Teaching Creative Writing 2

Teaching Creative Writing : 

Teaching Creative Writing Heather White

Introduction : 

Introduction What is creative writing? Why is it important? Tips and strategies Word of caution Resources Conclusion

What is creative writing? : 

What is creative writing? Creative writing is “the act of writing fiction or poetry, often as an exercise.”

Why is it important? : 

Why is it important? Creative writing is important because it helps students express themselves in creative ways. Also, it can open the door to help students want to learn to write and learn about their own writing styles.

Tips : 

Tips Make the creative writing unit as relaxed and informal as possible. High school students in particular will feel more comfortable expressing themselves in an informal environment. Set up the desks in a circle. Allow your students to choose whether or not they want to share their writing. Let the students lead the discussions as much as possible.

Slide 6: 

Pick approaches to writing that your high school students may have not tried before. For a fiction assignment, you could have your students rewrite a favorite story from the perspective of a different character. For a poetry assignment, you could have them describe a favorite place by its smell, sound and texture

Slide 7: 

Show examples. Bring in a favorite poem or an excerpt from a story to demonstrate the kind of writing you assign.

Slide 8: 

Participate in the creative writing process. Do the assignments yourself, and share your own writing with the students. By opening your own writing to the students, you can make them feel more comfortable sharing with you. They will also benefit from having the voice of a more seasoned writer.

Slide 9: 

First loosen up, then tighten up. When the class is first starting, the goal is to make your creative writing students feel comfortable expressing themselves. Once they feel comfortable, you can teach them lessons about writing tighter prose, using more creative imagery or whatever other writing techniques you may want to include.

Slide 10: 

Teaching creative writing to junior high or high school students will be different from teaching a college-level or adult creative writing class. Your curriculum and lesson plans should reflect the age and comprehension levels of your students so that you don't over-challenge them or fail to challenge them enough. Adults can have more freedom with what they write about while high school students will need to be monitored more closely.

Slide 11: 

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when teaching creative writing is assuming that everyone in the class knows what a dangling modifier is -- or, even worse, what a noun is. When you first start teaching the class, you might be better off giving the students a short quiz to determine what they know and what you must teach them in order for them to succeed.

Slide 12: 

If you give your students specific assignments -- such as, Write about your favorite summer vacation -- you're going to stifle that creativity and your students won't have as much fun. This doesn't mean that you can't have any structure, but you should be careful about how you issue assignments.

Slide 13: 

Your best bet in teaching creative writing is to start with the small projects and then work your way up. Even if the course is supposed to be geared toward writing short stories, you might want to begin with short-shorts to cover the basics of structure and storytelling. From there, you can make the assignments more complicated so your students can grow.

Word of caution : 

Word of caution Keep the assignments flexible but not too open-ended. If students are given too little writing guidance, they will have trouble starting. If, on the other hand, they are given too formal a structure, they will not be able to loosen up and get creative.

Slide 15: 

Although plagiarism is never acceptable, derivative writing is. Some students may need to feel comfortable with a style of writing before making it their own. Allow them to mimic the examples you give.

Resources : 

Resources Web English Teacher This site has lesson plans for grade school through high school. The Teacher’s Lounge Even though this site is geared more toward middle school, it still has great information on teaching language arts to high school students. Edutopia This site has a free PDF download that is full of information on teaching with new media.

Conclusion : 

Conclusion Creative writing is a learned process, and there is no one definite way to teach it. You have to be flexible with creative writing because it is a subjective subject. Teaching creative writing can be a very rewarding experience.