creative writing classroom display

Creativity and Innovation in the Writing Classroom

Learn more about how to teach creativity and innovation along with, and as an important part of, traditional writing and research skills.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” —Maya Angelou

Creativity is fundamental to the teaching of writing. Although WR 153 focuses specifically on creativity and innovation, all WR courses ask students to approach their reading, viewing, writing, and research in creative ways. One important approach to creativity is “design thinking,” which emphasizes that creativity is a non-linear, iterative process. Design thinking is based on two foundational assumptions:

• Everyone can be creative.
• Creativity can be taught.

The principles of design thinking can be used in any WR course to teach students that creativity is a process of asking questions, using multiple strategies and approaches in answering those questions, taking risks in conceiving and executing original work, developing and refining ideas in response to feedback, and learning from productive failure. The metacognitive aspects of design thinking invite students to think about their own creative processes and identify factors that promote creativity.

Although WR 153 is structured by the steps of the design process (understand, empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, assess/reflect), all WR courses can benefit from incorporating elements of design thinking and an emphasis on creativity and innovation. Approaching writing instruction in this way can:

• Increase student engagement by focusing on creative responses to problems that students care about;
• Give students a sense of agency as a result of greater choice in what to write and how to write about it;
• Encourage taking intellectual risks and reward productive failure as a means of learning;
• Help students develop skills that are transferrable to other academic situations and their professional lives; and
• Enhance students’ personal lives by allowing them to learn about themselves and their own creative potential.

Principles of Design Thinking

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative approach to creativity that involves between three and seven steps. Although it is based on theories of design practice that go back to the early twentieth century, it has most recently been popularized by the design firm IDEO and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, commonly known as the d.school. The process involves understanding the issues involved in a design project, empathizing with the audience for an end product, defining the scope of the project, generating ideas for and creating prototypes of the product, testing and assessing those ideas and prototypes, and revisiting the steps of the design process until a final product is created.

The complete set of seven steps can be applied to the writing process in a WR course:

Understand: Students develop a foundation for their work by exploring issues and approaches relevant to the course topic, as well as previous work in the field.

Empathize: Students practice empathy by demonstrating their awareness and understanding of the audience for whom they write or create.

Define: Based on their observations and insights, students articulate a problem or question that will motivate their work over the course of the semester.

Ideate: Students generate new ideas and possible solutions by challenging assumptions and engaging in a variety of creative activities.

Prototype: Students start to create solutions and implement their ideas into written, digital or other forms in order to capture ideas, but also redefine choices.

Test: Students share drafts with others in order to gain feedback and insight into improving final versions.

Assess/Reflect: Students reflect on and evaluate their peers’ and their own processes and final outcomes.

The steps of the design thinking process are not meant to be followed in a rigid way. They should be flexible and customizable to the particular project: students may need to define, ideate, and prototype multiple times and in various modes/genres before they are ready to create a final draft. The skills students gain in going though these steps should be transferrable to other projects and courses.

Learn more about design thinking:

• “What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?” by Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang provides an overview of design thinking.
• David Kelly of IDEO explains the history of design thinking in “How to Design Breakthrough Inventions,” an interview with 60 Minutes .
• “How to Solve Problems Like a Designer,” which includes an interview with Tim Brown of IDEO, explains the basic principles of design thinking.

Understand and Empathize

The first step of the design process asks students to understand not only the course material, but also the resources necessary for their particular project. Since this usually involves additional reading/viewing, the “understand” step is part of the research and information literacy component of WR15X. Assignments that focus on this step may include conducting library or online research, categorizing research material using BEAM/BEAT, and creating annotated bibliographies.

Define, Ideate, and Prototype

Before they begin the process of generating ideas, it is often useful for students to define, at least in a preliminary way, what question or problem their paper/project is addressing. Assignments that help students define their projects may include questionnaires that ask students to state what they intend to work on and why, as well as more formal paper/project proposals.

In the IDEO design process, the goal of ideation is to generate a multitude of ideas without rejecting those that may seem impractical or even silly. Ideas can be rejected later, after a sufficient number of ideas have been generated. The most common ideation assignment involves various forms of brainstorming, often in teams. Ideas should be written down in some way, such as on sticky notes or index cards. To encourage divergent thinking in the brainstorming process, consider posting some fundamental principles in the classroom, such as these from IDEO:

• Defer judgment.
• Encourage wild ideas.
• Stay focused on the topic.
• Build on the ideas of others .

In the IDEO design process, prototypes are models that can be easily revised and even discarded if necessary. Prototypes for writing courses might include outlines, storyboards, slide decks, oral or video presentations, and preliminary drafts. Prototypes should be tested and assessed in some way that allows for reconsideration and revision before students turn in their final products.

Learn more about brainstorming and prototyping:

• “What is Brainstorming?” by Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang provides helpful information and ideas for the ideation step of the design process.
• This example of “Brainstorming at IDEO” shows one popular way of brainstorming with sticky notes.

Test and Assess/Reflect

The final steps of the design process, testing and assessing/reflecting, are not meant to be the final steps in completing a student’s paper/project. After testing and assessing a prototype, students will likely need to reconsider and revise their papers/projects, which will take them back to earlier steps—they may need to conduct further research, generate additional ideas, or refine their prototypes. The design process is meant to be iterative, with students returning to steps in the process as needed until they have completed a final draft.  

Just as designers test their prototypes, students should test drafts of their papers/projects by sharing them with others. Assignments that focus on this step usually involve workshopping with one or more peers, but testing may also include making an oral or video presentation to the class, meeting with the professor or a writing tutor, or sharing the student’s work with any other reader/viewer capable of providing feedback. Students may also test their papers/projects using techniques such as reverse outlining to assess the strength and clarity of their arguments.

The final step in the design process, assessing the student’s work, may lead back to any earlier step as students come to understand what they still need to work on to complete their papers/projects. This step may also involve the broader metacognitive task of reflecting on the student’s creative process. Assignments that focus on this step may include a variety of reflective exercises, including a final reflection for the course.

A Note on Assessment

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett

Because WR 153 courses can include such a wide range of papers and project, contract grading is recommended. Other WR courses that incorporate creativity and innovation may also wish to use contract grading, either for specific assignments or the course as a whole. More information on contract grading can be found here .

An important component of creativity and innovation is productive failure. We learn to create new things or develop new skills by failing and trying again until we succeed. Productive failure is failure that leads to new knowledge, insight, or innovation. Courses that focus on creativity can encourage productive failure by requiring prototypes that will be reconsidered and revised extensively, asking students to share examples of failure as valuable learning experiences, and assigning reflective work on how students have grown through failure over the course of the semester.

Learn more about productive failure:

Both readings below argue for the importance of productive failure. The Burger article contains specific examples of how to validate and reward productive failure in the classroom.

• “Next Time, Fail Better” by Paula M. Krebs, The Chronicle of Higher Education , May 11, 2012.

Further Reading

The quickest and easiest way to understand design thinking is to start with videos that explain the concept, where it originated, and how it can be used to address a variety of problems.

• In “How to Design Breakthrough Inventions,” David Kelly of IDEO and the Stanford d.school talks about design thinking in an interview on 60 Minutes and CBS This Morning .
• In “How to Solve Problems Like a Designer,” Vox provides a general overview of design thinking, featuring IDEO CEO Tim Brown.

If you would like to deepen your understanding of design thinking, there are a number of websites that address the concept in greater detail.

IDEO is a design and consulting firm that popularized the concept of design thinking. According to IDEO’s website, “Thinking like a designer can transform the way organizations develop products, services, processes, and strategy. This approach, which is known as design thinking, brings together what is desirable from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and economically viable. It also allows people who aren’t trained as designers to use creative tools to address a vast range of challenges.” The IDEO website has a number of useful resources on design thinking:

• A definition of design thinking .
• A brief history of design thinking .

IDEO U, the educational arm of IDEO, has a separate website that contain more information on design thinking as well as additional resources.

• What is design thinking?
• Resources related to design thinking .
• An overview of brainstorming .
• Resources related to innovation .

The Interactive Design Foundation provides useful information on design thinking on its website. According to “What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?” by Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang, “Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. At the same time, Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods.” This article describes the basic concept of design thinking and five basic steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test.

Books on design thinking are generally aimed toward a popular audience. They draw on anecdotal evidence rather than research to support their claims, but they can be valuable resources for understanding how design thinking is applied in a variety of settings, including both corporations and the educational sector. To provide a sense of how design thinking developed over time, these books are listed chronologically:

• The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelly, Doubleday, 2001.
• Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation by Tim Brown, HarperCollins, 2009, revised and updated 2019.
• Design Thinking: Understanding How Designers Think and Work by Nigel Cross, Bloomsbury, 2011.
• Design Thinking: A Guide to Creative Problem Solving for Everyone by Andrew Pressman, Routledge, 2018.
• The Design Thinking Toolbox: A Guide to Mastering the Most Popular and Valuable Innovation Methods by Michael Lewrick, Patrick Link, and Larry Leifer, Wiley, 2020.

Resources on design thinking in writing pedagogy:

If you would like to focus specifically on how the design thinking process relates to writing pedagogy, there are number of academic articles that address design thinking in the writing classroom as well as the larger issue of creativity as it relates to composition. To provide a sense of how the scholarship on creativity and design thinking in writing pedagogy developed over time, these articles are listed chronologically:

• “The Cognition of Discovery: Defining a Rhetorical Problem” by Linda Flower and John R. Hayes, College Composition and Communication 31.1 (1980), 21-32.
• “Process Paradigms in Design and Composition: Affinities and Directions” by Charles Kostelnick, College Composition and Communication 40.3 (1989), 267-81.
• “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking” by Richard Buchanan, Design Issues 8.2 (1992), 5-21.
• “Design and the New Rhetoric: Productive Arts in the Philosophy of Culture” by Richard Buchanan. Philosophy & Rhetoric 34 (2001), 183-206.
• “From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing” by Diana George, College Composition and Communication 54.1 (2002), 11-39.
• “Embracing Wicked Problems: The Turn to Design in Composition Studies” by Richard Marback, College Composition and Communication 61.2 (2009), 397-419.
• “Design as a Unifying Principle: English Departments in a New Media World” by Maureen Goldman, Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal 5.3 (2011), 249-257.
• “Sustainability as a Design Principle for Composition: Situational Creativity as a Habit of Mind” by Matthew Newcomb, College Composition and Communication 63.4 (2012), 593-615.
• “Design Thinking: Past, Present, and Possible Futures” by Ulla Johansson-Sköldberg et al., Creativity and Innovation Management 22.2 (2013), 121-146.
• “Writing in Design Thinking: Deconstructing the Question of Being” by Tassoula Hadjiyanni and Stephanie Zollinger, International Journal of Architectural Research 7.1 (2013), 116-127.
• Design Thinking and the Wicked Problem of Teaching Writing by Carrie S. Leverenz, Computers and Composition 33 (2014), 1-12.
• “What Can Design Thinking Offer Writing Studies?” by James P. Purdy, College Composition and Communication 65.4 (2014), 612-641.
• “Wicked Problems in Technical Communication” by Chad Wickman, Journal of Technical Communication 44 (2014), 23-42.
• “The UnEssay: Making Room for Creativity in the Composition Classroom” by Patrick Sullivan, College Composition and Communication 67.1 (2015), 6-34.
• “Design Thinking Via Experiential Learning: Thinking Like an Entrepreneur in Technical Communication Courses” by Jennifer Bay et al . , Programmatic Perspectives 10.1 (2018), 172-200.
• “Dissensus, Resistance, and Ideology: Design Thinking as a Rhetorical Methodology” by April Greenwood et al., Journal of Business and Technical Communication 33.4 (2019), 400-424.
• “Using Design Thinking to Teach Creative Problem Solving in Writing Courses” by Scott Wible, College Composition and Communication 71.3 (2020), 399-425.

General resources on creativity:

If you are interested in resources that focus on the larger issue of creativity, one place to start is with videos that define what creativity is and how it can be cultivated, including in an academic setting.

• Ken Robinson’s “What is Creativity” addresses the general issue of how we can both define and encourage creativity.
• Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Your Elusive Creative Genius” offers one way to think about creativity and deal with fear of failure.
• David Kelly’s “How to Build Your Creative Confidence” discusses how we can be more confident in our creativity and build creative confidence in others.

There are a number of books that focus more generally on creativity. Some of these books are theoretical, while some focus practically on how we can become more creative in work and life. The books by Tom and David Kelly, and by Sarah Stein Greenberg, approach creativity from the design thinking paradigm used at the Stanford d.school.

• Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, HarperPerennial, 1996.
• The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity , edited by James C. Kaufman and Robert J. Sternberg, Cambridge University Press, 2003, revised and updated 2019.
• The International Handbook of Creativity , edited by James C. Kaufman and Robert J. Sternberg Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum , edited by Norman Jackson, Martin Oliver, Malcolm Shaw, and James Wisdom, Routledge, 2006.
• Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelly and David Kelly, HarperCollins, 2013.
• Habits of the Creative Mind: A Guide to Reading, Writing, and Thinking , by Richard E. Miller and Ann Jurecic, Macmillan, 2015, revised and updated 2020.
• Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways by Sarah Stein Greenberg, Ten Speed Press, 2021.

The following books are listed separately because they reflect creative practices in specific fields, such as creative writing, the visual arts, and dance. They contain ideas and exercises that are transferrable to writing classes and may be helpful in designing WR courses.

• The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron, Tarcher/Putnam, 1992, reissued 2002.
• Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott, Anchor Books, 1994.
• The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp, Simon & Schuster, 2003.
• Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon, Workman Publishing Company, 2012.
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert, Riverhead Books, 2015.
• You Are an Artist: Assignments to Spark Creation by Sarah Urist Green, Penguin, 2020.

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How to teach ... creative writing

Summer is the perfect time of year for a spot of creative writing. Inspire young imaginations to put pen to paper with our lesson plans and ideas

From birds chirping aloft the trees to sapphire blue lakes sparkling in the sun, the sights and sounds of summer make it the perfect time of year for a spot of creative writing. Getting students to put pen to paper is a good way to spark their imaginations, develop reading and writing skills, and teach about empathy.

To help you and your class get inventive, this week’s how to teach brings you a selection of ideas and resources to inspire the creativity of young wordsmiths.

Primary students

Author Nick Hesketh recommends that before children start writing, you should discuss what makes a good story. He shares this and other advice in his creative writing video series for the Scottish Book Trust . Get students thinking with these “badly written” exemplars , which provide a handy baseline to work from.

Next, capture young imaginations by getting students to think about the story they want to tell. Where is it set? At what time of day? What is the weather like? What can you hear, see, smell or feel? This worksheet by Creative Writing Now will help students get to know their main character, while this plot questionnaire will encourage them think about what is going to happen. Then get your class penning their masterpieces, writing just a few sentences to begin with. Stress that they shouldn’t worry about spelling, instead, just put a wavy line under any words they are unsure of. There are examples of well thought-out sentences here .

Creative writing should be fun, and playing games is good way to help students develop story ideas. Try an alternative word association game in which you think of words that are at odds with each other (such as “boat” and “rock”) instead of words that are connected (such as “boat” and “water”). The aim is to show that good story ideas often involve some sort of tension. We also have instructions for a fun game called The Invisible Book , which involves students coming up with the first three sentences of a story on the spot, which helps them find their writer’s voice.

If ideas aren’t flowing, kickstart things by stepping outside of the classroom and into the playground as suggested in this resource by WordSpace . Give students unusual things to write on, such as the back of an envelope, a leaf, or a rough piece of wallpaper. Or challenge them to write a short story in just 50 words.

A quick way to conjure up story ideas is through pictures. Use prompts such as this image of two boys sitting on the wing of an aeroplane or this one of a dinosaur in the garden , which can work really well. Another tip from writer and teacher Heather Wright is to ask students to start several stories then choose the one they want to finish. This writing checklist will help students evaluate their work when it’s finished.

Secondary students

Challenge secondary students to write a story in just six words or get them to compile a list of objects for an imaginary cabinet of curiosity. These are just some ideas offered by the Writers’ Centre Norwich , a literature development agency based in England’s only UNESCO City of Literature . They have produced an easy-to-use 20-page activity pack for the classroom, which introduces a range of genres and draws on a variety of writing stimuli including photographs and poems.

If students want to get to the heart of a character, ask them to address the audience as their favourite fictitious creations. Writing a monologue is the focus of this key stage 4 resource by the Poetry Society . A second resource encourages students to create a piece of writing based on what they can – and can’t – see out of an imaginary window. The aim is for students to make effective use of descriptive detail as they write short lines of poetry in response to a series of prompts. As a homework task, ask students to repeat the exercise while looking out of a real window.

Students doing creative writing at A-level need to work in a whole range of written forms and genres including creative non-fiction and web content. They should be prepared to share work-in-progress with others, responding to feedback and developing drafting and editing skills. They should also write regularly to deadlines and keep a journal of writing ideas. You’ll find useful advice on approaching the first term of teaching in this guide by AQA . You’ll also find additional ideas to support learning and teaching here .

For those who are eager to take creative writing even further, this resource offers useful information on how to set up a creative writing club.

Finally, remember to encourage young people to read as often and as widely as possible – this is one of the most effective ways to teach creative writing. With this in mind, be sure to set your students off on the Summer Reading Challenge . You’ll find lots of reading and writing activities in this year’s pack .

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This classroom display pack contains six posters illustrating different ways a writer can show a character’s feelings instead of directly telling the reader.

Each poster uses an engaging image, accompanied by text boxes or word balloons which include example sentences to illustrate how that feeling can be described rather than simply stating how they feel. These can be used as a teaching tool within lessons or as a classroom display for pupils to refer to when writing independently.

Blank templates enable you to use the children’s own ideas and add to the existing examples to create a working wall . Pupil worksheets are also included for pupils to complete independently.

How can feelings be shown rather than told?

How a character feels can be shown through their actions or dialogue, encouraging readers to infer their feelings.

Feelings covered in the classroom display pack are:

What is included in this classroom display pack?

• 7 A4 posters with example sentences
• 7 A4 blank posters for pupils to add their own examples on your English working wall
• Blank speech bubbles for pupils to add to the classroom display
• Pupils worksheets
• Teacher notes

Visit our Classroom Display Collection for more inspiring resources to support teaching and learning in your classroom.

National Curriculum English programme of study links

Years 3 / 4 Writing - composition

Pupils should be taught to :

• draft and write by, in narratives, creating settings, characters and plot
• evaluate and edit by assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements

Years 5 / 6 Writing - composition

• draft and write by, in narratives, describing settings, characters, and atmosphere ...
• evaluate and edit by assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing

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Classroom displays – context, purpose and audience

I have visited several schools over the past few months, and love the way the pieces on display

add colour and dynamism to an environment that can be pretty sterile.

Primary Learning 2019

It is obvious that teachers are proud of their students’ work – expertise in the arts, in writing, in mathematical thinking, and in their scientific research.

I’m sure the students and their parents are pleased to see their work on display too.

This got me thinking that it is curious that we don’t spend much time on considering our reasons for creating displays, learning how to use our displays as cleverly as we might – to learn how to look, to see, and to supplement the literacy work we do in every subject. This is a resource that is vastly under-utilised.

Visual text can convey ideas and concepts effectively and economically, removing the need for detailed explanations. This is why we have charts and reminders – the alphabet in the early grades, ‘useful adjectives/verbs/prepositions’, text structure reminders, spelling conventions for the sound of English, class rules and aspirations, and the like. This is the strength of a display titled ‘3W drew pictures of our excursion to the farm’ , and why its use is so extensive – the visuals do all the work, with no further explanation needed.

Are we making the most of our classroom?

Thorn (2010) asks some key questions about displays –

• What is the purpose of display in the primary classroom?
• What considerations should govern the selection of topics and materials for display
• Should work be created specially [sic] for display?
• What are the rules for creating visually satisfying displays?

Each of these is worth considering. We live in a visually stimulating environment, sometimes too stimulating. We are increasingly being challenged by the visual demands of online text – the conventions of printed text layout have been overthrown in the capabilities of interactive text, emojis, GIFs, You Tube videos – where students can be exposed to a thousand images in seconds.

Our physical surrounds are also filled with visual noise – street signage, posters, warnings, traffic lights, commercial billboards and hoardings.

It can be difficult to compete with these – almost impossible really, with our limited resources and static walls. That is why we have to be clever in our work in the classroom.

We know that differing purposes for any text make different demands on the reader or viewer. The way we use words in texts is guided by the context, purpose, and audience for such texts loosely grouped into types in the NSW English syllabus as imaginative, persuasive and informative (NSW English Syllabus 2012 p.213).

The way we use displays can also be guided by context, purpose and audience within these same types of texts in order to achieve more than to decorate, to supplement classroom instruction or to vaguely inform or reassure the viewer, parent or carer – ‘3W wrote about our excursion to the farm’ .

Why this is important

As classroom teachers, we want to provide a supportive classroom for all our learners. We do so as we encourage our students to engage with language, and by using it constantly in multiple ways (Miller 2015 p.112). We can look beyond the obvious ‘print literacy’ to engage our students, and beyond the traditional uses of the vast wall spaces we have in our classrooms.

We want to maximise engagement and participation so that academic success is a real possibility for all , Jennifer Miller (2015 p.109).

A significant reason for considering extending our uses of the classroom display space is that our NSW English syllabus (BOS 2012) requires the study of English K-10 in its various textual forms:

These encompass spoken, written and visual texts of varying complexity through which meaning is shaped, conveyed, interpreted and reflected. [AG emphasis]

BOS English syllabus 2012 Rationale p.1

We have permission and encouragement to look at visual texts in interesting ways.

A couple of years ago I was invited to see the display in a Year 2 teacher’s classroom. The teacher was very excited as she had realised she needed to spend more time on having the students work on the literacy required to investigate the world – work she had previously been dictating.

It was an excellent display – a full wall height, and half the back room of the classroom, was filled with a deep, rich blue-black ‘space sky’, with rings indicating orbits, and the planets of the solar system as coloured cut-out circles apparently spinning dizzily relative to the gleaming golden sun taking up a corner of the wall.

The children had drawn and coloured and cut out the planets, and stuck them in the appropriate places. But the joy of creating the display was all the teacher’s.

I have no doubt that for the students some sound research had gone into the planet illustrations, and probably some joy in the magnificence of the display. But the purpose of the exercise had little to do with student learning.

When we look at the knowledge, understanding and skills that students will develop, many relate equally to visual texts, as students:

• use language to shape and make meaning according to purpose, audience and context
• think in ways that are imaginative, creative, interpretive and critical
• express themselves and their relationships with others and their world

NSW English syllabus Objectives p.13

Space to play

The practice of classroom displays in many schools has developed into using edging, coloured backing paper, commercial charts of everything from those text structures through to reminders about learning and manners – often given equal billing – as well as the exhibition of every example of work students did in every art activity, or every word they wrote about the excursion.

Included are constraints such as to not let anything dangle over the edge of the pinboard, to make sure the edges are even, borders are perfect, to use commercial products that aim at conformity, and so on. If you are falling for that stuff, have a closer look at what you are displaying and why.

The blog at learning spy – and rant – may be just what you need.

NSW DET (2011) Analysing visual text Features (colour, font, layout, symbols and concepts) at https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/eppcontent/glossary/app/resource/factsheet/4115.pdf is an introduction to basic elements of visual literacy, primarily designed for parents

https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/classroom-displays-how-much-is-too-much

References:

Board of Studies (2012) NSW English Syllabus K-10 at http://www.educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/learning-areas/english-year-10

Miller, J (2015) Classroom strategies for teachers and EAL learners, Chapter 8 in Hammond, J. & Miller, J. (Eds) Classrooms of possibility: Supporting at-risk EAL students Newtown: PETAA

Primary Learning (2019) How language – and other elements of communication – change according to purpose, blog at https://primarylearning.com.au/2019/06/03/how-language-and-other-elements-of-communication-change-according-to-purpose/

Author:  Annette Gray

Annette Gray is a literacy consultant and adviser. She has many years’ successful teaching experience in classrooms K-10 across Australia and in international settings.

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• HOW TO GET STUDENTS WRITING IN 5 MINUTES OR LESS

Writer’s Workshop Middle School: The Ultimate Guide

Feb 23, 2021

Writer’s Workshop Middle School: The Ultimate Guide defines the writer’s workshop model, its essential components, pros and cons, step-by-step set-up, and further resources.

What is the writer’s workshop model?

Writer’s workshop is a method of teaching writing developed by Donald Graves and Donald Murray , amongst other teacher-researchers.

The writer’s workshop provides a student-centered environment where students are given time, choice, and voice in their learning. The teacher nurtures the class by creating and mentoring a community of writers.

So, why does the writer’s workshop in middle school matter?

Students learn more during the writer’s workshop because you can mentor them toward what they need to know and practice, and they have lots of time to write and read in order to improve at their own pace (to an extent). 

For example, if the skill I need to teach is how authors use mood and tone to create meaning , then I would use a mentor text to teach that concept. However, after reading, the focus will not be on answering questions about the text in written form. Instead, I demonstrate how writers choose particular words and the arrangement of those words to create a mood and tone. 

Students then try creating mood and tone with their own pieces of writing. Only after students have practiced their own creations, do I then circle back around to other literature for students to practice literary analysis of mood and tone and its effect on meaning.

Why I focus on writing in the ELA classroom?

I’ve found students are more likely to read assigned texts if I’ve given them a reason to use those texts. That reason? To apply what they learn from mentor texts to their choice writing. Middle school students love to express themselves in creative ways, and by giving students this choice, you build engagement and motivation to continue learning.

The essential components of the writer’s workshop in middle school are:

• Time to write daily 
• Student choice 
• Exploring the writer’s voice
• Building a community of writers
• Mentor teaching 

1. Time to Write Daily

Students need a chance to write daily. Various ways you can do this are through Bell Ringers at the beginning of the class, writing during the mini-lesson, and writing projects during workshop time. My students use writing journals because they need a space to think before they face a blank computer screen.

Students do read in my classes. However, their purpose for reading is to become better writers. This reading is either assigned, student choice, or a choice between the assigned reading and student choice, depending on the skill or concept I’m targeting that week. 

This is how I break up our daily writing:

• Write Now (bell ringer) 
• Mini-lesson and sharing 
• Writing/Reading Workshop while I confer with writers 
• Short turn and talk, log off computers and pack up 

Below is an example of my story writer’s workshop time transformation. This is what I use when we are writing narratives. I’m using a fantasy magic theme here:

2. Student Choice

To keep students motivated to write, you want to build in student choice whenever and wherever possible. Just to clarify, you don’t have to give them choices for everything they do. 

For one thing, that would be as overwhelming as shopping on the cereal aisle at your local grocery store. Just too many choices. 

When I introduce a concept, I may give them a few choices on how students can practice that concept. If I give them a writing assignment, I often allow them ONE choice in topic, genre, audience, or mode of writing. 

If you need students to complete an assignment/activity within a certain time period, tell them ahead of time. Let them know they can turn in an excerpt if they want to write something longer than you expect. 

Of course, this is not always possible. They need to learn how to write within certain time parameters. So, let them practice this through timed writings or word sprints .

One way to help students with choice is to have them do listing activities frequently. They could even have a section in their writing notebooks just for lists of ideas.  

3. Exploring the writer’s voice

Writer’s voice – that elusive term that most writers have no idea how to achieve until they’ve written for a while, and then finally realize they have it. The ultimate goal for me as a writing teacher is to help my students to find their voice.

I want students to be able to explore what is important to them personally and to explore how they can share this with others. From encouraging students to participate in small group sharing to author’s celebrations, students need the opportunity to see their writing voice matters.

There are so many different ways for kids to publish safely online – Edublogs, Adobe Spark, Google Sites, FlipGrid, etc. 

4. Building a community of writers in your writer’s workshop for middle school

Middle school students are very social, but even the quiet writers need to socialize often with other writers. This component of the writer’s workshop for middle school is what makes this model an actual workshop.

Students share their writing with each other. Usually, I allow for natural partnerships and groups to form. However, at the beginning of the year, I often pair up students for short activities. This helps everyone feel more comfortable with each other.   

One way I build a community of writers is to play the name game at the beginning of the year. We all stand in a circle and we toss a ball to each other and say our name and all the people who have had the ball tossed to them. It gets fun when students start to forget names. They all start out being self-conscious but end up laughing and smiling.  

Another way to build a community is during share time. I have students write in their notebooks as soon as they come into the classroom as a warm-up, starter activity that I call Write Nows. These Write Nows are projected up on the screen, and students write for 2-5 minutes. After this, I ask students to turn and talk to a neighbor about what they wrote. 

Sometimes this writing is a review of the previous day or another activity that goes along with the skill we are learning. Other times it is a prewriting activity that helps break writer’s block .

Write a Letter to your Students

To help students get to know me as a community member, I write a letter to them and they write back to me. This starts the relationship-building between my students and me within the first week, and I conference with the students about their letters. This also gets them into the swing of a writer’s workshop.

My students love this letter-writing activity that I’ve done every year for the past 24 years. It’s a hit every year and establishes the tone and mood of our workshop.

5. Teacher as Writing Mentor

One of the most important components of the writer’s workshop in middle school is you – the writing teacher.

To teach writing well, you should write along with your students. Over the years, I’ve written on transparencies, used a document camera, and filmed myself writing. All of these methods work. Generally, I write along with students during the bell-ringer activity, which I call Write Now, but sometimes I’ve prewritten the Write Now.

Additionally, I show students my various writing projects, both published and unpublished, during daily lessons.

My students have seen this blog, heard my podcasts , listened to me read aloud from stories I’ve written and/or published. My students are the ones who pushed me to publish my first YA books . You’ll be amazed at what you come up with and how this creates a bond with your students that lasts a lifetime.

Also, by completing the writing assignments you assign, you’ll be able to empathize with and anticipate the writer’s struggle with each assignment.

Terms to Know for Writing Workshop

This is not an exhaustive list, but one that will be added to as I find more terms that should be added here.

Activity:   the practice of a skill or process, especially when gaining new knowledge

Assignment: a product created by the student after practicing a skill or process that may be revised up until a particular due date

Bell ringer: a beginning of the period activity (I call these Write Nows in my class)

Blended learning environment: in-person LIVE teaching and learning or digital learning with recorded lessons

Conference: a meeting between teacher and student about their writing

Journal write:  handwriting in a journal for ideas, bell ringers, collecting information, etc.

Mini-lesson: a short 5-10 minute lesson that teaches either a whole or partial skill or process

Mastery Learning: quizzing students on their conceptual knowledge, giving them different activities based on the results of their quizzes – either reteach or extend – and quizzing again. Revisions can also be mastery-learning pieces. 

Mentor texts: well-written, multicultural texts used to demonstrate a literary concept or style

Rubric: a breakdown of the skill into levels of learning – students revise to earn a higher level

Writing Workshop Middle School Pros and Cons

• Builds student relationships with you and each other – lots of SEL
• Easier to differentiate for students than the traditional classroom model
• Grading can be accomplished during conferences
• Students are more engaged and begin to enjoy writing
• They might even enjoy reading more, too
• Mini-lessons are short, sweet and to the point, less prep time for presentations 
• Breaking through writer’s block
• Teaching students how to use the technology 
• Helping students revise if they don’t have access to technology
• Adapting to technology challenges that arise (switch to writing journals or change Internet browsers) 
• Deadlines can be difficult to manage sometimes

As far as time management is concerned – one of the things I am going to stress to my students is the need for getting assignments turned in, even if it’s not perfect. I need to be able to keep them to deadlines. So, this year, I’m going to teach my student’s Parkinson’s Law :

How to start a writer’s workshop for middle school

These are the steps I’m taking this year to start my writer’s workshop, and I’ve used these for quite a few years now. Some steps may be done simultaneously on the same day. There will be future blog posts about each of these steps.

• Create a welcoming classroom space.
• Decide what technology you will be using – hardware and software. If you need help with Canvas LMS, click here .
• Send out your course syllabus with materials students will need for your course.
• Create a course outline based on your school’s curriculum guides or state standards. 
• Plan and post your first 2 weeks of lessons and assignments into your online course (if you are using technology in your course).
• Establish classroom expectations and routines.
• Build a classroom community of writers.
• Show students how to navigate your course online.
• Write a letter to your students and have them write back to you as their first assignment.
• Confer with your writers as they are writing their letters and make a list for yourself of things students need to work on with their writing.
• Set up writing journals and begin writing workshop routines.
• During mini-lessons, teach the 5 tricks that break writer’s block .
• Students write in journals to gather ideas and begin writing pieces.
• Assign a short writing piece and confer with writers during workshop time. 
• Teach ONE revision strategy during a mini-lesson, depending on your curriculum.
• Teach ONE editing strategy during a mini-lesson, depending on your curriculum.
• Allow writers to revise and edit before turning in their first short writing assignment.
• Celebrate your writers with the Author’s Chair presentations.
• Continue writer’s workshop by using daily bell ringers, mini-lessons about writing and reading, sharing, writing/reading workshop, conferencing, and turn and talk.
• Breakaway from the writer’s workshop routine every once in a while to play – escape rooms, read-arounds, watch a movie, celebrate authors, group brainstorm, catching up on overdue assignments.

References for Writing Workshop in Middle School

Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle: A Lifetime of Learning about Writing, Reading, and Adolescence. Heinemann, 2014.

Graves, Donald H. “All Children Can Write.” http://www.ldonline.org/article/6204/  

Lane, Barry. After The End: Teaching and Learning Creative Revision. Heinemann, 2015.  

Murray, Donald. “The Listening Eye: Reflections on the Writing Conference”  https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CE/1979/0411-sep1979/CE0411Listening.pdf

Learning materials for Writing Workshop for Middle School

Writing Literary & Informative Analysis Paragraphs

Students struggle with writing a literary analysis , especially in middle school as the text grows more rigorous, and the standards become more demanding. This resource is to help you scaffold your students through the process of writing literary analysis paragraphs for CCSS ELA-Literacy RL.6.1-10 for Reading Literature and RI.6.1-10 Reading Information. These paragraphs can be later grouped together into writing analytical essays.

PEEL, RACE, ACE, and all the other strategies did not work for all of my students all of the time, so that’s why I created these standards-based resources.

These standards-based writing activities for all Common Core Reading Literature and Informational standards help scaffold students through practice and repetition since these activities can be used over and over again with ANY literary reading materials.

Included in these resources:

• step-by-step lesson plans
• poster for literary skills taught in this resource
• rubrics for assessments standards-based
• vocabulary activities and notes standard-based
• graphic organizers that incorporate analysis of the literature and information standard-based
• paragraph frames for students who need extra scaffolding standard-based
• sentence stems to get students started sentence-by-sentence until they master how to write for each standard
• digital version that is Google SlidesTM compatible with all student worksheets

List Making: This resource helps students make 27 different lists of topics they could write about.

Sensory Details:  This resource will help you to teach your students to SHOW, not tell. Descriptive writing with a sensory details flipbook and engaging activities that will get your students thinking creatively and writing with style.

Included in this resource are 2 digital files:

• Lesson Plans PDF that includes step-by-step lesson plans, a grading rubric to make grading faster and easier, along with suggestions for what to do after mind mapping.
• Google SlidesTM version of the Student Digital Writer’s Notebook allows students endless amounts of writing simply by duplicating a slide.

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Teacher’s Guide: Tips and Tricks in Teaching Creative Writing

John anderson.

• February 6, 2019

Creative writing is one of the most enjoyable forms of writing that students learn in school. Unlike in the case of academic and formal theme writing, students are able to express their creativity in such writing classes. They can craft stories, describe characters and settings, and share with the readers their thoughts and ideas. Through creative writing, they can share their experiences, make their own world, design their heroes and villains, and create and solve conflicts for their characters.

Teachers play a big role in encouraging their students to enjoy writing. As the captain of the ship, you should lead and inspire them to enjoy the craft and later on, be good at it. However, how can you be an effective creative writing teacher? Here are some tips and tricks for you:

As with teaching any subject, planning is of great importance when teaching writing. Plan ahead to make sure that you and your class will be on the right track. Schedule your lessons and arrange topics chronologically. Start with the basics such as plot and character development. Look for materials to supplement your lessons. There are plenty of creative writing worksheets online . Make use of them as part of your students writing activities—either as seatwork or homework.

Set themes and topics

It also helps to line up themes and topics for your students to draw inspiration from. Browse through magazines and books to get ideas. List down topics as your “seed ideas” and arrange them according to your scheduled lessons. This should help students use their imagination as they work on subjects that may not be familiar to them.

Challenge your students

Test your students’ skills by giving them writing challenges. One good example is writing a six-word story. Writing stories can be daunting, especially when you’re required to write at least three pages, for instance. But the thing is that it’s harder to write when you’re limited to just a few words. This kind of challenge will make your students get those creative juices oozing for good.

Encourage competition

Friendly competition is great for every class. Encourage your students to step up their game by giving them activities that will earn them points and bragging rights. Give them contests such as character designing and making their own story endings, as well as homework like word bank and journaling. Give them points for their output and give recognition to top scorers. Remember that creativity is subjective, so create a simple rubric to assess their written works.

Allow review and feedback

Let your students review the works of their classmates. You can group your class into small groups wherein they can share their stories and writing pieces.  This should help your young writers to gain confidence in what they’re doing and listen to other people’s comments and suggestions to better their skills. At the same time, it helps you gauge the competencies and weaknesses of your students through the eyes of other audience.

The best thing about teaching a subject like creative writing is that you don’t just get to teach, you also learn in the process. It is truly a great experience seeing your students get better at writing. Who knows, you could very well be training the next Hemingway or perhaps the next J.K. Rowling.

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25 Best Bulletin Boards to Celebrate Reading

The summer weather has us itching to pick up a good book and inspiring our students to do the same.

With summer vacation rapidly approaching, the entire WeAreTeachers crew has books on the brain. Whether we’re prepping for summer book clubs, gathering up beach reads, or assigning summer reading to our students, we are constantly looking for an excuse to crack open a new book. Use the summer to get yourself and your students inspired for next year’s reads with this awesome collection of the 25 best reading bulletin boards.

Best Seasonal Reading Bulletin Boards

We always love commemorating the holidays with classroom decor representatives for each season, and there’s no easier way to do this than by creating a reading bulletin board with season- or holiday-themed reads.

A Harvest of Good Reading

SOURCE: Pinterest

Tip: Attach apples with book titles and/or covers to your tree or place real wooden barrels of classroom reads below the poster.

Grab a Good Book

Who’s up for a ghost story? Tip: Print out small book covers and place them in or in front of the hands in the display.

Season’s Readings

SOURCE: Lorri’s School Library Blog

This simple winter display offers a lot of room for creativity. Tip: Recreate this bulletin board with ornaments bearing the titles or covers of popular reads.

March Madness Bracket

Your students will love voting on their favorite books and turning reading into a bit of friendly competition. Tip: Change the genre of books according to the ages and interests of your students.

Our Books Are Blooming

While this teacher chose to fill their flower pots with student-made books, you can just as easily replace the “blooms” with required reading or popular books in a variety of genres. Tip: Cut out small water droplets on which students can write their names and paste above the blooming books once they’ve read the corresponding selection.

Spring Forecast

SOURCE: volunteerspot.com

Nothing like April showers (or summer storms) to make you hole up with a good book. Tip: Paste smaller book covers inside the raindrops and place a shelf or box of books at the end of the rainbow.

Something Cool to Read

I scream, you scream, we all scream for—books! Tip: Paste two-dimensional ice cream cones (or Popsicles!) on the board and write or attach book titles on the scoops of ice cream. Another variation of this display, which we have yet to see, is to design an ice cream freezer in which each flavor is replaced by a genre or book title (Ex: strawberry = romance, cookie dough = adventure, etc.)

Best Tech-Inspired Reading Bulletin Boards

In the age of cell phones, Netflix, and social media, it’s hard to convince kids that the best entertainment of all doesn’t require a WiFi connection. Get them to rethink communication with a bulletin board that calls on technological themes to promote reading.

Emoji Reads

What’s your reaction? Tip: Ask your students their favorite books to read when they’re happy, sad, worried, or angry. Alternatively, you might ask them which emotions the main characters of their favorite books deal with. Paste copies of their recommendations next to the corresponding emoji.

Books to Make You LOL

Books make the best mood boosters. Tip: Update this collection with different text reactions. For example, “Books to make you rotfl (roll on the floor laughing)” or “Books to make you say ‘omg’.”

No headphones necessary. Tip: Replace the app icons with book genres or titles. Take this one step further by recreating the iTunes screen with book titles in place of songs and authors in place of artists. This board may also serve as a great talking point for you and your students, sparking conversations about rethinking the way to read (via e-readers, audiobooks, etc.).

Bks R Lke Rly Lng Txt Msgs

SOURCE: School Library Displays

Gone reading, TTYL. Tip: Add book covers or spines with the titles abbreviated in text lingo.

Spin-d Your Time Reading

This display is sure to get your students’ attention. Admittedly this one isn’t quite a bulletin board display, but it could just as easily be. Tip: Scale down the size of the paper spinners and and books and add a few more to your bulletin board display.

Level up in the Library

Another one of our favorites, this Nintendo-inspired board is worth its weight in gold … coins. Tip: Replace the gold coins on your board with books, then distribute plastic gold coins to students as they finish books. Create a small box of prizes that they can then purchase with their coins.

Best Punny Reading Bulletin Boards

Ah, puns. The highest form of literary mastery, in our humble opinion, is a good play on words. We can’t resist bringing puns into the classroom, and these reading bulletin boards are the perfect way to do so.

We’re obsessed with this idea and how dynamic this design is, whether you make it into a bulletin board or classroom door design. Tip: Keep this display all year and update the selection of books every couple of weeks.

Let’s Read a Latte

Nothing goes together better than teachers and coffee, right? Pay homage to your favorite beverage with this fun reading display. Tip: Use brown construction or butcher paper to have your kids design “sleeves” for their books as if they were hot beverages.

The S’more You Read

Reading sure is sweet, isn’t it? Tip: Use the ingredients of a s’more to correspond to vital storytelling elements (for example, the marshmallow might represent plot while the chocolate represents characters). Once your students meet their reading goals, treat them to a build-your-own-s’more party in the classroom.

Take Me to Your Reader

Reading will take you to another planet. Tip: Cut out printouts of book covers and place them below the spaceship as if they’re being captured and taken into space by the aliens.

We think this is a fabulous way to incorporate students, teachers, and administrators into the world of reading. Whether you take “shelfies” in the library or by your classroom bookshelf, your kids will love seeing their faces on the wall of the classroom.

Minions of Books

We can’t get enough of this adorable Minion bulletin board. Tip: Label each Minion’s overalls with the name of a student and allow each student to choose and design the book their Minion is reading.

Just Plain Clever Reading Bulletin Boards

These last few designs are in a league of their own. Whether they make relevant pop culture references or simply shock your students with their color and content, these bulletin boards are sure to motivate your young readers.

Read Me, Maybe

Like Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit, a good book will stay stuck in your head for a long time. We think this display is a great way to teach your students how to use call numbers to locate books in the library. Tip: Add real titles to the books along with their corresponding call numbers for your school library.

Pop Open a Good Book

Who says popcorn is only for the movies? Tip: Incorporate movie tickets into classroom reading. You might give a student an Admit One ticket stub as a pass to the library or make a reading times poster similar to the old movie theatre marquee signs.

Banned Books Week

SOURCE: BHP English Headquarters

This might just be our favorite design of all. Tip: Read Fahrenheit 451 with your students and then ask them which books they’d ban or which books they’d read despite the ban. After all, aren’t controversial books the most memorable?

Feed Your Brain

Hungry for books? We certainly are. Tip: Recreate this display with books as sandwiches (complete with oozing PB&J and teeth marks in the covers). As your students what kinds of books are required to maintain a balanced “diet.”

Frying up Great Readers

SOURCE: supplyme.com

Like McDonald’s french fries, when it comes to books, you can’t have just one. As this photo suggests, assign each McDonald’s french fry container to a student and have them add “french fries” labeled with book titles each time they finish a book.

Read Return Repeat

SOURCE: bulletinboarddesigns.net

Go green: Save power and read! Tip: Use this display as a springboard for discussion about how just like recycling is good for the planet, reading is good for the people who live on it.

What are your favorite reading bulletin boards? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers Helpline group on Facebook.

Plus, 25 anchor charts that teach reading comprehension.

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Primary English: Creative writing

Australia and new zealand, primary english, tes resources team.

Let young learners' imaginations run wild with help from these creative writing resources

Creative writing can be one of the most rewarding aspects of literacy, however the terror of a blank page can panic even the most willing writers in your class. So, to make sure every pupil has the confidence to put pen to paper, we've hand-picked this selection of lessons, activities and help sheets, all created by the Tes community.

My Lunch is Alive! KS2 creative writing resource

Rainforest Poetry

Creative writing worksheets for KS2

Writing Narratives KS2 Knowledge Organisers Bundle!

Creative Writing Story Prompts

Story Builder

Story Writing Planning Template

Storytime Fairy Tale Pack

Differentiated story mountain

KS2 poetry - write a poem about the seasons

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Primary Display Resources

TTS offers a fantastic selection of primary display resources for you to construct fun, creative and engaging displays in your classroom. The colourful paper rolls, card, coloured cellophane sheets and assorted fabrics we stock let your students create a variety of different displays. Make your classroom vibrant and showcase students' work today with these great primary display resources!