Writerly Play
Sparking Creative Confidence in your Classroom
Writerly Play is a lively toolkit for teaching the art and craft of writing. Combining elements of improv, storytelling, and gameful learning, educators can use these flexible tools with many common writing curriculums, bringing the writing process to life. Transform writing from a solitary activity into an interactive, collaborative experience. Writers not only further their writing craft, they build a range of social and emotional skills including self-awareness, empathy, emotional and mental resilience, communication skills, a growth mindset, and overall creative confidence.
Elements of Writerly Play:
- Improv & Story Theatre: Writers step into their characters’ shoes, and use movement, visualization, and scene-based activities to ideate, develop their ideas, and revise. These activities boost empathy, divergent thinking, and help writers tap into creative flow.
- Gameful Challenges: Writing tasks are presented as fun, achievable challenges, increasing student motivation.
- Focused Conferring: Educators identify the next right step for their writers and help them focus and build one skill at a time.
- Reflective Practice: Regular reflection helps students understand their creative process and growth.
Why Use Writerly Play?
The hardest part of writing is all the thinking that must be done to move from the spark of an idea through to a completed work. Writerly Play makes it simple for educators to facilitate this thinking process. Guide your writers step by step using tools that make writing manageable and fun!
- Increase Engagement: Writerly Play invites students to play their way to the page, captivating attention and interest.
- Strengthen Writing Skills: Students develop a deep understanding of how stories work, collect a toolkit of craft strategies, and gain overall writing fluency.
- Enhance Creativity: The approach nurtures imagination and innovative thinking.
- Build a Growth Mindset: As students tackle challenges, they learn how to “fail forward” and prove to themselves they have the capacity to overcome setbacks and build new skills.
- Differentiated Learning: Writerly Play strategies use diverse learning modalities and make it possible for writers of varying learning styles and skill levels to engage, challenge themselves, and grow.
Structure of a Writerly Play Lesson
A typical Writerly Play lesson follows a structured yet flexible format designed to engage students and enhance their creative writing skills. Here’s a general outline:
- Invitation: Try a quick Writerly Play game to spark creativity and get students in the right mindset.
- The Day’s Question: Present the main writing concept or technique that will be the focus of the lesson.
- Writerly Play Experience: Incorporate a role-playing or interactive storytelling element related to the lesson’s theme.
- Modeling: Think aloud about how to bridge between the experience to writing. Capture your thinking on a Writerly Play template.
- Individual Writing Time: Provide quiet time for students to work on their individual pieces, applying the skills learned.
- Sharing and Feedback: Invite students to share their work and receive constructive feedback from peers and the instructor.
- Reflection: Conclude with a reflective discussion or journaling activity to help students process what they’ve learned and how they can apply it in the future.
This structure can be adapted based on the specific goals of each lesson, the age group of the students, and the available time. The key is to maintain a balance between instruction, interactive play, individual work, and group activities to keep students engaged throughout the lesson.
Mental Health Benefits of Writerly Play for Students
Writerly Play not only enhances creative writing skills but also offers significant mental health benefits for students. These benefits contribute to overall well-being and academic success:
- Stress Reduction: The playful, engaging nature of Writerly Play activities can help reduce academic stress and anxiety.
- Emotional Expression: Through creative writing and role play, students gain healthy outlets for expressing and processing emotions.
- Improved Social Skills: Collaborative activities in Writerly Play foster better communication and social interaction among students.
- Mindfulness and Focus: The immersive nature of Writerly Play exercises can promote mindfulness and improve concentration skills.
- Resilience Building: Tackling creative challenges helps students develop problem-solving skills and resilience in the face of difficulties.
By incorporating Writerly Play into the curriculum, educators can support not only students’ academic growth but also their mental and emotional well-being, creating a more holistic learning environment.
Creative Confidence: A Key Outcome of Writerly Play
Creative confidence is the belief in one’s ability to come up with novel ideas and solutions, coupled with the courage to act on those ideas. It lies at the intersection of self-assurance and innovative thinking.
Why is creative confidence important?
This vital mindset empowers students to take risks, think outside the box, and persist in the face of setbacks—skills that are invaluable in both academic and real-world settings.
How does Writerly Play build creative confidence?
Writerly Play activities gradually build creative confidence by providing a safe space for experimentation. Improv and storytelling games build skills one step at a time, encouraging the art of “failing forward,” as writers learn from what works and overcome increasingly difficult challenges.
What is the long-term impact of creative confidence?
Students with high creative confidence are more likely to become innovative problem-solvers, effective communicators, and adaptable learners in their future academic and professional lives.
By nurturing creative confidence through Writerly Play, educators can help students unlock their full potential and prepare them for success in an increasingly complex and dynamic world.
