Years ago, after attending the Louisville Writing Project and in full-throttle promotion of Fletcher's Writer's Notebooks in my own classroom, I used to ask my students to brainstorm items that they might choose to write about throughout the year. The adolescents complained and I did as any adult should do with such curmudgeon apathy, I ran across the hallway to the 4th grade classroom and had the 4th graders brainstorm items they could write about, in which they quickly gave me a list of 101 things that I typed up and printed for my high-schoolers and their notebooks.
"What? You're going to let the little ones out do you this year?"
Fast forward a decade or so. I still take that original list and distribute to pre-service and in-service teachers to make the point that whenever they are in doubt, youth can help them out. I pulled out my list again last night after working with graduate students in a teaching of writing course. We did a few activities in our notebooks, but will come back next week with this template for them to highlight. The task, "Here's 101 things...what might be ten things you could write about this semester?"
I'm not sure how focused or unfocused the jpeg of this list will be, but I put it here in case one can zoom in and actually read the list (and want to use it). Maybe one day I will scratch off every single item from this list to say that I accomplished that 4th grade challenge! And this was created a long while ago...I imagine that a new list with today's generation of 4th graders would add even more items.
Finally, Tuesdays. I know it's Wednesday, but Tuesdays. Back to backs cook me, roast me, fry me, and throw me to the trash. Ah, but I'm awake and getting right back at it. Phew. Here we go...another day!
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