Ideas for Teaching Creative Writing to High School Boys
The job of teaching youths can be a strenuous task. Teachers are always finding new skills and techniques for keeping youths engaged and interested in their lessons. Keeping the class engaged is only half of the challenge. The information taught must be properly processed and understood by each student for confirmation that the lesson "took." Creative writing is one course offered to many students, from first-graders to post-graduates. However, studies show that young high school boys tend to have a shorter attention span than girls, thus making them slightly harder to keep engaged. Several methods of teaching young men creative writing can be employed through various exercises.
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Spark Interest
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The second that the students step into the classroom, have an interesting topic already written on the chalkboard. The teacher should be energetic. Engage them and find out what interests them, and base some of the coursework on those interests. That way they actually can have fun doing the writing assignments. The introduction to the course sets the mood for the entire class period and possibly the whole semester or school year. Spark the interest of the students from the very start.
Engaging Assignments
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The best way to get high school boys to do their homework is to give assignments they would like to do. Teachers may give open-ended scenarios with a vivid atmosphere. For example, a given scenario could be, "I caught the bus to the grocery store, and a homeless man walked up to me and asked for change." The rest of the story is left to be completed by each student. Another way to create an exciting assignment is to have students turn in a quick journal of the things they do for fun, but told in a third-person narrative. Incorporate the use of literary techniques such as alliteration, hyperbole, similes, metaphors, imagery and personification. This allows students to combine creativity with free expression based on true stories. Using images is also a great idea. High school students, girls and boys alike enjoy looking at pictures. Use them to provoke creative thought.
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Collaborative Classroom
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Many high school boys are excessive talkers in classroom settings. For the right type of teacher, that may not necessarily be a disruptive behavior. Allow the students to speak freely about things they did or did not like about written works read in class. Better yet, have the students in the class trade homework assignments and read them in class, sometimes aloud. This way, not only are the boys learning to write creatively, but they are learning to enjoy reading it while having fun in your class. Also assign a collaborative writing assignment in which all students must come together to compose a single literary work.
Follow Up
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High school boys are very energetic beings, but that doesn't make them hard to teach. Once the interest is sparked from the beginning, the energy is already channeled in the right direction. Follow up with creative and fun assignments that they will have as much fun doing as you will have assigning. Collaborative environments allow the boys to learn from you as well as from each other. When these aspects are combined, a fun and interesting creative writing class can be expected.
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- Photo Credit pen and a pencil image by timur1970 from Fotolia.com
