creative writing activities

creative writing activities

Creative Writing Activities

1. Introduction

This book will provide the writer a path to enhance their academic and creative writing skills. Teachers will have literacy concepts and tasks explicitly illustrated for them while catering to a mixed ability class. All tasks in this book are accompanied by a teacher’s note that will give a teacher explicit guidelines for each task, including ideas on how to teach the task, how to assess the task, and how to follow up and extend the task. This book will be a fundamental resource for anyone wanting to learn about and teach creative writing.

This book is a simple and complete package for creative writing for students and teachers. All tasks and concepts that are enclosed within this package are guaranteed to develop students’ writing capability, where a student should be able to complete these tasks and be able to write a given text type with a strong degree of competency. All tasks will meet the outcomes of creative writing in the literacy curriculum, where through using the NSW literacy continuum, a teacher can see a student’s progress.

Tasks within the book vary in degree of difficulty to cater to the different levels of abilities within a class. Each of these tasks has been vividly illustrated to capture the interest of the child while integrating visual literacy and artistic skills. Many of the tasks have a brainstorming activity that encourages discussion and learning with a partner or small group, as while the goal of creative writing is to flow an idea, an idea may arrive better when it has been enhanced and discussed. All brainstorm activities and all other tasks have been integrated with student self-assessment rubrics that have been taken directly from the NSW literacy continuum. All rubrics are accompanied by a completed teacher marking grid. A student’s progress can be decided by looking at the continuum and comparing the individual rubric ratings of their work to the literacy continuum, where tasks have been leveled to. These rubrics and marking grids will prove to be very effective assessment tools that are integrated with teaching, and the ability to move tasks up and down the continuum will allow a teacher to cater to a mixed ability class. At the teacher’s preference, completed tasks can also be assembled for a portfolio.

Tasks that require students to write in specific genres, explore points of view, and critical literacy tasks have been integrated. Students will develop writing skills in varied and diverse genres, ranging from narrative to persuasive, poem to play, in every case trying to convey information or express ideas and feelings they have about various topics. Each task sheet has an explicit teaching focus, and many tasks build on one another so that the students are making continual progress.

Through this book, we aim to assist teachers in educating children in creative writing. The book is designed to cover the requirements of a creative writing course for children between the ages of 5 and 12, taking a step-by-step approach. The book will prove to be a complete package with its wide range of creative writing activities. It has a mix of writing tasks, including information sheets on how to write stories, noun groups, stimuli on how to write explanations, descriptions, and recounts, to more selective and constrained tasks which are leveled with the primary school numeracy and literacy continuum.

2. Brainstorming Techniques

Using free-writing for a topic brainstorming, clustering, and inventing new and imaginative ideas can make other brainstorming activities more successful. This technique, suggested by Sommer (1989), is best applied after the student has been assigned a topic and has already done some initial brainstorming on the subject. Ideally, it is undertaken after a little initial research into the essay subject. This technique, although very simple, can be very powerful and long-lasting on the student’s writing habits and skills. Free-writing is unstructured. It does not stop. A speed is attempted to be maintained, and the writer tries to put their initial thoughts on paper as fast as it comes into their head. Usually, timing the exercise is a good idea, i.e. 10-15 minutes. This works to eliminate the “what should I write next?” problem by forcing the student to write continuously until the time lapse. When this is initiated on the student for the first time, it is highly likely that the student will not stop writing, feeling worried onto stop in case it is the wrong thing and realizing at the time that it cannot be wrong, it is the first thing that comes into their head. This technique forces people to stop worrying about the quality of written English and lets students explore their minds in English. Free-writing can often lead to an essay that is actually of very good quality because it can release many inhibitions of the student and thus produce a better piece of work.

3. Writing Prompts

Students often struggle with non-literal assignments such as this. By providing it in writing (specifically typed), it can be saved and printed for future reflection. This increases the chance that it will be completed more than once in a 45-minute class, with the original copies often developed into bragging rights amongst friends. An extended time frame of completion also allows for the use of a wider array of techniques and the mastery of higher-level skills.

Required: Describe an experience you have had or a character you encountered in a dream. Develop the description by including specific details, using imagery, and employing sensory details.

Ranging from three-dimensional to visual to multimedia, these novel prompts can easily be adapted to the traditional written level. Students are posed with a thought-provoking experience designed to help practice essential writing techniques. These prompts have proven time and time again to build valuable assessments.

4. Character Development Exercises

The way a character behaves, carries themselves, moves, expresses their desires, feels, thinks, and speaks. What the character does. Personality is our general attributes, our defining characteristics, what distinguishes us from other people. This should be exhibited through the previous elements. For instance, the reader must be able to work out the nature of a character by the way they speak or act. E.g. the cowardly lion in the ‘Wizard of Oz’, by the way he speaks the audience can conclude that he is uncertain and timid. An important thing to try and achieve is making the characters personality and behaviour reflective of the society in which they live. E.g. A character in a feudalistic society should have the mindset of someone from a medieval era and thus behave and talk according to that. This can be achieved by constantly reminding yourself of the character’s situation and mindset before embarking on any piece of dialogue or action. This element provides your character with life. The kind of people you meet every day are full of life, good and evil. And so is your character, good and/or evil. This part of their identity is what they are trying to achieve with any character. It is the characters aspirations. What the character is willing to change, how far the character is willing to go into order to achieve their wants and how the character reacts if the situation changes. This may determine the characters development or downfall. And what the character wants to achieve is often in his/her best interests, thus his/her attempts to achieve it will serve as his/her defence, often from other characters who stand in their way. “A way of setting a story into motion without resorting to flashbacks or introspecting. A character enters a new environment, situation or changes his/her current situation to obtain their desires and the story consists of their attempts to achieve them. Time and consideration should be spent developing the characters and the story plot. By studying Character sheets etc. this author has discovered the best methods in character development. Set a random situation out of the context of your story. E.g. a bar fight, and play it out with your characters. You may determine something interesting, revealing and in some cases close to home to your characters and it could provide a basis for a sub plot or character development. A frequent occurrence is an Author developing a character and later realizing that it does not quite fit in with the story. In this case a situation may be too late to change and there are no desires to kill off the character. Consider it as a practice run for the story and it will benefit the author to have tried the situation in any case.”

5. Editing and Feedback

Peer editing Even looking critically at your own draft is difficult. How much more helpful would it be to get feedback from someone else? Someone who is not as familiar with your work as you are. Confronted with someone else’s writing, we have that degree of critical separation which is currently impossible in relation to our own. By acting as the reader, the other student adopts the most crucial role of the editor. It is often said that writers can learn most about their writing from what a reader tells them. By giving constructive feedback on the writing done, the editor can act as an attentive reader and the writer can gain an insight into what is or isn’t being communicated in their work. Choose someone who will provide constructive criticism, not people who will be over-indulgent. “It’s wonderful just as it is!” is not a helpful comment when you’re trying to find ways to express your ideas more clearly. A good editor will tell you honestly what they think and will offer some ideas for improvement. But remember, as the writer being asked to edit also, don’t be too possessive of your writing. Be willing to make cuts and changes if it will make the work better at conveying your thoughts.