Finding the right Creative Writing curriculum for high school can be surprisingly difficult. Unlike a traditional English course, creative writing doesn’t always come with a clear sequence of skills, units, and assessments. You want students to have room to be creative—but you also need enough structure to help them actually grow as writers.

When I was first told I’d be teaching a Creative Writing class, I panicked! I had no curriculum, so I had to build one from scratch.

After years of teaching and refining my approach, I developed my own Creative Writing curriculum for high school, built around daily writing, literary analysis, writing workshops, creative projects, peer feedback, and reflection.

In this post, I’ll walk you through what a complete high school Creative Writing curriculum should include, using examples from my own 9-week curriculum.

Want to skip the prep? My complete High School Creative Writing Curriculum includes 9 weeks of done-for-you lessons, activities, projects, and assessments so you can spend less time planning and more time teaching.

What Should a High School Creative Writing Curriculum Include?

A strong Creative Writing curriculum for high school should do more than give students a collection of writing prompts. It should provide a clear sequence of instruction and practice that helps students develop as writers while still giving them room to experiment and find their own voices.

At a minimum, I recommend looking for a curriculum that includes:

• Daily writing warm-ups and opportunities to practice
• Literary terms and techniques that students can apply to their own writing
• Short, focused writing skills lessons
• Mentor texts and opportunities to analyze how other writers work
• Creative writing projects with plenty of scaffolding
• Time for drafting, revising, editing, and sharing
• Peer feedback and writing workshops
• Assessments and opportunities for reflection
• Enough flexibility to adapt to your students and schedule

The exact units can look very different from one Creative Writing class to another. You might organize your course around genres such as poetry, memoir, science fiction, and short stories. Or you might build the course around individual writing skills and gradually combine those skills into longer projects.

The important thing is that students aren’t simply writing something new every day without instruction. A good curriculum gives them both creative freedom and the tools they need to become stronger writers.

That’s the approach I used when I created my own High School Creative Writing Curriculum.

Why Teach Creative Writing in High School?

Creative Writing gives high school students something they don’t always get in traditional English classes: the opportunity to write because they have something they want to say.

Instead of writing another five-paragraph essay, students can experiment with poetry, short stories, memoir, dialogue, and other forms of creative writing. Along the way, they still develop important skills like:

• Analyzing mentor texts
• Making intentional word choices
• Applying literary devices
• Using sensory details
• Drafting, revising, and editing
• Giving and receiving feedback

And there’s another benefit that’s easy to overlook: Creative Writing gives students a reason to write regularly.

Students who groan when you assign an essay may be much more willing to write when they’re creating a character, experimenting with a poem, or turning a familiar story into something completely new.

I think it’s easy to forget that writing is meant to be an enjoyable art when we’re trying to hit standards. But that’s why Creative Writing is so important.

It gives students structured opportunities to practice writing while still leaving room for creativity and choice and the chance to have fun with words.

If you’re looking for more ideas for actually teaching a Creative Writing class, check out my post on how to teach Creative Writing in high school.

And honestly? It can be a lot of fun for the teacher, too.

Start Your Creative Writing Class with Writing

Your first day sets the tone for the entire course. If students signed up for Creative Writing expecting something different from a traditional English class, don’t spend the whole period reading your syllabus!

Instead, have students write on day one.

One of my favorite ways to introduce a high school Creative Writing class is with an “I Am” poem. Students get an immediate opportunity to write, experiment with language, and share something about themselves with their classmates.

It also sends an important message: writing is going to be a regular part of this class.

If you want a ready-to-use first-day activity, you can sign up below for a FREE copy of my “I Am” Poem Activity.

Include Daily Creative Writing Warm-Ups

A strong Creative Writing curriculum should give students regular opportunities to write, not just occasional large assignments.

I recommend beginning each class with a short bell ringer or warm-up. This gives students a predictable routine while providing low-pressure opportunities to experiment with their writing.

There are several ways you can approach these warm-ups.

Journal prompts work especially well when you want students to practice free writing. You might ask students to describe a memory using vivid sensory details or imagine a world where emotions are traded like currency.

Because students are writing every day, their journals can also become a bank of ideas they can return to when they’re working on larger projects.

If you want to put more emphasis on analyzing writing, Poem of the Week activities are another option. Students can analyze a poem as a mentor text, identify techniques the writer uses, and then experiment with those techniques in their own writing.

The important thing is consistency. A five- or ten-minute writing routine at the beginning of class can add up to a lot of writing practice over the course of a semester.

This is why I include both Journal Writing Prompts and Poem of the Week activities in my High School Creative Writing Curriculum. Teachers can choose the routine that best fits their class while still giving students meaningful writing practice from the beginning of the course.

Teach Literary Terms and Writing Techniques

Creative Writing students don’t just need opportunities to write. They also need the vocabulary to talk about how writing works.

A strong Creative Writing curriculum should introduce students to literary terms and techniques they can recognize in mentor texts and then apply to their own writing.

Figurative language is a great place to start. Students can learn terms like metaphor, simile, personification, and hyperbole while experimenting with ways to make their own writing more vivid.

For example, instead of simply telling students to “use sensory details,” you can teach them how figurative language can help a reader see, hear, taste, smell, or feel what a writer is describing.

My own Creative Writing curriculum begins with a figurative language unit for exactly this reason. It gives students a shared vocabulary that we can continue using throughout the rest of the course.

You might also teach literary and writing techniques such as:

• Imagery and sensory details
• Figurative language
• Mood and tone
• Word choice
• Dialogue
• Characterization
• Point of view
• “Show, don’t tell”

The specific terms you choose will depend on your students and the kind of writing you want them to produce. The goal isn’t to turn Creative Writing into a vocabulary course. It’s to give students a toolbox they can actually use when they’re writing.

For example, after studying figurative language in a mentor text, students can experiment with those same techniques in their own writing.

You can use my FREE Figurative Language Activity to give students a hands-on introduction to these techniques.

I also have a Figurative Language Scavenger Hunt that asks students to identify literary devices in examples before putting what they’ve learned into practice.

Build in Skill-Focused Mini-Lessons and Workshops

Creative Writing students need time to write, but they also need to learn how to become better writers. That’s where short, focused mini-lessons and writing workshops come in.

A good Creative Writing curriculum should regularly introduce students to a specific writing skill, give them an opportunity to practice it, and then allow them to apply it to their own work.

I’m a big fan of the workshop model. I’ll teach a short lesson on a specific skill, and then students spend the rest of the class putting that skill into practice. While they work, I can move around the room, conference with students, answer questions, and help writers who get stuck.

This approach keeps the teacher-directed portion of the class focused while giving students plenty of time to actually write.

Writing Skills to Include

The specific skills you teach will depend on your students and the type of writing you want them to produce. Some possibilities include:

• Using precise word choice
• Writing authentic dialogue
• Creating mood and tone
• Incorporating sensory details
• Showing rather than telling
• Developing characters
• Building tension and suspense

You don’t have to teach every skill as a standalone lesson. You can organize related skills into mini-units and then have students apply them in larger writing projects.

For example, students might learn about figurative language and sensory details before writing poetry. Later, they might study dialogue, characterization, and point of view before writing a short story.

That’s the progression I want in a creative writing curriculum: teach a skill, practice the skill, and then give students a reason to use it.

My Creative Writing Workshops and Mini-Lessons Bundle includes focused lessons on skills such as dialogue, mood, and word choice that you can use throughout a creative writing course.

If you’re building your own curriculum, you can also use my post on Creative Writing skills to help you decide which skills to teach.

Include Substantial Creative Writing Projects

Students need plenty of low-pressure opportunities to practice individual writing skills, but they also need chances to put those skills together in longer pieces of writing.

Giving them meaningful Creative Writing projects allows them to show off their skills.

A high school Creative Writing curriculum might include poetry collections, short stories, memoirs, genre-based writing, or other extended projects. The important thing is that students have opportunities to take what they’ve learned and use it to create something they’re proud of.

I recommend making larger projects a gradual progression rather than asking students to write a complete short story from scratch on day one.

Start with smaller assignments that allow students to practice individual techniques. Then, as they become more comfortable, give them increasingly complex projects that require them to combine those skills.

Scaffold Creative Writing Projects

Scaffolding is especially important in a high school Creative Writing class because your students probably won’t all enter the course with the same level of writing experience.

A confident student might happily invent an entire story from scratch. Another student might stare at a blank page for twenty minutes because they have no idea where to begin.

A good Creative Writing curriculum should provide enough structure to support reluctant or inexperienced writers without taking away their creativity.

For example, instead of simply telling students to “write a short story,” you might give them a character-development activity, help them brainstorm a conflict, provide opportunities to practice dialogue, and then walk them through drafting and revising.

My Fairy Tale Retelling Project is perfect for scaffolding story writing. Students don’t have to invent an entirely new story from nothing. They start with a familiar fairy tale and then reimagine it with their own characters, details, and twists.

This makes the project approachable for newer writers while still leaving plenty of room for creativity.

Use Different Types of Creative Writing Projects and Offer Choice Whenever Possible

You can also give students some choice in the types of writing they produce throughout the course.

For example, your curriculum might include:

• Poetry
• Short stories
• Memoir or personal narrative
• Genre writing
• Fairy-tale retellings
• Author imitation projects
• Children’s books

One project I especially like is an Author Study Project. Students choose an author, analyze that writer’s style and techniques, and then create their own writing inspired by what they’ve studied.

This gives students another opportunity to use a published writer as a mentor while still producing original work.

Remember, Creative Writing projects aren’t just a longer writing assignment. They should be opportunities for students to apply (and show off!) the writing skills they’ve been learning and honing during your class.

Build in Peer Feedback and Revision

Real writers are constantly seeking feedback and revising. And that’s what we’re creating in our classrooms: real writers.

So your students need opportunities to share their writing, receive feedback, and revise it.

I know peer editing probably won’t be your high school students’ favorite part of the course. But learning how to read and respond to someone else’s writing is an important skill—and it can help students become more thoughtful writers themselves.

A strong Creative Writing curriculum should build feedback into larger writing projects rather than treating editing as something students do for five minutes at the end.

Depending on the assignment, students might:

• Exchange drafts with a partner
• Give feedback using a checklist or guided questions
• Participate in a gallery walk
• Read their work aloud
• Conference with the teacher
• Revise their writing based on feedback

I like to use a mix of techniques for collecting feedback throughout class. I usually start with having students leave feedback on sticky notes. Then we build up to more difficult, face-to-face critiques.

The goal isn’t to have students “fix” each other’s papers. Instead, teach them how to give specific, useful feedback about things like word choice, imagery, characterization, dialogue, or the overall effect of a piece, and how to be more reflective of their own work.

This is also a great opportunity to build students’ confidence. The more comfortable they become sharing their writing, the more willing they’ll be to take creative risks.

In my High School Creative Writing Curriculum, writing activities include opportunities for students to share and edit one another’s work as they move through the writing process.

Keep Your Creative Writing Curriculum Flexible

One of the best things about teaching Creative Writing is that you don’t have to follow a rigid script. Your curriculum should give you a clear plan while still leaving room to respond to your students.

Maybe your students need an extra week to finish a short story. Maybe a particular poem sparks a great discussion that you want to pursue. Or maybe your class is ready to move on sooner than you expected.

A good Creative Writing curriculum should be structured enough to keep you on track but flexible enough to adapt.

I also like building in occasional seasonal and thematic writing activities. They give students a fresh prompt or genre to experiment with without requiring you to abandon your overall curriculum.

For example, in October, students can write two-sentence horror stories. Around St. Patrick’s Day, you could teach students how to write limericks. You might also incorporate holiday-themed mentor texts or other timely writing activities throughout the year.

These activities don’t have to become entire units. Think of them as creative breaks that still reinforce the skills you’re teaching.

My High School Creative Writing Curriculum includes a suggested 9-week calendar, but the lessons can be rearranged or adapted to fit your schedule and your students.

Include Assessments and Student Reflection

Even a Creative Writing class needs assessment. Your students should know what they’re learning, and you need ways to measure their growth throughout the course.

A good Creative Writing curriculum can include a mix of writing-based assessments, literary terms assessments, peer feedback, and student reflection.

Not every assessment needs to be a traditional test. You can evaluate a finished poem or short story, use a rubric during a writing workshop, or have students reflect on how their writing changed during a project.

That said, sometimes you need a traditional assessment. (My school required final exams of every class–even the creative ones.) If you need a final exam or another non-writing grade, literary terms are an easy place to assess students’ knowledge.

For example, you could have students identify and explain literary techniques you’ve studied throughout the course.

Make sure assessment supports the curriculum rather than interrupting it. Students should have opportunities to demonstrate both what they know about writing and how they’ve applied those skills to their own work.

In my High School Creative Writing Curriculum, I include assessments alongside the lessons and writing activities so you don’t have to create every component of the course yourself. 

Ready to Teach Creative Writing Without Starting from Scratch?

Creating a high school Creative Writing course from scratch is a lot of work. You have to decide which skills to teach, find mentor texts, create activities, develop writing projects, build assessments, and figure out how everything fits together.

You don’t have to do all of that yourself.

My High School Creative Writing Curriculum is a complete 9-week course designed to give you the structure of a real Creative Writing class without requiring you to spend weeks building the curriculum yourself.

It includes:

• Daily lesson plans
• Creative writing activities
• Writing warm-ups and journal prompts
• Literary terms instruction
• Writing workshops and mini-lessons
• Creative writing projects
• Opportunities for peer feedback and revision
• Assessments
• A suggested 9-week pacing calendar

The curriculum is designed to teach writing skills while giving high school students plenty of opportunities to actually write. And because it’s flexible, you can adapt the pacing and activities to fit your own students and schedule.

Grab the complete High School Creative Writing Curriculum on Teachers Pay Teachers!

If you’re tired of staring at a blank planning document wondering how you’re going to fill an entire Creative Writing elective, this is exactly why I created it.