Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Writing Workshops for Middleschoolers

This is topic Writing Workshops for Middleschoolers in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Alexis (Member # 2687) on :

Hi everyone,

I'm an on-and-off lurker, a high school junior who posted here/participated in flash challenges for a short time about a year back. I respect you all and know that I have a lot to learn from you -- which is why I come here seeking your advice. I'm a member of a new and fairly small club at my local high school; we offer free writing workshops for 7th and 8th graders (ages 12-14) at the local middleschool. Our first six workshops will be on creative writing, and we begin this coming Tuesday. Now I've attended a few writing camps and read a lot of books on writing technique, but I've never taught a workshop before. I'd like to make this a great experience for the kids, most of whom haven't written fiction since third grade, but I also realize that I'm only a few years older than they are, and most of them are being forced to attend by their parents. With this in mind, what should the first workshop be on (its purpose is to get the kids' creative juices flowing)? How should any workshop be structured? How can I be the best teacher I can be? The kids will have to complete any assignments in class. I own a book of writing exercises called What If? and (of course!) OSC's Characters and Viewpoint. Both books have some great exercises and tips, but they're targeted at adults who want to get published; I don't know how much will be applicable here. I thought about conducting something OSC calls (in Characters and Viewpoint) "A Thousand Ideas in an Hour": the teacher poses questions to obtain a basic plot and the kids shout out answers, and as the questions become more and more detailed, a story forms. I've also considered conducting something like a flash challenge -- give the students a picture, word, opening line, etc. and give them the rest of the time to come up with a story. There's a million other things I could do, too. I welcome with great appreciation any ideas or tips you all have, be it on this first workshop or the next five. Thanks!

Alexis

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

Your goal in the first workshop should be to get the kids excited, nothing more. The 1,000 ideas exercise is one way. Another way might be to get them to start to build a shared world to write in, something fantastical. Get them to create the world, but also hold them responsible for each coming up with their own character to use as they go forard.

Either one should do as a start, but if you do the world-building/character exercise first, then you can use the 1,000 ideas as a common ground for them to generate ideas in, on the second round.

Just my penny's worth.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

There's a book by Barry Longyear, SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS WORKSHOP I (he never got around to writing II) that is a good guideline for a workshop, and each chapter would work for a session. I used to teach a writing class and used that book for my outline. It's a very good beginner book, and you can get it from Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595225535/barryblongy-20

Posted by Alexis (Member # 2687) on :

Thank you for your help. The 1,000 ideas worked well for the first class, although throughout the class I had trouble controlling the students (no adult was ever present).

Any other suggestions? Come on, people, help a kid out.

Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :

I've learned through facilitative leadership classes that the best tools for conducting any workshop or meeting is:

1) A list of agreed on "community" rules created by the participants, and

2) An agenda

You create the list of agreed on community rules by taking a large sheet of paper (a page from an easel pad is ideal) and invite the group to suggest rules of conduct. The sort of rules that you hope to see are: agree to show up on time, one person talks at a time (no-side talking or interrupting), etc. The point of doing this is to draw up a list of conduct guidelines.

By establishing conduct guidelines in the very beginning (when no one is yet mad or disruptive), the leader can redirect behavior when the conduct veers off in the wrong discussion, by pointing at the list of rules (which should be taped to the wall or in other ways visible during the class) and ask (using side-talking as an example): "We agreed that only one person would talk at a time so that everyone can be heard. Do you want to revisit this guideline? Or shall we keep it?"

Because the class has agreed, ahead of time, on the guidelines to follow they are almost always amiable to pull the behavior back around. By setting these guidelines up, in the very beginning of the class, you take away the emotional charge. If you wait to discuss the issue AFTER some kids have gotten unruly, you cannot help but make the "rule" seem punitive.

The other advantage in letting the kids establish the community rules is that they take ownership of them. People -- adults included -- are a lot more compliant at following rules they, themselves, created than they are at following rules an authority figure imposed upon them.

The second, most valuable tool in any class or meeting schedule, is to have an agenda, printed down on paper and either distributed as a handout or posted on a large sheet of paper where everyone can see it. The agenda doesn't have to be very extensive. Estimate how much time you want to allocate for each activity.

That way, when the topic veers out of control, you can point to the agenda and the community rules, and say: "We agreed to start and end this class on time. Do we want to change that agreement? (No.) Then we will need to wrap up this discussion in order to finish on time."

The agenda and the established community rules are absolutely the most useful tools to keeping any meeting or class on track. Trust me, if this technique can work for me conducting a meeting with a room full of government workers with radically different agendas, it will work on middle-school kids.

[This message has been edited by Elan (edited October 08, 2006).]

Posted by Alexis (Member # 2687) on :

Thank you Elan! That was very helpful, and I'll be sure to try it out next class. I might have to do some prompting with the rules themselves, since the class seems to be divided into class clowns and kids who refuse to talk at all! But I had been worrying about what kind of discipline (if any) I could use and it sounds like your idea should work very well. We needed an agenda last class, too -- thank you so much!

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

When I was in High School, they had writing contests. They helped spark my interest in writing. Because personal computers did not exist at that time, I could never write them, but they set the template for my involvement in writing.

What they would do is give the first paragraph of the story, and then the student would write something from that. For one of your workshops, you might give them a selection of first paragraphs to start from.

One I remember had something to do with a dinosaur heading into the woods.

Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :

I'd suggest start with a reading, A poem or a short bit of prose. It deosn't have to be topical just an example of writing that works, and is beautiful.
You could also try a flash session, (like liberty hall), put up some silly picture or an odd word and give them a time limit.