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Writerly Play Kit FOR EDUCATORS

Kicking Off Writerly Play in Your Classroom

Writerly Play for Educators

Kicking Off Writerly Play in Your Classroom

If you’ve ever been frustrated as a writer, or as a teacher of writers, then Writerly Play is for you. Writerly Play brings joy back to the writing process. It’s not that these games and strategies are magic. In fact, the more that people use Writerly Play, the more they start to invent their own games and strategies. That’s because more than anything else, Writerly Play is a mindset. This means (excellent news for busy educators!) Writerly Play will easily fit into your current curriculum. The tools are practical, easy to adapt, and an invitation for YOU to play, too.

In this WP Kit, we’ll give you the full scoop you need for kicking off Writerly Play in your classroom.

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WHAT IS WRITERLY PLAY?

IDEAS ARE ONLY THE BEGINNING

What if your students hurried to the page, filled with confidence and ideas?

What if (without being prompted) they asked themselves, “I’m finished early. How can I use this extra time to improve my work?” What if when they felt blocked, your students and their peers had a tool to help them collaborate and navigate their way back to productivity?

What if all of those wins could happen without your having to teach by someone else’s script? What if all you needed was a Quick-Start Guide, plus a little creativity of your own? Writerly Play is as flexible as a theatre game. You can shape the approach to fit your own needs.

This five-part video series complements our Quick Start to Writerly Play guide, and walks you through the basics of getting Writerly Play kicked off in your classroom.

Don’t have the Quick Start Guide to Writerly Play yet? Join Society of Young Inklings as an educator member, and we’ll send this valuable resource your way!

“We can approach the entire creative process as a game—a complex, surprising, challenging game with ever-increasing levels of growth.”

Naomi Kinsman

Activities

Writer's Journal Games

Spark an air of possibility and play for your writers as you kick off their writer’s journals this year. Help them feel open to experimentation, excited about word play, and full of inspiration about moving the big ideas out of their hearts and heads onto the page. How? With games! Use these three games to tap into writers’ passion and unique voices.

Try This

Narrative Games

Help your writers discover their personal wealth of experiences that can be transformed into small moment stories. We all know what it’s like to face a blank page, stuck, when we’re asked to write about our own lives. Surely, something interesting has happened to us?! Launch your writers into this year’s narrative unit with three simple, interactive games.

Try This

What’s Up At SYI this Month?

WRITING PROMPT IDEA:

Honoring the stories of others

Do you know someone—a friend, family member, or acquaintance—whose story of persistence, hard work, or resilience ought to be known?

Honor that person by writing a short narrative or poem inspired by their experiences. If you’re able, sit down with that person, and listen to them tell the story in their own words. Make sure to ask their permission, but if they agree, use what you hear to breathe life into your piece.

For this month’s Ink Splat, we spoke with author Darcey Rosenblatt about her debut novel, Lost Boys. Darcey tells us about why she loves post-its, what it was like writing historical fiction, and how she balances her “traditional” job with her writing job. Here’s a peek at our interview:

[Research] was maybe the hardest part of writing this book and for months I shied away from writing because I wasn’t sure I had enough information to tell the story. Because it’s historical fiction I could make up the characters, but not the facts of what happened to them. I spent a lot of time on the internet, but information was patchy and sometimes conflicting. What finally gave me the confidence to dive into writing was finding two first-hand sources. My friend Masood is from Iran and is the age that my character, Reza would be now. Masood talked to me a lot about growing up in Iran and how his family’s life changed after the revolution. . .

Bring active learning into your writing classroom.

Writerly Play offers an untraditional doorway into the writing process. Through a variety of games and activities, your writers will take action and tackle various genres of writing. Writerly Play utilizes games to facilitate creative and critical thinking at every stage of the process, from idea generation to idea development, to drafting and revision, and even through the sharing of work.

Want more games and resources like these? Join Society of Young Inklings as a FREE educator member. You’ll receive monthly goodies designed just for you and your young writers. To start, we’d love to send our educator starter kit, which includes Quick Start Guide to Writerly Play, filled with simple tools and strategies you can start using right away!