Creative Writing
Subject Area: Language Arts
Submitted by: Gail B. Finlay
School, or Affiliation: George Washington Middle School, Ridgewood, NJ
Major Objectives:
- To produce a piece of creative writing
- To use word processing and graphics software
- To create a classroom journal combining creative writing and graphics
Grade Levels: 6-8
Materials:
- Multiple computers; printer
- Software: word processing, graphics
Activities and Procedures:
- Stir up the students' imaginations with the following:
- What is imagination?
- Are your imaginations like anyone else's?
- Who are some people who use imagination?
- Tell them that they will be dreaming and imagining and creating word pictures of things
that might never have existed or happened.
- Present the students with "What Would Happen If..." scenarios. For example,
"What would happen if..."
- vegetables could talk;
- your brother turned into your sister;
- water in the oceans evaporated;
- all clocks stopped;
- people decided to no longer work for minimum wage;
- everyone looked alike; and
- all trees began growing money.
- Have the students brainstorm their ideas in phrase form, using the word processor, and
print out their notes.
- Have the students use their ideas to develop a story, proof/edit it, and print out a
copy.
- Have them proof one another's, edit, and print a final copy.
- Demonstrate the graphics software. Have the students create a picture to illustrate
their stories. Print the picture at the top or bottom of the stories.
- Combine stories into a booklet.
Follow-Up/Extension:
Spend a class period sharing the stories and pictures and talking about new ones to
write. As a larger project, have the students create a literary magazine.
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