Sorry it took me so long to post a HIT. I've finally finished my assignment on
creating a marketing plan. I chose to write about establishing a writing club for
a high school environment. I also hope to impletment this idea in the coming weeks
at my high school.
Thank you for your help and advice!
Brandy Gayle
High School Library Specialist
Manitoba, Canada
******************************************************************************
Last fall a group of students asked about having a poetry club in the library.
They met once a week (twice a week in the winter!), mostly organized it themselves,
read their own stuff and once in a while had a theme kind of thing where they'd
look for antiwar poetry or friendship written by others (including, of course,
famous authors). This year it's started and there are about 20 kids who've come
each time (we have 1100 in school). We have no attendance requirements, just a
willingness to listen and sometimes share. (Some students come with full
notebooks, others come just to listen. Finger snapping after each poem.)
We also publish a literary/art magazine each spring, so there's some interest among
the kids in getting their writing published. (Let me know if you'd like me to send
you a copy. The kids get pretty excited about being in print.) Good luck!
******************************************************************************
My daughter, Adri, was a writing club member (quite a few years ago...) in
elementary school. The name of the club was "Writers' Ink"
It was creative writing. I believe they met weekly & had a focus or theme. For
example, during October the topic was something to do with Halloween. They
traveled by passenger train to attend a Mystery Writers Workshop. Their sponsor set
up a "mystery" for them to solve - write about- on the trip (the train staff
members were "in on it").
Adri also worked with children's author Margriet Ruurs through an on-line
"tutorial." Margriet was developing a Web-Zine at the time. Basically Adri would
write a story & email it to Margriet. Margriet would comment on the story (like
this part, this part doesn't flow right...type of thing) & email it back.
At one of Margriet's -in person- workshops, she ripped pages out of an old
dictionary then gave each student a page. The students had to choose a word from
"their" page & write a story using that word. The web-zine site that publishes
stories & poetry for kids up to 16 years old is
http://www.kalwriters.com/kidswwwrite/
I also did an on-line writing course. First of all we had to "learn to use 3
"tricks of the trade"
* select a topic you know & care about, (be honest & accurate - readers can spot
phony writing)
*show - don't tell, (Not embarrassed, but "I wanted to slither under the table and
slip through a crack in the floor."
*start with action.
The outline went something like this:
Unit 1 - subject
Unit 2 -audience (audience, & voice)
Unit 3 - specifics (metaphors, appeal to the senses - esp. smell)
Unit 4 - design (poetry & drama)
Our first assignment was "The Grandfather Story" - could be grandmother, aunt,
uncle... a person who was important to me & some distance away (time or place).
Pre-writing included making a list of 10 topics that could be substituted for
grandfather. Next we had to share our list with one other person. Everyone in the
class was also asked to contribute "great first sentences" from published stories.
The idea was to get us to focus on "start with action." (And a future assignment
had us change the first sentence in our grandfather story - another had us
pretending that our grandfather story was going to be read out loud to the entire
family, thus story was rewritten for that audience.)
The one thing that was emphasized above all was KEEP A JOURNAL - note ideas,
details, feelings, whatever and WRITE EVERY DAY.
******************************************************************************
Hi! I don't know if this would work for you or not, but we have a book
club--online! Students submit what books they've read via e-mail. Books are
logged and prizes awarded accordingly. That way, we don't have to meet at a
scheduled time, but we still get the job done! This might work for you, too!
******************************************************************************
We started a literature club when I was a student in high school. We met once per
month during the activity period. One of the English teachers was the sponsor. We
started out by naming the club (the Literary Society) and by electing officers.
Each month we would have snacks (a requirement of any club in a high school, I
think), discuss magazine articles or books that we had read, and read works that we
had written.
The students in the club submitted poetry, short stories, and artwork throughout
the year. Certain members of the club were on the literary magazine committee.
They worked to organize all of the submitted work, and they published a little
literary magazine.
Some schools go all out and have their magazine bound. I think that it depends on
the amount of interest that you have. We used the copy machine and stapled the
papers together. They were able to sell the magazine for a couple of dollars.
I would start out by creating a list of talking points for the meeting.
Things like:
-share something that you read over winter break
-find an article about a contemporary author to share
-share an article on an issue that concerns censorship of a work
I think that the key in starting any project is to keep it simple. If it becomes a
big ordeal, no one is going to want to help you. You will get burned out, too.
Let the students do most of the work. After all, it is going to be their club.
You are going to elect certain members as leaders. They need to understand from
the onset that some commitment of their time will be required. If it ends up that
you get stuck with putting the magazine together by yourself, don't do the magazine
the next year.
We had a group of kids at our high school that were members of every club. They
mostly wanted to be in leadership positions because it would look good on college
applications. When it came time to get things done, they were often working for
some other group. This might be a consideration when you create the requirements
for holding office--if you make requirements.
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