List of Lists

Today we did one of my favorite writing exercises called List of Lists.  In the front of the room we put a poster that was covered in post-it notes.  Each post-it note had an idea for a list.  Students would come up to the front of the room and grab a post-it note that they liked.

We had list ideas that included: favorite movies, favorite family traditions, favorite candy, favorite board games, things you would like to change about Donovan, things that you would change about the world, things that annoy you, places that you would like to visit (real or pretend), and on and on and on.  The students would take the list from the poster and take it back to their seat.  In their writer's notebooks they would create the list.  When they felt they were running out of steam, they would take the list back to the board and grab another.  Some students created six or seven lists.  Others created one or two lists that were filled with a ton of ideas.

There are many reasons that I love this exercise.  One reason is it helps with writing fluency.  I think the class is starting to realize that in our room we are going to write.  The more fluent they are with writing the more they will be able to put their ideas on paper.  While fluency is important, the most important part of this lesson is it shows students how to generate an idea.

To help the students understand this Ms. Cavallaro and myself took our lists that we had created and showed the class how it would lead to more writing.  I put my list of favorite family traditions up on the board.  On my list I had put roasting pumpkin seeds.  I love this tradition each year in late October.  I showed the class how I could take this one idea and write so much.  I could write the story of how this tradition began or I could write a recipe on how to roast pumpkin seeds or I could write a letter to my children about how much the tradition means to me or I could write an invitation to my children to invite them to this years seed roasting.  The ideas could go on and on.  We invited the students to do the same find an idea and extend it into a writing piece.

In these first few weeks of writing I want our students to understand all the possibilities they have when they write.  I also want them to learn how writers find ideas.  I think one of the hardest things as an author is coming up with an idea.  Over the next few weeks we will fill the room with strategies that might help with idea generation.  Hopefully one of the ideas or all of these ideas will work for the students.

If you notice that during our at home writing that it seems to be tough to get started, you could try this trick.  Put a bunch of lists on the fridge or anywhere in the house and let them go grab one.  Once they have created a few lists have them search through what they have written and find an idea that they could extend.  Hopefully it might be the springboard into an amazing writing project.

Hope that you are having an amazing week.