The Game of Prompt Writing

Kim BuiceSWP Summer 2010

Consider this Prompt

You go into your grandmother’s attic and find a trunk. You open it. Write about what you find inside.

“… well meaning teachers hope students will get better at prompt writing by simply writing to a different prompt everyday. In writing workshop, teaching should focus on good writing in any genre. The challenge is to teach writing well, and then teach children to transfer that learning.”

Janet AngelilloWriting to the Prompt

Traditional Prompt Writing

Encourages conformity.Decreases independence.Discourages risk taking.Decreases ownership.Produces mediocre writing.

Idea #1 – Teach the Rubric

Organization – Up Close4

3

2

1

At the beginning more time passes, then finallyafter a while

Content & Development – Up Close4 3

2 1

Voice – Up Close – Your Turn!3 - Uses precise and/or vivid vocabulary appropriate for the topic • Phrasing is effective, not predictable or obvious • Varies sentence structure to promote rhythmic reading • Shows strong awareness of audience and task; tone is consistent and appropriate

2 - Uses both general and precise vocabulary • Phrasing may not be effective, and may be predictable or obvious • Some sentence variety results in reading that is somewhat rhythmic; may be mechanical • Shows awareness of audience and task; tone is appropriate

1 - Uses simple vocabulary • Phrasing is repetitive or confusing • Shows little or no sentence variety; reading is monotonous • Shows little or no awareness of audience and task; tone may be inappropriate

Idea #2 – Teach Them to Read the PromptJanet Allen – RAFT

R - Role – What role(s) will the student assume as a writer?

A – Audience – Who is the audience for the writing.

F – Format – What format will the writing take (comic strip, letter to the editor, feature article, poem)?

T – Topic – What is the topic? What are the question(s) to be answered?

R A

F T

Let’s Try It

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

Many persons believe that to move up the ladder of success and achievement, they must forget the past, repress it, and relinquish it. But others have just the opposite view. They see old memories as a chance to reckon with the past and integrate past and present.

Assignment:Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn

from the past and succeed in the present?

Teaching Kids to Read the Prompt

Disclose the details about a time when you encountered a startling

incident with a domestic quadruped.

If you could relish a respite from your mundane existence, what locale would you proceed to? Depict every aspect in detail.

Idea #3 – Make it a Game!

77% of adolescents play video games daily

success in video games requires a complex set of problem solving strategies

we can transfer these strategies to the “game” of prompt writing

Janet AngelilloWriting to the Prompt: When

Students Don’t Have A Choice

Gaming Elements & Skills Useful for Prompt WritingBeing ready to engage with a topic (game) as an

intellectual exercise.Being alert and quick to respond.Activating prior knowledge about a topic (game).Considering many possibilities (using some,

discarding others).Deciding on the type of game or response

needed.Revising when necessary – even starting over.Meeting and overcoming obstacles.Determining the degree of difficulty/amount of

energy required.

Being ready to engage with a topic as an intellectual exercise.

What if you don’t have a grandmother? Or she doesn’t have an attic? Can you think of one you have seen on tv or in a movie? Take it!

Think about what the trunk looks like – even if you are not sure – picture it in your mind

Being alert and quick to respond.

I have to get interested. Maybe I can sketch some pictures to get some ideas.

No, I can’t say the trunk is empty!

Activating prior knowledge.

Do I have friends or neighbors with attics?What stories have I heard about

grandmothers? About attics? About trunks?

I can take anyone’s story and make it my own.

Considering many possibilities…

A scary story I saw that took place in an attic?

A pirate’s treasure chest?A story about my grandmother dying?

Oh, my friend said her aunt saves EVERYTHING in the attic – what would that look like?

Deciding on the required response.

Not a description of an atticNot a story about my grandmotherNot a feature article about types of trunks

I have 2 pages – I’d better get some details ready.

Revising when necessary.

Revise the plan before I even start writing.Revise my draft when it is finished.

Check back with the prompt to be sure I answered ALL parts of the question.

Meeting and overcoming obstacles.

I have more than one idea, so I do some prewriting with both to decide which will turn out better.

When I pull something out of the box in the story, I have to visualize it so I can tell about it. If I can’t picture it in my mind, maybe I should pll out something else.

Did we use the same strategies?

In Closing

Katie Wood Ray – “A study of testing should be a study of process not product.”

Janet Angelillo – “Because writing workshops focus on strengthening writing strategies and thereby raise the bar for all writing, they are the perfect way to teach students to write well to prompts.”

Resources

Allen, Janet. Tools for Teaching Content Literacy. Stenhouse Publishers, 2004.

Angelillo, Janet. Writing to the Prompt: When Students Don’t Have a Choice. Heinemann, 2005.

Ray, Katie Wood. Study Driven. Heinemann, 2006.