Teaching
How ToELEMENTARY CREATIVE WRITING
Students ages 7 and 8 are usually exploding with ideas. But this is an age during which, very often, the student encounters great resistance to his own perceptions and ideas, and even disapproval when he expresses them. Often, the resistance encountered is well-meaning, an attempt to help educationally "shape" the student. But such "help", no matter how well intended, is nearly always destructive of the student's own ability to perceive and create and express himself. These critical skills must be protected and enhanced in anyone, but most particularly in a young student.
These are the task of our
Elementary Creative Writing Courses
. The student does
NOT
work on syntax, sentence construction, or any technical
elements of language or writing (including spelling).
Instead, at this young age, he explores through carefully
constructed exercises and lesson plans, ways and means of
expressing himself and his own viewpoints in words. These
exercises are fun. At this age, we expect the student to
handwrite, or type his stories. (In
Starter
, they are generally dictated.)
On this level, the student is taught the basic parts
of language such as nouns, verbs, etc. These are then
used creatively as springboards for creative
exercises. This is an unusual and effective approach
unique to the Elementary level of Connect The Thoughts
curricula.
Each course at this level consists of a semester worth of
lesson plans at three per week, for about 18-19 weeks.
Semester I, as an example, has 57 lesson plans, which are
intended to be done one per day, three times per week.
To find out a lot more about this program, please watch the
video found at the top of this page.
Then take a look at the course descriptions and the
free samples provided of each course.
All courses are PDFs and can be instantly downloaded upon purchase!
Creative Writing I - Semester IThe student learns basic elements of the English language and immediately puts them to creative use, building his own stories out of nouns and verbs and adjectives and adverbs of his own choosing.
Creative Writing II - Semester IIStudents ages 7-8 learn about pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, articles, plots and essential story writing concepts, while authoring dozens of increasingly challenging and fun stories.
Creative Writing III - Semester IIIFor ages 7-8. The basics of plot construction, including characters, and how to develop action and conflict through the character's attempts to get what they want, and their confrontations with problems.
Creative Writing IV - Semester IVThis course for ages 7-8 develops the student's creativity and ability to shape a story using the tools of story-telling, such as character development, conflict, action, dialogue and description.
Creative Writing Elective - Valentine's DayAnother in our series of History/Creative Writing electives, this unique series offers courses that explain the history of a holiday, and then offers the student a creative outlet developed from our remarkable creative writing program. This Valentine's Day course offers two new, unique and fun additions to the program!
Creative Writing Elective - ThanksgivingAnother Creative Writing/History elective. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year in both the United States and Canada. This elective offers creative exercises to make Thanksgiving more "real" and interesting for the student.
