Interactive Creative Writing Club
Greetings poppers! Starting this fall, I am going to be teaching a club at the Tuscaloosa, AL Magnet Middle School that focuses on interactive creative writing (like a 'choose your own adventure' book).
The general blurb sent out to build interest from parents and students went like this:
-Students in the Interactive Creative Writing Club will read and write short stories that take twists and turns based on the reader's choices. Activities will include individual and group writing exercises, discussions about actions and consequences, and exploring the potential of interactive fiction as a medium for telling stories.-
The ultimate goal is to get the students to really think about not just one potential outcome to an action, but multiple outcomes that can have effects on their lives and others both immediately and later on down the road, while also being fun and teaching them a few of the creative writing basics.
I like to call it consequential thinking. Pop star Ryan Goble has suggested causal thinking or sequential thinking as well.
I originally intended to perform a lot of research before starting the project and then gather data/surveys from students to culminate in an academic research paper, but time got away from me. Instead, I'm going to treat the club as a free form, malleable pilot program where I can see what works, what doesn't, and what potential this thing has to be a vessel to teach kids about consequential thinking.
So, I'd like to keep this thread open to not only update poppers on the progress and status of the club, but also to solicit feedback, advice, and ideas for potential stories to read, exercises to do, discussions to have, etc.
I don't have an educational background in...education, so one of the big initial challenges for me is going to be content. What kinds of topics are appropriate, interesting, and challenging for middle school students? Any and all insight into this area would be greatly appreciated.
When explaining my project, I like to use the simple example of credit card debt. A lot of individuals don't have the foresight to think about if they can really afford that shiny new object because they can just throw it on their credit card and worry about it later, and while that scenario may be somewhat applicable to middle school students, I'd prefer more targeted content.
Let me know what you think!
The general blurb sent out to build interest from parents and students went like this:
-Students in the Interactive Creative Writing Club will read and write short stories that take twists and turns based on the reader's choices. Activities will include individual and group writing exercises, discussions about actions and consequences, and exploring the potential of interactive fiction as a medium for telling stories.-
The ultimate goal is to get the students to really think about not just one potential outcome to an action, but multiple outcomes that can have effects on their lives and others both immediately and later on down the road, while also being fun and teaching them a few of the creative writing basics.
I like to call it consequential thinking. Pop star Ryan Goble has suggested causal thinking or sequential thinking as well.
I originally intended to perform a lot of research before starting the project and then gather data/surveys from students to culminate in an academic research paper, but time got away from me. Instead, I'm going to treat the club as a free form, malleable pilot program where I can see what works, what doesn't, and what potential this thing has to be a vessel to teach kids about consequential thinking.
So, I'd like to keep this thread open to not only update poppers on the progress and status of the club, but also to solicit feedback, advice, and ideas for potential stories to read, exercises to do, discussions to have, etc.
I don't have an educational background in...education, so one of the big initial challenges for me is going to be content. What kinds of topics are appropriate, interesting, and challenging for middle school students? Any and all insight into this area would be greatly appreciated.
When explaining my project, I like to use the simple example of credit card debt. A lot of individuals don't have the foresight to think about if they can really afford that shiny new object because they can just throw it on their credit card and worry about it later, and while that scenario may be somewhat applicable to middle school students, I'd prefer more targeted content.
Let me know what you think!
Views: 7
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Shirley Miller on
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After reading this, I think you might be interested in this link: Threaded Adventures This is the same concept you're thinking about (choose your own adventure), but online. As for content, choice is best. Have the students do a bunch of timed free writes. What they do is write anything that comes to mind for 3 minutes, or 5 minutes and then count their words. They do this several times (in a week) trying to write more words each time. Once they have several of these have them choose a "kernal" to develop into a story.
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Permalink Reply by Janet Hirshberg on
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I just checked out the link: threaded Adventures. Thanks, this has given me some ideas. I wll check back to see if anyone else out there has suggestions like this. I am teaching some remedial students in a junior high. I will need to think on this writing strategy a bit.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Hollander on
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Shirley, very cool link, thanks! Wikis seem like a good way to construct and share stories. Susan Stephenson also turned me on to Twine, a program designed specifically for writing branching stories. I'll have to experiment with both. Turning those free writes into options for a story later is a great idea that both young and old writers can take advantage of :)
Janet, let me know what you come up with! -
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