USING CREATIVE WRITING TO UNLOCK YOUR STUDENTS’ INNER WRITERS
A workshop with creative writing education nonprofit Cosmic Writers
Many students identify as reluctant writers, but love to paint or play video games or design Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. When it comes to these students, creative writing education nonprofit Cosmic Writers has found that many of them aren’t “reluctant writers” as much as they are “writers who haven’t fount their niches yet.” The painter has the potential to become a visual poet; the gamer an interactive-fiction writer; and the DnD-er a creator of lushly-described fantasy worlds. And if you can link writing to the hobbies and skills that your students are already excited about, you can unlock their potential to become excited about writing, too.
In this 1-1/2 hour professional development workshop, we will discuss ways to use creative writing to help students recognize their inner writers and take pride in their communication abilities. We will also discuss how to integrate creative writing with standard English class content, such as literary analysis, to ensure that students are building core skills at the same time as honoring their creativity.
This virtual workshop will be conducted by Rowana Miller of Cosmic Writers, Inc.
Rowana Miller has a decade of experience working in writing education and writing young adult fiction. She is the founder and Executive Director of Cosmic Writers, a registered 501(c)(3) that provides children with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities to write creatively. Her debut novel, Secrets of the Blue Hand Girls, is forthcoming from Sourcebooks in Fall 2025. She writes about goblins, secret societies, and strange magic.
She has presented on literacy, creative writing education, and collaborative learning at conferences including those hosted by the National Council of Teachers of English, the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, and the Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower. She has developed and run professional development for organizations ranging from the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools to the New York Public Library.