Workshopping

For quite some time now, I’ve thought it would be cool for the junior high students at my school to have a creative writing elective offered in the afternoon. Sure, I already do my best to cultivate their creativity in my English class, but with all the standards-driven content I’m required to teach every day, usually creative writing is forced to reside near the back burner.

Last fall, I decided to submit this proposal to my administration:

I would like to propose a new elective for the second semester of the 2009/2010 school year: "Creative Writing Workshop." In this class, we will explore the following genres: novellas, short stories, memoir writing, playwriting, screenwriting, creative nonfiction, and poetry. The class will involve a workshop component where students will learn to give and take constructive criticism on their work. They will fine-tune their writing through our Wikispaces website, where they will receive feedback from each of their classmates. As the teacher, I will provide opportunities for my students to publish their work on a school-approved blog, and I will invite them to submit their work to age-appropriate writing contests and magazines.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t room in last year’s schedule for the class—but this year, it’s a whole different story. I am pleased to announce that this fall, my school will be offering a Creative Writing elective to our junior high students with yours truly in the role of facilitator. I know it’s going to be a blast.