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I urge all writing teacher, heck...all teachers to listen to this short @Tom_Newkirk piece in which he interviews a student about writing fiction and how empowering the student finds it. art19.com/shows/the-hein…
The student contrasts the empowerment of writing fiction with the constraints of how he asked to perform writing in school. It's a little bit heartbreaking. I believe writing fiction should be part of any student's school writing diet.
In Why They Can't Write, I describe the contents of my 5th grade writing portfolio and amazing variety of genres I was allowed to explore, often with great creativity, and only some of which were fiction. amazon.com/Why-They-Cant-… 
In one of my 5th grade portfolio assignments, we had to describe an invention of our own creation. I invented a machine that allowed you to learn while you slept so you didn't have to go to school. My teacher should've been offended, instead, she put it in my yearly highlights.
More details on that portfolio and why I'm against "correctness" being the dominant value when we judge student writing in this old post: insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…
I say in Why They Can't Write that we should measure schooling by asking students what they learned and then timing how long they speak and rating the enthusiasm in the delivery. The student in @Tom_Newkirk's piece is clearly learning. Just listen to him. art19.com/shows/the-hein…
