From action.RAN.org

Writing Prompts developed for the Art Gate program of Opera Piccola by Carolyn Norr

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• All writing is a chance for students to look deeper into what they are discovering through the art. Only use writing exercises that you as an artist would be interested in completing.

• Concrete prompts rather than abstract subjects—rather than, write on how clothes affect us, try “when my clothes look clean I…”/ “when I see someone with raggedy clothes I think they must…”/ “when people see me dressed they think… but in my heart I….”

• As in the previous example, use writing prompts to get students started thinking in new directions about a theme.

• In a district where many students feel disempowered by the writing they do in school, make your writing prompts different. Rather than, write about…. try list poems, raps, acrostic poems (where each letter of a word starts a line) collage poems, dialogues, any way to break out of the ridged academic structure and still use words.

• By the same token try writing on cards, in envelopes, on wood, inside of pictures, as gifts for others.

• The writing should be linked as directly as possible with the rest of your class- for example, if practicing “the drop” in hip hop dance, students can write on what they would like to have drop out of their lives, or what has dropped out.

• As much as possible build the writing prompts off of what has just been experienced within the class- instead of just asking them to write “when I make art I feel…” have them actually paint with different colors and then write- when I paint with orange I feel… when I paint with blue I feel.. or even just when I paint I feel…

• For younger children, think of the goal as literacy, rather than necessarily writing—this can include them speaking and you taking notes, providing word cards for them to work with, story telling, creating sequenced stories that are mostly pictures with a few words etc.