Any suggestions for teaching creative writing in high schools?

Answer 1

There are some great suggestions here. Adding on from my teaching experience, I'd add...

It's always good to model the writing process by looking at a good example from a particular genre, then all work on that genre together.

Write yourself and share with your class.

Use visual stimuli, sounds, smells, objects (photos cut from newspapers, things taped off the telly, sound-effects, aromatherapy oils, an old boot, a torn umbrella....) as starting points.

Borrow a line of poetry or a sentence from a story as a starter, or get the kids to 'treasure hunt' good examples for themselves.

Get kids to edit each other's work. Find opportunities to publish their work - competitions, online, class magazine.... They will want to do well if it's for a REAL audience.

Go to a location or event together - a field, a bus station, a sports game, a river... Divide them into pairs or groups and have them work on different foci (characters, setting etc) and have them share. Use this as a springboard for a writing project.

Structure is often one of the most difficult things for students to grasp - sometimes writing less is more. Have them chart visually the stages a good writer incorporates.

And overall, make your students feel that you ENJOY reading their work! Read aloud the best part of everyone's work (don't leave anyone out) and be encouraging!!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Provide a safe writing environment, draft writing is getting ideas down on paper first, editing and publishing occur for some but not all writing.
Journals where the students have free writing with only you as their target audience, these are private and not shared with the class.
Round Robbin writing, great if its a lovely day outside, sit in a circle, each person writes an opening paragraph then passes their paper to left (or right whatever you prefer) the next person reads what is written and adds the next part of the story, pass on pass on this is really good for reluctant writers because its like a game and you only have to write small amounts.
You can also plan short lessons so the activity is finished in the period unless you are editing and publishing.
Mystery box....Magic box....Magic tree what every you like show them an item let them create the story,
Remember artists are not creative 24/7 and neither are students if its an assessable piece of work give them the topic a few days before hand and have them jot notes down.

Answer 4

In addition to all of the above, give students the tools to know what's creative writing and what's not. Inform students of the forms of creative writing, even if they whine. Knowing what the plot arch is will make the writing better. Teach some of the poetry forms, and have students use them. Strange as it sounds, the structure forces creativity in ways that free form writing seldom does.

Definitely use peer reviews and workshops - I think they're very useful.

Stress editing and revision.

Point out creative writing in the real world; not just the folks who end up in the Best American, but ad writers, screenwriters, copywriters for catalogs, and so on. You can also point out competitions in your state or region, and add that at the college level there are conferences they can go to if their work qualifies.

Answer 5

First, all these are easy and good:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html

Get them to journal write and share their entries in groups of four and then comment on eachoer positively. You can supply the topics if they need guidance.

Freewriting is also great:

This is one of our tutors' favorite techniques for helping writers who cannot get started. Freewriting resembles the warm up you might do before exercising. There is no "correct" way to do this, so try a variation of these steps:

Begin with a blank computer screen and a watch (or the clock on the computer). You might use a pad instead--freewriting involves generating words, not correcting them or getting just the right word.
Set a time for yourself. Try one, five, or ten minutes. Longer times may not be that productive since freewriting is a "warm up" for more focused writing.
Begin to type or write about anything that comes into your head. Don't stop until the time is up.
Then review what you have written. Are there words you like? Ideas that might work for the next project you are doing?
Focused Freewriting follows the same process but begins with a topic:

Put a topic of your choice, or even the topic of your next paper, at the top of a blank page.
Set a time limit and begin Freewriting. This time, write down things that seem to be related to the topic. Do not worry about order of ideas or grammatical correctness. Don't worry if the ideas seem to be digressions.
When time is up, look over what you have written. Pull out ideas and phrases you can use later.
Practice putting the Freewriting into outline form. If you were to use the writing to begin a paper, which points would you make first? Second?

Answer 6

Hello,

Here are a few ideas off the top of my head:

1. If you're a creative writing teacher, recall how you learned creative writing and adapt it to high school.
2. Trust your judgement.
3. Create safety in the classroom for your students so they feel safe sharing their personal creations.
4. Trust high school students to take the ball and run with it.
5. Encourage them to experiment with different genres
6. Help them to distinguish between writing for self-expression and writing to be read by others.
7. Let them share their stories with each other in class
8. Teach them how to give useful and supportive feedback
10. Make them write!

Hope this helps!

Answer 7

Find a way to limit the regular grading process. In order for teenagers to be creative they have to feel that they are not being judged. No answer, no idea is incorrect. Give them a nudge and let them run with it. Try games like gossip to break the ice. Show a picture and ask them to tell what happened just before the picture was taken. Write the first few sentence to a story and ask them to take it from there. Use lots of color and pictures and drawings, even sounds and music to set the imagination free to explore. Participation is everything.

Answer 8

My suggestions for teaching creative writing in high schools by telling my students to look everywhere in my class and expressing & describing their feelings with their visual aids.

Answer 9

I would teach it in a way that could have the students express their individuality. For example, I took a creative writing class in college and the professor had us write about something we experienced in our life, and turned it into some story. He also had us write about different topics. One example of this was that he gave us a word.....one week it was the word "eyes", the next "Hands" the next, "Butt". We would have to write a short descriptive story about each of those objects. I remember writing a story about my grandmother's hands, how they were wrinkled and arthritic, yet strong from all her work throughout her years. I wrote about my son and how bad his poopies were as a baby:) for the word "butt." The class had a lot of fun reading their stories out loud also. If you want some more suggestions, feel free to email me, I have a lot more ideas:)!

Answer 10

Think of creative topics, this stimulates the thinking process which makes for more creative papers! Plus everyday introduce a new grammer, writing type so they have fun, and learn tons over a year!