Write Off the Bat: Quick Writes
The following blog post was originally written by Leigh Anne Eck, a member of our Teach Write Academy and middle school teacher in Indiana. This is part one in a series about starting the year with writing “write off the bat.”
Quickwrites are a great way to get students writing and can be used for any age or grade level. According to Linda Rief, the author of The Quickwrite Handbook, a "quickwrite is a first draft response to a short piece of writing, usually no more than one page of poetry or a short picture book."
During a quickwrite, students do the following:
Write as quickly as they can for two or three minutes, capturing anything that comes to mind in response to the work as a whole.
Borrow a line or part of a line (one of their own choosing or a particular line that might you might suggest) from the work and write off, or from, that line nonstop for two or three minutes.
Use a specific line or particular style as a model from which to write.
In this series, I hope to share quickwrites my students have loved in the past and new ones that I have found this summer as I reflected on how to add more joyful writing in my classroom.
In a Facebook group, someone recently shared a collection of motivational quotes. I love collecting quotes and the thinking they inspire, and this collection is perfect for students to think about throughout the year.
Display or copy the quote for students' notebooks and have them write beside it. Where does this idea lead them? How will they work hard this school year? When was a time they worked/didn't work hard?
Here is a link to a PDF of the entire collection for you to use.
If you try a quickwrite from this collection of quotes with your students (or in your own notebook), I hope you will share how it went with us!
And if you are interested in joining a supportive community of teacher-writers and gain access to ideas like this and MORE then please check out our Teach Write Academy.
