by Lisa Hiton
Reading critically can seem demanding in the distracted, digitized time we live in....
By: Lori Pelliccia
After my first year of teaching, I wanted to begin with a clean slate the following September. I wanted new assignments, different texts, better activities, and a more satisfying classroom experience for the students and for me. What I wanted most of all was a chance to make the class feel more like my own. Eventually, I developed the following creative writing mini lessons and activities that could be used in multiple ways, but it took me a while to get there.
My initial strategy was to spend the summer reading or re-reading teaching texts such as Readicide by Kelly Gallagher or The Reading/Writing Connection by Carol Booth Olsen and find places where I could insert, alter, or expand existing aspects of the curriculum to make them more aligned with my teaching beliefs and the classroom experience I wanted to create.
Over time, as I went on to teach middle school English for ten years in two independent schools and also online, I found that the core of what I was looking for was a course that asked my students to be creative individuals. Wherever possible, I replaced memorization with application, routine reading responses with creative expression, and silence with conversation, debate, and read alouds.
If, like I was after my first year of teaching, you’re looking at your unit plans with an eraser in hand—or your finger on the “delete” key, as the case may be—I encourage you to first establish your overarching goals, and then consider how one concept can simplify your approach to achieving those goals. Below, I’ll share a few creative writing mini lessons I’ve used to achieve several classroom objectives. “Mini” lessons or activities can be added on and incorporated into various parts of your curriculum planning.
Creative Writing Mini Lessons
Anonymous Reading Questions
Goal: Encourage students to ask questions and/or to give structure to class discussions
Writing Activity:
Give each student a sticky note as they enter the room. Ask each student to write a question about the homework, coursework, or reading from the night/day before. Students should NOT sign their names, so everyone should feel comfortable writing any question, no matter how basic.
As the students hand you their sticky notes, quickly read through them (perhaps as the students pull out their books/notebooks/laptops for class) and arrange them on the board according to level of sophistication. This way, you can ask students, as a class, to address questions of clarity and comprehension before moving onto higher level discussion or more complicated topics, depending on the subject area.
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Choice Reading
Goal: To promote more independent reading
Writing Activity: Choose one night each week where the only homework is to read independently—or more nights per week if possible! This might be a book that students are reading or an article from a newspaper or a passage of optional reading from your course textbook/supplemental texts.
At the beginning of the next class period, ask your students to write a response to a writing prompt related to their choice reading.
Example writing prompts:
- “Share something you learned, something you were unsure about in your reading, and something you were reminded of (a connection you can make) from the reading.”
- “Imagine you are a person/character in the text you read. What struggle are you facing, and what are your options for solving this issue? What support do you need from others in your life to confront this conflict, and why?”
Ask two students to share their writing (if they’re uncomfortable reading aloud, they can also summarize their response or reflect on their writing/thinking process) and whether they would recommend their choice reading to others. (Sharing aloud could always happen at the start of the next class period if there’s not time to both write and share at the same time.)
Consistency, choice, a sense of community, and low stakes (no grades) can help create a culture of independent reading and shows students that their independent work is an important component of your course and their time.
Writing In Other Subject Areas
Goal: To make writing part of your class across subject areas
Writing Activity: Observations, lists, and reactions are wonderful ways to introduce writing in short bursts. In a science class, ask students to write one sentence explaining something they noticed during a lab, demonstration, or when looking at a graph.
Then, share these single-sentence observations aloud, and ask students to write a sentence about any observations they didn’t hear shared aloud yet (and then share these aloud again, thereby creating a collectively thorough recording of the activity). This activity allows students to go beyond surface level thinking with a second round of writing.
Additionally, in a history class, for example, ask students to pause during a lesson and write a list of words or reactions about a particular topic. These lists and initial reactions can be shared aloud to show the teacher and students alike which details are resonating with the class, which topics might be of interest for further independent reading, and where there might be some relevance to today’s society in terms of the connections students make, and emotions they feel, about a curricular topic.
Practice Peer Review
Goal: To position students for productive, respectful peer review in your writing classroom.
Writing Activity: Acquaint with the process of offering and receiving feedback through a “1+1 Share.” This rapid-fire activity invites students to read a portion of their work aloud, no matter its genre or stage in the drafting process; then, their partner offers a “1+1” response, meaning one appreciation (a line that stood out to them, a powerful word, a meaningful moment of dialogue) and one question or suggestion for improvement. Partners can then switch roles, so both gain practice reviewing and being reviewed.
If time permits, you can also facilitate “1+1 sharing” as a class, going round-robin as students share their collective reactions to a given student’s work.
Download Creative Writing Mini Lessons
Looking to save these strategies? Download the pdf version of these mini lessons.
Create Space for Writing
As you work to accomplish your classroom goals, remember to be patient with yourself and your students. Incremental changes, gradual improvements, and a positive attitude are often the best approaches. And along the way, wherever possible, create space for writing—it’s a wonderful way for students to explore ideas or ask questions, to express their individual perspective, and to be part of a community of engaged learners.
