Creative writing is an important part of the writing journey. The priority in today’s education system is non-fiction and essay writing. It can be hard to remember that students enjoy the opportunity to flex their creative muscles with creative writing assignments, which is why I wanted to share some creative writing lesson ideas with you today.
In this #2ndaryELA Twitter recap, teachers share their best creative writing lesson ideas for incorporating this type of writing in the English Language Arts classroom.
Creative Writing Lesson Ideas
Q1: What is the structure of your creative writing class, or how do you incorporate creative writing lesson ideas into your ELA class?
- My students free-write in journals several times a week.
- We start each class period with 5 minutes of quiet journal writing time. Some weeks, the prompt is creative.
- When I taught creative writing, I let the class decide the type of writing/genre and then used a writing workshop format to teach each.
- When designing summative tasks for ELA units, I try to add a creative writing option if it fits. i.e. short story unit.
- Our 1st major writing piece is a short story. A favourite for many students!
- It’s a semester class, so one month of memoir, one month of fiction, one month of screen/stage writing, and one month of poetry.
- We are in our narrative unit right now, and students have choice in any topic. We need to do a better job infusing creative writing throughout the year.
- Read mentor texts, followed by mini lessons and workshop time. We end this by sharing it in a celebration.
- I started every class with a quick write on a variety of topics and pulled a lot of lesson ideas from Don’t Forget to Write.
- I have my students do free writing periodically. My juniors just finished a This I Believe narrative.
- Creative writing is an area of need for me. I focus on essays that are state standard. Narrative writing is where students create.
- I plan to do project-based writing next semester with juniors. They completely create their creative writing projects. So excited!
- My favorite is poetry; we use stations for creating poems & also have friendly competitions.
Q2: Do your creative writing students keep blogs? If so, on what platform? For what purpose?
- We don’t use blogs, but if we did I really like the Blogger platform.
- We didn’t keep blogs. Students kept a notebook for play and practice.
- We do not keep blogs. I am not sure if we would even be allowed.
- Students don’t use blogs but have used platforms like WattPad in the past to share their writing.
- I have my students blog. Anything inspired by their SSR. Sometimes they do choose a creative writing response. Great authenticity.
- Students don’t use blogs but have used platforms like WattPad in the past to share their writing.
- I don’t use blogs either. My students build stories around subject matter we study. I do run comment threads on Google Classroom.
- No blogs yet! We have been doing a lot of collaborative work with Google Apps though.
- I suggest Blogger, but ultimately let them pick.
Q3: Has anyone incorporated graphic novels or movie storyboards into their creative writing lesson ideas? Share your experiences.
- My creative writing class used storyboarding for our children’s books.
- Before everything had to be essay writing, I used to have students make a children’s book out of novel we read in class.
- @Storybird and @StoryboardThat are wonderful visual tools to inspire/ appeal to creative writing.
- In my ELA classes, my students create a short film and learn to storyboard. It helps them to stay focused during filming.
- This is my first year teaching ELA to grade 8. I would love to learn about incorporating movie storyboards into creative writing!
- I love having students make comic versions of short stories we read. It’s a great way to practice summarizing and still be creative.
- Storyboards for iMovie is a YES! Plan before you video. Create backdrops and make do with what we have.
- Our prompts are always related to the reading we are doing in class. I use sentence stems with ELL students.
- Students create storyboards on @StoryboardThat to practice imagery. They also use picture books to practice analysis.
- Adobe Spark is a fun tool! Not a storyboard but students can make trailers.
Q4: In what ways do you provide an authentic audience for your creative writers?
- Blogging is a wonderful way to provide an authentic audience and writing experience.
- We are a Google school. Blogger is a Google tool. The students can control the viewing privileges.
- Looking for ideas here but I know my kids would love it if there was some kind of display – maybe a coffee shop type event?
- I have students create according to what they feel is needed. it usually involves teen issues. Students tell a story they want heard.
- Students presented This I Believe essays to classmates. Some even submitted to the official website! Loving the idea of using blogs though.
Q5: What guidelines do you use for fairly assessing student creativity? Effort?
- teenink is also a great place to submit/ read.
- I use a rubric that basically looks for plot elements and conventions.
- I don’t grade their free write notebooks. I only read them if they share them with me, and ask me for feedback.
- I do not judge their creativity – just that they have a complete story with good conventions.
- My grading is based on elements we collect from mentor texts and mini lessons.
- I look for implementation of ideas. W humor, the rule of three, etc.
- Rubrics tailored to the assignment including whatever writing techniques we’re working on i.e. figurative language, suspense, etc.
- I don’t assess creativity. Measuring it is difficult. Quality in words can vary from brief to long, yet each can be profound.
- Look for basics—ideas clear, organized logically, mechanics, etc. Looking for best efforts.
Creative Writing Lesson Ideas for the Middle School Classroom
Creative Writing Prompts and Activities
Add these no prep creative writing prompts to your creative writing lesson ideas. Students will select their topic from 20 different writing prompts. These prompts can be used as a stand-alone assignment, sub plans or enrichment task. Integrate these prompts into your creative writing lesson ideas, Writer’s Workshop classes, or any ELA writing lesson. These prompts are a fantastic way to incorporate student voice and choice into your lessons and a great addition to your creative writing lesson ideas toolbox.
This resource includes:
- Teacher Instructions
- Student Assignment Sheet (List or Choice Board Format)
- 6 Anchor Charts
- 20 different levelled writing prompts
- Google Classroom ready PDFs
- Google Slides Format
- 2 Rubric Options (Standards-Based Rubric or Points-Based Rubric)
Here’s what teachers have said about this resource:
“There are so many fun and interesting prompts for them to choose from. Great use for practicing and for topic ideas for bigger assignments.” – Jessie V.
“This is a great resource! My students were very engaged and this worked well for creative writing time, and was a good addition to sub plans as students could work on things independently when needed!” – Jennifer R.
You can find the Creative Writing Prompts and Activities on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Creative Writing Full Year Bundle
Never run out of creative writing lesson ideas again! This no-prep Creative Writing Full Year Bundle will keep your students engaged in their writing through the whole year. This bundle is full of creative writing prompts that provide holiday creative writing prompts (Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter) as well as seasonal creative writing prompts (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, Back to School) to support an inclusive classroom environment. It also includes a creative writing rubric.
Students will select one of the provided seasonal or holiday-themed character roles and create a written or visual product based on the character’s specific writing prompt using the RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) format.
This resource includes:
- Detailed Teacher Instructions
- 9 Different Creative Writing Assignments
- 25 Exemplars
- Standards-Based Grading Rubric (Level 1 – Level 4)
- Points-Based Grading Rubric (Provides a final percentage mark)
- Print & Digital Formats
What teachers have said about these creative writing lessons:
“My students looked forward to these creative writing activities. We did the Christmas themed one, the valentines themed one, and the Easter one. The students began to anticipate the assignment around each holiday and started to guess which characters may be included.” – Megan D.
“These are so much fun! They have a ton of opportunity for student choice and creativity and have been well received over multiple grades.” – Jennifer R.
You can find the Creative Writing Full Year Bundle on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
For even more creative writing lesson ideas, check out these blog posts:
- Creative Writing Lesson Plans
- When To Use Creative Writing Activities
- Why Teach Middle School Creative Writing?
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