Creative Writing Workshop: Power of the Pencil

A Creative Writing for Kids Introduction

I've done more than a few creative writing programs (ages 8-12) for my library and always love doing them. It allows me to use what I learned in my English and journalism courses in college and apply it to the next generation of young writers. 

After experimenting with scheduling and having a demand from patrons, I will be doing a writing program for kids every newsletter period, equivalent to four a year. It's tough because despite the comments to keep these programs around and have more of them coming up, attendance always seems to be lagging. I do notice that attendance seems to be better during the summer with my suspicion being because they don't feel overwhelmed with having writing in school. 

To give you an idea, the library had a number of requests for creative writing programs for kids, but I had five registered and two show up for yesterday's workshop. I love putting on these programs for so many reasons and I suspect that I will keep offering up these programs because helping two kids discover their love in writing is better than not being able to help any if these programs were cancelled. I also suspect that the library will continue to support my writing programs because the requests keep coming in and because these programs hardly take anything away from the budget. I literally just need pencils and paper.  

I wanted to write a little about how I prepare for these programs. I have to have my writing topic chosen much earlier than the actual date for newsletter production. I have a list of potential writing topics, conduct internet searches, and see if there's anything special that might tie-in with that particular month I'm looking at scheduling it in. 

Once I submit my topic after making sure I have enough ideas to administer the program, I do numerous searches on the subject and often times word my searches differently to get different results. Two particular sources I always seem to find helpful is ReadWriteThink.org and Novelist. ReadWriteThink.org has good lesson plan ideas and often interactive writing resources. Novelist is great for booklists. 

Once I'm satisfied with the amount of searching I've done, I gather my notes and type them up as a list. Eventually, this becomes a cleaner outline and helps me weed out what I don't want to use while reassuring me I have numerous possibilities on how I want to instruct this workshop. 

I become so engrossed in the subject of writing, I usually lose myself in more ideas that can be used for future writing workshops. It's at this point I go over my outline and make sure that my lesson plan didn't veer off course and it rings true to my description on my program flyers. 

I've seen a consistent pattern with helpful YouTube videos and clean-cut handouts being effective in both providing information and having fun with writing and the encouragement to write. 

I've found that the biggest challenge in putting on these programs is the ability to teach without making it feel like it's school, as well as the broad learning abilities among the attendees. Despite these concerns, each lesson plan has been a success in that it helped at least one child to learn more about writing at his or her own pace. 

A Persuasive Lesson Plan: Program Review

I started off this persuasive writing workshop by showing some Youtube videos on the topic. The first video, 2 minutes long, was a brief introduction/refresher to persuasive writing. (This is part of a video series that could be added to a future lesson). I asked both in the group if they had any questions on persuasion and then we moved onto the next Youtube video.

I pointed out that the first video mentioned a few different ways that persuasion writing can be used, with one of them being commercials. Our second video was on different type of persuasive commercials and what they used to persuade us…which included emotion, exaggeration, the bandwagon technique, and loaded words. They seemed to have enjoyed watching the commercials and relating them to writing. We talked about each commercial and their persuasiveness and how it would get us to use their product.

Since I didn't want all of our persuasive examples to be online and wanted to make a point on how books use persuasive writing, I showed a variety of six examples and book-talked in the process. Persuasive paragraphs were read using the introductions in Chew on This, Gaia Warriors, I Have a Dream, Fabulous!, and I Dissent. I pointed out some of the words that were persuasive and what each book was trying to persuade us on and how. 

They were most passionate about MLK's I Have a Dream speech and I liked how I could use his speech as an example during the month of January. They had to be introduced to Andy Warhol and Ruth Ginsburg but it was nice to be able to inform them of two new people they should know. 

I also wanted to show them an example of a persuasive conclusion, so we read the end paragraph of Can We Save the Tiger?. I pointed out how the writer wanted us to think about what we could do to save tigers from extinction and how he used his wording to be powerful. 

I would like to mention that there are a variety of picture books that could be used as examples of persuasion in a story. Picture books can be an excellent tool in teaching both younger and older children, but this time around I felt that the books I chose were more appropriate for the age group and wouldn't get them discouraged compared to using books that they might feel is too "babyish" for them.  

Next, I wanted us, as a group, to pick a persuasive prompt to use with the online Persuasion Map tool. I handed out a worksheet with persuasive prompts and both of them agreed to persuade teachers that they should be graded too. They had fun reading through the different prompts and were quickly reminded that they need facts and examples to back up their persuasion. I think this tool was very helpful in getting them to come up with a introduction or thesis, have three reasons, three examples for each reason, and a conclusion. It setup the format easily for them.

Once we were done working together, I had them use their persuasive letter worksheet to pick another prompt to persuade each of us on. Tim chose why playing sports is important and Katie chose why video games should be played in class.

I gave them a few handouts to take home, along with the prompts in case they wanted some more writing ideas. They received a "12 Great Tips on Writing to Persuade" sheet, a persuasion map planning sheet, a list of persuasive words and phrases, writing a persuasive letter chart, a printout of the persuasion map that can be found online, and information about a creative writing contest for kids.

I mentioned to them that I would love to read some of their writing and give them any writing help when they visit the library. I also promoted the library's Tumblr page and the possibility of them writing for Youth Services.

Below you'll find some additional resources on persuasive writing, including explanation on the subject itself geared towards the 8-12 age group, additional examples of persuasion in text, and even a fictional series that uses persuasion as it's plot. For a list of persuasive picture books, search Novelist or send me a request. 

*Persuasion Informational Text Additional Sources:

Writing to Persuade Chris Nolan and Lauren Spencer

Writing to Persuade Jill Jarnow

Present What You Know: Sharing Information Christopher Forest

Writing for Children: Types of Writing (DVD)

*Additional Examples of Persuasion in Text:

Almost Astronauts Tanya Lee Stone

Citizen Scientists Loree Griffin Burns

Sit-In Andrea Davis Pinkney

The Most Amazing Creature in the Sea Brenda Z. Guiberson

Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea Robert Burleigh

Wheels of Change Sue Macy

Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird Stephanie Spinner

We Will Not Be Silent Russell Freedman

A Place for Bats Melissa Stewart

Tiny Stitches Gwendolyn Hooks

*Fiction Persuasion Series

The Nora Notebooks: The Trouble with Ants, The Trouble with Babies, The Trouble with Friends by Claudia Mills