How to Teach Creative Writing to K-12 Students: 4 Classroom Technologies with the Best Impact

Creative writing is an important skill for students to have, both while in school and once they graduate. Reading and writing is a skill that is needed for just about every job, which makes it especially important for students to learn, even if they do not plan on attending college.

While creative writing is an important skill, classes are not usually taught solely on it until students are in high school or even in college. Since teachers at lower grade levels do not usually get to teach classes on creative writing, they need to slip it into their language arts classes, which may not give them as much time to work on the topic as they would like.

Like many other topics and subjects, using technology can help to teach creative writing techniques faster. It can also show students how creative writing can be used in the “real world.” Young students may also simply have more fun learning about creative writing through technology than they would simply through pen and paper.

How to Teach Creative Writing to K-12 Students

1. Audio Books

Audiobooks are anything but new technology. Before Amazon and other big companies began using audio books, books on tape were common. Now, many K-12 students probably haven’t even seen a cassette tape! This is a great technology for both elementary and high school students to use for different reasons.

Some very young children might not know how to read or they may struggle with reading, which can make reading and writing more annoying than anything else. Listening to a book can make the experience much more enjoyable, which can encourage young students to try to read and write more.

High school students often have heavy workloads and may not have the time to read when they might want to. By listening to audio books, they can listen to a story on its own or even multitask. By listening to a story they like, they may be inspired to come up with creative writing ideas of their own.

2. Online Quizzes

Each student learns in a different way. While there are three main types of learning (visual, auditory, and tactile) not all students will use each one to learn or they may use all of the types in different amounts. Teachers who don’t know how their students learn best are not likely to be effective teachers. Therefore, using online quizzes is a great way to figure out how students learn so teachers can better teach them creative writing– or any other subject.

One great quiz to use is the What’s Your Learning Style? Quiz. This quiz is simple enough that nearly all grades will be able to use it. Once done, students can print their results or email them to the teacher. This can show the teacher how students learn and they can adjust their teaching accordingly.

3. Blogging

Teachers often hear students ask, “When am I ever going to use this in real life?” Showing students that creative writing can be used in the real world is a great way to encourage them to write. One way to get a student’s classwork online is to set up a classroom blog. Students can then type up their creative work and put it online for the world to see.

One great blogging platform for teachers and students to use is Edublogs.org. On this site, teachers can create a blog for their entire class, add students, and add comments to students works. One of the best features of this site is that the blogs made here can either be public or private. The whole world can have access to it or just the students in the class, it’s up to the teacher!

4. Prompt Generators

One way to get students writing is to start off a lesson with a journaling session. However, what should your students write about? Using an online prompt generator helps to answer that question. There are prompt generators all over the web that students can use to generate a plot, character, topic, or quote to use in their story. This is a fun way for students to get their creative juices flowing.

One good resource to use for elementary school students is the Scholastic Story Starters game. This is a little game that includes writing that young students are sure to love. Students begin by picking a genre (adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, or “scrambler”) and then click their grade level. They then push a button that comes up with a story prompt. From there, the students write their story on the website and can even draw a picture to go with it. When they are done, they can print or email their story to their teacher to hand it in.

A good website for middle and high school students to use is Visual Writing Prompts. This website shows pictures and prompts for a variety of things, including topics, quotes, and general journal prompts. Teachers or students can pick a prompt and begin writing from there!

Using these technologies is a great way to get students more interested in creative writing and reading. All of the resources in this article are free for teachers and students to use. Try one or more of these technologies out soon to see how it can improve teaching creative writing in the classroom. Otherwise, you can contact a team of professional academic writers at Smart Writing Service to get your creative writing paper written from scratch. Since 2008 this online writing company has been helping students all over the world.

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