Lesson plans for teaching intro/beginner level adult creative writing?

July 6, 2023 4:58 PM

Looking for books, resources, etc that others have used and thought were helpful

My students are from low income, mostly POC communities and many of them did not finish high school.

posted by CancerSucks to Education (6 answers total)

You may find many of the classroom resources on CRAFT Magazine and Catapult Magazine quite useful. Personally, I've also found Matthew Salesses's Craft in the Real World useful for thinking through my own experience of being both a writer of color and a writing teacher.
posted by lavenderhaze at 7:16 PM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh, and my creative writing profs frequently assigned or encouraged us to explore Brevity's flash creative nonfiction archive. They offer quite a few writing resources you may find helpful if you're teaching nonfiction and/or memoir.
posted by lavenderhaze at 7:23 PM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Writing Without the Muse is a fairly ancient book of great writing exercises. It's been around so long that you'll probably be able to find it used or at a library. (I'm seeing editions from 1999 and 1995 but there has to be an earlier version, because I used it in college in the mid/late 80s.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:42 PM on July 6, 2023

If you're including poetry have a look at How to Grow Your Own Poem by Kate Clanchy. She's worked mainly with children, but it would work fine with adults.
posted by sianifach at 11:49 PM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've had great luck teaching with the Bloomsbury text Poetry: A Writer's Guide & Anthology, which is great for beginners and mixed-level classes, and fairly affordable in the contexts I've used it in (university level, non-majors).
posted by knucklebones at 11:43 AM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I did the Couch to 80k Boot Camp a few years ago and really liked it. It's a free podcast, and I think it was recommended here on the green, actually.
posted by snakeling at 3:48 PM on July 7, 2023 [2 favorites]