Quick Writing Activity

I've been fortunate in my teaching career to have had some wonderful professional development in how to teach children to write.  The one thing that all my varied training has had in common is this:  Step 1 is always to get kids to face a blank page with confidence. So try this listing activity.

Tell students that you're going to ask them to make some lists in their notebook.  You'll tell them what to make a list of, and it's likely you'll move on to the next list before they're finished with the one they're working on.  That's okay.  This will be quick paced and students should move on with you - ready or not.

First directions to the class - Write down all the places you've ever been.  Everything counts so whether you've been to your friend's house next door or traveled to another country, write it down.  Have you been to the grocery store?  ...to the beach?  ...to the movies? ...to Grandma's house?  Then say, "Ready, Set, Go!"  This sets the tone.  You don't want them to think too much.  They should just write.

When most kids have 4-6 items on their list, move on.

Next list:  Write down all the pizza toppings you can think of.  You don't have to like them.  I promise not to make you eat them.  Go!

Next:  Write down all the objects you've held in your hand over the past 2 days. 

By now the kids should have the idea.  Hopefully they're having fun with it.  It should also be getting easier for them and their lists should be getting a bit longer. 

Last list: Write down just the first names of all the kids you remember from kindergarten.  (Even if your students are in 5th or 6th grade, ask them to think back to kindergarten.)  Tell them that if they get a name wrong or someone from their 2nd grade class ends up on this list, it doesn't matter.  Just make the list.

Now, ask the kids to look back at all their lists and put a star next to anything they wrote down that reminds them of a funny story.  Then instruct them to choose something they starred and tell a story about it to the person sitting next to them.  Give them a few minutes.  It's okay if they don't finish telling their story.  Then say, "Switch."  Now the partners switch roles so that the speaker becomes the listener.

Look out over the class and take a moment to enjoy the energy and animated conversation amongst your students.  Then, call for everyone's attention.  Acknowledge the fact that they probably didn't finish telling their stories.  Now ask them to go to the next clean page in their notebook and write.  They might write down the story they were telling, they may choose something else from their list, or they may write about something that their partner's story reminded them of.  Some kids will take off with this and will not be able to spill that story onto the page fast enough. 

For those students who feel that they have nothing good to write about, ask them to extract the most boring story from their list and tell just a short part of it as though it's happening in slow motion.  After you help them to talk through it a bit, they should be fine. 

The best thing about this activity is that it not only generates a lot of excitement on the day you do it.  It also leaves the kids with a handful of starred items in their notebooks that they can write another story about on another day.  Don't forget to set aside some time for your young writers to share their work aloud.  Have fun.

Try It Now

This time of year, teachers are thinking two things, alternately. Yea! It's the tail end of the school year! or OMG, it's the tail end of the school year.  Either way, I've found this to be the best time of the year to try something new.  Here's why:

• You're comfortable with your students and they with you. 
• Classroom management with this group has long been in place.
• You're not stressed about your lesson falling flat.  That's probably already happened more times than you can count this year.  If things are headed in that direction, you'll know what to do.

So here's something quick to try.  Prompt students with What is your earliest memory of an experience with a book? I used this with 1st and 2nd graders years ago and it worked well because it gets kids writing about their favorite subject - themselves.  If students can't remember something from way back in their lives, remind them that it could be something from pre-school or K, or even earlier this school year. 

Pre writing, get them talking.  Say Does anyone already know what they're going to write about?  This will help those children to verbalize some details.  It will help others to come up with ideas. 

As always, the teacher should respond to this prompt in writing and share as well.  You'll let the person who just shared call on the next one.  You raise your hand like everyone else. 

I won't spoil it by giving too much away.  If you have some time to try this, I'd love to know how it went.  Oh, and I almost forgot.  Do this early on in a new school year.  It's very revealing and will help you to plan instruction when you have little else to go on. 

Weren't You Just Here Yesterday?

Why yes...yes I was.

You may notice that my first post was in February and my second post was yesterday.  I get it that a blog should be written more often than that but, no kidding, where do all these bloggers find the time???  I have time now because I'm home from work recuperating from foot surgery.  OUCH!  But now that prescription pain meds are no longer necessary and my head has cleared, here I am with lots of time on my hands.  I emailed Erica this morning to ask for her help with my next project.  It will be hard for her to duck me, living right next door and all, so hopefully I'll have some news about that soon.  Stay tuned.

Where Do Story Ideas Come From? The Short Answer: Quick Prompts

A FAQ posed to writers is Where do you get your ideas?  As a teacher, I've spent years convincing my students that they can find something to write about every day.  But I never just told them that.  I showed them.  I kept a writer's notebook at my desk just as they did, and when I gave a writing assignment to my class, I completed that assignment too.  For daily writing, I used prompts.  (Google writing prompts for kids.)  There were several benefits to writing with my class.
Pieces of writing that begin in my notebook are not beautiful, and yours don't have to be either.  I liked to project my notebook on a screen at the front of the room.  As I responded to a prompt, students could see that I crossed things out, drew arrows to add things in, used sloppy handwriting sometimes, circled words I wasn't sure how to spell, etc.  If you are a teacher or a student, you're nodding and smiling right now.  This is all very familiar.
Quiet writing time.  An elementary classroom is not free from distractions; not for the students, and not for the teacher.  Once the class started writing, there were always a few kids who procrastinated by talking or asking me questions.  My response:  I can't think about what to write if you talk to me. Setting a timer and focusing on my own notebook usually bought me 15 quiet minutes in a third grade classrom.  That's all it takes for a quick response to a generic prompt.  Very non-threatening to a student who's a reluctant writer or to an adult who's pressed for time.  Once we had all accumulated a number of prompts, it was time for...
...the big revelation.  The prompts I used were along the lines of Tell about something that frightened you; or Use your 5 senses to describe your journey to school from the time you set foot out the door.  Notice that the writer is being asked to tell about something that really happened.  Students loved it when I told them that the you in their written response could become a fictitious character, and the events or observations could be transformed into an outlandish piece of fiction.  Then I offered my own notebook up for revisions.  With the kids' help, we made a list.  The adult woman in my brief piece of writing could become a child, a time or space traveler, or the neighbor's great dane.  The setting could be changed just as easily.  And for those students who hadn't written anything during quiet writing time, they were now free to take elements of mine as a starting point.
My classroom experience is described in the past tense because I currently teach 5th grade math.   For now, writing with children has been replaced with writing for children.  I hope my former writing students have gained a sense of freedom about their creative writing.  It doesn't have to be beautifully done (at first), it doesn't have to be true, and it doesn't have to be shared with others if they'd rather not.  As for me, I learned the self-discipline needed to write on command.  (Important for a self-published author with only self-imposed goals and timelines.)