Most high school teachers, even English teachers, do not have a background in Creative Writing. This course provides materials to make up for that lack. It implements state and national goals and standards through a semester of lessons in poetry, fiction, and drama, including teacher presentation materials, student handouts, methods of responding to student assignments, and assessment. Teacher materials include models of each assignment task, suggestions for methods of presentation, and a full explanation of evaluation and assessment tools. Student writing skills will improve by an incremental buildup of paced lessons. Sample poetry skills include matters of form such as traditional vs. free verse; figurative language such as metaphor, hyperbole, and many more; sound devices like assonance, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. In fiction students create sketches for setting, point of view, character, and more culminating in the creation of a short story.
After intense study of the functions of dialogue and stage directions, the class members write a one act play. All semester work is revised, edited, proofread, and collected into an anthology of each student’s best work of the semester. This course will supply a new teacher or one with a new teaching assignment or one who wants to inject some creative assignments into his repertoire a wide variety of selections and strong support. |
"Creative writing classes often attract students with very different skill levels making it difficult to adapt lessons to the needs of each student. This text solves the problem. Every student can complete the sequenced activities with a degree of success, while the more skilled students are challenged to their potential. Her students have won local, state and national awards for their writings which began with the lessons in this text. Ms. Moran's creativity and knowledge of this course make this book useful for first year teachers as well as veterans; both will find provocative and imaginative lessons ready to implement." -- Diane Maurer, English department head, L'Anse Creuse High School |
