Creative Writing -- Help!!

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High School English Teachers Chatboard

Creative Writing -- Help!!

by Glory B.

Jul 4, 2012

I have been assigned to teach a Creative Writing class for next school year. In our school, this is a class that students take for an easy 4th English credit to graduate. Generally, these are students who are not on the level of higher students who progress on to Senior English or College Prep classes so the curriculum needs to be basic to meet the educational level of the students. Any ideas for classroom routine, lessons, etc. would be greatly appreciated. The class meets every other day for 90 minutes so the class sessions need to be broken up somehow each day in order to keep their already lacking interest.

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Novel On 7/04/12, Glory B. wrote: > I have been assigned to teach a Creative Writing class for > next school year. In our school, this is a class that > students take for an easy 4th English credit to graduate. > Generally, these are students who are not on the level of > higher students who progress on to Senior English or College > Pr...See More

Jul 5, 2012

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Laurie I teach creative writing and have several ideas:

1. poetry (I choose a concept or form --i.e. imagery, rhyme, sonnets, free verse, assonance/consonance/alliteration...you get the idea. I share a few poems that illustrate a good use of this device or form and then ask them to write one. This is a good unit because you can make it as long or...See MoreI teach creative writing and have several ideas:

1. poetry (I choose a concept or form --i.e. imagery, rhyme, sonnets, free verse, assonance/consonance/alliteration...you get the idea. I share a few poems that illustrate a good use of this device or form and then ask them to write one. This is a good unit because you can make it as long or as short as you want it to be. In other words, if the kids seem to be getting bored, you can just end it and start something new. At the end of the unit, I ask them to submit three of the poems they have written along with a brief synopsis describing what it is they are trying to accomplish with the poem.

2. Short story (We talk about what goes into writing a good piece of short fiction. We do little mini lessons in irony, dialog, descriptive writing, characterization... and then they plan their story, conference with me, then write it! I have a rubric for the final story.)

3. A one act play (Again, we read one or two and talk about dialog and character a lot for this)

4. A children's book (they bring their favorite book in and analyze it first then storyboard and write one of their own. I let them work in pairs for this so they can help each other with illustrations...We also go to one of the elementary schools in our district and read them to the kids)

5. A memoir. We watch an episode of The Wonder Years so they get the idea that they are focusing on one event and how that event affected them.

6. Nacirema: Look this up. Basically we read the article on the Nacirema People (American spelled backwards) and then they choose something like the prom, a football game, Toddlers in Tiaras...and write about it from an anthropologist's point of view. This is so fun! A bit challenging for some of them, but I am amazed at the creative ideas I get from them.

7. In between bigger projects like the ones mentioned, I do little activites like observation journals, a Google Search story (look this up...the kids love it!), five word stories (again, look this up) and life lessons (I have them watch The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch on the Oprah show [link removed].)

Feel free to e-mail me. I have tons of documents I can share with you and will be happy to do so. [email removed]

On 7/05/12, Novel wrote: > On 7/04/12, Glory B. wrote: >> I have been assigned to teach a Creative Writing class for >> next school year. In our school, this is a class that >> students take for an easy 4th English credit to graduate. >> Generally, these are students who are not on the level of >> higher students who progress on to Senior English or College >> Prep classes so the curriculum needs to be basic to meet the >> educational level of the students. Any ideas for classroom >> routine, lessons, etc. would be greatly appreciated. The >> class meets every other day for 90 minutes so the class >> sessions need to be broken up somehow each day in order to >> keep their already lacking interest. > > > Use a variety of stimulus. > > Maybe start each day with a short writing activity in a > journal, using a choice of prompts. Thia should get them > settled and in the mood for work. Make them accountable for > this work - take it in each week and at least make sure they > have done it. > > They can watch a film over several days with a writing prompt > after each section, leading to an extended piece for > assessment. > > Use extracts from real life media - newspapers, websites, etc > and they can write imaginative pieces that are inspired by > these. > > Give them sentence starters. > > Build in grammar and spelling sessions, no longer than 10 > minutes at a time. Little bite-size pieces are more likely to > stay with them than extended lessons. > > These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. > Good luck.

Jul 18, 2012

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