Free-Writing Really Works!

I teach Language Arts to 5th, 6th & 7th graders. In the past, I've had free-write time where they have to write something for a certain amount of time. I tell them to write whatever comes to mind, even if they just give a running description of what's going on in the room. Some embrace it and get as excited as I do (because I free-write with them). Others moan and groan.

Today I decided to do this with my 5th graders. Several of the kids couldn't wait to get started. No one groaned. It was AWESOME! I had them write for 10 minutes and when we were done, they whined because they wanted to keep going! We didn't have that much longer before the bell, so we kept going.

WOW! I'd forgotten how well this works for me. In my TCAFS writing there's a transition scene missing and it's been bugging me for a while now. During the free-write, I decided to free-write this transition scene and it worked! I wrote 2 pages that gave me a GREAT starting place for my writing session tonight!

What about you? Does free-writing work for you?