Creative Writing Workshop for Middle School

Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye. Dorothy Parker

A workshop on Creative Writing and Creative Thinking was organised for the middle school students by Ratna Sagar Publishers on 22 March 2023. It was conducted by resource person, Ms Monisha Gupta, who is a well-known writer and has written many books on grammar and English language proficiency. She received a warm welcome by Middle School coordinator, Ms Sandhya Bhateja.

The session commenced with an ice-breaking activity. The speaker held up the picture of a red rectangle and asked the children to write the names of as many red objects as they could think of. Some children wrote 5, some 8 and a few of them wrote more than 10. Shanvi Divya of class VII wrote 15 red objects and received great appreciation from the facilitator!

The next activity was also picture-based. A picture of a fish was shown to the students. The children were then asked to write two adjectives for the fish based on their observation of it. A variety of adjectives came up including lonely, sad, hungry, playful, vibrant, etc. These fun activities were followed by a session discussing the types of writing. The different kinds like analytical, narrative, and descriptive writing were then spoken about.

To ensure concept clarity, Ms Gupta showed a few diverse paragraphs on the screen and asked the children to name the kind of writing used. The children answered the questions with verve and vigour. She told them to construct a mind map in their minds with five friends including what, when, how, where, and why. The young readers used their observation skills to create a narration. This gave them the opportunity to let their imagination fly. She also decoded the term ABC in writing. Terms like authenticity, brevity, coherence, and cohesion were introduced and explained to the middle schoolers.

Next in line was an activity planned on idioms. Jasmeh of class VI gave some examples of idioms that we use in our day-to-day life. His participation was applauded by the facilitator and the students. The speaker also gave some weather related idioms and guided them about their usage.

Overall, the workshop was a great learning experience for the middle schoolers. It motivated them to observe, think and compose.

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