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| WRITING | THE ONE-MINUTE
TEACHER | FUN PAGE
QuickWrite—A Proven Approach for Getting Students to Produce a
Story in 10 Minutes or Less (Page
2)
Additional
Features—Warm-up Strategies
Some
students do better at generating ideas when they are working from a
picture. The teacher, the student or both may decide on a picture to
use as a way of "priming the pump" for the first one-minute
Think/Write Ideas timing. The teacher can prompt the student's productivity
with some helpful questions or instructions. This part of the exercise
precedes any timed activity. It obviously lengthens the process, but
it may ease the student's fears.
"Tell me all of the things you can see in this picture. Remember
them on your list."
"Tell me what is happening in this picture."
"What is happening now?"
"What happened before this?"
"What do you think will happen next?"
"What is the most important thing in this picture?"
"Tell me why you think so."
PHASE TWO—Think/Write Ideas in an Order
The student is given exactly one minute to arrange the ideas into some
kind of order. The order can be temporal (from first to most recent)
main ideas and details, order of importance of events, etc. The student
may write out the list again in a different order or s/he may number
the existing list in the order in which s/he will write about the ideas.
Now the student has a rough plan to
follow. S/he may even add more ideas to the list. (Say, "Get ready
to organize your ideas into a sequence you will use in your first draft.
Ready. Please Begin." After 60 seconds, "Thank you. Let's
move on.")
PHASE THREE—Think/Write Initial Draft
In this Phase the student is given exactly five minutes to write as
much of a first draft as s/he can. The student starts at the top of
the order s/he has created and begins to write at least a
sentence about each idea. Students with well-developed cursive writing
skills can write 20-30 words per minute legibly. They may produce up
to 150 words during the 5-minute writing burst.
Students with fluent keyboarding skills may generate up to 400 words
in five minutes. Now the student has the first draft. (Say, "Get
ready to write the first draft of your story. Start at the first idea
in your list. Write at least one sentence about each idea in your list.
You have five minutes to write as much as you can. If you finish the
list, go back and add new ideas to the list and write about them until
the time is up. Ready. Please Begin." After five minutes, "Thank
you. Now let's start to edit what you have written.")
A note regarding line spacing:
Have students write double-spaced so that they can go back during the
editing and add ideas to the script they have already written.
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