Long after I had moved to a workshop-style classroom, I couldn’t shake a very typical writing-class problem: kids didn’t write. Well, they did, but they still didn’t write until the very last minute, procrastinating and frozen until the assignment was due.
Sure, I’d dutifully teach mini-lessons, but then, instead of writing, students would stare, doodle, and avoid because it was hard (impossible?) to attach a mini-lesson strategy to nothing.
I think it was Allison (almost every good idea in those days came to me from Allison’s brilliance) who introduced me to the idea of flash-drafting: what if students wrote what Anne Lamott calls a “shitty first draft” quickly at the very, very beginning of a writing unit? Then, every mini-lesson helps students revise instead of draft.
Maybe that distinction feels small, but it has revolutionized what my students can do — how much they can write, how much they can use and transfer the mini-lesson.
I’m hosting a webinar on January 18 at 7:30pmEST ( and available later by recording!) to talk about flash-drafting:
- why it works
- how to do it
- how to use variations of flash-drafting to help students develop ideas and revise
- how to move from flash drafts to “real drafts”
For me, this has been one of those small instructional shifts that has yielded enormous results! I hope you’ll join me!
I’m offering 10% off for Moving Writers readers using the link below until Tuesday, January 16!
moving writers 