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Getting Started:
Pre-Writing Techniques  
Activity One: Setting the Stage Activity Two: Drawing and Writing Activity Three: Photo Collages and Writing Activity Four: Diagrams Activity Five: Culminating Activity Activity One: Setting the Stage These introductory activities should help your students get motivated to write.  Question
One:“Why Is Writing Important?” Brainstorm as a whole group on the blackboard. If students need help coming up with contributions to the brainstorm, ask them to consider when and where people write in real life. You can even play “devil’s advocate” a little bit. Ask students how they would respond to someone who said that they didn’t need to know how to write to succeed in life. Try to get as much up on the board as you can, without stopping to discuss each contribution. Remember, it’s brainstorming. After you have completed the list, go back over it and discuss any items of interest. 
Question Two:“What’s Hard About Writing?” Repeat this process with Question Two. Brainstorm and then discuss. (There is an assumption here that “getting started” or “figuring out what to write about” will come up during this brainstorming. If it does, that’s a good lead in for the lessons that follow) Activity Two: Drawing and Writing
Tell
students that you know they are not in an art class. Make sure they know
that you are going to use drawing as a way to help with writing. It doesn’t
matter if they can’t draw very well. If you happen to be a bad artist
yourself, let them know that.Start
off with a topic you have chosen. There are many topics that can work for
this exercise: my favorite place, a time when I was happy, something I will
never forget, the best thing that ever happened to me, a place where I have
lived, and something I like to do are a few examples. Be sensitive to topics
that could be unpleasant for some students. “Draw a picture of your
home” sounds simple enough, but you never know what their situation
is. I try to pick topics that have some flexibility. That’s why I think
“A place where I have lived” is a better topic. It allows writers
to avoid writing about something they just don’t want to get into.
 Show
the class a drawing you have done based on the topic. Explain it briefly. Have
each person in the class do a drawing based on the topic. Tell them they
will have ten minutes to make their drawings. (Students who finish early
can start labeling or writing explanations of their drawings) Break
students up into pairs or small groups and have them explain their drawings
to each other.
Ask for volunteers to explain their drawing to the whole group. Use
your drawing to demonstrate how to label and annotate a drawing. “This
is my mom coming home from work,” “This is a stuffed dog my sister
had. Her name was Trixie (the dog, not my sister).” Have
students add words, labels, and notes to their drawings. At
this point, more advanced writers will be ready to move on. Have students
write a longer piece based on all or part of their drawing. If your students
are more beginning, you may be better off thinking of the drawings as the
finished products. 
Display the drawings and any pieces of writing the students did on the walls
of your classroom.Activity Three: Photo Collages and Writing Show
students a collage you have made from pictures out of magazines or newspapers.
Your collage can have a theme or a topic, or it can be more eclectic. It’s
great if your collage tells a story. For example, “This collage is
about a family. There is a mother a grandmother and three children in this
family. The mother works at a hospital. The children all go to school….”
Tell the class about your process: How and why did you pick these pictures?
Why did you arrange them the way you did? Have
students work in groups so they can share magazines and newspapers. Students
can be asked to bring in old magazines from home. Give students twenty minutes
to half an hour to create collages. Break
students into pairs or groups and have them explain their collages to each
other. Display
the collages around the room.Give
students time to look at all the collages.Ask
students to write something about the collage they made or someone else’s
collage. Ideas for writing can be:Make up a story about the pictures in the collage Explain how the pictures are related Write about places or people in the pictures Have
students share, respond to, revise and edit their writing.Activity Four: Diagrams
Show the class one or two diagrams you have made. Write
Ideas for diagrams on the blackboard. These might include:My life now Explain the diagram to the class…” Here is my diagram of my life ten years ago. This is me in the middle. This is my family that I lived with over here. Here is the rest of my family. This is my job. This is the New York Mets over here because I was very into baseball ten years ago…” Ask
students to pick two of the ideas for diagrams that are on the blackboard.
Ask them to break up into pairs and talk for a couple minutes each about
why they chose those two ideas.Ask
students to pick the idea they are most interested in and make a diagram
of it.
Have students explain their diagrams to each other.Ask
students to write some more on their diagram after them have talked about
it.Write
an essay or story about the diagram. The writing can be about part of the
diagram, or the whole thing. Have
students read, respond to, revise, and edit their pieces of writing.Activity Five: Culminating Activity Revising, editing and publishing: Obviously, this moves you beyond “Getting Started,” but that’s the whole point of a beginning exercise. This can be simple or complicated. It’s up to you, your students, your resources, and the interest level generated by the writing you have done so far. Students
should have at least three pieces of writing started at this point. Make
a cover sheet for the three pieces of writing. It can help to provide a
starter or cue for students such as this:“My Favorite Piece of Writing Is…” “I Like This Piece Because…”
Ask students to read their writing to each other in groups. Try to avoid
students tearing each other’s writings to bits. A good way to avoid
this is to put the writer in charge. Writers can read their pieces, talk
about what they think of them, and ask the group questions.You
can display or publish the writing in many ways. You can put it up on the
walls. You can photocopy the writing as is and bind it in a journal. Students
can word process writing and you can make it a fancier journal. If your
class, school, or program has a Web site you can post the writing on it.
Here are a few examples of student writing on the Web.
These techniques can be used in just about any educational setting. Once students get a sense of the “getting started” techniques that work best for them, they can use them in any writing activity or for any writing assignment. |