When Dr. ABC walked into class with a mischievous smile and projected a list of descriptive writing topics. I had no idea how much fun and chaos those next forty minutes would bring. The instructions were simple: choose a topic, write nonstop for forty minutes. follow the writing process and just write. It sounded easy enough until I saw the topic I couldn’t resist: “An embarrassing moment in my life.”
Naturally, I chose to relive the day I fell flat in front of the entire school assembly while walking up to sing the national anthem. I could almost hear the collective gasp, followed by that unmistakable wave of laughter. As I wrote, the memory replayed in slow motion, my confident stride, the traitorous step, and my heroic attempt to pretend it never happened.
The task was both thrilling and challenging. It pushed me to think quickly, organize my ideas on the spot, and still make the story flow. The forty minutes gave met the luxury of time to plan, draft, and revise at the same time. Yet, that rush of writing under pressure reminded me of the creative joy in spontaneous writing.
By the end of the exercise, I realized something important: as teachers, we often expect our students to produce polished pieces on their first try. But writing, real writing, takes process, reflection, and revision. This forty-minute whirlwind helped me understand how pressured our students might feel when asked to “just write.”
Still, the class was a delightful blend of laughter, learning, and a few cringes. Who knew that one embarrassing fall years ago would turn into a moment of growth in a writing class?
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Dear Ariel,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your writing experience and your writing. Based on this activity, what implications would this have on your classroom as you engage your students in writing?
This activity helped me see that writing is not just about finishing a piece quickly, but about taking time to think, plan, and improve. When I was writing my story, I felt how hard it can be to come up with ideas and make them flow under pressure. It made me realize that students might feel the same way when we ask them to “just write.”
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom, I want to give students more time to go through the writing process: planning, drafting, and then editing their work. I will also remind them that it’s okay for their first draft to be messy. Writing should be fun and creative, not stressful.
This experience taught me that my job is to guide students and help them enjoy writing, not just rush to get a perfect final piece.