CCEA 2019 Conference "Moving into the Future Together"

This interactive presentation offers practical creative writing techniques and strategies that are presently being used successfully with incarcerated and other underserved youth in the greater Sacramento area. Through supportive and non-threatening creative writing practices, teen writers learn the power of their stories, as they build writing fluency, and gain respect for the stories of others. A writing community develops that often extends beyond the classroom. The motivation to understand and use standard conventions of writing greatly increases as students strive to communicate their stories clearly. Creative writing students are motivated to improve their story-telling skills through increased vocabulary and through learning and practicing standard writing conventions. This in turn leads to greater motivation to read the work of others and to recognize what works for other writers. The non-threatening nature of these creative writing practices and the ongoing sharing of written stories leads to a sense of community and engagement.