Free Creative Writing Materials

Over the years, in different ways, I have tried to build in a way for students to write about whatever they wanted. Some years I gave kids ten minutes per class to write about what they wanted. Some years I set aside Fridays to do 45 minute free-writing sessions. Sometimes I would block off the few weeks after state testing and use all of that time for free-writing and portfolio creating...It really just depended on the class and the time available between the curriculum requirements. Below are materials that I used for my free-writing lessons. A lot of the materials are PowerPoints of prompts that I would go through to give the kids some ideas about what to write about. Some are more formal creative writing assignments.

I hope that some of these resources are helpful to you.

Free-Writing Slides

When I taught freshmen, I used to set aside 45 minutes on Friday to let kids write about whatever they wanted. Sometimes we would use that time to brainstorm and draft, and other times we would use that time to edit and submit polished pieces. The PowerPoints below are presentations that I would use on drafting days. I would typically give kids 2 or 3 minutes to write about whatever was on the slide, repeat until the end of the PowerPoint, and then give kids 20-30 minutes to expand on an idea that they found interesting.

• Free Write # 2

• Free Write # 3

• Free Write # 4

• Free Write # 5

• Free Write # 6

• Free Write # 7

• Free Write # 8

• Free Write # 9 (Hero focus)

• Free-Write # 10

• Free Write # 11

Get to Know You/Beginning of the Year

• Sense Poem

• Bio Poem

Assessments

Whenever I was doing a choice-writing unit with my students, I would teach them Vicki Spandel's 6-Traits so that we had some common language for revision and assessment. I found her book and techniques to be very helpful in helping me build common classroom language for good writing.

• 6 Traits Quiz

I hope some of these free creative writing materials are helpful to you.