For the unfamiliar (or those who slept their way through high school English), the freewrite is an activity that involves writing (obviously) about a topic that doesn’t require constraints of grammar, sentence structure, or even the English language. The goal is to get words onto a paper, so often the only requirement for the activity is that students keep moving their pens for 10 or so minutes.It’s more difficult than it sounds, particularly for the reluctant students, but even some of the better performing students have trouble with writing activities because they are such great conversationalists. (To put it mildly)
That’s why today was such a riot.
First off, examples are fun. They’re a pain, they’re difficult, they’re time consuming, but they can be the most fun things I ever have to for a class.
“If you can’t think of anything to write, you can write “yadda yadda yadda,” or “Mr. F– is wearing a black tie AGAIN?”
Second, students focused on keeping the pen moving sometimes don’t see what’s going on. Like the student who wrote furiously while chomping away on their gum. It was scritch scratch, chomp chomp, scritch scratch, chomp chomp.
Scritch scratch, chomp chomp.
Chomp?
Somehow she missed the piece of gum and it fell onto her notebook right in the path of her pen.
I had to leave the room, I was laughing so hard.
Today was a good day.
2 Comments
Heh. Thinking back to high school and my more recent college exposure, I can vividly see some chic who chews her gum with her mouth open. Possibly occasionally making small bubbles and popping it with her mouth. Mindlessy chomping away while staring at her paper she is barely aware of existing except in the most instinctual of senses.
The sound of scribble, chomp is suddenly interrupted by…
“plop”….’ and the silent waggle of a pencil trying in vain to sway to a previously teenage rythm.
I bet the gum on her paper is the one thing that caught her attention in class the most that day.
Good stuff, Felix. I chuckled after reading that. Hopefully you will have many more good days while there. May your tenure be long and prosperous as well as drama free.
Nah, she wasn’t one of those empty-minded students. I think she was really focused on her writing and thus went the candy.
Makes you wonder about that whole “walking and chewing” theory, though.