Choose one or more of the following prompts as a catalyst for writing:

1. Ask students to freewrite for five minutes, repeating the line “Now I know…” several times.

2. Ask students to write about a time when they knew that acknowledging their desires was more important than what other people thought about them.

3. Ask students to write about a time when they knew their truth but could not articulate it to others.

This lesson is from the WritersCorps book “Jump Write In!”

1. Bring in objects with distinctive colors or swatches of colorful cloth or paint.

2. Ask students to write a poem or story in which they describe one of the colors — the color, not the object — for a blind person.

This lesson is from the WritersCorps book “Jump Write In!”

1. Bring photos from books or magazines. Make sure some faces are of teenagers, others of middle-aged adults.

2. Ask students to choose two photos, one from each age group.

3. Tell students that the photo of the older person is the teenager’s parent and that one of the two has a secret, such as being gay, being an alcoholic, or being secretly in love.

4. Ask them to start their pieces with the words, “You don’t know anything about me.”

This lesson is from the WritersCorps book “Jump Write In!”

1. Tell students that they are now queen or president or boss of their own countries. Ask them to name their country, decide how it’s run, and determine the customs and values of their people.

2. Ask students to choose a physical position in which to be traced.

3. Trace the outlines of students’ bodies on huge sheets of paper.

4. In this way each student makes a map of her country. As WritersCorps teacher Gloria Yamato, who designed this project when working with young girls at Girls After School Academy, says: “this exercise allows the girls’ bodies to become countries that they alone preside over.”

This lesson is from the WritersCorps book “Jump Write In!”

1. Have the students say good-bye to the current year before New Year’s Day.;

2. Prepare a handout with the following or similar prompts:

If last year were a person, it would be …
If last year were a car, it would be …
If last year were a drink, it would taste like …
If last year were music, it would sound like …
If last year were an animal, it would be …
If last year were a piece of clothing, it would be …
If last year were a kind of weather, it would be …
If last year were a color, it would be …

3. Ask students to write a poem about the year that is ending.

This lesson is from the WritersCorps book “Jump Write In!”