The miracle is there are so many ways of telling it. Students should be encouraged to appreciate their own lives as rich sources of information. The truth is in the details and the sum of those details is fiction. W.O. Mitchell 1. Students should keep notebooks to record everything that is of interest to them.
Great art rises out of passionate interest.
Students should write about things that interest them, whether it is baseball, boys, insects, astronomy, music, pizza or cars. They should be encouraged to read and talk about current events and issues, discovering their own connection to the rest of the world. Write words on pieces of paper and pass the envelope. Each student draws a word. He or she should quickly write four ways the word might move and then write a poem using all five words.