Making a Creative Writing Unit "POP"!!!

[Justin Pedersen]

Hello Friends!!!

 

My name is Justin Pedersen.  I am a student studying English at Aurora University, and I plan to one day teach high school English.  I was asked to construct a unit/theme that correlates with the subject area I wish to teach.  For this unit I wanted to center it on creative writing.  I am writing to ask for some help in gathering ideas about teaching creative writing to a high school classroom.  I need to make this unit POP!  In order to do this, I need sufficient advice/suggestions to make a creative writing unit POP!  Any input on ideas that differentiate poetry, fiction/non-fiction writing, and any other areas of creative writing will be helpful.

 

I want to make my unit not only differentiated, but also want to incorporate media/technology outlets for students to utilize.  I have done some initial research on how to integrate media/technology literacy with a lesson on creative writing, but I am always looking for further suggestions.  Again, I hope to create a very unique and integrated lesson, so please feel free to drop me advice, links, and any other source of information to help me on my journey!

 

Thanks to all, and best wishes:

 

Justin R. Pedersen

[Lindsay Lombardi]

well I always alternate between music and poems. I analyze songs as if they are poetry and the students respond to that very well. Then if I pick a specific theme or themes I can do two things. Ask students to pick one song that addresses the themes and write an essay on it (talk about the artist, summarize the song, identify themes, and three literary elements and explain how the elements enhance the song). The other idea is ask the students to create a playlist/mixed cd where they choose songs that address the chosen themes and they need to provide the cd, lyrics and a paragraph or 1/2 page about each song and how it connects to the theme (lyric lines must be included in the paragraph).


For creative writing a professor at teachers college - Ruth Vinz did this activity in a class of mine on fiction/personal narrative. She told us to sketch/draw our childhood neighborhood/ or place we remember from childhood -she gave us a good 20-30 minutes. She told us to put as much detail as possible. Then we shared with the person next to us. Then she gave us another 30 maybe even 40 minutes to write about a moment, memory, event in that place that comes to mind from our sketching.......these eventually turned into short creative pieces. (for ex: I sketched a vacation house my family went to in the winter ---my memory was of my brother falling through the ice at a lake by the house)

Hope this helps

-Lindsay

[Sean]

To have practice at writing a screenplay, you could have students watch part of a TV show or movie. You can even do this with a short story: play a clip, and have them revolve a story around that clip. You could even have just write the clip as practice in novel form, kind of like how there's movie novelizations.

For word choice, you can totally make it hands-on, and bring in all sorts of simple things, maybe even food (pickle, paper weight, dice, bobblehead, etc). Pair the students and blindfold one. Have the other guide them in one set of objects. Students need to list detailed descriptions about the objects: touch, smell, taste, hearing. Form an image without seeing it with eyes. Then switch roles. This helps them understand imagery and to say: Hey, there's more to something than seeing it.

[Justin Pedersen]

THANKS SO MUCH LINDSAY...you are too kind. I especially like the songs/music idea, for I am trying to incorporate my passion for hip-hop/rap into the lesson. Thanks again.

[Bob Evans]

Here's a lesson I use that seems to fit the bill. I show the class the scene from Jaws where the three men are swapping stories aboard the Orca about their scars (the U.S.S. Indianapolis scene). Then I share with them the passage from Julius Caesar where Antony prophesies over the wounds of Caesar which "like mouths do ope their ruby lips." Next I have the students make a list of all the scars, piercings, tattoos, etc. on their own bodies. Finally I instruct them to write a poem in the voice of their scars in which the scars speak either to the students themselves or to one another (scar to scar, as it were). Good luck with your project!

[Lori Falchi]

Hi Justin,

I have been thinking of this as well and have a whole bunch of books on poetry and creative writing books around at the moment. I think that poetry, fiction and non-fiction writing are important to differentiate and incorporating media and technology could be excellent ways to bring in student motivation and engagement.

Thank goodness creative writing is one of the arts that has not been completely eliminated in schools. I am reading a book by a poet, Kenneth Koch, called Rose, Where did you get that Red, and you can look up Georgia Heard and her books like For the Good of the Earth and Sun: Teaching Poetry. Both are poets who teach poetry. Also, Francisco X. Alarcón and some odes by Pablo Neruda are great to read with students.There is an organization, California Poets in the the Schools, that sends poets into the schools to teach poetry. They have some good ideas and links on their website:http://www.cpits.org/background/bckgr.htm

I am checking out a book called Visual Approaches to Teaching Writing. Inside it (and you can look inside at the table of contents on amazon), there are many ideas about how to start from the visual (sources like picture books, film, still images, graphic novels and computer games). Use of visual prompts like photos of people in scenarios, mapping narratives with graphic organizers or even to become graphic narratives with speech bubbles, writing play scripts with visual images, and writing and film could all be possibilities. The video the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe could be introduced to discuss or enact fantasy worlds. Short stories could attempt to put into words some of the fantasy elements such as a "magic portal" that could be inserted into an otherwise lifelike situation. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a master on including magical elements into narratives that otherwise are realistic fiction (the genre magical realism is one that students might like).

I think that there are so many ways that you could differentiate basically allowing for different types of process (collaborative writing, peer revising and editing that allow for generous time for talk, enactment, etc) and products so that students can create in ways that draw upon their strengths. I think it is also good to plan things in a sequence so an activity like Lindsay suggested could come first, and then you could scaffold several types of activities to lead up to producing specific types of texts (digital stories, podcasts, short videos, one act plays, etc).

Hope you get some ideas or some inspiration here.

Lori

[Justin Pedersen]

THANK YOU EVERBODY! First and foremost, this has been nothing short of impressive and beneficial to my thought process. I thank everyone individually for the help and ideas they have provided.

For the past week or so, I have been contemplating whether or not I want to specify this unit. I have decided that instead of an all-out "creative writing" unit, I wanted to focus mostly on poetry. I got ths idea from my final assessment I created: for my final assessment for my unit, I want to have a "poetry slam", where students share, create, and critique their own/peers poetry. I also am really, really, REALLY into hip-hop/rap, so I was beginning to think of ways to incorporate rap and hip-hop into this unit.

Sorry for taking a little bit different direction with this. Feel free to dop me anything. THANKS AGAIN!

JP!!!

[Lindsay Lombardi]

Something that is great for Poetry slams are "Where I'm From Poems" I have my seniors do this at the beginning of the year to help me get to know them.

Basically I give them an organizer to write down memories and images about their family, foods, culture,holidays, home, neighborhood, their personality etc. Then they draft and develop a poem --often these become GREAT pieces for performance poetry or spoken word performances.

Let me know if you are interested I can attach the materials I use.

Also I can attach the outline for the music essay.

Just let me know--hope this helps.

Also two books to consider:

Immersed in Verse: An Informative Slightly irreverent and totally tremendous guide to living the Poet's Life by Allan Wolf, this books is a great way to get student's into poetry with some fun activities.

Poems by Adolescents and Adults: A thematic collection for Middle School and High School by James Brewbaker and Dawnelle J. Hyland.

-Lindsay

[Ryan Goble]

LL, off that tip - great vintage hip hop - Digible Planets track (circa '93) "Where I'm From" - lyrics are PG!

[Anne Gaspers]

In addition to this there is a great spoken word recording by George Ella Lyon:

Also, a great technique in structuring writing prompts is RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic).
For example...if I'm teaching a unit on "Romeo and Juliet"...bring it into the 21st Century by the following:

[Lori Falchi]

Also, another interesting thing to do is have everyone pick just one line from their Where I am from poem and make a group poem--each person can read one line aloud and then transcribe the whole thing.

It is pretty easy to make a visual version with animoto.com using digital photos, short video and written text. The students might want to record themselves on video and edit it, which is pretty easy with imovies or movie maker on pcs.

At the end of the unit, poems can be organized and published into bound books. You can bring in magazines and have them collage and laminate covers.

All of these elements, making poetry visually accessible can help if you have students who are learning English or students who may have difficulty producing writing, besides the way it draws on the creators to be thoughtful and use their imagination in ways that images can inspire more words.

[Justin Pedersen]

VERY INTERESTED!!!

This sounds AMAZING! Please feel free to send me whatever you have. I will properly cite you!

Thanks again

JP

[Lindsay Lombardi]

The first file is a version of the music essay that we did during Black History month, so in this case the students not only had to pick songs, they had to pick songs that shared common themes from the Civil Rights Movement.

Then I also included the graphic organizer and the "Where I'm From" poetry assignment. Hope these help.


I love the ideas above that take a written piece and transform it into a visual multimedia piece

-Lindsay