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.)
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.)
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