This week I introduced students to some of the tools I like to use on a regular basis in my personal writing practice. As a teaching artist, and “professional” writer, I like to let students know that I still struggle with coming up with ideas, and sometimes I get stuck too. We started off our time by doing one of the most basic and fundamental exercises, the timed free write. Some students were already familiar with it, but for many it was their first time writing completely unprompted. Usually, our time together consists of introducing students to a new poetic device via a poem, and a very structured lesson plan that includes a brainstorming exercise and then time to construct a poem from the ideas they came up with. This time I asked students to take a deep breath, check in with where they were at in the moment and write whatever came to their mind for 10 minutes. Not stopping, no editing, no crossing out or correcting anything. Just 10 minutes straight of uninterrupted writing and getting through what I like to call the “circus in my head”. It was really interesting to see students dive into this exercise and get so engrossed with it. After our ten minutes of writing, we discussed how the process felt. Some found it easier to write with no prompts or instructions, some found it much harder. I explained it’s important to notice these things because it will help you learn how to support yourself as a writer down the road. I won’t be posting any of the free writes this week because many felt personal, but I’m so excited to see how confident these students are becoming in discussing their work and thinking about it critically. See you next week!
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