If you try this activity with your students, we’d love to see what you do. Share your journey via the #Inspired2Learn hashtag on your preferred social platform.
Discipline: Any discipline in which you are completing a writing activity.
Age level: K-12
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: chart paper with “scraggly looking dog” on it, easel, notepad and pen for all
Created by: Jenna Fournel, Director of Teaching and Learning, Center for Inspired Teaching
This activity invites participants to broaden their context about what it means to be a writer. It encourages growth through practice and self-management as ideas arise.
WHAT TO DO:
Invite students to close their eyes… Listen to the music and see what they see (pass out a pen & pad to each participant while eyes are closed)… After a couple of minutes, invite students to open their eyes and write what they saw.
Invite participants to share what they wrote – only ask them to “read what you wrote” and make sure they stick to only reading their text, rather than explaining what they wrote. This is important not only because of potential rambling (which takes up time), but also emphasizes that this is a writing exercise. Remind them to read from their paper or sharing can get rambly and cumbersome.
- Somebody read what they wrote?
- Who’s next?
Repeat with 2 more songs, of very different tempos and types. Continue the sharing.
After 3 songs, on chart paper or a board of some sort write the following: “Scraggly looking dog.” Write what you see now. Have participants share out. As each participant reads, offer an insight—a simple observation about what you heard. Your goal is to begin to open up participants’ context about what it means to be a writer, and how to generate meaningful written work.
DEBRIEF:
- What did you notice about your thinking in these exercises?
- What was different about writing from music vs. writing from this prompt?
- What did you notice about what other people wrote?
Standards Addressed by this Activity
Common Core College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language
Knowledge of Language:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Common Core College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing
Common Core College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2 Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
Common Core College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5 Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.7 Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1 Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals. They make conjectures about the form and meaning of the solution and plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt. They consider analogous problems, and try special cases and simpler forms of the original problem in order to gain insight into its solution. They monitor and evaluate their progress and change course if necessary. Older students might, depending on the context of the problem, transform algebraic expressions or change the viewing window on their graphing calculator to get the information they need. Mathematically proficient students can explain correspondences between equations, verbal descriptions, tables, and graphs or draw diagrams of important features and relationships, graph data, and search for regularity or trends. Younger students might rely on using concrete objects or pictures to help conceptualize and solve a problem. Mathematically proficient students check their answers to problems using a different method, and they continually ask themselves, “Does this make sense?” They can understand the approaches of others to solving complex problems and identify correspondences between different approaches.
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning Competencies
Self-Awareness: The abilities to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. This includes capacities to recognize one’s strengths and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence and purpose.
Self-management: The abilities to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations. This includes the capacities to delay gratification, manage stress, and feel motivation and agency to accomplish personal and collective goals.
Relationship skills: The abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups. This includes the capacities to communicate clearly, listen actively, cooperate, work collaboratively to problem solve and negotiate conflict constructively, navigate settings with differing social and cultural demands and opportunities, provide leadership, and seek or offer help when needed.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards
| Dimension 1: Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries | Dimension 3: Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence |
|---|---|
| Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries | Gathering and Evaluating Sources |
| Developing Claims and Using Evidence |
