4 Reasons Why Creative Writing is Important for High School Students

As an ELA teacher, what gets you out of bed in the morning? Revising a rubric? Grading that pile of five paragraph essays? Nope, me neither. James Michener said, “I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.” This! The idea of my students tangling with the swirl and swing of words is what gets me out of bed in the morning. The best way to get students tangled with the words is through creative writing. Here are four reasons why creative writing is important for high school students:

1.       Boosts creativity

One of our goals as educators is to prepare students for the world of work and/or higher education. Whatever path students pursue, they are going to need to think creatively and solve problems.

Creative writing helps students to build these problem-solving skills through creativity. Imagine a student writing a fantasy story about a mortal entering a magical space with unknown creatures. The mortal is faced with a variety of challenges: Are the creatures friendly? How will they communicate with the creatures? What is the environment of the magical space? To proceed with the writing the student author needs to solve problems to answer these questions.

2. Supports mental health and self-exploration

Engaging with creative writing exercises that are solely for self-expression gives students a safe space to process the mental challenges of navigating high school and adolescence. The writing process helps them to formalize ideas that are nebulous in their minds. Through informal creative writing they can craft characters and scenarios that may be like themselves and what they’re experiencing. By exploring these characters, they are exploring themselves and gaining a better understanding of their world.

3. Reinforces writing skills

All those writing skills that have been developed in essays and more formal writing are reinforced through creative writing. Furthermore, a short story might contain dialogue, which allows the opportunity to reinforce proper punctuation of written dialogue. A paragraph written in a short story may have a different structure than one in a formal five paragraph essay.

And there’s more good news: Creative writing boosts reading skills. Dr. Rabia Sena at Firat University concluded that creative writing activities significantly improved narrative writing skills and also improved advanced reading awareness.

4. Confidence

A good writer is a confident writer, and students gain confidence in both their writing skills and self-expression through creative writing. Practice gives students facility with the tools of written expression. Confidence also comes from students knowing that they can write in a variety of styles—formal, creative fiction, etc.

According to Arkansas State University, “Creative outlets also provide them (students) with different ways to express themselves and their creativity in an educational setting. It can also help shape their personal and writer identities while gaining more confidence and a relationship with writing.”

Consider incorporating the following forms of creative writing in your ELA classroom:

·        Diaries/journaling

·        Memoir/personal narratives

·        Creative nonfiction

·        Lyric/narrative/confessional poetry

·        Hybrid/multimodal forms and other forms

·        Digital storytelling

How do you use creative writing in your ELA classroom? Share in the comments.