The Easiest High School Creative Writing Course to Teach! Full Course Included!

This course is designed to be simple, effective, and easy to implement in a variety of settings and contexts. I had great success teaching this exact course as a high-school elective, and I hope you do too.

This course is designed to teach students a variety of genres related to creative writing, while giving them time to practice using previously-known elements while implementing new ones. It is created with the assumption that the students enrolled in the course are already well-versed with the basic mechanics of writing, and are ready to improve their skills by crafting different genres of short stories. 

The course is a “studio”-style creative writing course, which implements a large amount of dedicated work time and regular guided workshops. I have found that this course style encourages students to find joy in the process of creative writing. 

The semester outline is as follows:

Week 1: Unit 1 (The Story Circle Structure)

Week 2-3: Unit 2 (Fairy Tale Stories)

Week 4-5: Unit 3 (Fantasy Stories)

Week 6-7: Unit 4 (Gothic Horror Stories)

Week 8-9: Unit 5 (Mid-Semester Project)

Week 10-11: Unit 6 (Sci-Fi Stories)

Week 12-13: Unit 7 (Adventure Stories)

Week 14-15: Unit 8 (Free Choice Story)

Week 16 - 17: Unit 9 (Final Project)

This resource includes a full semester-long course following the outline listed above. Each unit includes an editable slideshow, a written short story prompt with basic grading rubric, a written guided workshop prompt with basic grading rubric, and associated short story examples. These resources are easily editable to fit your teaching style or structure.

This course requires little to no prep time, and is simple yet effective!