Prompt Writing

My students have completed their genre study of essays and today I introduced how we write to a prompt. Thursday I watched my wonderful principal teach a lesson derived from Chapter 9 of Writing a Life by Katherine Bomer. I had tried this lesson about two weeks ago and it didn't really fly or maybe I rushed it. I tried it again with my morning group and got the same reaction she did the previous day. So now my students understand and know what do to if on the day of the writing test they are stuck. They have LOTS of pieces from their notebooks to choose from. I believe the key to trying Bomer's method is too hook them a highly engaging piece that the teacher wrote. I used a humerous one as my hook. Then I took a piece I had written with them and showed them how that would also work. Then they came up with prompts to try and 'stump' me. Everytime I could make it work. I highly recommend reading this book and trying this method if your state assesses writing.