Getting students (and me!) writing

It's not that I haven't been writing; it's that I've been writing about my life rather than my teaching. But it's long-past time now to jump-start this blog...so here goes...

I've fallen into the habit of talking too much in class, I've decided, so that even I am bored with the sound of my own voice, so here's the plan for tomorrow. After the usual proofreading pep-talk last week (which amounts, at this point in the semester to homonym and sentence boundary errors), I thought we'd look at a few samples from Six Sentences and write some of our own. I figure it will accomplish a few things: some low-stakes, keep-those-muscles-warm writing; continuing opportunity to answer those questions about just what is a sentence; and, most importantly, a chance to collect up a lot of writing samples fast that we can use in trying to set some criteria for "good writing."

Questions:

• Do you have students do such in-class, low-stakes writing that does not necessarily connect to any other assignment, and if so how often?
• Do you keep it going throughout the semester?
• Any suggestions for sites like Six Sentences as student inspiration? (40 X 365 is another one I've found. Barbara Ganley gives students a word of the day and asks for 100 words; I've tried 100 words inspired by a photo from a Creative Commons-licensed flickr photo. Other options???)

Comments

[Jason]

I like the idea of low-stakes, sentence-level writing in class. I sometimes do style lessons, but I don't put enough emphasis on students producing writing in class.

I've been talking too much in my courses this semester.