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My Thoughts
A Freewriting Journal(in color)

My Thoughts
A Freewriting Journal

This may be the ultimate student book because your students write it. Of course, Janet and Gail (also authors of Talk and Write) have provided the guidance and format for this journal of freewriting. As they say in their Thoughts from your Co-Authors, "In our years of working with students like you, we have discovered freewriting to be one of the surest paths to clearer and more confident writing."

What is freewriting? According to Wikipedia it is a prewriting technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. [It] helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism.

This little journal can be used in a variety of ways, but the main point is to encourage students to write and enjoy doing it.

There are 74 pages, each with a brief, open-ended written prompt and a colorful, evocative illustration. All the student has to do is fill the pages with words, sentences, and thoughts - all without fear of a grade or lots of red marks on their words and sentences.

A sampling of prompts:

• How do you feel on a rainy day?
• Describe an adventure you would like to have.
• What is your favorite game? How do you play it?
• What do you enjoy most about a visit to the zoo?
• Why are people afraid of snakes?

An additional 6 pages have no written prompt - only an illustration
(a guitar, a ladybug, a door, pebbles, railroad tracks, a snail, a candle).

And for each page/prompt there is a small space for you, the teacher, to write a very brief response - "Is this true?" "What a beautiful scene!" "This is really very funny!"

So have your students write away - a page a day.

An extra resource:
When using the journal, your students will enjoy fragments of several poems. You may want to share the complete poems with them, or enjoy them yourself. Here are links to the poems:

• page 13: Carl Sandburg Fog
• page 20: Langston Hughes Dreams Watch a video on YouTube
• page 31: Billy Collins Morning
• page 39: A.A. Burrows The Porcupine
• page 52: Emily Bronte Fall, leaves, fall
• page 55: Pablo Neruda Ode to My Socks
• page 58: A.A. Burrows The Ice
  
  

Other writing prompts from Pro Lingua:

By Morey and Schafer
More Thoughts
Talk and Write

Writing Inspirations
TalkAbouts
Surveysfor Conversation
Improvisation