Writing as thinking requires students to do writing! Much of the time we’ve black-boxed what happens in writing, telling students to produce a product of one kind or another, and then sending them off to, somehow, do it. What if instead we took time to experiment with different exercises? One of our experiences with teaching writing is that no one way works for every student; proliferating the writing experiences they have can be a really valuable part of scaffolding their own meta-cognitive understanding of what helps them, specifically, access their thinking practice through writing.
These writing exercises slow us down as teachers, giving students time and space within the classroom setting to try out different forms of writing. They’re a key building block in the way we shift our learning practice away from assessment. Go here to find an array of writing play exercises, or see the general categories below for some of our “old faithfuls” – writing activities that we think are worth everyone trying out at least once.