Inspire them with sunshine. In this creative writing activity you prepare your students to write a description of sunshine using six phases. Phase one : create a particular scene in their minds. “Imagine a lake one sunny morning, surrounded by trees with the breeze gently rippling the surface of the water. Then focus your description on the effects of the sunshine as it sparkles on the water.” Phase two: ask them to write out that scene adding details and development from their own imaginations. Phase three: show them and read them the worked up example to inspire. (“Sunshine on the Water” – below) Phase four: ask them to think of another scene where the focus of the description is the sunshine and to write it out. Phase five: ask students to read out their work and discuss. What particular parts where particularly good? What particular parts could be enhanced? How might they be enhanced? Phase six: encourage them to rewrite their work to improve it.

The story behind the story – Mountain Challenge Read with your students the story “Douglas wakes up.” This has been especially written by Johnnie Young and based on thirty years of teaching students creative writing is designed to intrigue them and evoke creative responses. Then ask students to continue the story and then explain what is happening for this set of circumstances to come about. 1300 words A full example of an explanation is provided for the teacher to use to compare and help the students with their ideas. This of course will not be shown until the students have had a go themselves.

Continue the story entitled “I saw strange things by that river.” Read your students the following beginning of a story which has been specially written by Johnnie Young and designed to captivate the attention of your students and inspire them to continue the story in their own words and from their own imaginations. The story beginning is 723 words and will take 3 to 4 minutes to read.

Exercise for writing an interesting description of the countryside. Instructions. Ask your students to write a description of a countryside scene. You may wish to use a list of key ingredients to prompt them: EG: Grass, wild flowers, dew, ants, cracked mud, puddle, reflection in the puddle. They might produce something like “draft 1”. I have seen students produce similar things thousands of times. Challenge: how to use that raw material and develop it in an interesting way. Advice to students. Take each part of the description and be imaginative and develop it. Think about using detailed observation. Experiment with phrases like “look closer”. Introduce verbs and put action into the writing. So, show them just draft 1 (below). Discuss Then show them draft 2 and ask them to continue it in a similar style. Then show them draft 3 (which is draft 2 extended) and compare to their own writing. What might they learn from the comparison?

Describing objects can be an interesting exercise in creative writing. This idea gives the students a chance to make the description intriguing by involving it with a memory. Ask your students to think of an object. Now ask them to imagine that object as they look at it closely. Note it can aid the imagination if pictures of objects are provided to help the imagination. They then imagine that they touch the object and describe it. As they look at it and touch it the object evokes a memory. The object is then described in terms of that memory. An interplay between object and memory develops. Purpose of the exercise: To create an intriguing structure in creative writing. To add a sense of psychological realism to the writing. To give an abstract idea a concrete form. To practise creative thinking in creating a meaningful and interesting comparison between the object and the memory. Teaching students that good crafted writing involves dynamics. A description hanging on its own in space without connection, rather than enhancing the quality of the writing can actually distract from it.

This is a story about an old legend on the Cornish coast. Read it to your students. It has been especially written by Johnnie Young to engage the interest of your students with a view to engendering a piece of creative writing . Let them have a copy of it for reference. The writing builds almost to a climax and the writing task is for your students to write out, from their own imaginations and based on the information provided, the missing part of the newspaper article. It is incredible to see, once the necessary information is fed in, what your students will produce in response to this challenge. A good way to introduce it is to use these words: “I’m going to read to you about an intriguing legend connected to a part of the Cornish Coast. I want you to listen carefully and try to remember the key points as we go along. At the end there is a writing challenge for you. I want you to imagine what happens next and then I want you to have a go at writing it down.”

This is an intriguing beginning of a story especially written by Johnnie Young to capture the imagination of the students. Read it to your students and let them have a copy of it for reference. Then ask them to continue the story.

This assembly starts with the words of a poem “Peace in the Welsh Hills” by Vernon Watkins and uses it to illustrate the main idea of the assembly which is about how to cope in a world which seems so full of change and uncertainty. Hard work is the key for the preparation for the adventure ahead, whatever the changes are. Teachers too have had to change and adapt their role which is essential to motivate students. The poem is used as a base to make the idea interesting showing that when opportunities present themselves after the storm the students will be best placed if they are prepared. The assembly encourages an optimistic attitude in tough times.

Arrange your class into groups of four. Place a bowl at the front and put into it an orange and a banana. (This is to add dramatic effect to the task). Explain to your class that you are going to set them a creative writing challenge. Read them the challenge and give them a typed copy of it for them to refer to. Allow twenty minutes for them to discuss, plan, exchange ideas, and then write a first draft. At the end of the time allowed request two or three to be read out. Important learning behaviour management tip: at the end of twenty minutes many will ask for more time saying that they haven’t finished. It is important for you to then say: “I realise that some of you may not have finished but I do need to hear what you have done so far please.” Be clear about this. If you allow more time two disadvantages soon appear: Students who have finished will get bored and start to fidget. Students who haven’t finished will lose the sense of urgency and the whole shape of the lesson will soon sag. Next step is to hear a few read out then hand them a copy of the sample answer and read it to them. Then get each group to compare what they have done to the sample using the checklist provided. In this way they will take the pressure off of you because they are self assessing together and your role can become supervisory as an overseer of the process. At the end of the lesson ask them to redraft their own work in the light of what they have learnt by comparing it to the sample to enhance and improve their own work. WRITING CHALLENGE DESCRIPTION Write a story in 400 words which includes the following: A man named Arthur Smith. A railway café with a woman called Belinda who works there. A focus on the meeting of a banana and an orange. An argument which results in Arthur being asked to get out. A man reading a newspaper who has surprising news.

How to teach the use of symbol in creative writing. Explain to your students that their creative writing can be enhanced with the use of symbol. Show them the two texts below. Text 1 is called, ‘Childhood Comfort’ and text 2 is called, ‘Giant Polar Bear’. Both texts are monologues (unfolding thoughts of the writer) about the comfort that memories of childhood can provide but text one does not use symbol whereas text 2 does. After reading the texts discuss with your students the use of symbol. Learning point. Text 1 is based on many examples I have read when students write about childhood experiences which exhibit a common problem of describing things in a vague, non specific way. Text 2 provides a solution to this problem as the use of a symbol can automatically engender specific reference and an ease of association in the reader’s mind. Then set then this writing task: ‘Write about childhood memories that you feel strongly about and choose and use a suitable symbol as a centre piece of your writing.’

Continue the description of the alien world. Imagine that sometime in the future an explorer from an alien world returns to earth and is asked about what he saw. Read his account and show your students a copy, and then ask them to continue their descriptions, in detail, of other features observed in the alien world. At the end of this resource is a checklist to assist the prompting of ideas and some additional ideas for what to do with their finished written work. You will find that once your students see an example their minds will create their own ideas and write very original and interesting descriptions.

Envisage or envision? This short play script, designed to be read out in a dramatic way is to help teach the very subtle difference in meaning between the words “envisage” and “envision”. It is all very well to read the dictionary definitions (which can seem abstract) but the playscript illustrates the difference in a practical way. Although both words refer to imagining something there is a subtle difference: Envision – is usually related to imagining an idea, normally in the future and almost always in a positive way. Envisage – is used usually in relation to a clear mental image about something specific. Once the playscript has been performed (3 actors) set your students this task: Look up two words that although close in meaning are not quite the same. Then think of a way the words might be used in a playscript. Write that playscript. Then hear a few acted out and assess and feedback if it helped the students understand the difference in the meanings of the words. Examples of words which might be used for this exercise: Amateur/novice awful/atrocious awkward/clumsy charming/enchanting Complete/conclude and so on (refer to a good list of synonyms) The students can research the meanings and usage of the words as part of this exercise. It will help make the learning of meanings of words more interesting and active. It will also show clearly the precision of the English Language in the sense that every word, however similar it may seem, will always have its own precise meaning. As a follow up take a piece of text, say from a great novel, and experiment by taking certain words and substituting alternative synonyms. How does it change the meaning?

Ask your students to find a nice country scene and take a photo of it. Ask them then to have a go at writing a poem about what they see which includes a sense of contentment. An example poem is shown below with the accompanying view.

Creative thinking and creative writing. The Campfire in the Snowy Woods. Read this intriguing story to your class. A man took a short cut through some woods one night to get home in the freezing snow. He encountered something very strange and when he was arrested by the police a few minutes later they found something in his pocket which dumbfounded them. His explanation of how he acquired the item was viewed as a lie by the investigating sergeant until the man unexpectedly provided proof. Ask the students to listen carefully to the account and then write out their imaginative version of the proof.

An intriguing way to encourage a piece of explanatory writing. Instructions Read the story provided about Henry, the barber who traded from the same premises for 70 years. It is specially written to intrigue your students. A reporter asks Henry if any of the thousands of haircuts stand out in his memory. At that point (indicated in the story) ask your students if they could imaginatively write out an explanation based on the minimal information supplied. Hear a few of them read out. The point of the exercise is to encourage students to write explanations in a clear and convincing way. Read them the example explanation provided. (Please note that the explanation does involve a gory detail and the teacher must use discretion before reading it to the class.)

The Gypsies’ Evening Blaze By John Clare Activities to help explore and understand the poem. The benefits include: A close re-reading of each line of the poem. Poetic notes – which draw attention to particular examples of poetic power or beauty. Activities for the students to do which relate experience from their own life and imagination to particular aspects of the poem. Some of the activities require the student to write an imaginative response and starters are provided to help start the process and ease the students in. Questions are posed, designed to get the student to think about the poem with sample answers provided to show to them, either to compare to their own work or to provide inspiration.

Role play for two people Two apparent strangers meet on a bench in the countryside. Their conversation reaches back to the past where dark things are uncovered. The role play dramatically illustrates the power of words.

An excellent way to set up a creative writing exercise. Show your class the picture of the umbrella on the gate. Ask them to think of an idea for an intriguing story that might explain why the umbrella is where it is. Then ask them to write a short story that ends with the words: ‘and therefore that is the reason that the umbrella was left on the gate!” Show them the example story to inspire and motivate them.

Imagined situation to help understand the text. Imagine Pip, when he is very old, recounting the terrifying memory of the encounter with the convict in the graveyard at the very start of the book. Ask your students to use the words and information from the extract but to use them in such a way that extra information, based on the text, but arrived at through an imaginative response, is provided. An example is shown below to illustrate the idea. It might be a good idea to show them the beginning of the example to give them the idea of how it works and then ask them to continue in their own imaginative words. Benefit of the exercise: The exercise will encourage the students to closely read the extract and extract information from it and then use that information in a realistic way which will in turn help a deeper understanding of the passage. It will change passive reading into active reading, using of the information read. It will also help the student to see the ranges of psychological realism inherent in Dickens’ writing. Ask your students to remember that the old man Pip is remembering how he felt with his viewpoint of a sensitive child. For example, however terrifying it would be to be swung upside down, to a child, who exists in the moment, there might also be a sense of excitement mixed in. The main thing is to encourage your students to look very carefully and read and re-read the original text.

Write a description of an old fashioned mechanical toy. This resource includes a paragraph plan and a worked example for illustration purposes. Ask your students to follow the paragraph plan: The introduction. Set a scene and describe where you found the old toy. Describe the toy in detail and how you activated its clockwork mechanism. Describe how certain parts of the clockwork toy move. Remind the reader of the age of the toy. Introduce some aspect of the description here that draws upon the emotions of the reader. Refer to the cycle of its movement sequence and mention how it is now compared to how it must have been when it was new. If there is a background to the toy describe it. A general reflection on the toy as a whole. A deeper reflection on how the children would have viewed the toy in their day.

The opening of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The opening exchange between Theseus and Hippolyta is used. Read through it with your students and then read through the adapted version based on a modern day scenario. The adapted version shows how the core message in the language of Shakespeare can still be related to today. It is not, of course possible to spend the time going so carefully through every line of the play but to begin the play with such a close examination and adaptation alerts the students to the richness and relevance of Shakespeare’s language.