Anyone got any good activities for a creative writing class?
I’m running some sessions on creative writing with a group of 13 – 15 year-olds (excluded from main-stream education). They’re an imaginative bunch, but I’ll definitely need to keep things varied to maintain their interest. Any simple ideas for activities I can get them involved in?
- EvilEdd
Tags: 15 Year Olds, Creative Group, Creative Writing, Education, Main Stream, Running, Sessions, Writing Class
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Have them write the story ” what your dream life looks like” and read it to the class. Than definitely encourage them on pursuing there dreams.
January 5th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
A fun assignment might be to give the class two characters to create a story about…and see what varieties of tales each of them comes up with. Good discussion source – each will have a different “take” on the characters…it will stretch their minds a little, too – how to make one story that includes both characters. Examples: a pilot and a hunter; a barber and a chef; a veterinarian and a teacher. Make them think about what kind of action could involve each pair–and how differently each student works with the same material.
January 7th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Have each student bring an interesting object to class. It can be anything reasonable. No pets. No porn, etc. Each student starts the activity (don’t call it an exercise) with a sheet of loose leaf paper and their object (bring some extra objects to class in case some students forget to bring something). Have the students write two to three sentences about the objects they brought, then fold their paper so their writing cannot be seen. Then they will pass their paper and their object to the right. Repeat this process until each student has written about each object.
This activity teaches descriptive writing, and can be quite amusing. It was done in a class I took, and some people brought some really interesting objects. I brought a cat-shaped picture frame with a photo of a bird inside.
Good luck!
January 8th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
One of the best activities would be teaching them where to find and how to develop their own story ideas. If they’re serious about writing, this will be a major factor in determining their success. I found a website called “25 Unique Places to Find Story Ideas” that I often return to when I need inspiration:
Any one of those ideas could be developed into an activity. For instance, for the people in the crowd idea (#24), you could take them into a nearby public place like a park or a shopping center, let them split up, and then take notes on the people they observe to work on characterization. Or for the photograph idea (#13), you could bring in a bunch of old photographs (or find some online), let each student select one at random out of a shoe box, and develop a story based on it.
Good luck with your class. It sounds like a lot of fun to me!
January 10th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
I’m thinking that this creative writing class is a Special Education class because you wrote that they were excluded from main-stream education. I’ll say that there are many great ideas for writing. Usually, the easiest one is to leave the topic up to them, but for some students this is too much to handle. So you can tell them to write with one of these topics…
1. If I Won $1,000,000.00 What I’d Do With It
2. My Favoritie Movie of all Time was… (they can name anything that’s favorite to them, it doesn’t only have to be a movie. e.g.: Food, Person, Place, Thing, Holiday, Vacation, etc.)
3. I’d LIke to Visit …. (they can name a person or a place).
Do not give them all 3 choices during the same class. Save each one for each one session.