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Creative Writing Lesson Plans: Week One

Looking for creative writing lesson plans? I am developing creative writing lesson ideas! 

I’ve written and revamped my creative writing lesson plans and learned that the first week is vital in establishing a community of writers, in outlining expectations, and in working with a new class.

What are some good creative writing exercises?

Some good creative writing exercises include writing prompts, free writing, character development exercises, and fun writing games.

The first week, though, we establish trust—and then we begin powerful creative writing exercises to engage young writers and our community.

How can add encouragement in creative writing lesson plans?

I’ve found students are shy about writing creatively, about sharing pieces of themselves. A large part of the first week of class is setting the atmosphere, of showing everyone they are free to create. And! These concepts will apply to most writing lesson plans for secondary students.

Feel free to give me feedback and borrow all that you need! Below, find my detailed my day-by-day progression for creative writing lesson plans  for week one.

Creative Writing Lesson Day One: Sharing my vision

Comfort matters for young writers. I’m not a huge “ice breaker” type of teacher—I build relationships slowly. Still, to get student writing, we must establish that everyone is safe to explore, to write, to error.

Here are some ideas.

Tone and attitude

For day one with any lesson plan for creative writing, I think it is important to set the tone, to immediately establish what I want from my creative writing students. And that is…

them not to write for me, but for them. I don’t want them writing what they think I want them to write.

Does that make sense? Limitations hurt young writers. My overall tone and attitude toward young writers is that we will work together, create and write together, provide feedback, and invest in ourselves. Older kiddos think that they must provide teachers with the “correct” writing. In such a course, restrictions and boundaries largely go out the window.

Plus, I specifically outline what I believe they can produce in a presentation to set people at ease.

The presentation covers expectations for the class. As the teacher, I am a sort of writing coach with ideas that will not work for everyone. Writers should explore different methods and realize what works for them. First, not everyone will appreciate every type of writing—which is fine. But as a writing community, we must accept that we may not be the target audience for every piece of work.

Therefore, respect is a large component of the class. Be sure to outline what interactions you find acceptable within your classroom community.

Next, as their writing coach, I plan to provide ideas and tools for use. Their job is to decide what tools work for their creative endeavors. My overall message is uplifting and encouraging.

Finally, when we finish, I share the presentation with students so they can consult it throughout the semester. The presentation works nicely for meet-the-teacher night, too!

After covering classroom procedures and rules, I show students a TED Talk. We watch The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie. My goal is to show students that I don’t have a predetermined idea concerning what they should write. This discussion takes the rest of the class period.

Establishing comfort and excitement precedents my other creative writing activities. Personalize your “vision” activities for your lessons in creative writing. Honestly, doing this pre-work builds relationships with students and creates a positive classroom atmosphere.

Creative Writing Lesson Day Two: Activating prior knowledge

Students possess prior knowledge concerning creative writing, but they might not consider that. Students should realize that they know what constitutes a great story. They might not realize that yet. An easy lesson plan for creative writing that will pay off later is to activate prior knowledge. Brainstorm creative, memorable, unforgettable stories with students. Share your thoughts too! You will start to build relationships with students who share the same tastes as you (and those that are completely different!).

Activation activity

During this activity, I want to see how students work together, and I want to build a rapport with students. Additionally, activating prior knowledge provides a smooth transition into other creative writing activities.

This creative writing activity is simple:

I ask students to tell me memorable stories—books, play, tv shows, movies—and I write them on the board. I add and veto as appropriate. Normally doing these classroom discussions, we dive deeper into comedies and creative nonfiction. Sometimes as we work, I ask students to research certain stories and definitions. I normally take a picture of our work so that I can build creative writing lessons from students’ interests.

This takes longer than you might think, but I like that aspect. This information can help me shape my future lessons.

With about twenty minutes left in class, I ask students to form small groups. I want them to derive what makes these stories memorable. Since students complete group and partner activities in this class, I also watch and see how they interact.

Students often draw conclusions about what makes a story memorable:

• Realistic or true-to-life characters.
• Meaningful themes.
• Funny or sad events.

All of this information will be used later as students work on their own writing. Many times, my creative writing lessons overlap, especially concerning the feedback from young writers.

Creative Writing Lesson Day Three: Brainstorming and a graphic organizer

From building creative writing activities and implementing them, I now realize that students think they will sit and write. Ta-da!  After all, this isn’t academic writing. Coaching creative writing students is part of the process.

Young writers must accept that a first draft is simply that, a first draft. Building a project requires thought and mistakes. (Any writing endeavor does, really.) Students hear ‘creative writing’ and they think… easy. Therefore, a first week lesson plan for creative writing should touch on what creativity is.

Really, creativity is everywhere. We complete a graphic organizer titled, “Where is Creativity?” Students brainstorm familiar areas that they may not realize have such pieces.

The ideas they compile stir all sorts of conversations:

• Restaurants
• Movie theaters
• Amusement parks

By completing this graphic organizer, we discuss how creativity surrounds us, how we can incorporate different pieces in our writing, and how different areas influence our processes.

Creative Writing Lesson, Days Four and Five: Creative Nonfiction

Students need practice writing, and they need to understand that they will not use every word they write. Cutting out lines is painful for them! Often, a lesson plan for creative writing involves providing time for meaningful writing.

For two days, we study and discuss creative nonfiction. Students start by reading an overview of creative nonfiction . (If you need mentor texts, that website has some as well.) When I have books available, I show the class examples of creative nonfiction.

We then continue through elements of a narrative . Classes are sometimes surprised that a narrative can be nonfiction.

The narrative writing is our first large project. As we continue, students are responsible for smaller projects as well. This keeps them writing most days.

Overall, my students and I work together during the first week of any creative writing class. I encourage them to write, and I cheer on their progress. My message to classes is that their writing has value, and an audience exists for their creations.

And that is my week one! The quick recap:

Week One Creative Writing Lesson Plans

Monday: Rules, procedures, TED Talk, discussion.

Tuesday: Prior knowledge—brainstorm the modeling of memorable stories. Draw conclusions about storytelling with anchor charts. Build community through common knowledge.

Wednesday: Graphic organizer.

Thursday and Friday: Creative nonfiction. Start narrative writing.

Students do well with this small assignment for the second week, and then we move to longer creative writing assignments . When classesexperience success with their first assignment, you can start constructive editing and revising with them as the class continues.

These creative writing activities should be easy implement and personalize for your students.

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Are you interested in more creative writing lesson ideas? My Facebook page has interactive educators who love to discuss creative writing for middle school and high school creative writing lesson plans. Join us!

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Creative writing

Browse this rich collection of English teaching resources, teaching ideas, templates and creative writing lessons to develop students' descriptive writing, narrative writing and creative writing skills. You'll find compelling picture prompts, supportive word banks and carefully scaffolded resources to engage even the most reluctant of student writers.

There are fun and eclectic lesson ideas, downloadable worksheets and comprehensive PowerPoints for a range of exciting creative writing and short story tasks based on journeys, the senses, on sculpture, on the weather and even 'magical doors'!

Explore point of view, narrative structure and the features of a ‘good story’ as well as how to develop a main character with a range of creative writing tasks to hone students’ descriptive writing skills. You’ll also find resources on using metaphors and similes and varying sentence structure to make their writing more engaging.

Perfect for key stage 3 English classes and GCSE English Language learners. 

You might also like our non-fiction writing activities for KS3 English.

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Lesson Plan: KS3 English, creative writing

• Subject: English and MFL
• Date Posted: 12 March 2013
• View page as PDF: Download Now

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​Providing the right atmosphere can encourage students to take their creative writing to a whole new level, says Claire Sheffield…

​Providing the right atmosphere can encourage students to take their creative writing to a whole new level, says Claire Sheffield…

Today you will….

• Develop the ability to use your imagination to create a story in the gothic genre
• Learn to use ambitious vocabulary to achieve specific effects

Starting a piece of creative writing can be a source of frustration for many young people; so much so that it can lead to loss of confidence. If ideas aren’t flowing, learners can quickly switch off and give up. Creative writing lessons, therefore, need to stimulate all of the senses and inspire students. Creative writing in the gothic genre – spooky stories – offers a wonderful opportunity for just this. This is a topic that always manages to enthuse pupils and one of the most exciting aspects is that the outcome is completely different with every group. Giving students time for thinking and the creation of ideas is essential. Therefore, this plan should be seen as just a starting point; it provides the stimulus from which a number of sessions can be developed. Subsequent periods can also focus on the development of different writing skills as required by the individual needs of a group. As a way into creative writing, this opener allows learners to be independent; an environment that enables them to thrive. Most importantly, it’s a lesson that students always leave talking about!

Starter activity

Creating a spooky word wall.

Preparation is key to this lesson. For maximum impact, everything needs to be ready so that students enter the room and immediately feel a mysterious atmosphere. This can be created by closing blinds, turning off the lights, playing spooky music and displaying an image on the whiteboard of an old, decrepit, haunted-looking house (easily sourced from the internet). It is great to see students entering the room and looking around confused, wondering what is happening and therefore immediately engaged!

Ideally learners need to be seated in small table groups; this should be a buzzy lesson with lots of group discussion and sharing of ideas. As they take their seats they see on their table a map/floor plan of a house with a cross in one of the rooms; it’s one of the rooms from the house displayed on the board. This can be easily created in a word document using text boxes to create the floor plan and labelling each room. The idea is that each table will focus on a different room.

On each table an instruction card for the starter activity is also displayed. This should say something along the lines of: ‘As a group create a word wall of spooky words to describe the room you are in. Be as ambitious as possible! You have 5 minutes’. This could be completed on A3 paper or on post-it notes to stick up on the wall next to them; students will then have created their own bank of vocabulary that will help them in later parts of the lesson.

Main activities

1 developing the plot.

This lesson works well if very little is said by the teacher to the whole class. This adds to the mysterious atmosphere because students have to read and find out what to do at different stages. The teacher very much facilitates the learning in this lesson, by circulating the room, supporting and stretching groups as appropriate.

As the 5 minutes for the starter activity draws to a close, the spooky background music should be turned off and a short, shocking sound should be played. This could be a scream or a crash, for example. As this point another slide should be displayed on the board to move students onto the next stage of the lesson. This could read: ‘What has happened? Write the opening for a spooky story about a mysterious incident that has happened in the room you are in. Discuss for 5 minutes.’ Students are now using their imaginations to create a plot for their gothic story; it is important that students are encouraged to discuss and develop ideas before beginning the writing stage.

2 Going further

After around five minutes discussion, another slide can be displayed which reads: ‘Look for a clue about what has happened. You will find this somewhere near you!’ Underneath each table, students will find an envelope with a picture of a clue. This could be anything (e.g. a book or a camera). Equally, props could be placed around the room for students to find. The more unusual the better! It just gets pupils thinking more creatively. They will naturally want to talk about what they have found and start to revise their previous thinking

3 Stage three

After a few moments, the final slide of instruction can be displayed. This time, students are told: ‘Time to start writing. You have 25 minutes to use the clues so far to write the opening to a spooky story. Remember your objectives – be imaginative and use ambitious vocabulary to achieve a spooky effect.’ Spooky background music can be played throughout the writing stage. It is also important that learners have access to a thesaurus in order to locate more ambitious vocabulary.

Home learning

The lesson can be used as a starting point and developed in a number of ways… + Subsequent lessons/home learning activities could focus on developing other writing skills such as structuring a plot from beginning to end, using literary devices or using a variety of sentence structures and punctuation for effect.

+ The written work could lead into a speaking and listening lesson where students devise, rehearse and perform dramatic readings of their stories. + Students can explore a variety of gothic literature, researching different writers in the genre, reading different works and learning about the conventions of the genre. They can then develop their work to incorporate more of these conventions themselves.

After the main writing stage of this lesson, students are usually desperate to read their work out. To be able to do this in a meaningful way though, more time is usually needed, so it is appropriate to dedicate the following lesson to this. However, an opportunity to share work with others can be achieved through groups swapping their work and providing some feedback to consider for the following lesson. Questions such as those below can help students to structure their feedback in a constructive manner:

• How imaginative is the piece?
• How exciting did you find the story?
• Is there anything that does not make sense?
• How ambitious is the vocabulary? Does it achieve the desired spooky effect?
• How would you like the group to improve the piece?
• What questions can you ask the group to help them develop the piece further?

The following lesson can then begin with students considering this feedback in order to improve the work they have begun in this lesson.

Differentiation suggestions to support less able students:

• Provide a word bank or sentence starter bank.
• Provide additional resources to inspire ideas; further images or props, for example.
• Provide a wagoll (what a good one looks like) as a model of a piece of spooky writing.
• Suggestions to stretch more able students:
• Provide definitions/examples of literary devices and a challenge card asking students to ‘aim to include as many literary devices as possible.’
• Ask students to work towards a third learning objective: ‘use a variety of sentence structures for effect’ or ‘use a variety of punctuation for effect.’
• Allocate an expert to mixed ability groups who is asked to fulfil additional responsibilities as group leader.
• Provide a ‘challenging criteria’ card as a checklist of skills that more able students should aim to demonstrate.

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Creative Writing - Teaching Resources

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Everyone has a story to tell and sharing it can be a source of pleasure and power. Inspire your pupils and help them sharpen their creative writing skills with this collection of classroom resources for primary and secondary schools.

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National Writing Day is an annual day dedicated to celebrating and practising creative writing for pleasure and self-expression.

These resources could be used to celebrate National Writing Day , which takes place on Wednesday, 19 June 2024 .

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Chris Johnson and Mrs Vee from Bitesize Daily explore the damage that plastic is causing to the environment and learn how to write a slogan, explore different styles and forms of writing, and create a poster about tackling plastic waste.

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Using poems from Michael Rosen’s A Great Big Cuddle collection, Rhys and Mr Smith study rhyming, adjectives and nouns. Your pupils can try creating a character and writing some verses about them, and will learn about rhyming structure.

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Creative Writing Lesson Plans

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Lesson Plan on Creative Writing

by B.S. Selina | 25 May 2021

The lesson plan on creative writing is for UG students of I year who are at an Intermediate level of language proficiency which is part of course work for students of semester-I. The lesson plan is in PPPP format.

Resource Type: Lesson Plan

Audience: University

Audience Language Proficiency: Intermediate

Duration: 60 minutes

Notebook, pen, smart phone/camera

Writing skills with specific reference to creative writing

Students will demonstrate an understanding of creative writing and will be able to write on any topic chosen by them.

1. Introduction on creative writing is to be given to students as they have no previous knowledge of the topic

2.As a warm up activity, students will be asked to attempt free writing on a given topic. This will create confidence in them that they can attempt writing tasks.

3. The warm up activity is, however, not assessed.

4. To begin the creative writing task through use of photography, students need to be given notice, one week in advance to click three pictures on anything that interests them on their smart phone or a camera, if they do not possess a smart phone.

5. They can then be given a choice to select one of the pictures taken and write on it. This will create interest in the student as they can relate to it. 

6. The teacher can take time to assess the students as it takes time to go through them.

The teacher goes through the work of the students and by the next class, she will give valuable and overall feedback for the work of each student as follows:

• Very well-written
• Well-organized and presented. But there are some spelling mistakes
• Well done but punctuation should be taken care of
• Good attempt but certain sentences can be rewritten to make the writing effective

The teacher will then select well-written and exceptional work which will be made available on the LMS platform to encourage students to write better.

http://d2lq260uvblqf7.cloudfront.net/convention/2012/sessions/160/default.htm

Supporting Files: Lesson Plan On Creative Writing.pdf

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The Mysteries of Harris Burdick : Using Illustrations to Guide Writing

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• Instructional Plan
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Mysteries are a great way to hook students into writing about fictional happenings. In this lesson, students engage themselves in The Mysteries of Harris Burdic k by examining the illustrations in the book and choosing one for which to create a Mystery Cube and then a creative writing piece. Finally, students present their mysteries to the class and allow students to guess to which illustration their mystery corresponds.

Featured Resources

• The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg (regular or portfolio/poster-size edition)
• Mystery Cube : This tool is used to help students develop outlines for their own mystery stories.

From Theory to Practice

In "Literacy in the Arts," Peggy Albers argues that "if we want children to represent meaning visually, musically, and/or dramatically, along with their written texts-in other words, to create a semiotic system-we have a responsibility to teach them how to create meaning in many sign systems" (8). Albers' work provides useful theoretical background to support offering students the opportunity to connect art, existing text, and their own writing in the classroom.

The NCTE Position Statement on Multimodal Literacies supports Albers' claims, noting that the "[i]ntegration of multiple modes of communication and expression can enhance or transform the meaning of the work beyond illustration or decoration." The implication for teachers and the students in their classrooms is the need to study and produce an "interplay of meaning-making systems."

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Computers with internet access
• Mystery Cube Planning Sheet
• Editing Checklist for Self- and Peer Editing
• Mystery Writing Rubric

This learning activity helps students write a mystery step by step by following tips and suggestions from writer Joan Lowery Nixon.

This official site for the book includes a message from the author, Chris Van Allsburg, Readers’ Stories, and Tips for Writers.

Chris Van Allsburg’s author site includes a look inside the book, teacher resources, and a kids’ corner, as well as information about Van Allsburg and his other works.

Preparation

• Locate The Mysteries of Harris Burdick in your classroom library, your local library, or a bookseller.  Familiarize yourself with the content and the images within the book.
• Test the Mystery Cube student interactive and make sure that you have the appropriate software installed for it to run effectively.  You will need computers with internet access for each student to use this interactive.  If computer accessibility is a problem, print a copy of the Mystery Cube and make enough copies for each student. If you need additional help with this interactive, please visit our Technical Help page .
• Make enough copies of the Mystery Cube Planning Sheet and the Mystery Writing Rubric for each student.

Student Objectives

Students will:

• focus on illustrations within a book to help spark their imagination and ideas for creative writing.
• develop their creative writing skills to plan, draft, edit, and write a final version of a mystery.
• present their mystery to other students in the class for feedback and discussion.

Session One

• Introduce students to the idea of mystery and have a class discussion about mysteries that your students have read, written, or tried to solve.
• Explain to students that today they’ll be learning about The Mysteries of Harris Burdick and trying to solve the mysteries within the book.
• Begin reading the book aloud to your students, beginning with the Introduction.  After finishing the Introduction, read page-by-page through the book, pausing to show the pictures on each page and reading the title and caption that go with each image. You may choose to display large, poster-size images from the book, which are available in the portfolio edition of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick .
• Allow students to comment about each picture and caption as you read the book aloud to help spark their imagination for the writing they will be doing.

Session Two

• Explain to students that their job as detectives is to unravel the mystery from one of the pictures in this story. They must write a creative mystery that goes with an image of their choosing from the book.
• Tell students that once their stories are written, they will be read aloud to the class and the other students will be responsible for figuring out which image from the book their story represents.
• To prepare for writing, introduce students to the Mystery Cube student interactive. This tool will be used to help students develop outlines for their own mystery stories.
• Complete a Mystery Cube as a class to familiarize students with the tool and what is expected of them. Allow the class to choose one of the images in the book (and the caption that goes with it) for which to create the class Mystery Cube .
• Allow time for students to peruse the images in the book and/or the larger portfolio images to read the captions and decide on which image they’d like to write about.  After students have decided on an image to write about, they should begin brainstorming ideas for their story and using the Mystery Cube Planning Sheet to flesh out their ideas. They will use this information to create their Mystery Cube in the next session.
• If the Mystery Cube Planning Sheet is not completed during the time allowed, it needs to be finished out of class in preparation for the next session.

Session Three

• Take students to the library or computer lab and allow time for them to create their own Mystery Cube based on one of the stories from the book. Make sure students have their Mystery Cube Planning Sheet from the previous session to help guide them. If computer access is not readily available, you could print out the cube (prior to this session) and provide each student with a paper copy on which to write.
• Remind students to print their Mystery Cube when they are finished. This interactive is not able to be saved on the computer.
• Allow time for students to assemble their Mystery Cube . These will be used in the next session to help guide students as they begin their story writing.

Session Four

• Before starting the writing process, share the Mystery Writing Rubric with students and discuss how it will be used to assess their writing. Using the class Mystery Cube as a guide, write a short mystery as a class. This can be done on a computer (to be projected onto a screen), or written directly on an overhead projector.
• To show the how the students will be graded on their own mysteries, use the Mystery Writing Rubric to grade the rough draft that the class created together. Go through each section step by step and ask for/allow student input on what the score should be and why.
• Students should now understand what is expected of them for this writing assignment. They will begin writing their own mystery in the next session.

Session Five

• Students may begin writing their own mystery story. They should use their Mystery Cube and the Mystery Writing Rubric for guidance as they write.
• Once students are done with their first draft of their story, they may begin self-editing and peer-editing. They may use the Editing Checklist for Self- and Peer Editing to assist them and a partner when they are ready to edit.

Session Six

• Allow students to finish their self-editing and peer-editing from the previous session, using the Editing Checklist for Self- and Peer Editing . After their stories have been edited by themselves and a peer, students may begin writing their final draft of their mystery story.
• Their final draft should be completed prior to the next session. When students have completed their final draft, they should turn in their rough draft, completed Editing Checklist for Self- and Peer Editing , and their final draft for the teacher to check for completion of all of the steps. Return each student’s story to him/her before the next session begins.

Session Seven

• Display the images from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick in front of the class if you have poster-size images, or display one or more copies of the book.
• Organize a class read-aloud where each student is given the opportunity to read his/her story aloud to the rest of the class. Allow the other students in the class time to discuss/comment on each story and decide which image/caption from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick it belongs to.
• Use the Mystery Writing Rubric to assess students' creative stories and attention to detail.
• Have students create their own Stapleless Book that is full of mysterious images and corresponding captions.  Students could then write stories to go with these images and captions, much as they did in the lesson.
• Around Halloween time, have a classroom spook-session!  Invite other students and family members to come to your classroom for read alouds of the students’ mysteries.  Try reading these stories in the dark with only a flashlight and decorating your classroom like a haunted house!
• Have students submit their stories to the Houghton Mifflin’s Harris Burdick Book Site .  New stories are posted each month, and periodically writers are selected at random to receive books autographed by Chris Van Allsburg and other Burdick-inspired items.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Assess students’ participation in the creation of their Mystery Cube by checking to see if all areas of the cube are completed.
• Collect students’ rough drafts, completed Editing Checklist for Self- and Peer Editing , and their final drafts to check for completion of all of the steps.
• Use the Mystery Writing Rubric to assess their creative story and attention to detail.
• Calendar Activities
• Lesson Plans
• Student Interactives

Mysteries are shared with students for them to solve and brainstorm the attributes of a good mystery. Small groups then compose short mysteries using the Mystery Cube.

Students read and discuss an award-winning book before writing their own story that demonstrates compassion.

Students track the elements of mystery stories through Directed Learning-Thinking Activities, story maps, and puzzles. Then they offer clues for other readers as they plan and write original mystery stories.

The interactive Cube Creator helps students identify and summarize key elements. It can be used as a prewriting or postreading activity.

The Mystery Cube helps students identify and summarize story elements in this popular genre. It can be used as a postreading or prewriting activity.

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6 Creative Lessons to Inspire Secondary Writers

Looking for outside-the-box ELA teaching ideas? This roundup from TeachWriting.org has valuable ideas for everyone, covering everything from differentiation ideas…to engaging mini lessons…to maker spaces…and more!

Let’s dive into the ideas linked below to find inspiration you can use to engage middle and high school students. Here are six different posts containing creative lessons, resources, and activities to inspire secondary writers.

PICTURE-INSPIRED POETRY

Read about THIRTEEN ways Reading and Writing Haven uses pictures to inspire students to write poetry . Heading into a literary analysis, poetry, or creative writing unit? These ideas will be especially useful!

Ready to dive into poetry analysis and written response? Add some zest to your typical lesson plan with this visual one pager that scaffolds students analysis of key poem or song elements.

Scaffolded poetry analysis one pager from Reading and Writing Haven

SUSPENSE WRITING

In this post, Teach BeTween the Lines shares FOUR mini-lessons for teaching suspense writing , including character analysis, sensory images, literary devices, and more.

Dive into a spooky-type short story and character analysis with “The Most Dangerous Game.”

“Most Dangerous Game” Character Analysis Workbook from Teach BeTween the Lines

MAKER SPACE

This creative lesson to inspire secondary writers is a newer approach . Turn your writer’s workshop into a maker space with these unique ideas from Spark Creativity.

It’s true! Creative writing doesn’t have to be intimidating. Engage students with this short story maker assignment .

Short Story Maker Space Assignment from Spark Creativity

REFLECTION ACTIVITY

Bespoke ELA’s post is all about the recursive nature of writing. It goes all directions: forward, backward, and sideways. Support secondary writers by teaching them to be reflective throughout the process.

Use these FREE task cards by Bespoke ELA at the end of a Writer’s Workshop to emphasize that an essay can be edited and revised at any time. Communicate to students that writing is a continual, recursive process, not linear.

Writing Workshop Wrap-Up Task Cards from Bespoke ELA

CREATIVE WRITING

Teaching a creative writing unit or class? In this post , Language Arts Classroom writes about THREE creative writing assignments you can use with students; how-to articles, children’s books, and movie scripts.

And! Help students organize their writing with a creative angle: cookies! These graphic organizers will help students with brainstorming, narrowing ideas, and more.

Cookie Organization Graphic Organizers by Language Arts Classroom

WRITING MINI LESSONS

One of the most popular ways to incorporate lessons that inspire secondary writers is writing workshop. The problem? Without training, it’s hard to figure out how to get started.

Amanda Write Now’s post covers various angles to consider when setting up a writing workshop. Specifically, this article features “how-tos” for FIVE of her favorite workshop mini lessons .

Writing Workshop Launch Lessons from Amanda Write Now

related posts:

Are instagram captions a teaching genre, 5 creative reading response activities, 10 unique and creative reflection techniques.

Walking by the Way

the road to inspired learning

Eight Free Creative Writing Lessons

February 17, 2012 by Ami 17 Comments

I know I throw around the word favorite all the time. But this is the truth: teaching creative writing lessons is my favorite. 

I have taught creative writing enrichment for summer school students. I have taught creative writing in various homeschool settings and co-ops. I have taught big students and little students. And I love it. 

Since I love to share homeschool co-op class ideas , I have compiled the creative writing lessons from a co-op class that I taught. 

Creative Writing Lessons for a Homeschool Co-op Class

First, please remember that any teacher can use these creative writing lessons. You don’t need to be teaching homeschoolers. You can be a classroom teacher or a homeschool teacher at home with one student. You can even be a librarian who needs a fun program series.

Second, I used these creative writing lesson plans with upper elementary students (with maybe a few 7th graders thrown in). However, you can adapt and use them for older students or younger students!

Creative Writing Lesson Plans

Creative writing lesson one.

The first lesson focuses on cliché and metaphor. It prompts students to consider how words matter.

Grab lesson one here .

Creative Writing Lesson Two

The second lesson teaches students about sensory details: why they are important and how to include them in their writing. Students will begin using sensory details to evoke smells and sounds and sights.

Grab lesson two here.

Creative Writing Lesson Three

The third lesson introduces showing vs. telling. Students learn how to recognize authors who utilize showing, and students are able to articulate the difference between showing and telling.

Grab lesson three here.

Creative Writing Lesson Four

The fourth lesson teaches students how to capture images. We use examples of poetry and prose to discuss this important writing skill.

Grab lesson four here.

Creative Writing Lesson Five

The fifth lesson introduces the story elements of character and conflict.

Note: You may choose to split this lesson into two lessons since it covers two big elements. I only had nine weeks with my students, so I had to jam character and conflict together.

Grab lesson five here.

Creative Writing Lesson Six

The sixth lesson introduces the students to point of view and perspective. We have fun reading poems and using pictures to write descriptions from different points of view.

Grab lesson six here.

Creative Writing Lesson Seven

The seventh lesson puts everything we’ve learned together. I read the students some fractured fairy tales, and we watch some, too. Students then use the prewriting activities and their imaginations to begin drafting their own fractured fairy tales.

Grab lesson seven here.

Creative Writing Lesson Eight

The eighth lesson focuses on revision. After a mini-lesson, students partner up for peer editing.

Grab lesson eight here .

For our final class day, students bring revised work, and I host coffee shop readings. This is a memorable experience for students (and their teacher).

Creative Writing Lessons FAQ

Since posting these creative writing lessons, I have had lots of questions. I decided to compile them here in case you have the same question.

Q: What are copywork quotes? A: Copywork quotes are simply great quotes that students copy as part of their homework assignments. You can use any quotes about writing. I’ve included my favorites throughout the printable packs.

Q: Can I use this with a younger or older student? A: Absolutely! Just adapt it to meet the needs of your student.

Q: Can I use this for my library’s programming or my homeschool co-op class? A: Yes! I just ask that it not be used for profit.

Do you have any questions about teaching creative writing? What’s your biggest hang-up when it comes to teaching creative writing? I’d love to hear from you and help you solve the issue.

January 7, 2016 at 1:57 pm

Hi Theresa,

As long as you are not profitting from using them, they are yours to use! Enjoy! Wish I could be there to help facilitate all those young writers! 

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Euro 2024 Germany Ideas and Lesson / Medium Term plans Primary EYFS KS1 KS2

Subject: Geography

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

9 June 2024

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This bundle includes:

Creative ideas for Euro 2024 activities in EYFS, Year 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 including continuous provision. Some ideas do overlap!

Medium Term plan overview (6 lessons) about Germany (geography, history and major sporting events)

Lesson Plan for each of the 6 lessons

2 x Knowledge organisers

2 x Germany Euro 2024 comprehensions

5 x science investigation ideas (not necessarily related to NC Curriculum!)

Hope it helps! :)

**WANT TO PLAY A SIMPLE EURO 2024 FANTASY FOOTBALL GAME WITH YOU CLASS/SCHOOL? Click below to see my fantasy football game! :) **

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-13054533

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