Creative Writing for Senior pupils

A unit of work to support a workshop-style approach to teaching creative writing. I’ve been working on this for a couple of years and pupils really enjoy it. We look at excerpts from a range of inspiring texts (e.g. ‘Sophie’s Choice’ by William Styron, The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini, ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue, ‘The Snapper’ by Roddy Doyle, ‘About Grace’ by Anthony Doerr and ‘Talking Heads’ by Alan Bennett) and go on to consider how these authors have utilised key techniques such as creating tension, narrator’s voice, vivid setting description, engaging openings etc… Pupils then attempt a short writing task based on each text. Texts not reproduced for copyright reasons, but page numbers and publishers listed. I have found that many pupils go on to purchase and read these texts after looking at them here.