Close Observation

Though the classroom cannot always provide the content to keep the writer enriched, it can provide the stimuli. We trigger memories and encourage student writers to sensitize themselves to the world around them.

People Photos

This activity is a verbal snapshot; it is intended to involve quick, perceptive writings.

Have the students create a number of word pictures of interesting people in interesting situations: the student being admonished in the hallway by a teacher, the President at a press conference when asked a question he didn’t like, the kid standing in a rainstorm alone waiting for the bus that is late, the younger sister watching a funny cartoon—whatever. These written photos should be brief, accurate, and as precise as possible. You may want to collect these writings for several days; then, select the best ones to share. Tell students to concentrate on letting their eyes be the camera and their paper the picture.

CIA

This eavesdropping activity is a favorite with students, but do caution them about the types of situations in which eavesdropping may—and may not—be a harmless activity.

Instruct students that when they are in other classes and interesting places around the school such as the front office, the auto repair shop, or the gym, or when they are in other venues with lots of people, such as malls, parks, bus stops, and grocery stores, that they should eavesdrop on the conversations around them. Remind them to be nice, polite, and unobtrusive—just as a CIA agent would need to be.

They are to collect in writing several conversations that they overhear, recording what is said as accurately as they can. You can also expand the activity to include phone conversations. Tell students to eavesdrop on only appropriate conversations, nothing high-stakes, threatening, too private, or too risky. Have your spies share their best conversations.

As a follow-up activity, you may have students take the raw material of their collected conversations and edit the best one into an effective dialogue or  vignette.

Portrait

This exercise also encourages close observation and recording details. Have each student observe one of his or her classmates but without letting that person know he’s the subject of the exercise. Tell students they are to concentrate on details that make their subject unique and interesting. Then they are to paint a verbal picture of their subject without using a name. Read these verbal pictures aloud and guess the identity of the subjects.