CREATIVE WRITING

CREATIVE WRITING
Writing as a Process
Active Learning - Writing as a process

What makes the Active learning

classroom different from the
traditional classroom?
It is student-driven.
Learning in collaboration with peers
Partial transfer of authority
The teachers and the students are
actively engaged in the teaching
learning process.
Active Learning - Writing as a process

Student-driven. In the Active Learning

classroom, Sometimes students have
to take charge of debate or discussion,
teach their peers and collaborate with
them to make decisions or choices
regarding the tasks or project to work
on.
Active Learning - Writing as a process

At the same time Active Learning

teaches students how to learn in
collaboration with their peers and in
this way a community atmosphere is
created in the classroom that in turn
facilitates learning.
Active Learning - Writing as a process

Teachers in such classrooms have to

hand over part of the authority so that
students can become responsible for
their own work (in this case writing)
Active Learning - Writing as a process

The focus shifts

setting standards diagnosing problems

giving direction facilitating learning
product supporting process
Writing stages in Primary Education

Modeled Writing

Shared Writing

Guided Writing

Independent Writing
 MODELED WRITING

Modeled writing is the first step in

teaching writing to children with the
teacher demonstrating.
This stage is useful to teach specific
language elements.
 SHARED WRITING

With shared writing students have the

opportunity to contribute ideas while
the teacher writes it out.

Students discuss aspects of the writing,

asking and answering questions.
They think aloud.
 GUIDED WRITING

The key here is the constant

feedback provide by the teacher to
help students redirect and expand
ideas.
Putting similar needs together in
guided writing helps address similar
language aspects at the same time.
 GUIDED WRITING

To help pupils develop their ideas and

organise them, the teacher makes use
of prompts and clues.

At this stage students may either work

independently or in small groups.
Sentences are discussed orally before
writing.
 INDEPENDENT WRITING

At this stage students can write for

their own purposes:
Letters
creative stories
writing journals
reports

 INDEPENDENT WRITING
With ideas from shared writing
learners work on their own
independent piece. They can refer
to charts and other materials to
revise and edit their work.
The pieces produced should be
shared as it gives the pupils
recognition and also affords an
opportunity for feedback
Writing as a process

Process Product

Writing
Writing as a process - Invention

Process Product

Writing

How What
Writing as a process

Basically the process can be broken

down into three steps.
Within these three steps there are
further steps to help students get
through the writing process.
Students should be encouraged to
look for patterns.
Writing as a process

Composition

1 2 3
Invention Revision
Writing as a process

INVENTION
Everything that students do
before actually beginning to
compose their work is included at
the point.
Writing as a process

Context

Generate Organize

Ideas
Writing as a process

Generating Ideas.

Brainstorming in pairs or groups

Use of graphic organizers / charts.
Writing as a process
Organizing Ideas.

Writing ladders, story boards or outline

templates are very important at this
stage especially for younger learners.
Older learners can write their ideas on a
sheet of paper as they brainstorm and
then use arrows to connect the ideas.
Writing as a process

Context

Context concerns placing the story

or piece in a context.
The setting and the context are
closely linked.
Writing as a process

COMPOSING
Composing a text is not an easy or simple
task, especially for young students.
Sometimes they do not even know how
to begin.
Giving them the beginning of the story
can get them started as they organize
their ideas around this.
Sequencing charts come in handy at this
point.
.
Example of Sequence chart
Writing as a process
REVISION
Learners have to be encouraged to
read over their work and make
changes which will improve their
piece.
They have to see their work through
another readers eyes.
Pairs could exchange pieces for
feedback to learn how to respond in
a constructive way.
Writing as a process

FACILITATING THE WRITING PROCESS

The teacher can help students as
they write in class by monitoring
them at the various stages in order
to make suggestions about how
they can improve their work.
After assessing strengths and
weaknesses, suggestions can be
made.
Writing as a process

FACILITATING THE WRITING PROCESS

Pupils could be asked to generate
questions about a text and then
discuss if there are things that could be
changed to improve it.
What is creativity

Creativity can be defined in different

ways. Fisher (2004 p.8) explains that
depending on how it is perceived we
could talk about creativity as:

a property of people (who we are),

processes (what we do)
or products (what we make).
What is creativity

Therefore there could are different

facets to creativity.
the ability to solve problems in
original and valuable ways that are
relevant to goals;
seeing new meanings and
relationships in things and making
connections;
What is creativity

having original and imaginative

thoughts and ideas about something;
using the imagination and past
experience to create new learning
possibilities.
Writing as a process
Students teaching students.
Peer editing groups in class helps
learners to spot and respond to
problems in their classmates' work.

Critical skills are also honed as students

learn how to talk and think about
writing. And this in turn helps them as
they write.
Writing as a process

Designing their own writing

assignments.
Giving students writing prompts works
very well in the primary classroom.

However teachers may allow students

to think up their own questions to
design writing prompts.
Writing as a process

What is Pre-Writing? Any writing done

before starting to write.
Pre-writing is a time to note down
ideas, and to choose a direction before
beginning to draft. This can be done by
drawing, reading, making notes or
writing down thoughts. Creating a
web is helpful.
Writing as a process

Sharing implies getting some feedback

from others. Students can make the
appropriate changes based on the
comments received.
Writing as a process - Revising?

Writing is about getting the reader to

get as close as possible to the the
authors experience.

How can we say what we want to say

in a way that will make our readers
understand how we feel?
Writing as a process

Revising means to be both writer and

reader.

Moving things around

Cutting things out
Adding things
Leaving things as they stand
Writing as a process - Rules ?

As much as possible students writing

should show what they are talking
about so the reader can see the story.
Verb use should be highlighted instead
of adverbs.
The man walked silently

The man tiptoed.

Writing as a process

Story prompts
Students are provided with several
story prompts and to choose one.
A set time or even number of words
should be established. Teachers can go
round checking to see if they have
problems and then redirect them.
Writing as a process

Using maps, flowcharts or mountains

children can plan their own stories. The
charts help them think about the plot
and structure of their story, and how
to divide it into different paragraphs,
before writing.
Reproducing the structure of a story
they have read can also greatly
improve the quality of their writing.
Spider diagram

These are used for making notes on a

particular subject. For example to
describe a certain character in the
story or play.
In the middle of the page is a picture
or word and then students draw
several 'legs' outwards. Children then
write words or phrases about the
object in the centre.
Spider diagram

To research a subject for a non-fiction

piece of writing for example
The artic Fox.
The following spider diagram prompts
children to put information into
different boxes, so that the information
is already organised before they start
writing.
Descriptive writing
Descriptive writing

Modeling and using literature full of

descriptive writing in the classroom.
Students' attention should be called
to interesting, descriptive word
choices in classroom writing.
Descriptive writing

Many vivid sensory details

Why? They paint a picture and
appeal to all of the reader's senses.
sight, hearing, touch, smell and
taste.
The feelings the person, place or
thing invokes in the writer of the
text.
 Video of five senses
Primary classroom where children are being
prompted by the teacher how to include the
fives senses in their writing so their parents can
experience the same sensation they had on a
visit to an orchard..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vMbb
KMx1m4&index=10&list=PL27994045AD84D
CBD
Descriptive writing

To help paint the picture in the

reader's mind we find the use of
figurative language :
analogies
similes
metaphors
Descriptive writing

Precise language.
Specific adjectives and nouns and
strong action verbs to give life to the
picture being painted should be used.
General adjectives, nouns, and passive
verbs should be avoided if possible.
Descriptive writing

It is organized.
chronological (time)
spatial (location)
and order of importance.
When describing a person, one could
begin with a physical description,
followed by how that person thinks,
feels and acts.
Spider diagram

Examples of
Creative Activities / tasks
Description of a New Animal

A good way of asking children to use their

descriptive writing skills is to ask them to
invent a new animal.

Ask them to describe what it looks like,

where it lives, what it does, what it eats etc.

It might be useful to discuss existing

animals and their characteristics
beforehand.
Different Point of View

Writing Traditional Stories from a

Different Point of View can be done
giving the students (pairs, groups)
cards with the original story points
summarized and then ask them to
recreate the story from another angle.
Task around an aspect of a story

Taking an aspect out of story and

setting a task around the aspect.

Asking students to design a New Room

for the Chocolate Factory in Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory.
Writing New Adventures

The idea is to take a story / book and

after reading the story with the pupils,
discuss the characters.
The children have to produce a new
adventure for a series of stories in
which these characters appear. This
could be in the form of a story, or a
storyboard with accompanying
pictures.
Class Mascot Activity

The teacher chooses a small soft toy

or puppet which will become the class
mascot. the class chooses a name for
the mascot, and discusses where it
comes from, its friends and family, its
likes and dislikes and so on.
Class Mascot Activity

Students take turn in taking the

mascot home for a few days. While
they are looking after the mascot, they
should write a short story in a
notebook indicating what the mascot
has done during its stay with them
(What really happened or invented).
Class Mascot Activity

Students should be encouraged to be a

creative as possible.
When the mascot returns to school,
spend should be spent discussing what
it has done and where it has been. The
class could make a book out of all the
different stories describing the
mascot's adventures.
When I am famous...

Andy Warhol said that "In the future,

everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

This idea could be discussed with

students to talk about what it means
to be famous.
Would they like to be famous?
What would they like to be famous
for?
When I am famous...

They would have to write about

what they would like to be famous for,
and explain why.

Other ideas stemming from this could

be a diary, written as if the child was in
the future and famous.
How are they feeling? What things do
they have to do?
When I am famous...

An interview for a newspaper could

also be written as if in the future, with
the child who is now famous.
How did the ?

Kipling wrote a story about how the

elephant got its trunk.
The children could make one up
explaining how a giraffe got its long
neck.
How the leopard got its spots.
Why a rabbit has got long ears.
Why a zebra has stripes.
A story based on adverts

On the back cover of books are adverts

for other stories. the children can
choose to choose one and write a story
based on the description of the story in
the advert.
The teacher can tell them the real
version later for comparison.
Using Objects

Give students or 5 unrelated but

interesting objects and challenge them
to create a character description of the
owner. This will generate a lot of oral
discussion after which they can write
their story down.
 Childrens Writing workshop
The following video shows children in a writing
workshop. The children are working on poetry
but the aspects of creative writing and the link
between reading and writing is emphasized iis
mentioned in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=03DBFkiJUGY