Innovative lessons plans and ideas for teaching creative writing as well as samples of student writing resulting from the lessons.
Dean Kostos, poet, memoirist, translator, and T&W teaching artist, connects history to the present in this lesson on conversation poems featuring Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes.
A lesson plan for engaging third- through sixth-graders in creating poems that combine sound and image.
How to handle unfamiliar complex texts
How do human body systems function to maintain homeostasis?
Encouraging students to have fun with names and introductions
David Surface breaks down descriptive writing for second-graders
Dialogue
Several years ago I came across a fine poem by Jon Anderson called “The Photograph of Myself”
This lesson engages students with several learning styles, including kinesthetic aural, visual and interpersonal.
A new lesson for an old favorite.
(SLOW) TAGGING IN THE CLASSROOM
Olivia Birdsall invites students to select a topic for a Cause-Effect/Before-After essay
A poetry lesson exploring Lorca, Simic, and Apollinaire.
Why are so many of my students so reluctant to embrace books?
How powerful imagery can (literally) move readers.
Common core lesson plan
Take one thought and open up a child’s world.
CPitS celebrates the long history of one of the oldest and largest literary arts education programs in the US.
Arnold offers ideas for exploring literary point of view through studying the Egyptian pyramids.
Sarah Porter brings sarcasm to sixth-graders
David A. Stoler brings students into the past with a study of “journey poems.”
Concrete images to express abstract concepts.
Using surprise to make poetry come alive.