Quick Write

Quick Write is a versatile strategy used to develop writing fluency, to build the habit of reflection into a learning experience, and to informally assess student thinking. The strategy asks learners to respond in 2–10 minutes to an open-ended question or prompt posed by the teacher before, during, or after a reading, topic review, or other classroom activity.

Implementation

1. A Quick Write helps student to thinking about a recent classroom experience.

2. In a Quick Write, students respond to a question or prompt by writing whatever comes to their minds without organizing it too thoughtfully and without concern for grammar.

3.Use the Quick Write as a before, during, and after a learning experience to:

· Activate prior knowledge by preparing students for reading, writing, or a discussion

· Help students make personal connections

· Promote reflection about key content concepts

· Encourage critical thinking

· Organize ideas for better comprehension

· Increase background knowledge when shared

· Synthesize learning and demonstrate understanding of key concepts

· Reinforce vocabulary

· Provide a purpose for learning

4. Extensions:

· Assign as part of students’ Learning Logs or Journals.

· Use to think/brainstorm for a Think-Write- Pair-Share.

· Students can generate their own Quick Write questions and prompts.

· Work in small groups to create a quick write, with each student offering one sentence in a round-robin fashion.

5. Quick Write Prompts:

· Summarize what you learned

· Connect this new information to your lives

· Explain content concepts or vocabulary

· Make predictions, inferences, and hypotheses

· Summarize the key point of this learning experience.

Classroom Management

1. Tell students how long they will have to complete the Quick Write.

2. Indicate that the Quick Write will only be graded for completion, not for quality or accuracy.