• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Tricia Goyer HomepageTricia Goyer

Living God’s Word One Step at a Time

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • About
    • My Testimony
    • Online Archives
    • My Family
    • Professional Bio
    • Adoption
    • Homeschooling
    • Mentoring
    • Speaking
    • Close
  • Blog
  • Courses
  • Books
  • Media
  • Podcast
  • Write that Book
  • Shop
  • Contact
You are here: Home / homeschooling / 6 Activities for Your Kids’ Writing Club | For Teens & Preteens

November 20, 2014 by Tricia Goyer 2 Comments

6 Activities for Your Kids’ Writing Club | For Teens & Preteens

writing club for teens

6 Activities for Your Kids’ Writing Club: For Teens & Preteens

One of my favorite extracurricular homeschool activities was leading a monthly home-school writers’ club. We called ourselves “Writing Nerds” because that’s what we were: a group who loved reading and were interested in writing. Our group was made up of junior high and high school homeschoolers. We met for an hour and a half each month. If you like reading, and know the basics of fiction writing, consider starting a group.

Here are some activities to get your kids’ writing group started!

5 Minute Story:

Give each student each three slips of paper. On the first they have to write a person/character. On the second they have to write a setting. On the third they have to write a conflict. I had a basket for each (characters, setting, conflict), and they tossed them all in. Then they had to draw one slip of paper out of each basket . . . and they had five minutes to write a story about their character, conflict, and setting. I told them they had to:

  1. Open with dialogue in paragraph #1
  2. Describe the action in paragraph #2
  3. Then they could describe the setting in paragraph #3.

After that they could continue with the story as they saw fit. They then read the stories out loud, and they were HILARIOUS! I still remember one was about a nun who had to bail from a plane that was crashing in Paris.

Teaching Dialogue:

To teach dialogue I used plays (such as mixed-up fairy tales). Here are some free ones: freeschoolplays.com.  We assigned parts and read sections of them out loud. Then I had them write the dialogue of the same characters in a different situation. For example, what if Baby Bear in the three bears showed up at the first day of school and his seat mate was Goldilocks?

Color Coding:

I photocopied the first pages of a novel—such as Kingdom’s Dawn by Chuck Black—and gave everyone a copy and crayons.

  • Red for action.
  • Green for dialogue.
  • Yellow for internal thoughts.
  • Orange for description.
  • Pink for emotion.

This really helped them see how novels are not just narrative (this happened, then that happened, etc.). Sometimes I had them write their own story following the same “color pattern.” The results were impressive. Sometimes we colored the openings to two different novels and then compared the authors’ writing style.

Snowflake Method:

We used Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method and “plotted” a novel. You can learn more about the SnowFlake method here.

3 Likes + 1 Dislike:

We assigned people to bring short stories or parts of their book to class every week. They had a limit of 1,000 words, and they had to make enough photocopies for everyone in class. We passed around the story and gave eight to ten minutes for them to read the story. Then everyone had to go around and share three things they liked and one thing they didn’t like. I was the last to comment after everyone was done, and I did the same (but I usually gave two or three suggestions about ways they could improve their story). I was amazed how insightful the students were. The majority of the time they discovered all the “issues” by the time it got to me

Sensory Exercise:

I had a collection of objects—steel wool, sponge, a plant, coins, etc.—that they could handle, and they had to write descriptions of them. Then they had to use that same description and describe something else—for example the description for steel wool became the description for a night’s armor.

Those are a few ideas to get you started. A writing club is great fun and educational, too!

Download the printable for FREE to use for your writing club!

writingclubideas

@TriciaGoyer shares 6 activities to do with your writing club! #homeschooling

Click To Tweet

More Resources:

Homeschooling for the Rest of Us by Sonya Haskins

Homeschooling 101 by Erica Ardnt

 


Are you new here? You might want to subscribe to my email updates, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, or Instagram.




Filed Under: homeschooling Tagged With: Homeschool, homeschooling resources, writing club, writing exercises


Are you new here? You might want to subscribe to my newsletter, check out my podcast, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or Instagram.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” Read full privacy policy here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. MamieSmall says

    February 1, 2018 at 7:23 pm

    I have checked your website and i have found some duplicate content, that’s why
    you don’t rank high in google, but there is a
    tool that can help you to create 100% unique articles,
    search for; Boorfe’s tips unlimited content

    Reply
  2. Methuselah Owidi says

    January 16, 2019 at 12:55 pm

    Thank you this was helpful was researching for my teens.Bless up .

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

© Tricia Goyer | Privacy Policy

Made with by SA Designs