Writing Sparks and Personal Goals

This term we have been looking for ways to provoke creative writing by using short prompts to generate ideas, build confidence, and boost enthusiasm for the process. After 15-20 minutes of work, students can choose to volunteer to share passages from their writing that they’re proud of. Here is Hamish, Edie and Mila to tell you more about our Writing Sparks:

“It can be really good for ideas. If you wanted to write a narrative, then you did a writing spark, then you could have, like, 50 ideas.” Hamish

I liked that you could choose your own path with the writing. It was fun and educational at the same time.” Edie

“It can give you a sense of planning to write quickly. It’s a spark to help when you’re blocked and don’t know what to write. It makes you think about words that you don’t use in your own writing or haven’t thought about. For this week’s spark we combined two animals. I made a cat and a monkey – I called it a Mat. It was a ferocious, weird and cute looking animal that is very hard to maintain.” Mila

We’ve also been looking at SMART goals and coming up with our own based on personal interests and areas each of us feel we’d like to improve. Read on to hear about what Morgan and Tom have to say about this approach to goal-setting:

“A smart goal is a way of remembering what you should have in a goal. It stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based. It helps you remember how to plan a goal so that you can actually do it.” Morgan

“The goals need to be specific so you know what you plan to do to succeed. You could use smart goals to learn to play a piano piece, improve your soccer skills, get neater handwriting, or to try to be a kinder person. Smart goals are really beneficial.” Tom C