Starting with the Small Things

Ingrid Wendt? "the root of imagination is image"

After starting with Hot Fudge Monday and Ziegler's Writing Workshop, both pieces were disappointing in content and exciting new insight. So, although I wanted to read a piece from the library, I decided on using the book I bought from Ingrid's workshop.

The bottom line regarding this book is that I feel it's a wonderful collection of ideas to get students engaged and confident in writing creatively. I picture using her suggestion during a writing workshop-like environment where kids feel comfortable and used to composing, sharing, revising, and publishing creative work. It seems to me like once a week, or once every two weeks, would keep such activities a "treat" for students instead of a chore.

As I thoroughly enjoyed her workshop, I strongly feel many of her lessons will be equally successful in the high school classroom. It's fun to compose poetry, it's fun to feel like a poet, and it's fun to hear what others have written. With that in mind, the most authentic way I can report on this book is to simply compile a list of suggested activities that I can quickly reference when creating lesson plans. So, here it is:

1. Chain poem- 10 words of free association- then compose

2. Acrostics- each line begins with letter of poet's name

3. Draw shapes on board- use similes and metaphors to write about them

4. Senses and similes. Like/as/than. "looks like/smells like/ tastes like"

5. Synaesthesia?describe silent things (colors) with sounds, taste, etc.

6. Rewrite clich?s

7. Memory pictures- pick 3 details

8. Examine art prints- choose 3 details

9. Instrumental Music- listen to it- write on the images that it creates- describe the picture that it brings to mind

10. Hypotheses- "If ____ were a _____ then_______"

11. Turn abstractions into concrete images. What shape is time? What does time look like?

12. List emotions. Sim/Metaph?what does each feeling look/smell/taste/ like?

13. Personification. Bring feeling/concepts alive with human traits

14. Self Image. "I am" "I was" "I wish I was" (note: Pearl Jam's "Wish List"

15. Parts of body. What are they made out of? What's in your legs? Fingers?

16. Character description.

17. Directly address something/someone/object. Talk to it!

18. Letters to someone.

19. Chants/invocations/rules. ie "Rules for a Toilet"

20. Protest?"I am sick of" "I am tired of"

21. Two-part: a situation and how you feel about it.

22. Empathy: speak for someone/something that can't speak for itself.

23. Creative myth: explain how something has happened or why something "is"

24. Mystery: "who knows?" "what if?"

25. Tall tales "The truth is?. (then tell a huge lie!!)

26. Double sword: 2 part- write on the two sides of something

27. Present moment- as if you're having a dream right now "Here I am?" "I sit here?"

28. Dreams? "Once I dreamed?"

29. Harsh/gentle sounds. Play with different language.

30. Internal rhyme/assonance/consonance/alliteration

31. Q & A: write down 3 questions and 3 answers to them. In groups, mix and match, make poems out of this?

32. Stretching a sentence?one poem is an entire sentence!

33. Spatials- play with space in poetry?

34. Repetition- "I believe" "Believe" " I have seen"

35. Thanksgiving?give thanks for various things

36. Repetition of words/phrases

37. "I remember when"

38. Instructions- start each line with a very strong verb

39. Outside of self "I see a ______ and I see ____"

Or I listen to _____ and I remember_____________"