In our current 7th grade English Language Arts Curriculum, we move from Research Unit to our Creative Writing Unit. Now THAT's an interesting and difficult transition. : )
As a writer myself, I try to build a love for writing in my students all year long. Standardized testing and writing to prompts makes that difficult sometimes. That's why I LOVE our Creative Writing Unit! My students constantly tell me they enjoy this unit because of the freedom of topic. Me too!
This year, I asked my students to create an original short story. Not to overwhelm them, I did brief mini-lessons on how to write character descriptions, develop conflict and hooks, create flow to a story, and build a connection with readers. Students ran with it! I only had two weeks, so I had to start small. I used the book Outlining Your Novel as a guide for some of my mini-lessons. Students love learning from real authors and not text books.
I feel like this unit allowed students to end the year with an open mind and creative brain. They really struggled at first to just let go of what I expected them to write and embraced their own creativity and imagination. I used free writes and prompt sentence starters to get them thinking with LOTS of choice involved. They could then use any of their free writes for their stories or start something new. It did wonders to open them up to the possibilities before them on the page.
Alongside our writing, we read a novel to use a guide to our own writing. Some classes read Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson, and others read Half Upon a Time by James Riley. These were PERFECT for helping students understand how to develop believable characters and conflicts so readers can relate to them.
What's Happening Now
Students are simply using paper to create a cover for their stories and publish to me. Students are turning in their work today! I can't wait to see their final copies! Hopefully some of them will let me share here.
Check back for student examples.
Maas Out.
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