Innovative lessons/ideas for teaching creative writing, as well as samples of student writing resulting from the lesson. See complete submission guidelines here.
by Jennie Weng Character analysis is an important skill for writers to learn. However, too often students label characters with one-dimensional terms (e.g., good, bad, funny, evil, protagonist, antagonist). Well-crafted characters are a lot like real people; they are complex. If students can understand this integral component of character analysis, they will not only be…
by Matthew Baganz In the second part of his Arts of Speech lesson plan, Matthew Baganz shows students how words can create and communicate visual images. Read Part 1 of the lesson plan here. Grade: 3–5 Genre: Descriptive prose Download: The Arts of Speech Part 2: Recreating Pictures with Words Common Core Standard: ELA-Literacy.W.3-5.3 Write narratives…
by Matthew Baganz In Part 1 of The Arts of Speech, Matthew Baganz uses movement and imagery to help children learn the purpose of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. See Part 2 of the lesson plan here. Grade: 3–5 Download: The Arts of Speech Part 1: Unifying Meaning with Parts of Speech Common Core State…
By Matthew Burgess “The best way to help children write freely is by encouragement, by examples, and by various other inspiring means.” — Kenneth Koch, Wishes, Lies, and Dreams “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” — Pablo Picasso If you walk into a room full…
By Javan Howard Grades: 6–8 Genre: Poetry Themes: Race, Identity, and Stereotype Download: Who Am I? Exploring Stereotypes and Identity through Poetry LESSON PLAN Warm-Up (5 minutes): Define the Quote: Distribute Audre Lorde quote on index cards. Have students turn to those nearest them to discuss the quote: If I didn’t define myself for…
A creative writing lesson plan where students are asked to write poems in the voice of Lady Liberty.
by Bushra Rehman “Peer closer: a soul and a soul. He folds over her like a rosebud in sleep.” — Ishle Yi Park How to bring a love of sonnets to my high school students? Easy. I was a student, once upon a time in the old hip-hop life of Queens, and I am armed…
By Jacy Bryla This unit is adapted from T&W teaching artists Jane LeCroy’s and Samantha Facciolo’s poetry programs for sixth-grade students who were making masks as an art class project at IS 218, the Rafael Hernandez Dual Language Magnet School in the Bronx. Alongside their mask-making, the writers asked the students to write poetry that…
By Jason DeHart In my experience as a middle school teacher, I often found that some students were hesitant to engage with the written page, either as readers or writers. On the other hand, colorful characters and even segments from popular superhero movies were almost always uniquely engaging for students. Comic books and heroic characters…
By Samantha LoCoco In this lesson on personal narrative, T&W teaching artist Samantha LoCoco helps seventh-graders begin to articulate the values that are most important to them, and to realize how those values shape who they are as individuals. Grade: 7 Genre: Personal Narrative Download: Value Exploration and Personal Narrative Common Core State Standards: (Refer to…