ideas and info - Teaching a creative writing class

[Wishing on a star]

I will be teaching a short class on Creative Writing for elementary school aged children, up thru fifth grade.

I have a good idea about how I want to do this. But, I really need some good information and ideas!

What types of topics would be 'MUST cover'?

How would you organize-outline the classes?

What would you do to make it more fun and creative?

etc...

I truly appreciate any input!

I can post more about how I am thinking of doing this, if anyone offers any tips, and is interested.

Thanks!

 

[raysnkaysmom]

As far as must covers, I'm thinking for things they'd enjoy and still educational.

Their dream vacation (must be out of the United States, so they have to maybe do some research on it) and what they'd do and see....

Since they were all around for this monumental election, maybe what'd they do as President and who would be their running mate and why.

Thats all I got for now...I just woke up

 

[Wishing on a star]

Thanks!

Great ideas!
I do need to have some story 'germs' to get the kids started.

This is a short one-semester course for younger kids.
So far, I am thinking that I will start with some basic lessons. Like perhaps teaching adjectives and how they can be used in creative/expressive writing.

I will probably have a short story-time at the beginning of the class each week, to get them focused and involved in writing and strorytelling. I am thinking I might start out with Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs!

I am thinking about covering things like "What do I write about..." Where the story germs might come in.

Things like organization/sequence of events.

Character development.

I would love to hear any other good ideas!

My idea is to start simple, and by the end of the 10 classes, each child has successfully created, written, and illustrated a creative story all their own!

 

[DSNY4ever]

You could do something simple like like fill a box with stuff like a clothes pin, a balloon, a tennis ball, a candy wrapper, a lottery ticket, a crayon, a feather etc. Then the kids could pull something out of the box and whatever they get they have to tie into their story somehow. It could be a good jumping off point for some kids.

For when you go over character development, you could do a similar thing. Put different descriptive words on a piece of paper and the kids have to develop a character around the word they pick out of the box- ex. silly, loud, tall, energetic, smart, sneaky etc.

Good luck- hopefully something here helped.

 

[amid chaos]

I taught an after school writing and book making course at the elementary level for many years.

This is the book I used to start many of the projects. The book making activities very often led the kids to a subject and ideas. When our course was done they had many completed writing assignments complete with creative books. The kid loved the pop up books and tab books. This resource has directions for binding books, shape books, accordion books, flap books, pull tab books, books with wheels and pop up books. It was a wonderful place to start.

http://www.amazon.com/Literature-Wr...5788/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250629504&sr=8-1

 

[RUDisney]

I just finished reading Frank McCourt's book, Teacher Man, last week. In it, he talks about teaching a creative writing course in a vocational school. He couldn't get the kids interested in writing and he saw that they were quite prolific in authoring forged excuses from their parents. He turned that into a lesson and had all of the students write the best excuse that they could for a famous person. For example, it could be an excuse for Nero burning down Rome, for Miley Cyrus missing a concert, for a person on death row... you see, it could be from the past or present; and it could be for an actual or fictional event, etc.

You could have them write about the numerous children who are "starving when you don't want to eat all of your meal."

Another idea is for them to write about bullies since that is a big topic in our school and I'm sure in many others.

I always loved creative writing courses.

 

[golfgal]

DS17, the kid who's goal in life is to create the shortest sentences possible when writing anything, signed up for a creative writing class for this school year. We reminded him that he HATES to write papers and that is pretty much all you do in a creative writing class but what do we know? His response, "well I will get to write about what I want to write about". Again, what do we know. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Golfgal, you are cracking me up!!!!

My son's disabilities make writing almost impossible for him.... So, yes, I know of what I speak!!!

This is not a REAL course...
No grades even.
Just a once a week enrichment class for one semester.

I considered taking it on, because, even my son, over the last few years, had been coming up with quite some stories about fictional characters that he make up in his head. Super Slug and Super Slug. (yes, both with the same name!!!!) who are the mishappen superheroes who keep Slug City safe from all villians. Hahahahah!!!!

Well, when Oprah had that Shutterfly promotion, I collected all his stories and drawings, put them together into a self-published book, complete with an 'About the Author' section at the end with a nice portrait photo of DS. When I had put it all together with neat backgrounds, etc.. The end result was AWESOME!!!!

So, I figure that if it could be done with my son, then....

 

[Judy from Boise]

I think the must is for them to understand that all stories are based on conflict, then share the archetypes "man against man, man against nature, man on a quest" etc. Have the kids discuss there favorites in each category, then as a follow up lesson analyze why they were liked. The you can come up with a list of "suggestions" to remember when telling narrative stories.

 

[ThanksForNoticingMe]

I think it would be fun to to do a writing project based on fairy tales. You could read the book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (the story is told by the wolfs point of view ) and then ask your students to take any fairy tale and rewrite it from the villians/antagonists point of view.

 

[golfgal]

I think it would be fun to to do a writing project based on fairy tales. You could read the book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (the story is told by the wolfs point of view ) and then ask your students to take any fairy tale and rewrite it from the villians/antagonists point of view.

I love this book!!!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Strangely, I wrote this post before reading those immediately above it. We all seem to have the same idea.

One of the hardest things to teach, I think, is thinking out of the box. One teacher who managed to do that for me (in a creative writing sense) did it by introducing "fractured fairy tales". You've seen it done before, someone takes a well-known Disney-fied story and puts it into modern context or otherwise stands it on its head. Red Riding Hood turns out not to be the naive little waif when she takes a sawed off shotgun to the forehead of the big bad wolf...that sort of thing. I had so much fun writing a modern day Rapunzel (complete with an American Express Card commercial built into it) I never forgot the exercise.

 

[clh2]

I am really old now... but when I was in 4th or 5th grade, I took a creative writing summer class...also a "no-grade" type of class. That was back when school districts offered fun stuff in the summers.

On the first day of the class...the teacher started to introduce herself, and someone came into the classroom, made a little commotion, and then left the room. We almost immediately were asked to write a short summary of the visitor. Thirty-some years later...I still remember that the visitor had a butter-fly shape in the flyswatter she was carrying, and that she had glasses on a chain that were in a 1950's shape (with the pointy edges...I just can't think of what they are called.)

This little project started a nice discussion on paying attention to detail, that stories come from everyday things etc.

>>>just a little additional info - the visitor was obviously a planned intrusion, was dressed a little oddly, and probably stayed for 2 minutes.

 

[IDoDis]

Ooooh, I would have so much fun with a class like this. I'd start out by reading "Nothing Ever Happens on 98th Street."
http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Ever-Happens-90th-Street/dp/0531071367/ref=pd_sim_b_1

I'd have each student start a writer's notebook (composition books are .25 cents each at Staples through Wednesday (tomorrow). Their first homework assignment would be to decorate their notebooks with photos of themselves, family, friends, pictures of things they like (vacation spot, foods, colors), words that they like or words that describe them, etc... Buy fat clear packing tape and then tape over the covers the next day so they keep well.

I'd piggy back off of the 98th street book by taking them on a nature walk. Stop somewhere (even if it's on the campus where you are teaching), have everyone sit down and listen quietly for a few minutes. Have them start writing things they hear and see. No one talks! Discuss what they wrote and then have them pick one thing from their list to expand upon. Do this together first as a class. Take one "snapshot" in time and make it into a fiction or non-fiction piece. Tell them that's what good writer's do. The show and don't just tell. While they are working on their first piece, you can teach a mini-lesson each day on how to add "voice" as well as mini-lessons on word choice, organization, sentence fluency, and editing/conventions. The editing/conventions SHOULD NOT be the focus of a creative writing class though. Of course they should have things corrected before publishing anything though.

You might see if you can find a copy of the book "Salt Hands".
http://www.amazon.com/Hands-Picture...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250660795&sr=1-1

It's out of print now so it's expensive, but your public library should have it. It's a picture book about a girl who sees a deer in the woods at night outside of her bedroom window. She feeds the wild deer some salt out of her outstretched hand. The author took a snapshot in time and added power words, description, & feeling. I remember reading how the girl in the book felt the deer's hot breath on her cold hands. She didn't just write, "I went outside and fed the deer some salt."

I'd give them assignments to go home and write in their writer's notebook about a snapshot they see at home. It could be something like watching their younger sibling eat dinner, or watching their pet dogs play together. The focus is "show me, don't tell me."

Teach the kids how to take these small moments in time and expand on them to write creatively.

 

[Cindy B]

Each student needs a writers notebook.. that is a given. I would go over archetypes, the "empowered child" (notice in many adolescent /children's books the kids have the "power" instead of adults), setting, conflict and character development.

One of the first fun but challenging assignments I did in a creative writing class was write a paragraph about myself in one syllable words. The whole class shared theirs and it was pretty funny. You could definetely do this with the older group.

Encourage the workshop process and allow each other to critique in a kind but generous way.

Give them topics they are interested in: movie stars, electronics, money (my 3td graders loved writing about money!), future jobs, what if situations? and things like that. Picture prompts may even be exciting.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

How cool!

My dd dreams of the day that she gets to take a creative writing course.

Good Luck!