Resources for Writing and Teaching Writing
Narrative for Schools
" Educators are our heroes. Every day they shape the imaginations and lives of the next generation of readers, writers . . . citizens. Narrative for Schools is designed to empower and inspire teachers and students the world over. "
Narrative for Schools offers a large range of resources specifically designed to support writing teachers. It has a comprehensive, free library with access to thousands of pieces of creative writing and art, all organized by themes. This is an easy, easily accessible way to incorporate pieces of writing in the classroom. There are also resources to enhance lessons, like recommended reading lists, reading guides, writing prompts, videos, and interviews. Specifically for young people, it has a section of best advice and letters to young writers as well as a page of video tutorials with best tips for writing.
One key aspect of this site is its annual high school writing contest. This would be an excellent, real-world addition to any writing course, in which students prepare a piece and go through the process of actually submitting it to the contest. There is guidance and videos for the students participating in the contest, and there is a new writing prompt each year. Teachers could also spend time reading and discussing past winners in order to equip students for the contest.
NARRATIVE HIGH SCHOOL WRITING CONTEST
Our annual writing contest is open and free to high school students grades 9–12 in the US and abroad. Winners receive more than $1,000 in prizes, mentorship by esteemed Narrative editors and authors, and publication in Narrative alongside the greats.
Overall, there is an abundance of resources on this site, all aimed at inspiring both teachers and students and providing practical tools to enhance writing education.
FUSE | The Forum for Undergraduate Student Editors
FUSE is a national organization to support student editors, writers, and faculty advisors. This group provides an important connecting point for many involved in publishing literary magazines as part of their writing curriculum. Each year, FUSE hosts a national conference, and it seeks to support its members year-round through communication and discussion of selected topics.
For a class focused on publishing or on preparing students to publish generally or in a student-led literary magazine, FUSE provides necessary resources. On the website, there are numerous reviews of literary magazine as well as interviews with those involved in various aspects of publishing. This portion of their website would provide students, especially those new to publishing a literary magazine, with a wealth of knowledge of other magazines and insight from other writers and editors. I would find this aspect helpful and could envision assigning certain helpful interviews or magazine reviews for students to read and then discuss as a way to learn from others while engaged in publishing a literary magazine.
The Writing Studio at Vanderbilt University
I found a resource from Vanderbilt University's Writing studio that gives possible activities for students to do in order to revise well (rather than just edit or proofread). This resource gives a list of strategies or activities that students can do to while revising. This resource helped provides framework and strategies to help students engage in the process. Some of the strategies could be done individually, like "Memory Draft" or "Reverse Outline." There are others that would be an excellent small group or partner activity, like "Talk Your Paper" or "Ask Someone to Read Your Paper Out Loud To You." The strategy called "3x5 Notecard" would be helpful, as manipulatives like notecards would help balance the abstract process of writing. For this one, the instructions say:
"Describe each paragraph of your draft on a separate note card. On one side of the note card, write the topic
sentence; on the other, list the evidence you use to back up your topic sentence. Next, evaluate how each
paragraph fits into your thesis statement. This technique will help you look at a draft on the paragraph-level.” This could help students to actually see how their main ideas of their draft fits together. They could physically move them around and envision how the ideas should flow together.
This would likely be most effective with a essay, but could be adapted and done for a shorter section of fiction, for example. Students could just write main ideas on the cards (rather than listed evidence) or even main events that need to happen in the story, and then actually "see" how it all needs to flow together or how it could be rearranged.
The Novelry
The Novelry has an abundance of good advice and information, courses, coaches, and more for students and to support writing teachers. This post on how to write a scene in particular has helpful insight on the specifics of writing a scene. It gives a good introduction, and various parts could be used in drawing students' attention to what it means to write a scene. It starts with an exercise and questions to consider, which would be useful in class. It then gives some examples; it would be beneficial to spend more time on this section and have students identify well-written scenes in other books, especially effective opening scenes. The tips at the end and the mantra to "Get in late and leave early" would be excellent to emphasize and refer to often in class.
