For classroom teachers and anyone interested in teaching or leading a group through the creative writing process:
I’ve worked in a lot of school classrooms over the years in my time as a writing coach. From my point of view, if I had to put my finger on the single biggest challenge teachers face it would be the wide variety of different learning styles, levels of interest and skills within your group. I’ve seen so many of you handle this beautifully—and your skillful, wise and patient approaches have informed many of my own strategies when working with a group (of any age!). Thank you!
When it comes to teaching story writing, especially among teachers who haven’t taught it before or who may not be super comfortable with the subject area, the wide range of skills and interest levels that co-exist in a classroom is one of the biggest concerns teachers have. Teachers often express the following classroom reality: “I have a lot of non-writers in my group. I also have a lot of non-readers in my group. Then, again, there are a handful of really keen kids who are going to be bored doing anything less than writing a novel. There’s also the big group in the middle. I want to keep them interested, too.” This comes up not only with the very young, but at every school-aged level.
We’re going to flip all this on its head. Let’s look at your group—with all its variations and levels and personalities—as your biggest asset.
Rethinking Writing in the Classroom
This may require you to rethink what writing a story actually looks like. As an author, trust me when I tell you that writing is not merely a person sitting at her desk quietly thinking up brilliant ideas and then jotting them all down for hours. Writing sometimes looks like this, but not always. And thus, creative writing in your classroom does not have to mean every student sitting quietly alone at a desk thinking up ideas and then writing for an hour. So, if that’s the image in your mind, get rid of it. Free yourself of it!
Writing is a process, and a process has steps. Instead of working toward one single finished product (a polished, proofread story), have students keep a writing folder where they store notes and webs and drawings and drafts. This is writing, too: note-taking, webbing, sketching, dreaming, list-making—I do all of these things as an author. It’s possible that not all students will finish all the steps, nor will each step look the same in every folder but everyone has authentically participated in writing, not only those students who finish and polish a story. And you have something to consider and evaluate beyond a single product at the end which not everyone will be able to produce, or not to the same degree. Not every author (including this one) is able to produce a finished product every time either!
And here’s where your asset—your group dynamics—really comes into play. At virtually every step, you can harness the group energy that you have right in front of you and invite participation. Brainstorm character types together. Brainstorm character traits. Make lists of sparkling words you might use in your stories. Use sticky notes to lay out a potential plot for a group story, and let your students help you to add, alter and shift them around. Let the variety of ideas that bubble up coexist on the whiteboard or chart paper you save and keep tacked to your wall—let’s celebrate creative contributions of all kinds! Even if some of the same voices pipe up time after time, everyone can see the lists and models you’re making together—everyone can be inspired. And you have something to point to when one of your writers is stuck thinking up an idea or a word or what to do next.
When you talk about setting, what a great time to encourage reluctant writers who might be more keen on drawing to sketch out their vision for a story’s world! That becomes their story world plan for their folder—and that’s writing. You might even consider pairing students up where appropriate, one to express a story in words, the other to express the action in a drawing. You can do this with characters, too. In fact, you can task your more artistically inclined students to create and draw original characters first, then pair them with students who prefer to write down words. The wordy students can begin to formulate a story based on the other students’ artwork. Drawings don’t have to be secondary to the written word, they can be the inspiration for the written word. Empowering the reluctant writers in this way may pique their interest in storytelling and may even prompt them to take another step (or leap) into the process.
When it comes to revision, a wonderfully creative step, model it with your own unpolished work and gather input from your group. What a great opportunity to show them how to give and receive constructive praise and criticism. Then break students into pairs or groups where they can do the same for each other.
I know this doesn’t address all the challenges you face in the classroom when taking on creative writing. You are either balancing more than one subject area or more than one group, along with all the daily administrative tasks on your plate…and etc.! (I’ve seen it— I know!). But what I hope this gives you is a way into teaching writing that can empower and inspire more students than you might at first think. Writing stories can spark creativity, sharpen skills in writing mechanics, and offer students a place to explore and express their own voice. These are all wonderful things that can serve your students beyond writing fiction. So, if we can find a way to bring as many students along on the writing journey (and treat it as a journey, not only a final product), we’re giving our students a gift that can live on in their lives long after the bell rings.
