Quickwrites
Formative Work
Explore, Discover, Create...Explore, Discover, Create...Explore, Discover, Create...Explore, Discover, Create...Explore, Discover
Formative Work
Develop your critical and creative thinking skills.
Lay the groundwork for future success in summative assessments.
Create some of the evidence needed to demonstrate competency in the context of your Semester Portfolio.
"Quickwrites allow us to write fast without censoring — it's what the subconscious allows us to say. We are surprised to realize we didn't know we knew what we knew until we wrote it down. With quickwrites, we are asking students to grope and trip their way into finding what really matters to them" (Reif ).
First, we’ll explore a piece of writing together. Next, we’ll each write as quickly and as specifically as we can for five minutes, using one of the following strategies as our starting point:
Borrow a line from the piece of writing and let it lead your thinking.
Write about what you have seen or heard in the piece of writing – a theme or image or big idea.
Write anything that the piece of writing brings to mind for you.
*Adapted from The Quickwrite Handbook: Mentor Texts to Jumpstart your Students’ Thinking and Writing by Linda Reif.
A quickwrite response is a "first draft" of your thinking. As you follow the prompt, address what's asked, and feel free to take it somewhere interesting. It's also:
detailed and honest
connected to the text - referencing specific moments, lines, or characters
rich in ideas that reflect thinking beyond the surface
A quickwrite response is NOT:
perfectly edited for spelling or grammar
a summary
a set of vague generalities that could be about any work of literature
Read: "Did I Miss Anything? by Tom Wayman
Try this (as quickly and as specifically as you can for 5 minutes):
write about anything that this poem brings to mind
borrow any line, letting the line lead your thinking
write about a time when someone responded to a question with sarcasm
Question: Why do we do quickwrites? Where did I get the idea?
Answer: Quickwrites offer all writers -whether they have published lots of titles or are just now sitting in grade-school classroom, the opportunity to stretch their writing skills and get in the habit of discovering what they know before they even know they know it.
I also stand on the shoulders of giants. In this case, it's Linda Reif whose best-practice evidence-based methods help me help you become better writers, thinkers, and creators.
Bibliography
Rief, Linda. The Quickwrite Handbook: Mentor Texts to Jumpstart Your Students'
Thinking and Writing. Portsmouth, Heinemann, 2018.