12 Creative Writing Lessons for Upper Grade Levels

Lesson 1:
Write a fictionalized account of being an eyewitness to an historical event.

Lesson 2:
Write a five paragraph essay on the listed topic. Start with an outline, materials provided to start organizing your ideas. It is important to write down several main points you’d like to express before writing to ensure these points are included in your essay. We often forget the important message we hoped to convey in a piece. This allows us not to forget, or at least allows us to choose to leave certain information out of an essay.

Paragraphs should have a supporting statement that starts your paragraph. Define your points in the following sentences. Your final sentence in your paragraph should sum up your topic, and offer a transition into your next topic.
Write your essay on the following topic: Why every student today should be computer literate.

Lesson 3:
Choose one classic villain in children’s literature, perhaps your favorite, and write no less than one full page about the villain and their attributes. Be comfortable sharing why this particular villain is your favorite and why.

Lesson 4:
Write a five paragraph essay on the following topic: What makes a good teacher?
What do you think are the main attributes that a good teacher should have? What teaching methods might they have and how would you like your teacher to act to your class? Write no less than ¾ of a page in response.

Lesson 5:
Write a paper that describes why or how advertising pays. Use examples from commercials, advertisements in the newspaper, on the Internet, etc. Make sure to share what companies you’ve decided to utilize in your paper. This should be no less than one page.

Lesson 6:
What is the “public interest”? Does it have the same meaning in advertising that it does in medicine, government and law? Write no less than one page in response to the question.

Lesson 7:
Write at least one page in answer to the following question: How to motivate children to achieve.

Lesson 8:
Either defend or refute the following statement in a five paragraph essay. Great novels make great films. Try to share as much information as possible about the writer of the original novel as well as the director of the film. List the pros and cons of each example you choose to hare in your five paragraph essay.

Lesson 9:
Choose a song and describe in a paper no less than one page the social, ethical and cultural values they express and promote. It helps if you choose a popular song, the era does not matter.

Lesson 10:
Everyone enjoys laughing, but we often don’t fit bouts of laughter into our daily lives. Please write a paper, no less than one page that describes the psychological and physical benefits of laughter. Bonus points, if it’s also funny!

Lesson 11:
Study an example of satire. Satire, term applied to any work of literature or art whose objective is ridicule. It is more easily recognized than defined. From ancient times satirists have shared a common aim: to expose foolishness in all its guises-vanity, hypocrisy, pedantry, idolatry, bigotry, sentimentality-and to effect reform through such exposure. The many diverse forms their statements have taken reflect the origin of the word satire, which is derived from the Latin satura, meaning “dish of mixed fruits,” hence a medley.

Satire is shown in many forms, television episodes, commercials, advertisements, books, movies, etc. It’s around us even when we don’t realize it.

If you are unable to come up with an example of satire, please request a list of material for review. Write a one page review of this satire example.

Lesson 12:
Write a narrative in the form of a diary entry. Think of appropriate situations that young men and women would share in a diary. Have fun with this assignment. You can use specific s