Today was my first day teaching creative writing to a group of 4-6 graders. The classes were smaller than anticipated. I was willing to take as many as 15 per class, but only ended up with 5 in one class and 6 in the other. The smaller class size is better I think because I can give the kids more attention.
The basic lesson plan for the day was simple. I showed them a book full of stories that my kids had written that I’d gotten printed and bound through Lulu.com. I explained that the goal was for each of them to write a story to be put into a book like the one I was showing them. Then I read Aunt Isabel Tells A Good One by Kate Duke which tells about the elements of story while simultaneously telling a story. After a short discussion about the elements of story, we then created a class story. At the end if there was time I’d have the kids brainstorm a little bit for their own stories.
The plan worked exceptionally well for the later class. The six girls were all attentive and participated enthusiastically in the creation of a story. In fact they had so much fun creating a group story, that it will have to be finished next week. I’ll have to adjust next week’s lesson plan to accomodate for that.
The early class was a much wilder ride. That class had one boy who was there because his mother told him that he had to be. It took me about 2 minutes to realize that this kid is extremely smart. He absorbed things like lightning which meant he was simultaneously interested and bored. He kept himself entertained by doing acrobatics with his chair, teasing the girls, and trying to derail my discussions. He was not malicious at all, just bored. It was actually entertaining for me to take his attempted derailments and bring them back onto topic.
I assert that all stories have to have problems in them or there is nothing to read about.
He declared that he’d write a story where nothing happens. Absolutely nothing happens except a guy picking a booger out of his nose.
I point out that picking a booger isn’t nothing.
He says it is nothing. Just a guy sitting in a class picking boogers to impress someone.
I point out that the minute he said “classroom” suddenly we all had a picture in our heads and this is why we need settings. I then start asking who the guy wanted to impress and why. In short order I had the whole the class spinning a setting and character motivations around this booger picking. As we did, it I had ready made examples for why these story elements are important.
After we had fleshed out the booger story, I leaned over conspiratorially to the kids and said that I wasn’t sure their moms would like to read a story about boogers in the book, so we were going to make a different class story. Then away we went.
This group was far more disparate than the later one. We had Derailment Boy, a pair of Giggle Girls, and then two Quiet Girls. It was quite a challenge to make sure that the needs of all those kids were met. Also they were way into pop culture and shooting things. I allowed them to turn Mickey and Minnie Mouse into bubblegum-gun toting villains, but I carefully steered them away from the idea that it would be fun to make Donald into a pimp. Goofy did get to try to pick up Cinderella though.
Teaching the two classes was both exhausting and invigorating. I love stories. I love helping create stories. All of these kids had huge reservoirs of creative energy. Teaching them these elements was like unleashing a flood. It washed over me and I got to direct it some. Not one of these kids had anything akin to writers block. This tells me I’m approaching things right. Because if I just stuck papers in front of them and said “write a story” half of them wouldn’t be able to start. Interestingly, Derailment Boy was the one who arrived with a complete story in hand and who finished a second story before the hour was over.
I’m looking forward to teaching these kids again. And now that I know who they are, I can craft my lessons a little better.