GENRE-BASED CREATIVE WRITING FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, WHY NOT?

Abstract: Acceleration programs are tailored for gifted and talented students who are required to complete their study within two years. In Indonesia, this program is implemented at both senior and junior high schools. It is a big challenge for both teachers and students to cover all the required materials within this time frame. Thus, both teachers and students should have a vested interest in optimizing their teaching and learning programs. Particularly in English instruction, within 2 years, students should be well equipped. To meet this need, creative writing is one of the strategies needed for both English teachers and for acceleration students to take a challenge and get experiences in writing activity based on genre-based learning. Genre-based creative writing helps students dig up creativity, build motivation to work in team, and create a book by themselves. This learning model follows two major steps: writing-with-the class stage and cooperative-writing stage. Additional merit of this writing activity is that the students engage in entrepreneurship, and this allows for raising funds for charity to children with cancer and school music project. The genre-based creative writing project shows that all the students performed their creative writing very well. This also contributes to the development of the students’ creativity, motivation and teamwork. Keywords:creative writing; genre-based learning; gifted students; creativity; motivation; teamwor