Next, we give our character her power, and I tell the students to start thinking hard about their own powers. You can have a jillion. The Assignment Write about your secret power. Don't just tell me you can fly, tell me where you can fly to. With students who are either too young or too disabled to write, I solicit the help of the teacher and his or her assistants, and we take dictation.
Some secret powers are as simple as love.
Some are more complicated. I would like to note that this exercise is rarely the best thing students writes while I am with them. This lesson is more about the game. It is about letting the students know that I care about what they think, that I can learn from them as much as they can learn from me. Trust, as we all know, is essential.