Ideas that came out of the small group brainstorm about how to help kids find something worth saying about almost anything...

• have a group discussion about things they like about the topic, things they connect with...share ideas, provide praise
  
• create a safe environment for discussion and writing
  
• often in discussion kids (we all) find our responses in listing to others...in reacting to what someone else has said
  
• break down boundaries between writing and other investigations...teach inquiry as part of the writing process and as part of every learning process...do more long term investigations that include writing in other subject areas
  
• a problem may be that the process (the way the writing process is presented) is inconsistent from year to year, teacher to teacher...new terms, new steps, new expectations...causes confusion
  
• Jim Beam, “what are your concerns about yourself and what are you concerned about in the world...” practice of reflective writing may have helped, say anything you want to
  
• prewriting idea: use quotation, even class saying, let them write for 10 minutes to engage the subject
  
• sometimes it is not cool to have something to say when you are a teenager..drama activities that take kids outside themselves give them another perspective and make it okay for them to have something to say
  
• examine purpose...why do we write? Give purpose. Learn. Publish.
  
• break writing activities (college application essay, etc.) down into fill in the blanks exercise...break the process down into smaller steps for those who need it
  
• teach them how to do, don’t just tell them to do it...what is wrong with breaking the 5 paragraph essay down into its parts?
  
• can’t that be conditioning instead of learning...some students produce the 5 paragraph essay even when another form (personal narrative) might be more appropriate because they have been taught the form
  
• 5 paragraph essay is survival skill...you need to know how to do it for those times when nothing else will do...but it will very likely never be your best writing
  
• modeling, using kids writing as examples on overhead, gives other’s ideas of what they might have to say
  
• produce an atmosphere where talk is about writing not the writer
  
• we should take care not “give, give, give” them things, reasons, topics, etc....help them discover their own things to say