking for, but students could assess each other’s:

use of language.

Whatever you opt for, just make sure the language you use in the rubric is student-friendly.

Two positives and a focus area

Have students identify two things their peer did well, and one area that they could focus on further, then turn this into written feedback. Model the process for creating specific comments so you get something more constructive than “It was pretty good.” It helps to use stems such as:

I really liked this character because…

I found this idea interesting because it made me think…

I was a bit confused by…

I wonder why you… Maybe you could… instead.

1. The editing stage

Now that students have a draft and feedback, here’s where we teachers often tell them to “go over it” or “give it some final touches.”

But our students don’t always know how to edit.

Scaffold the process with questions that encourage students to think critically about their writing, such as:

Are there any parts that would be confusing if I wasn’t there to explain them?
Are there any parts that seem irrelevant to the rest?
Which parts am I most uncertain about?
Does the whole thing flow together, or are there parts that seem out of place?
Are there places where I could have used a better word?
Are there any grammatical or spelling errors I notice?

Key to this process is getting students to read their creative writing from start to finish .

Important note: if your students are using a word processor, show them where the spell-check is and how to use it. Sounds obvious, but in the age of autocorrect, many students simply don’t know.

A final word on teaching creative writing

Remember that the best writers write regularly.

Incorporate them into your lessons as often as possible, and soon enough, you’ll have just as much fun marking your students’ creative writing as they do producing it.

Need more help supporting your students’ writing?

Read up on how to get reluctant writers writing , strategies for supporting struggling secondary writers , or check out our huge list of writing prompts for kids .

Watch your students get excited about writing and publishing their own storybooks in the Story Factory

Creativity and Innovation in the Writing Classroom

Learn more about how to teach creativity and innovation along with, and as an important part of, traditional writing and research skills.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” —Maya Angelou

Creativity is fundamental to the teaching of writing. Although WR 153 focuses specifically on creativity and innovation, all WR courses ask students to approach their reading, viewing, writing, and research in creative ways. One important approach to creativity is “design thinking,” which emphasizes that creativity is a non-linear, iterative process. Design thinking is based on two foundational assumptions:

Everyone can be creative.
Creativity can be taught.

The principles of design thinking can be used in any WR course to teach students that creativity is a process of asking questions, using multiple strategies and approaches in answering those questions, taking risks in conceiving and executing original work, developing and refining ideas in response to feedback, and learning from productive failure. The metacognitive aspects of design thinking invite students to think about their own creative processes and identify factors that promote creativity.

Although WR 153 is structured by the steps of the design process (understand, empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, assess/reflect), all WR courses can benefit from incorporating elements of design thinking and an emphasis on creativity and innovation. Approaching writing instruction in this way can:

Increase student engagement by focusing on creative responses to problems that students care about;
Give students a sense of agency as a result of greater choice in what to write and how to write about it;
Encourage taking intellectual risks and reward productive failure as a means of learning;
Help students develop skills that are transferrable to other academic situations and their professional lives; and
Enhance students’ personal lives by allowing them to learn about themselves and their own creative potential.

Principles of Design Thinking

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative approach to creativity that involves between three and seven steps. Although it is based on theories of design practice that go back to the early twentieth century, it has most recently been popularized by the design firm IDEO and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, commonly known as the d.school. The process involves understanding the issues involved in a design project, empathizing with the audience for an end product, defining the scope of the project, generating ideas for and creating prototypes of the product, testing and assessing those ideas and prototypes, and revisiting the steps of the design process until a final product is created.

The complete set of seven steps can be applied to the writing process in a WR course:

Understand: Students develop a foundation for their work by exploring issues and approaches relevant to the course topic, as well as previous work in the field.

Empathize: Students practice empathy by demonstrating their awareness and understanding of the audience for whom they write or create.

Define: Based on their observations and insights, students articulate a problem or question that will motivate their work over the course of the semester.

Ideate: Students generate new ideas and possible solutions by challenging assumptions and engaging in a variety of creative activities.

Prototype: Students start to create solutions and implement their ideas into written, digital or other forms in order to capture ideas, but also redefine choices.

Test: Students share drafts with others in order to gain feedback and insight into improving final versions.

Assess/Reflect: Students reflect on and evaluate their peers’ and their own processes and final outcomes.

The steps of the design thinking process are not meant to be followed in a rigid way. They should be flexible and customizable to the particular project: students may need to define, ideate, and prototype multiple times and in various modes/genres before they are ready to create a final draft. The skills students gain in going though these steps should be transferrable to other projects and courses.

Learn more about design thinking:

“What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?” by Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang provides an overview of design thinking.
David Kelly of IDEO explains the history of design thinking in “How to Design Breakthrough Inventions,” an interview with 60 Minutes .
“How to Solve Problems Like a Designer,” which includes an interview with Tim Brown of IDEO, explains the basic principles of design thinking.

Understand and Empathize

The first step of the design process asks students to understand not only the course material, but also the resources necessary for their particular project. Since this usually involves additional reading/viewing, the “understand” step is part of the research and information literacy component of WR15X. Assignments that focus on this step may include conducting library or online research, categorizing research material using BEAM/BEAT, and creating annotated bibliographies.

Define, Ideate, and Prototype

Before they begin the process of generating ideas, it is often useful for students to define, at least in a preliminary way, what question or problem their paper/project is addressing. Assignments that help students define their projects may include questionnaires that ask students to state what they intend to work on and why, as well as more formal paper/project proposals.

In the IDEO design process, the goal of ideation is to generate a multitude of ideas without rejecting those that may seem impractical or even silly. Ideas can be rejected later, after a sufficient number of ideas have been generated. The most common ideation assignment involves various forms of brainstorming, often in teams. Ideas should be written down in some way, such as on sticky notes or index cards. To encourage divergent thinking in the brainstorming process, consider posting some fundamental principles in the classroom, such as these from IDEO:

Defer judgment.
Encourage wild ideas.
Stay focused on the topic.
Build on the ideas of others .

In the IDEO design process, prototypes are models that can be easily revised and even discarded if necessary. Prototypes for writing courses might include outlines, storyboards, slide decks, oral or video presentations, and preliminary drafts. Prototypes should be tested and assessed in some way that allows for reconsideration and revision before students turn in their final products.

Learn more about brainstorming and prototyping:

“What is Brainstorming?” by Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang provides helpful information and ideas for the ideation step of the design process.
This example of “Brainstorming at IDEO” shows one popular way of brainstorming with sticky notes.

Test and Assess/Reflect

The final steps of the design process, testing and assessing/reflecting, are not meant to be the final steps in completing a student’s paper/project. After testing and assessing a prototype, students will likely need to reconsider and revise their papers/projects, which will take them back to earlier steps—they may need to conduct further research, generate additional ideas, or refine their prototypes. The design process is meant to be iterative, with students returning to steps in the process as needed until they have completed a final draft.

Just as designers test their prototypes, students should test drafts of their papers/projects by sharing them with others. Assignments that focus on this step usually involve workshopping with one or more peers, but testing may also include making an oral or video presentation to the class, meeting with the professor or a writing tutor, or sharing the student’s work with any other reader/viewer capable of providing feedback. Students may also test their papers/projects using techniques such as reverse outlining to assess the strength and clarity of their arguments.

The final step in the design process, assessing the student’s work, may lead back to any earlier step as students come to understand what they still need to work on to complete their papers/projects. This step may also involve the broader metacognitive task of reflecting on the student’s creative process. Assignments that focus on this step may include a variety of reflective exercises, including a final reflection for the course.

A Note on Assessment

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett

Because WR 153 courses can include such a wide range of papers and project, contract grading is recommended. Other WR courses that incorporate creativity and innovation may also wish to use contract grading, either for specific assignments or the course as a whole. More information on contract grading can be found here .

An important component of creativity and innovation is productive failure. We learn to create new things or develop new skills by failing and trying again until we succeed. Productive failure is failure that leads to new knowledge, insight, or innovation. Courses that focus on creativity can encourage productive failure by requiring prototypes that will be reconsidered and revised extensively, asking students to share examples of failure as valuable learning experiences, and assigning reflective work on how students have grown through failure over the course of the semester.

Learn more about productive failure:

Both readings below argue for the importance of productive failure. The Burger article contains specific examples of how to validate and reward productive failure in the classroom.

“Next Time, Fail Better” by Paula M. Krebs, The Chronicle of Higher Education , May 11, 2012.

Creative writing in the classroom: five top tips for teachers

1. The rules of writing

I always tell students that there are no set rules for writing and they can write whatever they like. I don't subscribe to the notion that all good stories must have, for example, an attention-grabbing opening, a turning point, a twist at the end and an extended metaphor. Incorporating these into writing doesn't automatically mean a story works, and you will read wonderful writing follows none of these rules. Pupils should be aware of what they are, of course, and why and where they might choose to use them, but it shouldn't be prescriptive.

That said, there are two rules of writing that I encourage them to follow. These rules are: "show, don't tell" and "all adverbs must die". Not the most original rules, perhaps, but if kids can master them their writing becomes much more powerful.

For "show, don't tell", I display a selection of sentences that tell the reader something and ask the pupils to rewrite them in a way that shows the same information. For example, "the man was angry" could become, "the man clenched his fists and hissed beneath his breath". It's about unpacking the emotions and finding ways to let the reader see the story for themselves.

When teaching "all adverbs must die", I concentrate on the importance of giving the power to the verb. "I ran quickly" becomes "I sprinted". "I shouted loudly" becomes "I screamed". Once pupils realise the potential in this, they quickly kill adverbs and load the power of the action onto the verb.

2. Characterisation

Not the most original method I'll wager, but this is tried and tested. Pupils divide a page in their jotter and give each quarter the headings likes, dislikes, motivations and flaws. These need to be explained and discussed; I use Homer Simpson and Edward Cullen as models. What makes these complex and rich characters? What makes them get out of bed every morning? What stops them from achieving their ultimate goals in life? How would they react in various situations?

Once pupils have thought about these characters, I ask them to complete the page in their jotter with as many pieces of detail as they can for their own character. They swap with a partner and, using another person's character notes, write a monologue beginning with the line, "I lay away, unable to sleep, and all because…" What is this new character excited about, or scared of? What have they done or what will they have to do? This exercise is always busy, exciting and produces promising and complex pieces of writing.

3. Video clips

There's something a bit weird about the idea of being a writer; it's a vague, wishy-washy concept for students. They don't yet understand the hours of admin, self-promotion, editing, graft, grief and rejection that writers go through. Many pupls seem to think writers have great lives, are fabulously wealthy and sit around all day making up stories, all of which go on to be published without much bother at all. So I always like to find video clips of writers talking about writing, sharing the pain they've gone through, their thought processes and daily routines. If you can find video clips of a writer whose work you're using as a model or studying in class, then this can really help pupils to engage with their work.

YouTube is full of interviews with writers, recordings of book festival appearances and spoken-word performances. Being a Scottish teacher working in Scotland, I use of a suite of videos filmed and hosted by Education Scotland , which features a number of writers discussing their inspirations and motivations, how to create characters, how to write in genre and how to redraft. The videos are all around five minutes long which makes them excellent starter activities; you can find them here .

4. Narrative distance

This can be modelled in class by the teacher projecting their work onto the whiteboard. Most pupils assume that once they've chosen a narrative perspective and tense, their narrative voice will take care of itself. But with a little coaching and training, maybe we can hone their skills and abilities that much more.

Narrative distance is the proximity of a reader's experience to the character's thoughts. How close will we get? A close-up narrative would allow us to share the character's complete thought process, hear their heartbeat, feel their discomfort. A mid-distance narrative would give us key insights into pertinent thoughts the character has, but not bother us with every detail; we would see the character going into a coffee shop and have to surmise their mood and personality by observing how they react and interact. This is more of a film director's vantage point. And for a long-distance narrative, we only see the character from a distance – in the midst of other people, operating in a vast and complex society. We would come to understand them from the way they move through the world and the opinions that other characters have of them. It's a bird's eye view.

There is a lot in here, and mastering these narrative distances would take considerable effort and time. But if pupils could get to grips with them and become comfortable in zooming in and out on a story, then they will have developed some intricate and powerful writing abilities.

5. Story prompts

The oldest trick in the book, perhaps, but still a good one. Writing Prompts is an excellent website full of creative writing resources to use in class. I get pupils to choose one at random, and as they write, I write. It's important to set attainable goals for this – agree that by the end of five minutes everyone will have written 50 words, say, including the teacher.

Plug away at this and I always check the class for any strugglers at the end of regular intervals; if someone is stumped, I'll ask them what the problem is, what they tried to start writing at the beginning, what their last sentence is, and give them a couple of options for where to go next. By writing together it's possible to get a whole class writing happily, and at some stage they'll be content and confident enough with their stories to want to be let free to write without being asked for regular progress reports.

Alan Gillespie teaches English at an independent school in Glasgow. He writes stories and tweets at @afjgillespie

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Creative Writing Activity Ideas For The Teen & Adult Classroom

A pencil with a lightbulb on the end writing the words Creative Writing Activity Ideas

It’s World Creative Writing month, so why not try some creative writing activities with your students? Creative writing allows students to use their imaginations and creativity, and practise essential writing skills. It’s a way to keep students engaged, encourage collaborative learning and allow test-taking students to use their written English skills in a different way from a typical test task type.

Here are four creative writing exercises to use in class with your teen and adult students.

Creative writing activity ideas

1. group stories.

This creative writing activity encourages learners to work together and use their imaginations to come up with unique and creative stories.

Put students into small groups of 4 or 5 and have them arrange themselves into a circle. They each need a pen and a piece of paper.
Have students write a famous person at the top of their page, then fold it over so the name can’t be seen. They then pass the piece of paper to the person to their right.
Next, they write the name of someone in the class. They fold the paper and pass to the right.
Repeat the steps, using different topics for each stage of the game. For example, a place, an action, what they said, what they responded, and what they did after that.
Once students have passed the piece of paper for the final time, they open it up to reveal the outline of a story.
Have students come up with creative stories for the information on their piece of paper, by working together or individually for homework. They then share their stories with the class.

2. Tweet me

This engaging activity shows that creative writing for English language learners doesn’t have to be long! Creative written language can be short, yet a lot can be expressed.

Show students an image of a tweet you’ve found online before the class. It should be something that provokes discussion, asks for an opinion or allows for the conversation to be developed.
Put students into small groups of 3 or 4. Tell them they are going to write a creative response to the tweet. They can be as funny or as unique as they like.
Once they have finished, they pass their tweet on to the next group, who continue the Twitter discussion.
Repeat the steps, until you have a ‘thread’ of tweets. Then, choose groups to read out the threads and choose the best or funniest one.

This activity also works well in online classes, where students work in breakout rooms to come up with their tweets and share them as a whole class.

3. Finish my story

This creative writing lesson idea encourages students to share ideas and learn from each other. It works well in both face-to-face and online classrooms.

Write a short introduction to a story before the lesson. It can be in any genre, e.g. scary, mysterious or funny.
Read the paragraph aloud to the class, and elicit ideas about where they think the story might be going. You can skip this step if you feel your students are already good at using their creativity and imagination.
Put students into pairs and give them a copy of the opening paragraph. Have them write the middle and the ending of the story.
You could help them develop the story by telling them certain things they need to include, e.g. specific objects, people or places.
Have a storytelling lesson where students share their stories. You could also stick them on the wall and have a ‘story exhibition’ where students walk around and choose their favourite stories.

4. A letter for the future

This creative writing activity allows students to put different grammatical structures into practice. It also allows the opportunity for reflection on their learning and themselves.

There are a variety of ways you could do this activity with your students.

Have them work individually to write a letter to their future selves about what they’d like to achieve or do professionally and personally.
Students could write letters to their future selves about something that happened in the past or present time that they don’t want to forget.
Have students work individually or in pairs to write a letter to people in the future, about what life is like in the present. Encourage them to talk about fashion, pop culture, and what’s happening in their lives and in the world.
If you’re going to teach your students for an extended period of time, e.g. a year, you could do a ‘time capsule’ where they put pictures or notes about the present into a box, which you’ll open with them a year later. This provides a good opportunity for students to set goals and reflect on their achievements next year.

Do you do creative writing activities with your English language learners?

What activities have worked well?

Share your ideas below!

If you want to read more about creative writing activities in the classroom, you can read this blog.

Why Creative Writing Still Has a Place in My Classroom

The earliest piece of writing I can remember producing was a story, written in phonetic spelling on small pieces of scrap paper stapled together. Mimicking as best I could a “real” picture book, I called it Yuc, Yuc, u Slug , and it was based on an experience I’d had the day before, when my best friend and I turned over a large rock and found beneath it ... a frightful slug! This must have been in late kindergarten or early 1st grade, as my writing development closely mirrored my reading development.

Throughout my childhood, I wrote many stories and poems, and in all of them, I can see the combined influence of the reading I did and my own lived experiences. The same is true for many of my students today. In an activity toward the beginning of the school year, I ask them to tell me about their reading and writing histories and often hear the fond memories they have of the early stories they’ve written. Some even bring those stories into class and reminisce about the fun they had writing them.

As students progress through school, though, it seems that their reading and writing experiences become increasingly lopsided: They continue to read works of fiction and poetry, but they must make a dramatic shift away from the imaginative writing of their childhoods toward analytical paragraphs and essays. The Common Core State Standards have compounded this effect by emphasizing analytical writing at much earlier ages, while not explicitly requiring fiction or poetry writing at any age. I know kindergarten teachers who now prompt students to answer questions about an author’s choices during story time, and creative writing is taking even more of a back seat in many language arts classrooms.

This is a mistake for many reasons, but especially if we want students to read more critically.

Imagine you’re taking a ride in the back seat of someone’s car and you’re asked to offer a critique of their driving. Now imagine you have very limited experience as a driver yourself. You might be able to describe how the ride feels to you—bumps, turns, acceleration, sudden stops—and perhaps formulate some opinion about the driver based on these feelings. But you wouldn’t be able to analyze what the driver is doing (or not doing) to create the effect you feel as a passenger. When the driver shifts into low gear to go up a hill in the rain, for example, you probably wouldn’t notice—and even if you did, you’d find it difficult to understand why this was an effective choice without having experience with the particular problem the driver is addressing.

When we ask students to be critics of literary works without giving them consistent, relevant experience writing literary pieces themselves, we put students at a similarly awkward disadvantage.

Rewriting the Script

Literary analysis is something kids can do in a meaningful way under the right conditions. Authentic reading of whole novels and other texts is one condition I advocate strongly. Increasingly, I’ve come to believe that another essential condition for students to analyze and critique writers’ moves is the chance to be in the driver’s seat as literary artists themselves.

Here is one example of how students’ fiction writing propels critical thinking in my classroom:

It was March, and my 8th grade students had finished reading My Heartbeat , a young-adult novel by Garret Freymann-Weyr. While half the class discussed the book, I had the other half work independently on a creative-writing assignment: They had to put themselves in the role of author and write one scene in which they alter an element of the novel. The choices included adding a character, shifting the point of view, changing the setting, giving a “boring” scene “a makeover,” or—the most popular option—killing a character. The creative but focused nature of the task easily captured everyone’s interest, and students of all levels dug in with excitement.

After several days, we came together as a whole class to share the writing. I asked students to read aloud from their writing without introduction or explanation and I asked listeners to take some notes on each reading. The prompts for ensuing discussion were:

1. Based on what you heard, what did the student choose to do differently from the original author?

2. What literary techniques or elements stand out to you in this piece?

We brainstormed and recorded a menu of techniques as a starting place for discussing the second question, including things like dialogue, descriptive language, interior monologue, and foreshadowing. Some we had practiced in previous fiction-writing assignments; others we only discussed as readers. We added to the menu throughout the readings.

The scenes were a lot of fun to hear. Every student approached the assignment differently, and the concept of the role of the “author” was suddenly very tangible for everyone. It’s often challenging for students to remember there is a real person with a real life behind a novel or any text, using his or her imagination and making decisions. Reading fiction is such a powerful virtual experience that kids tend to interact with it as if it were an extension of their own lives, rather than the creative production of a stranger. For young children, the distinction isn’t very important: A story should simply be enjoyed! But as we help students become critics, that distinction becomes essential. In this case, the authors were simply the classmates sitting right in front of us.

Literary Devices

When students share their writing like this, endless opportunities arise to discuss the choices of each writer and their impact. Jonathon, for example, changed the contemporary setting of the novel to 1894. In the novel, the narrator’s brother, Link, is struggling to come to terms with his sexual orientation. Here is an excerpt from Jonathon’s scene:

“I’m not gay,” Link said. “James is.” My heart dropped. I suddenly began to fear for James’ life. The year was 1894. Any openly gay person could be killed by angry mobs. Being gay was not only a sexuality, but also an open bounty on your head for anyone to take. I now realized why Link wanted to deny it. …

In addition to the obvious change in setting, several students also noticed a shift in the conflict. “The conflict got bigger, because of the time period,” one student observed. This created a perfect opportunity for students to see how different literary elements affect one another. The common-core standards in English/language arts emphasize this concept. In fact, 7th grade reading-standard RL.7.3 asks students to “analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).” In this case, creative writing created an obvious springboard for students’ understanding of that standard.

As more students shared, we heard a number of carefully foreshadowed tragic deaths of various characters. The chance to share and discuss raises students’ awareness of how these literary concepts work and helps them name their own techniques. Many students didn’t realize they effectively used foreshadowing until their writing was discussed.

In her scene, Soraya took the point of view of the unpopular, overbearing father character. In the book, the father makes it clear he wants a heterosexual son, but we only hear his voice through dialogue told by Ellen, the first-person narrator. But Soraya explored his emotions and internal conflict: I see Link asleep on the couch. His eyes have dark circles under them, and I begin to wonder if it’s because of me. I begin to wonder if his stress was always caused by me. ... she wrote.

In the group, students noted the strong interior monologue in Soraya’s scene. Then someone said, “It’s like she made a whole character out of the father.” I added “character development” and “complex character” to the menu of writing techniques, words we had used before but that hadn’t made it onto our earlier brainstorm.

“Why isn’t the father a ‘whole’ or complex character in the book?” I asked. “Because Ellen is the narrator, so you really can’t know what the father is thinking,” a student answered. “So, given that, what could an author do to write a book that has several whole or complex characters?” I asked. “You could switch off narrators,” one student suggested. “Like in Wonder ,” another added, referring to a popular young-adult novel that features multicharacter narration. “Or you could write in third person,” another student offered.

Once again, our experimentation with writing fictional narratives created opportunity for students to see how authors’ choices around narration and point of view affect the story and the reader’s experience.

The Art of Storytelling

Another interesting moment came when Lana allowed a classmate to read her scene. It was quite intense; every word in the piece seemed carefully thought out. It began with Link studying with excruciating focus for a math test. Then she wrote:

“I stood up, ready to go to James’ house, when Link’s head fell loudly onto the table.

“Link!” I yelled, running to him. White bubbles foamed out of his mouth, and tears trickled down his face, mixing with sweat from earlier. His body was shaking aggressively. Link’s eyes began to roll back into the inside of his head, when I hurried to pick up my phone. I dialed 9-1-1, and the ambulance soon arrived.

As we listened, I caught Lana scanning the faces in the room with a look that was difficult to read. The scene continued as we followed characters to the hospital. Then, in the same serious tone, we found out that Link has a tumor in his brain. At that point, James, his best friend, started coughing uncontrollably and admitted he has cancer. There were some gasps from the class. Lana’s face cracked a slight smile. The situation got more and more extreme, and several students let out laughs, but Lana’s narrator never broke character.

When we discussed the scene, students immediately remarked on her descriptive language. “I notice that some people laughed. Did Lana use humor?” I asked. Students were quiet, and I imagine they were unsure as to whether their laughs were appropriate.

“Not exactly, but it was still funny at times,” someone said. I probed. “Lana, did you expect people to find your scene funny?” “Yeah, kind of,” she said, with a mischievous smile. “It was tragic, but …” another student said, trailing off. “There was something not completely serious about it, right?” I offered. We discussed tone, and I ended up introducing the term “satire” to describe the effect of Lana’s scene. In a way, after hearing more than a few tragic death scenes of characters by other students, Lana seemed to be satirizing us!

Students rarely get to experience such an immediate interaction between author and audience through text. From “the driver’s seat,” and as members of a learning community, students can gain awareness of their own intentions as they write stories and become more keen analysts of authors’ intentions. They get to encounter, firsthand, the problems authors encounter in crafting stories and they discover and play with literary techniques to solve these problems. The lessons, both explicit and implicit, are powerful.

Like the driving critic who lacks driving experience, students without genuine experiences creating literary art and reflecting on the process can easily be left to look to the teacher for “answers” as to what the author is up to in his or her use of literary techniques. That causes frustration, as it diminishes students’ ability to activate their own critical thinking in this area.

There are clear arguments for the social-emotional value of empowering students to write creatively. And anecdotally speaking, I’ve found engagement is extremely high and classroom management is a breeze when students get to write stories. But I’m convinced that fiction writing is a much more important component of a rigorous English education than is commonly believed. Imaginative writing contributes not only to the development of many “soft skills” like empathy and community, but also to the hard skill of literary analysis.

Coverage of the implementation of college- and career-ready standards and the use of personalized learning is supported in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.

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How to Use Creative Writing Prompts in Your Classroom: A Guide for Literature Teachers

Creative writing prompts are short sentences, questions, or scenarios that inspire you to write something. They can be used for various purposes, such as practicing your writing skills, expressing your thoughts and feelings, or exploring different genres and topics in literature. Creative writing prompts are also a great tool for literature teachers who want to spice up their classroom activities and engage their students in meaningful and enjoyable writing tasks. In this blog post, I will share with you some tips on how to use creative writing prompts in your classroom, and how they can benefit your students’ learning and development.

Why Use Creative Writing Prompts?

Creative writing prompts have many advantages for both teachers and students. Here are some of the benefits of using creative writing prompts in your classroom:

They spark your students’ imagination and curiosity. Creative writing prompts can help your students to break free from the boredom and routine of academic writing, and to unleash their creativity and originality. They can also help your students to discover new ideas, perspectives, and possibilities in their writing.
They improve your students’ writing skills and confidence. Creative writing prompts can help your students to practice various aspects of writing, such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, structure, coherence, etc. They can also help your students to develop their voice, style, and tone in their writing. By writing regularly and receiving feedback, your students can improve their writing proficiency and self-esteem.
They enhance your students’ critical thinking and communication skills. Creative writing prompts can help your students to think critically and creatively about different topics, issues, and situations. They can also help your students to express their opinions, arguments, emotions, and stories in a clear and effective way. By writing for different purposes and audiences, your students can improve their communication competence and awareness.
They enrich your literature curriculum and connections. Creative writing prompts can help you to introduce or review literary concepts, such as plot, character, setting, theme, point of view, etc. They can also help you to connect your students’ writing to other texts, genres, or authors that you are studying. By using creative writing prompts, you can make your literature lessons more relevant, engaging, and fun for your students.

Save Time, Teach More: AI-Powered Activity Creator for Educators

How to Choose Creative Writing Prompts?

There are many sources of creative writing prompts that you can use in your classroom. You can find them online, in books, magazines, newspapers, or even in everyday objects or situations. You can also create your own prompts based on the texts you are studying, the current events, or your students’ interests. However, not all prompts are suitable for all students or occasions. When choosing creative writing prompts for your classroom, you should consider the following factors:

Relevance: The prompts should be related to the objectives and topics of your literature curriculum. They should also be appropriate for the level and age of your students.
Engagement: The prompts should be interesting and appealing for your students. They should also be challenging enough to stimulate their thinking and creativity.
Diversity: The prompts should cover a variety of genres, themes, and formats. They should also allow for different responses and interpretations from your students.

Here are some examples of creative writing prompts that you can use or adapt for your literature classroom:

Write a letter to a character from a book you have read.
Rewrite the ending of a story you have read.
Write a poem about a place you have visited or want to visit.
Write a dialogue between two characters from different books or genres.
Write a diary entry from the perspective of a historical figure or a fictional character.
Write a short story based on a picture or a word.
Write a review of a book you have read or a movie you have watched.
Write a haiku about a season or an emotion.

How to Use Creative Writing Prompts?

Once you have chosen or created some creative writing prompts for your classroom, you need to decide how to use them effectively. Here are some tips on how to use creative writing prompts in your classroom:

Give your students some guidelines and expectations for their writing. For example, you can specify the length (e.g., one paragraph, one page), the format (e.g., letter, essay), the audience (e.g., yourself, a friend), the tone (e.g., formal, informal), and the purpose (e.g., inform, persuade) of their writing. You can also provide them with some examples of good writing or feedback criteria.
Encourage your students to be creative, original, and expressive. Remind them that there is no right or wrong answer to a prompt, and that they can use their imagination and personal voice. You can also encourage them to experiment with different styles, techniques, and perspectives in their writing.
Provide your students with opportunities to share and discuss their writing. You can create a class blog, a bulletin board, or a newsletter where you can showcase your students’ work. You can also organize peer review sessions, writing circles, or presentations where your students can give and receive feedback, praise, and suggestions.
Use the prompts as a springboard for further learning. You can use the prompts to introduce or review literary concepts, such as plot, character, setting, theme, point of view, etc. You can also use the prompts to connect your students’ writing to other texts, genres, or authors that you are studying.

Creative writing prompts are a fun and effective way to enhance your literature curriculum and motivate your students to write. By using creative writing prompts in your classroom, you can help your students to improve their writing skills, critical thinking skills, and communication skills. You can also help your students to explore different genres, themes, and topics in literature, and to express their creativity, originality, and personality in their writing. Try them out and see how they can transform your classroom!

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5 Fun Creative Writing Activities

We’ve gathered five fun creative writing activities you can assign to spark a love for writing. Our hope is that these activities will create a workshop-like environment that fosters feedback and collaboration in your writing classroom.

You’ll notice that none of the activities focuses on the technical aspects of writing. Instead, the activities encourage creativity, reflection, and self-expression—hallmarks of meaningful writing.

Minilesson 1: InstaMemory

Imagine a favorite memory as a cellphone picture.
Finish this sentence starter: My memory snapshot shows . . .
Keep writing until you’ve described your memory snapshot in full. Make sure to include who is in it, what is happening, where it is happening, and when it is happening. Note colors, emotions, facial expressions, and other visual details about the moment.
Read your memory snapshot. Does your writing create a clear picture?

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Minilesson 2: Back-and-Forth Stories

Writing back-and-forth stories takes a little creativity and a lot of flexibility. How long can you and a partner keep this story going?

An abandoned home sat at the top of the hill. Matt and Brianna knew the rumors about it, but they had to see it for themselves. They tiptoed their way up the steps, and when they reached the door, it swung open. Inside . . .

Continue the story. Write for two minutes.
Pass the story to a writing partner.
The partner continues the story where you left off and writes for two minutes before passing the story back.
Continue writing and passing the story every two minutes.
How long can you keep the story going? What happens inside the house?

Minilesson 3: Four-Star Food Review

List the food items that would make up your ideal fall meal. Include one main dish, one side dish, one dessert, and one drink.
Describe the looks, smells, and tastes associated with the meal.
Finish this sentence: My meal reminds me of fall, because . . .
Use the details you’ve collected to write a review of your meal in one or two paragraphs. Exchange your review with a partner to see how your meals compare.

Minilesson 4: Now how do I get out of this one?

List ten chores or tasks you hate doing. Cleaning my room is an example of a chore you might not like.
Select four tasks from your list and write a creative excuse explaining why you can’t or haven’t completed each one. Make your excuses as original and wild as possible.
When you’ve finished, exchange your work with a classmate. Read and discuss each other’s excuses.

Minilesson 5: Diary of a Famous Figure

List three famous people or characters you like or admire.
Imagine you are one of the famous figures from your list.
As that person, think of what you would do on a summer day.
Write a diary entry (or blog post) about your special day as the famous person.
Then write additional entries as you so choose.

Want more creative writing ideas? Check out these creative activities.

Teacher Support:

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Standards Correlations:

The State Standards provide a way to evaluate your students' performance.

110.5.b.12.A
LAFS.3.W.1.3
110.5.b.11.B.i
110.5.b.11.B.ii
110.6.b.11.B
110.6.b.12.A
LAFS.4.W.1.3
110.6.b.11.B.i
110.6.b.11.B.ii
110.7.b.12.A
LAFS.5.W.1.3
110.7.b.11.B.i
110.7.b.11.B.ii
110.22.b.10
110.22.b.11.A
LAFS.6.W.1.3
110.22.b.10.A
110.22.b.10.B.i
110.23.b.10
110.23.b.11.A
LAFS.7.W.1.3
110.23.b.10.B.i
110.23.b.10.B.ii
110.24.b.10
110.24.b.11.A
LAFS.8.W.1.3
110.24.b.10.B.i
110.24.b.10.B.ii

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Scaffolding Creative Writing: Everything You Need to Know

When it comes to creative writing , I feel scaffolding is especially important. Scaffolding writing–whether with worksheets or through techniques–is especially important for struggling writers. When students, who are uncomfortable with putting their ideas on paper, find themselves in a creative writing class, scaffolds are even more important. But what does it mean to scaffold writing? And what does scaffolding look like in a creative writing class?

What is “Scaffolding”?

The term scaffolding comes from construction work.

When new construction projects begin, usually supports are erected to help construction workers move materials, to give them a foundation to work on, and to otherwise aid in general construction.

Likewise, when students are constructing their new projects, they, too, need scaffolding; without it, they have to create with very little support.

Scaffolding is the supports that we, as their teachers, put up to support student writing.

In the classroom, scaffolding can take shape in many ways. It can be the outline for an essay or the sentence starters for a classroom discussion. One of my favorite scaffolds is a graphic organizer.

Anything you do that helps students get ideas on paper can be a writing scaffold.

In a creative writing class, however, where rules are meant to be broken, providing that scaffolding can be a challenge. How, then, do you guide students and provide support without limiting their creativity? Do you even really need it at all?

Why Should We Use Scaffolding in Creative Writing?

If the purpose of creative writing is to let students experience more freedom in writing, why even bother with scaffolding?

1. Scaffolding Writing Builds Confidence

Even my best writers are often unsure of themselves. Providing some guidelines, requirements, or outlines reassures them that what they’re writing is “right.”

Often, my students struggle in a class that has “no right answers,” so providing scaffolding helps ease their anxiety about writing a “wrong” poem or story.

It’s crazy, but a blank page and no rules really makes some students anxious! Especially when they’ve been trained their whole lives to regurgitate “correct” answers in order to make teachers happy.

2. Scaffolding Writing Gives Students a Starting Point

If students know they have to get from point A to point B, generally they can at least get started. Too much freedom can cause students to freeze up, write forever with no stopping point, or spend too much time brainstorming ideas and not actually writing.

Scaffolding helps students get started and guides them through the process of making it to the end.

Engage your students in more creative writing!

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3. Scaffolding Writing Helps Struggling Writers Without Holding Back Advanced Writers

One of my biggest struggles in teaching creative writing has been the huge difference in skill, talent, and confidence between my lowest and highest achieving students. Some students have been writing creatively for years and need little guidance; others are not even sure what “creative writing” is or why their guidance counselor signed them up for it.

I struggled with how to guide students through their writing without also stifling them.

Scaffolding gives struggling writers the help and guidance they need to embark on learning a new skill, like writing for pleasure.

Teachers Pay Teachers product cover for: Mentor Text Study for High School: The Poetry of Kwame Alexander

When I used Kwame Alexander’s writing as a mentor text (a scaffold in and of itself), I told students exactly what to talk about in each stanza of their own writing. This really helped my students who had never written a poem prior to the class.

It also helped them grasp the concept of blending others’ style and techniques with one’s own writing. I worried, though, that such formulaic writing would stunt and bore my writers who needed to be challenged.

However, I quickly realized that my advanced students weren’t letting the scaffolds stop or restrict their writing at all!

I find that when students are inspired, they have no problem throwing away my scaffolds entirely or expanding on the structure I set in place.

Now, I encourage this with every assignment and let students know that if my outlines feel restrictive, they should follow their little writer hearts.

4. Scaffolding Writing Prevents Writer’s Block

At some point, every student will say, “I don’t know what to write next.”

When that happens, it’s great to have a handout or a graphic organizer to point to and say, “Well, what’s next?” or “What question haven’t you answered?” Usually, that’s enough for writers to begin again.

Without those scaffolds, I would have to invest a lot of time looking at each piece of writing and trying to assess what the author may want to do next. The scaffolding not only cuts down on teacher time, but gives the students the tools to solve their writer’s block independently.

Ok, so we can all agree that scaffolding is a great tool for any class, even creative ones. But how can it be put in place when the assignment’s final products can vary so much?

How to Use Scaffolding Techniques In a Creative Writing Class

Ok, but how do we scaffold writing in class? What can we do to help our students not only, start, but persevere, finish a piece, and aim for even better results next time?

1. Graphic Organizer Worksheets

When I was a student, I hated outlines. They seemed like a dumb tool for people who couldn’t remember their ideas for very long.

When I started teaching, however, I saw how immensely beneficial they were for my students to organize ideas before writing, and now I use them all the time myself!

Graphic organizers are my favorite way to have students brainstorm and consider a project before beginning. They’re great for visual learners and allow students to come up with all the “elements” of a piece before putting it together (which I think makes the final product less daunting).

Teachers Pay Teachers cover for product: Cinquain Poems for High School

For example, when we write cinquain poems in my class, students fill out a graphic organizer before writing the poem, even though the final poem only consists of eleven words!

They write down their topic, adjectives, synonyms, and other details, so that when they write the actual cinquain, they can choose the very best words for the finished product. It’s a great lesson on precision in language.

My free “I Am” poem lesson is another example of a graphic organizer. Students just need to fill in the blanks, and they end up with a whole poem!

2. Examples and Mentor Texts

It’s tough for an architect to build if they don’t know what the building is supposed to look like eventually.

The same is true for young writers.

If they don’t have a great example of what to shoot for, they won’t challenge themselves. This is where mentor texts come in.

Cover for Teachers Pay Teachers product: Self Poem Mentor Text Study for High School: The Poetry of Elizabeth Acevedo

For example, the poetry of Elizabeth Acevedo makes for excellent mentor texts in a creative writing class. Not only is her poetry mind-blowing, but her performances are as well.

In this lesson, we watch her perform one of her pieces, read another, and then write our own poem based on personal experience, just like Acevedo does. Watching her performance stays with my students, and they will occasionally remark on her performance even weeks later!

Knowing just how good an end result can be, gives students something to aim for, rather than having them settle for something mediocre. And. really, who among us remains uninspired after witnessing truly great art?

Our students deserve the same level of inspiration in their lives.

3. Guiding questions

Guiding questions are great to do on the fly when talking to students who are stuck. I sometimes incorporate them into worksheets and graphic organizers as well.

For example, when we write short stories, the possibilities are endless!

Some students write horrors while others write romances. Some stories start and end on a page while others go one for twenty. It’s difficult to structure an assignment with so many variations, so I use a lot of guiding questions that students can pick and choose from.

When they work on character development, I provide a bunch of questions students can think about to get to know their characters better.

Guiding questions do just that–they guide. They give students’ thoughts a jumping-off point, and once their mind gets going, they often find their direction.

Providing goals is another great scaffold because it keeps those struggling on track, while pushing those who are more advanced. What do I mean by “goals?” I mean targets to aim for other than simply what students will be graded on.

For example, when we read Elizabeth Acevedo , I encourage students to think about rhythm while they write.

When we study the poetry of Kwame Alexander , we talk about rhyme and I encourage students to use it.

Cover for Teachers Pay Teachers product: Ode Poems for High School

When we write odes , I tell students they have to include at least three examples of figurative language.

When students get stuck, I just point to the extra goals I’ve given them.

How can you create more rhythm? What can you tweak to fit in an internal rhyme? What figurative language techniques haven’t you used? Knowing where and how to push themselves helps students to stay on track.

So, what do you think? Where in your creative writing classroom can you add scaffolds? What can of writing scaffolding do your students need?

If you’re not sure how to get started, I recommend checking out my “I Am” Poem for High School lesson . It’s FREE!

Teach Creative Writing In High School With 10 Fun Activities

Creative writing is a meaningful aspect of literature that mandates you to utilize your expertise, ingenuity, and story to depict a critical message, emotion, or plot. It defies the traditional bounds of other forms of writing and is completely subjective to our preferences and experiences. In creative writing, it’s all about imaginativeness!

Using creative imagination and originality to convey feelings and concepts in a unique way is at the heart of creative writing. Simply stated, it’s about infusing your own ‘flair’ into your writing, moving beyond academic or other technical kinds of literature.

In this post, we will explore the various activities which would be advantageous for a high schooler who wishes to indulge in creative writing!

What Happens When Creative Writing Is Put To Use?

Creative writing is any form of writing that deviates from traditional professional, investigative journalism, educational, or technological forms of literature. It is typically distinguished by emphasizing narrative craft, character development, literary tropes, or various poetic traditions.

Here are the few ways how high schoolers can benefit from creative writing –

1. Imagination

When you write creatively, you expand your imagination by creating new environments, scenarios, and characters. This way, you are also boosting and stretching your imagination, as well as “thinking out of the box.” This allows you to concentrate your energy on many other things and improve your ability to find fresh ideas and alternatives to problems you’re having. Whether you’re a researcher or a businessman, creative writing will increase your imagination and help you think more creatively, and push the boundaries.

2. Empathy and Communications skills

When you create characters, you’ll be constructing emotions, personalities, behaviors, and world views that are distinct from your own. Writers must conceive personalities, emotions, places, and walks of life outside of their own lives while creating universes with fictional characters and settings.

This can give children a good dose of empathy and understanding for those who aren’t like them, who don’t live where they do or go through the same things they do daily. Writers are better equipped to communicate when they have a greater understanding of other points of view. They can come up with creative ways to explain and debate subjects from multiple perspectives. This ability is crucial in both professional and personal situations.

3. Clarification of Thoughts

Creating structures in creative writing allows you to organize your impressions and emotions into a logical procedure. You may express both your thoughts and your sentiments through creative writing. For example, if you’re a marketing executive, you could create a short tale in which your clientele reads your promotional emails. You can guess what they’re up to, where they’re seated, what’s around them, and so on.

This enables you to focus on the language and strategies you employ. Alternatively, if you’re a technical writer writing on a new desktop platform, you could create a creative scenario in which a user encounters a problem.

4. Broadens Vocabulary and gets a better understanding of reading and writing

You’ll learn a larger vocabulary and a better understanding of the mechanics of reading and writing as you begin to practice writing exercises regularly. Even if you’re writing a budget report, you’ll know when rigid grammar standards work and when they don’t, and you’ll know what will make your writing flow better for your readers. Exploring different ways of expressing yourself when writing creatively allows you to extend your vocabulary.

You’ll notice a change in your use and range of language as you improve your writing over time, which will be useful in any professional route and social scenario. You’ll be able to bend and break the rules when you need to, to utilize your voice and make what you’re writing engaging without coming off as an amateur, dull, or inauthentic once you’ve grasped the fundamentals of writing professionally and creatively.

5. Building Self-Belief

When you write creatively, you’re actively involved in an activity that allows you to fully develop your voice and point of view without being constrained. You have a better chance to investigate and express your feelings about various issues, opinions, ideas, and characters. And you’ll feel more at ease and secure stating your thoughts and perspectives in other things you write as a result of this.

Writers who don’t write creatively may be concerned about appearing authoritative or trustworthy. They accidentally lose their voice and sound like drones spouting statistics by omitting to include their perspective on the topics they’re writing about. As a result, they miss out on using their distinct voice and presenting themselves as an expert with real-world expertise.

Creative Writing Activities That Will Strengthen Your Writing Skills

Short spurts of spontaneous writing make up creative writing activities. These writing exercises push a writer to tackle a familiar topic in a new way, ranging from one line to a lengthy tale. Short, spontaneous projects are common in creative writing programs, but any writer should make them a regular practice to extend their abilities and learn new tactics to approach a series of stories.

These activities must be performed for ten minutes at a time, several times a week – by creative writers. They’re designed to help you improve your writing abilities, generate fresh story ideas, and become a better writer.

1. Free Writing

Writing is the first and foremost activity that is going to give your creative writing a boost. Start with a blank page and let your stream of thoughts and emotions flow. Then simply begin writing. Don’t pause to think or alter what you’re expressing. This is known as “free writing.” This writing activity is referred to as “morning pages” by Julia Cameron, the author of ‘The Artist’s Way.’ She recommends that authors do this every day when they first wake up. Stream of consciousness writing can provide some intriguing concepts.

Allow your intellect to take the lead as your fingers type. Or write a letter to your younger self. Consider a topic you’d like to discuss, such as a noteworthy event, and write it down. Give guidance or convey a message that you wish you had heard as a youngster or a young adult.

2. Modify a Storyline – Read

Most of us like to read. However, just reading won’t really help augment your creative writing skills. While reading bestows insight into the deeper meanings of numerous things, you need a more concrete approach to better your aptitude. To do this, you can modify any storyline. Take an episode from a chapter, if you’re feeling brave—from one of your favorite books and recreate it. Write it from the perspective of a different character. Swap out the main character in this exercise to examine how the story may be conveyed differently.

Take Percy Jackson’s thrilling conclusion, for instance, and rework it with Annabeth as the primary character. Another way to approach this creative activity is to keep the primary character but switch viewpoints. Rewrite a scene in the third person if the writer has told a story in the first person.

3. Add Creative Writing Prompts or Create Flash Fiction

Use writing prompts, often known as narrative starters, to produce writing ideas. A writing prompt is a sentence or short excerpt that a writer uses to start composing a story on the spot. You can look up writing prompts online, pick a sentence out of a magazine at random, or use a brilliant line from a well-known work as the start of your short scene.

Another thing you can do to accentuate your writing is to create flash fiction. Sit down at your desktop or pick up a pen and paper and write a 500-word story on the spur of the moment. This isn’t the same as just writing whatever comes to mind. With no fixed guidelines, free writing generates a stream of consciousness. All of the basic components of a story arc, such as plot, conflict, and character development, are required in flash fiction, albeit in a shortened form.

4. Create a Fictitious Advertisement

Pick a random word from a nearby book or newspaper and create a fictitious commercial for it. Write one ad in a formal, abbreviated newspaper classified format to require you to pay special attention to your word choice to sell the item. Then write one for an online marketplace that allows for longer, more casual text, such as Craigslist. Describe the item and persuade the reader to purchase it in each one.

5. Engage in Conversations

Engaging in conversations with your friends/family – or simply communicating can help brush up your writing skills. Talk to your loved ones about their hobbies, career, views on societal issues – any suitable topic for that matter. This helps implement others’ points of view and expands your mental ability. Another useful thing that you can do is – make another person’s tale and create it by implementing your own thoughts. Then talk about it in an impeccable manner. Also, talk in complete sentences. This goes to show your Linguistic intelligence proficiency – and helps augment your creative writing skills.

6. Create Your Own Website/Blog

Start your search for blogging. There are a million writing suggestions out there, but they all boil down to the same thing: write. Blogging is excellent writing practice because it gives you a place to write regularly.

To keep your fingers and mind nimble, write a post every day. Like most bloggers, you’ll want to restrict your subject—perhaps you’ll focus on parenting or start a how-to site where you can tell stories from your point of view.

7. Participate in Debates/Extempores

Participating in debates, extempores – anchoring for your school function, giving a speech, all of these activities help boost your creative spirit. These group events make you understand what other people are envisioning, which in turn helps you generate new ideas, approaches, and methods. Not only do they improve your articulation and research skills, but they also develop critical thinking and emotional control abilities. All of these promote a better creative writing aptitude.

8. Start a YouTube Channel or Podcast

Starting a YouTube channel or podcast will definitely level up your creative game. YouTube is a never-ending platform, covering myriads of topics. Choose a particular niche for your channel.

Then do your topic research, create content, manage SEO, approach brands, talk to clients and influencers – do all the good stuff. Communicating with other influencers and creating content will take your creative writing skills to another level. Starting a podcast will have a similar impact.

9. Love them? Say it with your words!

We have many festivals, occasions, birthdays, parties, anniversaries and whatnot! You can employ these special days and boost your creative writing skills. You can make a token of love for them – writing about your feelings. You can also make gift cards, birthday cards, dinner menus, and so on. So let’s say, it’s your mother’s birthday, you can write her a token of love, elucidating your feelings and letting her know what all she’s done for you and that you’re grateful. Do this for all your near and dear ones. This not only spreads positivity and love but helps you develop your creative aptitude.

10. The What-if Game

The What-If game is an incredible way to upgrade your creative abilities. You can play this game with your friends, cousins, relatives, or solo. Here, you need to find links to many interesting hypothetical questions. For instance, what if the sun doesn’t rise for a week? What if there’s no oxygen for one minute? Play it with your peeps, or ask these questions to yourself. It can be anything random but concrete. If you don’t know the answers to the questions, look them up on Google. This way, you’re training your mind to learn new concepts all the while enhancing your visualization process.

We can conclude that creative writing encourages students to think creatively, use their imaginations, imply alternatives, expand their thinking processes, and improve their problem-solving skills. It also allows the child to express themselves and grow their voice. Besides, it enhances reasoning abilities. The principle behind the creative writing concept is that everyone can gain the qualities that are needed to become a successful writer or, rather become good at writing. Creative writing is all about using language in new and innovative ways.

Sananda Bhattacharya, Chief Editor of TheHighSchooler, is dedicated to enhancing operations and growth. With degrees in Literature and Asian Studies from Presidency University, Kolkata, she leverages her educational and innovative background to shape TheHighSchooler into a pivotal resource hub. Providing valuable insights, practical activities, and guidance on school life, graduation, scholarships, and more, Sananda’s leadership enriches the journey of high school students.

Explore a plethora of invaluable resources and insights tailored for high schoolers at TheHighSchooler, under the guidance of Sananda Bhattacharya’s expertise. You can follow her on Linkedin

10 Writing Center Ideas We Love

Creative writing choices to spark their imaginations.

Make writing time the best time of day with these 10 great writing center ideas we found across the blogosphere!

1. Use dice to create original stories.

SOURCE: WhereTheWIldThingsLearn

Determine the story’s setting, main character, and plot with a roll of the dice. Click on the image for a free downloadable or create your own using the same format.

2. Fill story bags with everyday items in odd combinations to spark their creativity.

SOURCE: Creative Teaching Ideas by Kayla

A pink eraser, a bouncy ball, and a map of Germany … what’s the story? Help your students stretch their imagination with these story bags.

3. Create stencils with key words to get your writers started.

SOURCE: Mrs. Winter’s Bliss

These delightful picture prompts give your students an image to start with and words that a writer would use to create a story about that picture. Download the spring bundle from Mrs. WInter’s Bliss here .

4. Build a deck of story cards.

SOURCE: Teacher Gems

Pick a card, any card! You can buy a prepared set of story cards, like the one above, or create your own with colored card stock (one color for each category—setting, character, and event) and a Sharpie.

5. Play twister with a memory.

SOURCE: The Thinker Builder

Students begin with a real memory but then choose a point in their story to “twist” the events into a fictional story. This freebie includes all the printables, instructions, and ideas you’ll need to keep it fresh.

6. Brainstorm with emojis.

SOURCE: The Teachy Teacher

“Roll” with the trends and use emojis to spark your young writers’ process. Kids will love figuring out the stories behind these familiar pictures.

7. Use these free templates to create graphic stories.

SOURCE: The Maven

For some reason, writing doesn’t feel like as much work when it is in comic book form. This freebie, with its adorable thought bubbles, is a fun way for your students to tell tales in a super creative way.

8. Create this cool bio poem.

SOURCE: Proud to Be Primary

Students will brainstorm words that describe who they are, what they like, and what is important to them. They’ll use those words to create a bio poem, using this cute foldable to create their final presentation.

9. Set up a classroom post office.

SOURCE: Busy Teacher

Get your students jazzed about writing by setting up a post office in the classroom. Include cool stationery, pre-lined postcards, and card stock foldables for your students to compose letters to one another.

10. Provide an ample supply of fresh writing prompts.

SOURCE: Can Teach

Writing prompts are the tried and true standby for inspiring writers. Make sure your collection includes lots intriguing questions and curious scenarios. Put ideas on slips of paper and store them in a large jar. Kids will feel like they’re picking a treat from the treasure chest.

What are your favorite writing center ideas? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, 7 Fun Ideas for Writing and Publishing Student Poetry .

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Creative Writing Unit for High School Students

My creative writing unit for high school students allows for adaptations and for fun! With plenty of creative writing activities, you’ll have flexibility.

If you are looking for a creative writing unit, I have ideas for you. When I taught middle school, I sprinkled such activities throughout the school year. As a high school teacher, though, I taught an entire creative writing course. With no textbook and very little established activities, I largely worked from a blank slate.

Which. . . turned out well. I love teaching creative writing!

ELA Specific Classes

Older students often can choose electives for their ELA classes, and Creative Writing is a popular class. I’ve condensed my ideas into one post, so I organized the ideas by creative nonfiction and fiction writing and added pictures to organize this information for you.

EDIT: This post about my creative writing unit for high school writers has exploded and is about three times as long as a normal blog post. If you’d like to skip around to get inspiration for teaching creative writing, you can use the pictures and headings as guidance.

ANOTHER NOTE: I attempted to outline the days I spend on each topic, but several factors went into my estimates. First, each class differs in what they enjoy and what they dislike. If a class dislikes a specific topic, we will wrap it up and move on. If a class has fun with an assignment or needs more time to work, the days might vary.

What are the key elements of a creative writing unit?

Key elements of a creative writing unit include introducing different writing genres, teaching basic writing techniques, encouraging imagination and creativity, providing writing prompts and exercises, offering constructive feedback and revision opportunities, and fostering a supportive writing community.

How can we organize such activities?

Starting with creative nonfiction has worked for my classes, small pieces like paragraphs. I believe the success is because young writers can write what they know about. Then we can switch to fiction for the second quarter. Again, the days spent on each assignment varies, and I honestly do not stress about creative nonfiction being nine weeks and fiction being nine weeks.

All of the material listed below is in my newly updated Creative Writing Bundle . The pieces are sold separately, but that creative writing unit includes bonus material and a discount.

Ok, settle in! Here are my ideas about teaching creative writing with high school students.

creative activities for writing students

First Week of School for a Creative Writing Unit

The first day of school , we complete activities that build awareness into the classroom environment about “creativity.” Do not shy away from setting a foundation of support and understanding as you engage with young writers. During my first creative writing classes, I neglected to spend time establishing expectations and community. The following semester, the time invested early paid off with engaged students later.

Those first days, we also discuss:

Published vs. private writing. I tell writers they may share whatever they like with me and the class. As a community of writers, we will share with each other. Most of our writing will be public, but some will be private.
A community of writers. Writing and sharing ideas requires maturity and acceptance. Not everyone will agree is largely my motto (about negotiables, not human rights), and I stress with students that they may read and provide feedback with topics in which they do not agree.
Routines. Writers write. That sentence might sound silly, but some people believe that humans are born with a skill to write or they are not. Writing well takes practice. The practice can be short and unconnected to a larger product. I typically begin each week with a quick writing prompt , and we share our responses, which of course, builds that community of writers.

Whatever you are teaching—a creative writing unit or a creative writing class—spend some time establishing your expectations and goals with your students. Laying a foundation is never a waste of time! In fact, I believe so much in the power of the first week of a creative writing class that I have a blog post devoted to the concept.

Time: 2-3 days

First weeks: creative nonfiction

Creative nonfiction seems to be the genre of our time. Memoirs, essays, and hermit-crab essays flood bookstores and journals.

When students read captions on social media, profiles of their favorite artists, or long Threads, they are reading creative nonfiction. Not only should students be able to dissect this form of writing, but they should also be able to write in our society’s preferred genre.

Below, I’ve outlined creative nonfiction activities that work with teenagers.

Nonfiction Narrative Writing

Writing narratives (and meeting those standards) are trickier with older students. As a teacher, I struggle: Students will often tell me deep, meaningful, and personal parts of their lives, and I am supposed to grade those writings!

When students write a narrative , I address this situation immediately. Share with writers that their narrative ideas are strong (I believe that to be the truth!), and that in no way are we grading their ideas. Rather, we want their excellent narratives to be communicated in the best light; therefore, we will provide guidance about the structures of narrative writing.

The topic for a nonfiction narrative varies. Often, students write about themselves as learners or as community members. Framing students in a positive way allows them to explore their strengths in life and to build confidence as writers.

Time: 7-9 days

a creative writing unit for high school students should include plenty of fun activities

Object Essay

An object essay might sound like a “blah” type of assignment, but the simplicity allows students to push past their normal experiences. An object essay is simple, so they can experiment with their writing.

What object? I have assigned this essay several ways. For instance, I have brought in a very plain object (like a rock) and had students explain it. I like this approach because students can work together to discover the best descriptions.

Another way, my preferred way, is to allow students to choose the object. Students write about a coffee cup, water bottle, car keys, or bus pass. When students choose, the essays are richer with meaning.

Neither approach disappoints me, though! With a plain object, students must stretch themselves to be creative. Judge what your class needs and get students writing!

Time: 3-4 days

add a creative writing unit to your ELA classroom

How-to Paper

No, not a “how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich” paper. A fun and meaningful how-to paper can encourage classes as they see themselves as experts.

What I like about a how-to paper is students get to be the expert in their paper. Finding a used vehicle to buy? Shopping for a formal event? Saving money? Cleaning a closet? Selling at consignment stores? Each writer has an area in which they shine, and a how-to paper allows them to share their knowledge with others. They write about “behind the scenes” or little known secrets.

Of all the creative writing activities, I assign the how-to paper early. It builds confidence in young writers.

Time: 5 days

Sell this Apple

Why an apple? When I wanted students to creatively sell something, I searched for something they could all have in common but sell in different ways. I wanted classes to have one object but to witness the multiple approaches for advertising. Apples (which I could also afford to bring to class) fit nicely.

What do students sell when they “sell an apple”?

Dips for apples.
Apples for preschool snacks.
Charcuterie apple boards.
Apple crisp.
Red and green apple rainbows.

Basically, students can create a marketing plan for multiple age groups and other demographics. For instance, they can write a blog post about safety in cutting pieces for young children (and complete some research in the process). They can then “promote” a local apple orchard or fruit stand.

Another advertisement is an apple pie recipe for a Thanksgiving brochure for a supermarket.

When I gave students something simple, like an apple, they ran with the idea. Then, we can share our ideas for selling apples.

A profile is difficult to write, so this assignment is normally my last assignment of the quarter. Before we switch to writing fiction, we apply all our concepts learned to writing a profile.

Profiles are more than summaries of the person. Writers must take an angle and articulate the person’s traits utilizing Showing vs. Telling. Of all creative writing assignments, the profile, might be the most difficult. I place it in the middle of the semester so that writers understand our goals in class but are not tired from the end of the semester.

Time: 10-12 days

Final weeks: fiction

Fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, romance: Students consume a variety of fiction via books, movies, and shows. Fictional creative writing activities invite young writers into worlds they already consume.

Below, I’ve outlined some that work with teenagers.

send students around the community or school for this creative writing project

Alternative Point-of-View

Grab some googly eyes or some construction paper and send students loose. (A few guidelines help. Should students remove the googly eyes from the principal’s office door?) Have them adhere the eyes to an inanimate object to make a “being” who learns a lesson. They should snap a picture and write a quick story about the learned lesson.

What type of lesson? Perhaps an apple with a bruise learns that it still has value and is loved with blemishes. Maybe a fire extinguisher realizes that its purpose is important even if it isn’t fancy.

Honestly, the creativity with the googly eyes adhered to inanimate objects is so simple, but it always is my favorite event of the semester. I officially call it the “ alternative point-of-view ” activity, but “googly eyes” is how my writers remember it.

Time: 2 days

creative writing activities for high school students

Create a Superhero with a Template

A superhero does not need to wear a cape or fancy shoes. Rather, in this creative writing activity, students build a superhero from a normal individual. When I created the activity, I envisioned students writing about a librarian or volunteer, but students often write about a grandparent (adorable).

Since students enjoy graphic novels, I wanted students to experience making a graphic novel. The colorful sheets allow students to add their ideas and words to pages that fit their messages.

After students create a comic book, they will also write a brief marketing campaign for a target audience. Learning about who would buy their graphic novel typically leads them to parents and librarians which should lead students to discover the importance of reading. The advertising campaign additionally serves as a reflective component for the initial activity.

imagination is a key part of creative writing lessons

Product Review

Product reviews and question/answer sections are a genre all their own. SO! Have students write reviews and questions/answers for goofy products . Students will find a product and write several reviews and questions/answers.

This quick activity lends itself to extension activities. Once, a teacher emailed me and said her school bought some of the goofy products for a sort of “sharing” day with the school. Since students have access to pictures of the item, you can make a “catalog” for the class out of a Canva presentation and share it with them and your colleagues.

Here are a few examples:

Banana slicer .
Horse head .
Wolf shirt.

Aside from the alternative point-of-view activity, the product reviews remain my personal favorite part of a creative writing unit. Writers find random products and write goofy workups that they share with the class.

Time: 3 days

Character Creation

Creating a well-rounded and interesting character requires prep work. The brainstorming part of the writing process, the pre-writing? We spend lots of time in that area as we create fleshed out characters.

I like to start with a multiple-choice activity. We begin my imagining the main character. Next, students take a “quiz” as the character. How does the character eat? What sort of movies does the character enjoy? hate? After the multiple-choice activity, they can derive what those pieces explain about their characters. Finally, they can begin to brainstorm how those pieces will develop in their story.

Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is a simple, short story. Writers might cheer when they hear I expect a 300-word story, but often, they discover it is a challenging assignment from class. A large part of a creative writing unit is giving students a variety of lengths so they can practice their skills under different circumstances.

Historical Fiction

Historical fiction is a popular genre, and classes are familiar with many popular historical fiction books. I find it helpful to have several books displayed to inspire students. Additionally, I read from the books to demonstrate dialogue, pacing, theme, and more.

Since my historical fiction activity takes at least two weeks to accomplish, we work on that tough standard for narrative writing. To that end, these activities target the hardest components:

Pacing within a narrative.
Developing a theme .
Building imagery .
Creating external conflicts in a story.
Establishing a setting .

First, I used pictures to inspire students, to get them brainstorming. Second, I created those activities to solve a problem that all writers (no matter the age!) have: Telling vs. Showing. I found that my writers would add dialogue that was heavy on explanation, too “world building” for their narrative. The story sounded forced, so I took a step back with them and introduced mini-activities for practicing those skills.

Third, the above creative writing activities can EASILY be assignments independently for short and fun assignments. I teach them with historical fiction because that activity is at the end of the semester when my expectations are higher, and because students enjoy writing historical fiction so they are invested.

But! You can easily add them to another narrative activity.

Time: 10-12 days

A clean tabloid! Tabloids are largely replaced by online social sharing creators, so they are fun to review with students. Students might not be familiar with tabloids at the grocery store checkout, but they are familiar with catchy headlines. They will be completely ready to write a tabloid !

To ensure a clean tabloid, I ask students to write about a children’s show, something scandalous happening from a cartoon. The results are hysterical.

Time: 4 days

Children’s Book

I have two introductory activities for the children’s book. One, students answer questions about a mentor text (another children’s book). Two, students evaluate the language of a specific book to start them in their brainstorming.

My students write their children’s book as a final activity in class as it requires all the elements of creative writing. When a school requires me to give a final exam, students write a reflection piece on their children’s books. If you are looking for a finale for your creative writing unit, a children’s book is a satisfying ending as students have a memorable piece.

Time 10-12 weeks

Final note on creative writing activities and bundle

I intended for this post to inspire you and give you ideas for teaching either a creative writing unit or a creative writing class in ELA. My first time through teaching creative writing, I worried that my lessons would flop and that students would not find their groove with me. I found success, but with modifications, I formed a cohesive semester.

The first time through, I did not frontload information and expectations. (Spending time at the start of class is my biggest message! Please establish groundwork with students!) I also did not provide concrete enough guidelines so students understood the differences between the assignments. After a few semesters, I developed my creative writing unit . With a variety of activities and an appropriate amount of structure, I found success, and I hope you do too.

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creative writing creative writing activities

Our Mission

Planning Writing Lessons for the Early Elementary Grades

Teachers can provide thoughtful instruction that supports the sustained development of young students’ literacy skills.

Elementary student writing while teacher assists other students

Often, attempting to plan effective and purposeful writing instruction raises many questions: What does lesson planning look like? How will I manage so many students who may be in different stages of their writing? How often should they be editing and revising? The list doesn’t stop there.

By utilizing on-demand writing for assessment and long-range writing for scaffolded practice of applying various writing techniques, teachers can approach their instruction with intentional and tailored lessons that meet the needs of the learners in the classroom, as well as help students develop self-regulated behaviors when crafting a piece of text.

On-Demand Writing

Just like any area of instruction, assessment is critical for knowing what the students’ strengths and areas of growth are, and on-demand writing is how teachers can gather that evidence. An on-demand piece of writing simply means that the teacher provides a specific prompt for the student to write to for the purpose of anecdotal data. For example, let’s say a second-grade teacher prepares for a narrative writing cycle. In the first couple of days before the cycle begins, they’ll ask students to write a narrative about something fun they’ve experienced (with their family or a friend).

After the prompt is given, students get one or two days to write and are provided with all necessary tools to carry out the process of developing a piece of writing without additional modeling or instruction. Effective tools might include graphic organizers, writing paper, tools for editing, and a writing checklist. However, the teacher will not model how to use the tools. The teacher is informally assessing if the students know how to use these resources to develop a story.

After students complete their piece, the teacher collects them for analysis. It is critically important to determine realistic expectations for what writing should look like throughout various points of the year, so creating a common rubric as a grade level is a great way to stay on the same page for analyzing the assessment.

Writing growth, similar to reading, happens along a continuum of skills. At the beginning of the year, a second grader can’t be expected to write like an end-of-the-year second grader because they haven’t been taught the grade-level skills necessary to do so yet. On-demand benchmark assessments along the way will gradually raise the expectation of what that student should be able to do. Websites such as Reading Rockets and Achieve the Core provide useful anchor examples of real student writing in various genres that provide annotated explanations of students’ overall writing ability and possible next steps for instruction.

As students engage in daily lessons about crafting a narrative within the instructional cycle of a long-range writing piece, another on-demand prompt may be given at the halfway point of the cycle to track growth and drive future instruction. This could be the same prompt as before or a prompt given in response to a story or passage the student has read.

It’s important to remember that it’s easy to fall into the trap of using writing prompts daily for students to produce writing simply because it’s easy to manage. If we use this approach exclusively, we rob our students of the opportunity to dive deeply into producing self-chosen, elaborate pieces full of voice and author’s craft.

Long-Range Writing

Long-range pieces give students the autonomy to choose their own writing topic while the teacher assists in walking them through the process. This type of instruction instills the executive-functioning behaviors needed when students are asked to write a piece on demand. When considering how to implement this type of writing instruction, it can be overwhelming. Breaking down long-range instruction using the following components allows for a more manageable approach.

Keep your lesson mini: A mini lesson is 15 to 20 minutes long and organized in a gradual release format, and it allows the teacher to model a specific, focused lesson. For example, narrative writing could be broken into the following mini lessons for a beginning-of-the-year cycle for second grade: introduce and describe a setting, introduce and describe the character, edit on the go (this means to stop and edit before we add more writing), describe the first event in the narrative, introduce a problem, etc. Essentially, each lesson will invite students to add to their story one chunk at a time.

Model, provide independent practice: The teacher begins by modeling one learning target using a well-crafted organizer . An effective organizer teaches students that each genre has a specific structure. As learners begin to recognize the pattern in text structure, they can replicate it when assessed in on-demand pieces. For example, the teacher can start by using a text that clearly introduces and describes the setting, and then read that page out loud and ask students what they notice about how the author introduced the setting.

Next, students are invited to help the teacher write a setting to a story together by offering verbal suggestions. The teacher records the students’ ideas and writes an example introduction in the organizer. Then students think about an idea for an introduction of a setting on their own and are prompted to talk to a partner about their story. The students verbally rehearse what they plan to write, as this provides them an opportunity to organize their thoughts and prepares them to get started as soon as they are released to write independently, using the same organizer that the teacher used to model the mini lesson.

The benefit of this approach is that it gives the teacher time to provide specific feedback over the same crafting element. Having every student write their complete thoughts directly in the organizer in a chunked manner allows for a better visual of where to correct capitalization and punctuation. Essentially, each lesson should invite students to write one or two complete sentences that can be quickly edited before adding the next part of the story.

Share and reflect: Close each lesson by bringing students back together so that they have an opportunity to share what they’ve produced. This time celebrates students’ creativity, as well as giving them an opportunity to reflect on how they can improve their writing.

Both on-demand writing and long-range writing are vital in developing confident writers across various genres. It’s important to approach them with a cyclical scope and sequence that allows students to learn the craft, structure, and development of narrative, informative, and opinion styles of writing. By scaffolding and supporting students’ growth in each genre of writing, learners will begin to automatically apply these techniques more independently as the year progresses because of the solid foundation that has been built.

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A busy beginning to the spring term in the english and creative writing department.

It's been a busy beginning to the spring term, around campus, and in the English and Creative Writing department, with several exciting events already taking place.

Peter Orner and Liniers in conversation with an audience of people.

In the first week of the term, we had several well-attended events in celebration of the 150th birthday of Robert Frost. An article in The Dartmouth covers these lively events held in collaboration with other departments. In the second week of the term, Argentinian Cartoonist Liniers was off-site at Still North in conversation with Professor Peter Orner. The conversation was joyous, warm, and humorous while taking a direct look at the state of affairs. "Optimism is his superpower," a friend in the audience said of the cartoonist. Read more about the event here .

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Nursing’s creative writing award announces winners

Written by UNMC College of Nursing
Published Apr 9, 2024

The 2023-2024 UNMC College of Nursing Creative Writing Awards announced winners for this year’s contest. The theme was “Nursing Does That,” encouraging students and alumni to write a story about an experience of how they were changed by caring for an individual who was different than themselves.

This was the first year offering a contest for alumni, who could submit a story on the same theme.

“We received stories from all our five campuses and from all our academic programs,” said Mark Darby, assistant professor in the UNMC College of Nursing and contest chair. “Our alumni were very supportive, providing not only great stories but funds for our awards this year.”

Darby added, “The stories reflect the deep respect and care our students and alumni provide to the citizens of Nebraska. Nurses face difficult clinical situation and still provide high levels of care.”

This is the fourth year for the contest, which has provided more than $53,000 in awards and resulted in four student stories being published in the American Journal of Nursing.

The top award winners of the student contest will share their stories at a virtual banquet, available at this link , on April 25 from 5-6:30 p.m.

The names of the awardees and the title are below. For previous winners, see the Creative Writing Project website .

Student awards

Emily Tanner, “Marge Dancing in the Rain”
Julia Miller, “Your Secret is Safe with Me”
Sierra Bryant, “I Know That Voice”
Tayla Goettsche, “His Cat Named Oreo”

Honorable mention

Greta Rosno, “To My Best Friend Grief”
Kirsten Hepburn, “Just Hope”
Kylee Solberg, “Fight Like a Princess”

Publication award

Alyssa Ramsey, “Compassionate Care – The Heart of Nursing”
Amanda Gould, “Nursing Can Make You Cry”
Emma Wareham, “Nursing Does That”
Ethan VanEnkevort, “Nursing Did That to Me”
Gabriel Bodeman, “Heartbeat”
Kaitlyn Gamble, “Pivot”
Kia Scott-Sellers, “The Ventilator”
Kylee Solberg, “A New Day”
Lauren Longacre, “Strangers”
Lisa Salisbury, “Nursing Does That”

Alumni awards

Alumni top award

Jan Fuccillo, “A Change of Heart”
Candy Lussetto, “Nursing Does That”
Sharon Redding, “SR- Nursing”

Alumni honorable mention

Rebecca Stone, “Beautiful Changes”
Cindy Miller, “Imposter No More”
Dawn Steinman, “In August Of 1979”
Mary Martin, “Nursing Does That Changes Lives Forever”
Katie Weaver, “The Limit Does Not Exists”
Kay Rockwell, “Nurse Kay”

Program in Creative Writing Celebrates National Poetry Month 2024

Creative Writing

To celebrate National Poetry Month in April, the Lewis Center for the Arts invited seniors writing a poetry collection as their creative writing thesis to read one of their poems

Click the images below to listen to the poems of Juliette Carbonnier and Ananya Grover. This post will be updated soon with poetry readings from Kenza Benazzouz and Anurag Pratap. Stay tuned!

On April 30 at 4:30 p.m., these seniors and others will read from the collections of poems written as their senior theses under mentorship of professional writers on the faculty. Seniors will read from their work in fiction on May 1 at 4:30 p.m.

Learn more about the Program in Creative Writing

Press Contact

Steve Runk Director of Communications 609-258-5262 [email protected]

Thumbnail for Lewis Center for the Arts’ Princeton Atelier presents a concert of original songs by students in the spring course, “How to Write a Song”

Lewis Center for the Arts’ Princeton Atelier presents a concert of original songs by students in the spring course, “How to Write a Song”

2024 Senior Readings in Poetry, Translation, Screenwriting

2024 Senior Readings in Fiction

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National Poetry Month

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Creative writing events in april feature industry professionals.

April 10, 2024

Colophon, conversations on publishing, is featuring events on April 17 and 19, free and open to the public. The series, part of the Creative Writing Program, places editors, agents, writers, and other publishing insiders, in conversation about literary careers.

April 17: Editor and agent discuss publishing industry Legendary editor Sarah Crichton, and agent Jessica Regel, who represents multiple bestsellers, will be in conversation with Creative Writing Program director Timothy Schaffert, about the publishing industry.

For 15 years, Crichton was the publisher of Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of FSG, where she published such award-winning books as "A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah and "The Silver Linings Playbook" by Matthew Quick. During her time as publisher of Little, Brown, Crichton published Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point," David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest," several books by David Sedaris, and acquired "Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold.

Regel is the founder of Helm Literary. After growing up in Iowa, Regel entered the book industry and became familiar with all components of an author's contract, including foreign, film, and audio rights. She agented Emily Danforth's UNL dissertation, "The Miseducation of Cameron Post." Among her other credits: the bestsellers "Beautiful Little Fools" by Jillian Cantor, "Bad Vibes Only" by Nora McInerny, "All the Ugly and Wonderful Things" by Bryn Greenwood, and many others.

April 19: Literary Editing and Publishing Poetry Drawing from their work as editors, the two poets will reflect on the role of literature in the advancement of intellectual and cultural modernity in Africa and the United States.

A poet, translator, and essayist, Daniel Simon is assistant director and editor in chief of World Literature Today magazine at the University of Oklahoma, where he also serves on the English, International Studies, and Judaic Studies faculty. The author of two previous verse collections, "Cast Off" (2015) and "After Reading Everything" (2016), his third book of poems, "Under a Gathering Sky," is new from Stephen F. Austin State University Press.

Chibueze Darlington Anuonye, a P.hD student in the English Department, is the curator of "Selfies and Signatures: An Afro Anthology of Short Stories," co-editor of "Daybreak: An Anthology of Nigerian Short Fiction" and editor of "Through the Eye of a Needle: Art in the Time of Coronavirus." Anuonye was longlisted for the 2018 Babishai Niwe African Poetry Award. "Unbound," his co-edited anthology of contemporary Nigerian poetry (with Nduka Otiono), is forthcoming.

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April 8, 2024

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March 29, 2024

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IALA Announces 2024 Mentorship Program and Annual Grants for Creative Writing and Translation

LOS ANGELES — The International Armenian Literary Alliance’s fourth annual mentorship program will run from July 1 through August 31, 2024, with mentorships for writers of the novel, memoir, creative nonfiction, short story, poetry as well as literary translation from Eastern or Western Armenian into English. Mentors will read and provide feedback on their mentee’s writing and speak virtually with their mentee throughout the program to discuss the writing life, the mentee’s work and how to navigate the publishing industry. At the end of the program, IALA will host an Emerging Writers Showcase to feature the mentees’ work. Applications are now open through April 14, 2024.

“In my role as the director of the mentorship program, I am constantly impressed by the wealth of talent among the emerging writers in the Armenian community,” says IALA’s Mentorship Program director Shahé Mankerian. “Equally inspiring is the dedication of our experienced mentors who volunteer their time to support and uplift our aspiring Armenian voices.”

IALA also announced three new annual grants for one writer and two translators whose work-in-progress show exceptional literary and creative ability. Application opens on September 1st until September 30th, 2024, and winners will be announced in December 2024. Its Creative Writing Grant will award $2,500 annually to one Armenian writer whose work-in-progress shows exceptional literary and creative ability. After awarding poets and fiction writers in previous years, the grant will be awarded in 2024 for a work of creative nonfiction. The 2024 grant will be judged by Susan Barba, Aram Mrjoian and Nadia Owusu.

IALA’s Creative Writing Grant, made possible by a donation from the Armenian Allied Arts Association, is meant to foster the development of contemporary Armenian literature in English through an annual monetary award, and support Armenian writers who have historically lacked resources in the publishing world.

The Israelyan English Translation Grant from IALA will award $3,000 to one translator working from Armenian (either Western or Eastern) source texts into English, whose work-in-progress shows exceptional literary and creative ability. In 2024, the grant will be awarded for a work of literature (in any literary genre) written in Armenian and published any time after 1900.

Given the traumatic history of the Armenian diaspora, many readers are unable to read works in the original Armenian, and therefore, have centuries of literature inaccessible to them. Translators working with Armenian texts have traditionally lacked resources in the publishing world, as well as access to other funding, due to the overwhelming influence of so-called “majority languages.” IALA’s Israelyan English Translation Grant, made possible by a donation from Souren A. Israelyan, supports translators working with contemporary Armenian literature through a monetary award.

The Israelyan Armenian Translation Grant from the International Armenian Literary Alliance will award $3,000 to one translator working from English source text into Eastern Armenian, whose work-in-progress shows exceptional literary and creative ability. In 2024, the grant will be awarded for a work of contemporary literature written by an Armenian in English. The complete list of texts which we would like to see translated feature authors who represent and support the Armenian literary community; their works were selected for their diversity in voices and subject matters.

For more details, visit IALA’s website, www.armenianliterary.org .

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

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Siran Seza’s Book of Genesis: A Treasure Recovered

The Armenia Project Raises Global Awareness about Armenia

Balakian Reads at Historic Jack Kerouac House

COMMENTS

How Creative Writing Can Increase Students'...
Reaping the benefits. To see how creative writing impacts students, I invite them to rate their resilience through a self-compassion survey at the start of the school year and again in the spring. Last year, two-thirds of students surveyed increased in self-compassion; Alejandro grew his self-compassion by 20 percent.
How to Teach Creative Writing
We've outlined a seven-step method that will scaffold your students through each phase of the creative process from idea generation through to final edits. 7. Create inspiring and original prompts. Use the following formats to generate prompts that get students inspired: personal memories ("Write about a person who taught you an important ...
Creativity and Innovation in the Writing Classroom
Creativity is fundamental to the teaching of writing. Although WR 153 focuses specifically on creativity and innovation, all WR courses ask students to approach their reading, viewing, writing, and research in creative ways. One important approach to creativity is "design thinking," which emphasizes that creativity is a non-linear ...
Creative Writing Activities To Help Students Tell Their Story
Here are 10 of our favorite story telling activities that inspire students: 1. Write an "I am from" poem. Students read the poem "I am From" by George Ella Lyon. Then, they draft a poem about their own identity in the same format Lyon used. Finally, students create a video to publish their poems.
Teaching Creative Writing
Teaching Creative Writing. Creative writing plays an important role in a child's literacy development. This article makes suggestions for the instruction and evaluation of children's stories. Most children enter school with a natural interest in writing, an inherent need to express themselves in words (Graves, 1983).
Creative writing in the classroom: five top tips for teachers
This exercise is always busy, exciting and produces promising and complex pieces of writing. 3. Video clips. There's something a bit weird about the idea of being a writer; it's a vague, wishy ...
Creative Writing Activity Ideas For The Teen & Adult Classroom
Creative writing activity ideas. 1. Group stories. This creative writing activity encourages learners to work together and use their imaginations to come up with unique and creative stories. Put students into small groups of 4 or 5 and have them arrange themselves into a circle. They each need a pen and a piece of paper.
Why Creative Writing Still Has a Place in My Classroom
Though de-emphasized in the common core, creative writing can play an irreplaceable role in the development of students' complex literacy skills, writes language arts teacher Ariel Sacks.
How to Use Creative Writing Prompts in Your Classroom: A Guide for
Creative writing prompts are short sentences, questions, or scenarios that inspire you to write something. They can be used for various purposes, such as practicing your writing skills, expressing your thoughts and feelings, or exploring different genres and topics in literature. Creative writing prompts are also a great tool for literature ...
Creative Writing Lesson Plans: Week One
An easy lesson plan for creative writing that will pay off later is to activate prior knowledge. Brainstorm creative, memorable, unforgettable stories with students. Share your thoughts too! You will start to build relationships with students who share the same tastes as you (and those that are completely different!).
How to Teach Creative Writing to High School Students
Teach Creative Writing to High School Students Step #1: Decide on Your Standards or Goals. Your school or district may have a mandated syllabus or curriculum. Mine did not. Whether you're given student goals or have to create them, you must have an overall vision for what your Creative Writing class will accomplish.
6 Creative Lessons to Inspire Secondary Writers
Dive into a spooky-type short story and character analysiswith "The Most Dangerous Game.". "Most Dangerous Game" Character Analysis Workbookfrom Teach BeTween the Lines. MAKER SPACE. This creative lesson to inspire secondary writers is a newer approach. Turn your writer's workshop into a maker spacewith these unique ideas from Spark ...
16 Meaningful Writing Activities that Engage Students
2. RELEVANT WRITING. Picture this. Energetic lyrics fill the air as students listen, think critically, and analyze them. Or, students snap a photo of a page from an independent reading book, grinning as they annotate it with gifs, text, emojis, and more. Spotify and Snapchat are extremely popular apps for students.
4 Writing Ideas for Creative Classrooms
How can we help our students develop writing skills? We can take the rigorous approach, teaching the writing process, academic modes, and integrated grammar. We can also use the creative approach, engaging students' imagination and artistic expression through stories and poems. Unfortunately, the demands of standards-based testing are pushing the creative approach out of many ELA classrooms ...
5 Fun Creative Writing Activities
We've gathered five fun creative writing activities you can assign to spark a love for writing. Our hope is that these activities will create a workshop-like environment that fosters feedback and collaboration in your writing classroom. You'll notice that none of the activities focuses on the technical aspects of writing. Instead, the activities encourage creativity,
How children experience creative writing in the classroom
A total number of 13 articles were about what students can do to be more creative in their writing (Mendelowitz, 2014;Steele, 2016) and how teachers' and students' personal characteristics relate ...
Scaffolding Creative Writing: Everything You Need to Know
Scaffolding is the supports that we, as their teachers, put up to support student writing. In the classroom, scaffolding can take shape in many ways. It can be the outline for an essay or the sentence starters for a classroom discussion. One of my favorite scaffolds is a graphic organizer. Anything you do that helps students get ideas on paper ...
Teach Creative Writing In High School With 10 Fun Activities
1. Free Writing. Writing is the first and foremost activity that is going to give your creative writing a boost. Start with a blank page and let your stream of thoughts and emotions flow. Then simply begin writing. Don't pause to think or alter what you're expressing. This is known as "free writing.".
PDF CREATIVE WRITING IN CLASSROOM: A REAL STORY
This situation mentioned above is applicable to teaching creative writing in a Pakistani classroom. There is a vast magnitude of literature available on the effective teaching of creative writing in the classroom. The role of English teachers can not be neglected, as Grainger et al. (2005, p. 178) assert
(PDF) Creative Writing for EFL Classroom: A Perspective from Higher
Abstract. Within the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context of higher education, there is a discernible emphasis on academic writing, often overshadowing the realm of creative writing ...
Writing Center Ideas That We Love
Make writing time the best time of day with these 10 great writing center ideas we found across the blogosphere! 1. Use dice to create original stories. SOURCE: WhereTheWIldThingsLearn. Determine the story's setting, main character, and plot with a roll of the dice. Click on the image for a free downloadable or create your own using the same ...
Creative Writing Unit for High School Students
First Week of School for a Creative Writing Unit. The first day of school, we complete activities that build awareness into the classroom environment about "creativity."Do not shy away from setting a foundation of support and understanding as you engage with young writers. During my first creative writing classes, I neglected to spend time establishing expectations and community.
Planning Early Elementary Writing Lessons
By utilizing on-demand writing for assessment and long-range writing for scaffolded practice of applying various writing techniques, teachers can approach their instruction with intentional and tailored lessons that meet the needs of the learners in the classroom, as well as help students develop self-regulated behaviors when crafting a piece of text.
Creative Writing Homeschool Curriculum
Each course in this series is: Made with the assumption that attentive readers can become good writers. A video-based self-study. Supported by creative writing exercises. Suited for Middle and High School Students or those 13+. Offered in a convenient streaming or USB thumb drive format.
A busy beginning to the spring term in the English and Creative Writing
A diverse and inclusive intellectual community is critical to an exceptional education, scholarly innovation, and human creativity. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is committed to actions and investments that foster welcoming environments where everyone feels empowered to achieve their greatest potential for learning, teaching, researching, and creating.
Lewis Center for the Arts presents Readings of New Work by Students in
Through the Program in Creative Writing at the Lewis Center, students can earn a minor in creative writing in addition to their degree in a major. The seniors in the Class of 2024 are the last students who will receive certificates, rather than minors, in creative writing upon graduation. Each senior has the opportunity to pursue original work ...
Nursing's creative writing award announces winners
At UNMC, next-generation technology is moving students and faculty from the classroom to an experiential environment. Office of Academic Affairs. ... The 2023-2024 UNMC College of Nursing Creative Writing Awards announced winners for this year's contest. The theme was "Nursing Does That," encouraging students and alumni to write a story ...
Program in Creative Writing Celebrates National Poetry Month 2024
April 11, 2024. Program in Creative Writing Celebrates National Poetry Month 2024. Creative Writing. To celebrate National Poetry Month in April, the Lewis Center for the Arts invited seniors writing a poetry collection as their creative writing thesis to read one of their poems. Click the images below to listen to the poems of Juliette ...
Creative Writing events in April feature industry professionals
April 10, 2024. Colophon, conversations on publishing, is featuring events on April 17 and 19, free and open to the public. The series, part of the Creative Writing Program, places editors, agents, writers, and other publishing insiders, in conversation about literary careers. April 17: Editor and agent discuss publishing industry.
IALA Announces 2024 Mentorship Program and Annual Grants for Creative
Its Creative Writing Grant will award $2,500 annually to one Armenian writer whose work-in-progress shows exceptional literary and creative ability. After awarding poets and fiction writers in previous years, the grant will be awarded in 2024 for a work of creative nonfiction. The 2024 grant will be judged by Susan Barba, Aram Mrjoian and Nadia ...