1. LET THE GAME BEGIN: NONSTOP WRITING

2. WHAT IS IT?  Nonstop timed writing (three to seven minutes)  Responding to a prompt  Focus on presenting ideas not spelling, punctuation, or conventions  Prompts can be content related i.e., Describe the cycle of photosynthesis as if you were a blade of grass on a football field.  or more opened i.e., What is your reaction to the film?

3. IT’S VERY VERSATILE  WHEN TO USE IT AND WHY  Before or throughout the study of any content area  Explore ideas about the subject before studying it  Response to reading  Trace changes in thinking about the subject

4. Play by Play

5. PLAY BY PLAY: THE KICKOFF  Start small until students get the hang of if—a minute or two  Help students avoid “running up against the wall” (can’t think of anything to write).

6. PLAY BY PLAY: WORKING THE GAME  As students write, teacher needs to watch for one main problem: students who write a couple of sentences then shut down—blocked. To prevent this, before writing begins…  give partners a minute or two to talk and brainstorm about the topic  followed by a quick class brainstorming list written on a overhead  finally let students know how their papers will be used (they will take it more seriously).

7. PLAY BY PLAY: WORKING THE GAME  Putting thoughts onto paper quickly takes practice  The continuous writing of sentences and paragraphs takes more effort than brainstorming a quick list.  Continuing to write for seven minutes requires the writer to expand on details or move on to new topics when a previous one is exhausted.  Use this strategy frequently, practice will improve quality and depth of learning.

8. PLAY BY PLAY: THE HIGH-STAKES GAMES  Wording your own prompts similarly to those that students will face on high- stakes tests will give them an advantage when tackling AP, ACT, SAT, and the new End- of-Level exams.

9. PUTTING THE WRITING TO WORK  Writing is useful to help students remember information also to connect information to personal ideas  Sharing writing with others is a springboard for discussion and further self-evaluation of writing.

10. OK TEAM, LET’S PRACTICE!

11. “VAMPIRE BAT DEBATE: TO KILL OR NOT TO KILL  Prompt: Both the cattleman Francisco Oliva and the research zoologist Stefan Klose make valid points, which do you support and why?

12. WHAT CAN GO WRONG?  Roadblocks previously mentioned  Grading to build proficiency

13. The final play! Now we’ll all use our textbooks to locate a lesson that we will be teaching the first of term of this year. Finally, we will share our ideas with a partner then then some with the whole group.

14. The real winners are our students!