Write for Fun: Dream Big is a prompt-based writing course where students explore original writing outside of strict formats and heavy revision requirements. Students use Brave Writer® foundational approaches including freewriting and word play to write original narratives on topics of interest.
Students discover the joy and power of their writing voices by focusing on content exclusively. Feedback from the instructor focuses on the impact of the message on the reader rather than mechanical accuracy. This approach to gentle validation of writing content allows students to overcome writing resistance as they explore and play with language in a relaxed atmosphere.
Syllabus
Week One
Students build observation skills by using a variety of senses to explore an object. The writing activity has students connect that household object to a vivid memory.
Week Two
This week, students look at nursery rhymes to uncover patterns and find commonalities in them. With this knowledge in hand, students take a modern twist on a traditional rhyme.
Week Three
It’s time to adopt another view! Students practice inhabiting a character (animal, object, historical person, story character, etc.) and writing from their perspective.
Common Core and Academic Standards Support
What follows is a word bank and set of skills associated with this class. Use them to craft your own learning narrative for use in year-end evaluations, charter school reports, or any other accountability source.
Word Bank
- Character
- Creative writing
- Description
- Dialogue
- Notebooking
- Observation
- Perspective
- Plot
- Point of view
- Rhyme
- Sensory writing
- Vivid detail
- Vocabulary development
- Writing craft
- Writing voice
Core Skills
- Analyze nursery rhymes to find common patterns
- Describe an object using multiple senses
- Draft original writing following nursery rhyme patterns
- Explore different points of view and writing from that perspective
- Engage in narrative writing to bring a memory to life
- Engage in freewriting to move ideas to the page
- Keenly observe an object and develop vivid descriptive details
- Utilize distinct writer’s voice
- Utilize dialogue to convey character
- Write detailed, organized, structured original narratives
