Creative Writing Middle School High School – Using Classic Texts as Mentors

Description

When my students complete this learning activity, their creative writing is delightful to read – truly! Plus, they feel ‘smart’ and it boosts their confidence to add sophistication to their imaginative writing. Unlike simply using a thesaurus, the students have explored the new vocabulary in context and therefore produce sophisticated narrative writing as they understand not only what the words mean, but also how to use them well. I share this with you to get back the love of writing we all have as English (LA) teachers.

Unsure about how to implement the reader-writer workshop model? Don’t worry – there are various ways to do this. All you’re doing is providing model texts (mentors) and supporting students as they write. The instructions for this are simple to follow and I’m just on the other side of email if you need further support. You’ve got this!

This lesson is great to use any time of the year. Starting the school year with it sets the tone of high expectations and lets students know they’re moving on and up. It also reduces the fear of tackling more challenging texts over the rest of the course, so introduce it any time you want to raise the bar, in a scaffolded and ‘safe’ way.

Carol Jago in her book ‘Classics in the Classroom’ argues that all students should be given the chance to experience classical literature, not just the deemed-as-gifted few. Using this resource, you can support your learners in accessing often-dense and difficult classic texts so they can extract vocabulary and techniques to experiment with in their own writing. In so doing, they not only get inspiration for their own writing but can start to appreciate the rich language that deserves the title of ‘classic’.

Included in this transformative writing pack:

→ teaching notes

→ model original writing inspired by the classic text extract

→ sample extracts for your students to practice on

→ guidance notes for students