DENTON (UNT), Texas — A unique collaboration between University of North Texas graduate students and the Denton Independent School District is encouraging local middle-schoolers to build their writing skills and explore their creativity.

The Writers in the School (WITS) program was introduced at Calhoun Middle School in Fall 2018. WITS pairs creative writing doctoral students from the UNT Department of English with seventh-graders in the school’s gifted and talented, or “EXPO,” classes.

The program was started by Corey Marks, Distinguished Teaching Professor and director of the UNT Creative Writing program, who was inspired by a similar initiative at the University of Houston.

“WITS allows really successful, strong writers to work with public school students. This gives those students opportunities and training they might not otherwise have,” Marks said. “It really demystifies what it means to be a writer or grad student, and it makes UNT more familiar and welcoming to them.”

WITS follows the Denton ISD academic calendar, beginning with a new class of students every fall semester. Throughout each school year, instructors lead students in book readings and discussions, learning skills and techniques, writing and revising, and sharing their work with each other.

By the end of the spring semester, the students’ work is collected in printed and bound anthologies. Each participant receives a copy to keep. The class ends with a book launch and reading at a local bookstore, giving students the opportunity to perform their work in front of an audience.

“The program has them playing with language and thinking about self-expression, but it also has them inhabiting their creativity in that performance,” Marks said. “That end-of-the-year event is always the moment where you see their joy and what they’ve gotten out of it.”

One goal of WITS is to familiarize students with reading and writing in general. Rather than focusing on a single genre, students get a chance to explore writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays and graphic novels. The program doesn’t include homework assignments, meaning all work is done in the classroom unless a student wants to work on their projects at home.

Current WITS instructor Heather Myers, who is pursuing a doctorate in creative writing at UNT, said that kind of freedom is key to becoming a strong writer.

“I want the program to be a space where they’re going to walk away feeling good about what they’ve done in that class, no matter what else happened that day,” Myers said. “If they gain a positive association with writing, they can take that into high school and college.”

While familiarity is important, it isn’t the program’s sole benefit. For Calhoun Middle School EXPO teacher Amy Taylor, another benefit of the relaxed classroom structure is that students get to simply play — an activity that aids creativity as well as development.

“This age group isn’t nervous to try new things; they just do it. They’re still in that play stage of life,” Taylor said. “Middle school is such a turning point for students, and writing helps them cement their character as people.”

Madison Garber (’24), a UNT alumna with a Ph.D. in creative writing who taught the program from Fall 2022 to Spring 2024, said WITS fostered growth for both her students and herself.

“WITS changed my approach and challenged me to be a lot more hands-on as an instructor,” Garber said. “I learned a lot from the one-on-one relationships I built with my students.”