This is a great article. In fact this is exactly what I do in every class:
So Kelly Ford’s Senior English class came as a surprise.
Even in 1982 at the age of 17, I knew that something was different. For starters, we wrote every single day. No grammar worksheets in Kelly’s class and no study questions either. Instead, his favorite drill went like this: Enter the room. Grab your journal. Read the prompt on the chalkboard, and start writing. Give me 10 full minutes without stopping. No excuses.
In terms of prompts, I’ve used the great Writing Prompts, I’ve also had them read Wil Wheaton’s essay on meeting William Shatner, had them write a scene to a Joshua Allen tweet, read Roland Barthes on wrestling, and read comics and then have them reverse engineer that comic into their own script.
There are many ways to teach writing, and the one thing I continue to push is something Vaughan said about writing: that it’s like working out, because the more you lift and train the better you’re going to get. So you’re going to work out every time you’re in my class.
