Bard High School Early College - Newark

Writing & Thinking Workshop

Workshop Scripts with an

ORANGE

Goals for the Session: Use FFWs, Poetry Play, and poetry and/or dialogue writing to have fun, while using writing to reflect on texts and objects. Key Elements: FW FFW (regular and list form) Blackboard usage Poetry/dialogue writing Passing notebooks SHARING: READ-AROUND VOLUNTEERING PROCESS FW. The session begins with a Free Write. [Can omit if not the first activity of the session.] (5 min) The instructor places an orange in the center of the table, and FFW. Write a FFW on the orange. (5 min) Then you could Reading aloud. Do a read-around of Margaret Atwoods Beyond Still Life, and/or several individual readings of it. (2-5 min) Or Reading aloud. Do a read-around of Louis Agassizs Cyanea Artica. (2 min) Students then find a plant or other natural object in the room, or visible from it. (1 min) FFW. Students write a FFW describing that object in as much detail as they can. (5-7 min) [TOTAL: 8-10 min]

Or FFW in list form. Make individual lists of every word you can to describe the orange. (3-5 min) Share on blackboard. Students take turns (read-around or volunteer) saying words on their lists, while the instructor writes them down OR they take turns going up to the board to write a word themselves; keep going until they are out of words. (10 min) Write a poem. Students are each asked to write a poem about the orange using NONE of the words written on the board. (5-7 min) Share. Share all or some of these; can also share in pairs, by reading to ones neighbor. (3-7 min) [TOTAL: 21-29 min] Or Instructor takes out another item (spoon/fork, pencil, other piece of fruit, etc.) and places it next to the orange. Tells students, Imagine the orange and the ____ are having a conversation. Write down the first thing the orange says. (1-2 min) Passing notebooks. Students pass their notebooks one person to the right (or left, either direction is fine as long as it is consistent). (1 min) Instructor tells students, Now, write the ______s response to what the orange just said. (1-2 min) Students pass their notebooks again, in the same direction. They continue the dialogue, one line per notebook, until they get their notebook back. They finish off the dialogue in their own notebook with one final line. (10-15 min) SHARING. Using a Read-around, each student (and the instructor!) reads through the entire dialogue in their notebook. (12-18 min) PROCESS. [Optional] Response to the prompt, What is something youll remember from these dialogues? (5 min) [TOTAL: 25-43 min]