Creative Freedom: The Independent Writing Project

During first quarter reflections this past October, many students chose to reflect on their independent writing projects. These self-determined, goal-oriented projects were also a highlight of most parent teacher conferences. For me, independent writing projects are the genius hour of the English Language Arts classroom. The students learn so much when they have creative freedom and a scaffolding of support.

Just before winter break, the students shared excerpts of their independent writing projects with one another in a coffee-house style setting, and I had the pleasure of sitting down to read their final, full projects over break.

Students created historical fiction novels, lyrical literary works, hero stories, humorous short shorts, works of science fiction, a graphic novel, a biography, a manual on bike tricks, a poetry collection, and a collection of photographs with accompanying writing. No two projects were similar.

While writing during their hour of class time each week, I saw students sharing their writing with one another, listening to each other's feedback, joking about the writing process, and engaging in the work of being creative together.

One of my favorite aspects of the project is that the students determine three major goals for themselves as writers that they can work on through the project: "I will improve at writing believable dialogue" or "I will try to outline chapters before writing them" or "I will practice self-compassion while drafting." Then, they work with me to determine steps to accomplish those goals.

When I returned the final projects, I met with each student, conferring about the process and about how they felt about their work, looking back on it now.

The students and I are looking forward to the next independent writing project, which we'll start in February.