Need teachers' opinions, please

[Student2010]

I'm doing a research paper on The Importance of teaching creative writting, primarly in elementary schools and I would like your opinions for reference. thank you.


Mainly I am looking for opinions on and reasons for teaching creative writting. Any advantages you see on teaching and making a point to include this in your lesson plans.
Any long term advantages?
Do you think this helps to expand the childs thinking?
Do you believe that it help introduce them to alternative solutions to problems or situations?
Do you believe a creative child is a "bright" or "gifted" child?

[Boxcar]

What sorts of things would you like to know. I think creative writing is a very important part of the curriculm. Some of my students love to write and illustrate books. Even those who have not begun to form letters let alone engage in inventive spelling still enjoying making up tales. Present them with a tape recorder, a flannel board, or a puppet, and they take off on a spoken story.

I think that creative writing allows self-expression. It is another form of the Dramatic Play young children engage in on a daily basis. I don't think that creative writing should focus on grammatical skills or "proper" writing. Creativity does not exist to its fullest within these constrants. That would be like my giving my students a paper and telling them they have certain rules for how to draw a picture. I think creative writing is truly an art form and should be handled as such.

[lynn bambusch]

From a Spec. Ed. point of view, my students (grades 5-6) are often very concret thinkers. Creative writing absolutely expands their way of looking at things, and expressing their thoughts. They often have wonderful ideas which they have been afraid to really expose. I don't think that being creative is a sign of being "bright", all children have creativity, they just need to know they are in a safe place in expressing it. I agree with Boxcar, that it must flow and not be judged or shape by pre-concieved ideas.

[teacher5]

A good teacher will help a student tap into their experiential background and make connections to the creative writing topic. Often this is done via a picture book, or even part of a chapter from a chapter book. There needs to be this connection even before the writing process begins. Also, students sharing their connections will often trigger a student to recall their own connection, even if it is very similar. Then the teacher can guide the student into setting up some kind of organizer so the writing piece has direction as well as clarity. The teacher can also encourage the student to use descriptive words which he/she has heard from the picture book reading or came across in the chapter. This is an excellent way to build and apply vocbulary. This kind of writing is not only for the very bright child, but even the weak reader and writer at the primary stage is willing to take a risk putting their ideas into the printed form. As students progress through the upper elementary grades, they become more self conscience about taking the risk to share as well as put their ideas down on paper. Some of the reasons for this is how they will be viewd by their peers, and sometimes they become self conscience about spelling, and still others know they will have to revise and edit, and that appears to be too much work to do. To a certain degree some of my students have been more willing to take the risk when they are allowed to use the computer and use the spell and/or grammar checkers. When they do this, their tends to be a greater willingness to expand their thoughts. Some of them use the homonym device, but they tend to remember that word and then use it in a future piece, too.

[Student2010]

So would any of you say that teaching creative writing is a good tool to expand vocabulary and grammar skills?

[Adrienne]

Creative writing definately helps both vocabulary and grammar skills. The best part is students are learning and they don't even realize because it's fun!

Creative writing, in my opinion, is essential for all ages. I use it with my high school students. This semester the 10th graders read a variety of different kinds of literature and for each lesson they had to write their own creative story, poem, or play. We did a lesson on science fiction and after reading the 3 short stories they wrote their own science fiction story. After the lesson on drama they had to write their own short scene. After poetry they wrote their own sonnet, haiku, and free verse.

Creative writing works out their imagination and gives them practice expressing their own ideas and opinions. It's fun and interesting and it's their own words, so they take an interest in it. And through it they're learning things like plot, tone, characters, not to mention grammar and spelling. It's much better than worksheets or copying sentences from the board!

[Boxcar]

I think that is a by-product of creative writing. Expanding grammer and vocabulary should not be the primary or expected goal when students engage in creative writing. Those advances will be subtle. Forcing them will remove the essential elements that exist in this type of writing.