Weekly Writing Prompt [High School Dropout Advice]

Last week I wrote a short paragraph of the importance of warming up, I feel it's important enough to share again, but think of a daily writing warm up the same as a track and field warm up. We are encouraging our students to work specific muscles, so how important is it to get the juices flowing? With that, here's what I wrote last week: "One of the most important aspects of an ELA classroom is the daily warm-up. Spending at least five minutes on the task of free writing, where ideas are brainstormed, a brief story written, a list of words formulated as a result of seeing, reading, or thinking through a prompt are all valuable ways to help your students warm up. Teach them the skills, give them sentence starters if they have a brain slump day (cause we all have them), then allow them to use any one of the tools available to write without the "fear" of being graded. Beginning is the hardest part. It is our job to give them the tools to simply start...."

Giving students and understanding of the "why" behind a task will help them do it without a lot of complaint. They may not enjoy it, and they'll likely tell you so, but stand firm and put on repeat the reasons why you require what you require. Doing this helps you pick activities with a purpose and an end goal in mind, and if you share those two things with them, they are more likely to do it and less likely to grumble about it.

Today's prompt is another question for student's to ponder and write about what they'd advise on the topic of high school drop outs: