1. Ask the students to call out any familiar places they feel strongly about (their bedroom, a favorite cafe, and so on).

2. Give each student an envelope that contains a portrait, photo, or drawing of a person.

3. Ask the students to write a short story that incorporates one of the settings they’ve called out with the person whose picture they’ve received.

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

This exercise works best with groups of about eight students who are familiar with each other.

1. Have students pair up.

2. Ask each student to write two one-page stories. The first story is about an early childhood memory, and the second is about a day on public transportation.

3. Ask the students to cut each story into separate lines and place the lines in one pile, then shuffle them.

4. Each person in the pair takes half of the pile, then pieces them together into a complete story.

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

This exercise also is appropriate for a classroom in which most students have come from elsewhere.

1. Ask students to draw up two lists. The first list is a series of words indicating things they left behind in their countries (or cities or states) of origin (for example, people, things, places, and animals). The second list is a series of words indicating what they have found in this country.

2. Ask students to think about the “borders” that separate these two places: the actual borders, rivers, resources necessary to pay for airfare, history, choices, and so on.

3. Ask them to write a poem that incorporates as many words as possible from both lists.

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

1. Ask students to write from a baby’s perspective, inside the womb. (You might play Jimi Hendrix’s song, “Belly Button Window.”)

2. You can expand on this exercise by asking students to write from the baby’s point of view at ages two, five, and ten.

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

1. Before your group leaves the building, talk about the five senses and, if you wish, read a model poem that uses sensory information. If you read a model poem, ask participants to discuss how the poet uses the senses in the poem.

2. Take students outside and ask them, as they walk around, to write two examples of what each of their five senses notices (what they see, smell, taste, touch, and hear). Ask them to choose details they wouldn’t normally notice.

3. Sit outside or come back to your meeting space and ask students to share at least one item from their list.

4. Ask students to write a piece using at least three items from their list.

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

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!”