Summer 2012 — Volume 43, Number 4

Supplement to Not Just Somebody Standing in Line

Writing Prompts from The Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen Writing Workshop

In her interviews with Ian Frazier, Alice Phillips, and Susan Shapiro about the HASK Writing Workshop, T&W intern Jane Moon asked about the typical workshop protocol, and all three writers spoke of the importance of the writing prompts they use to start off each session. Sometimes these prompts are suggested by the workshop participants themselves, and sometimes they are brought in by the teachers, but almost always, the focus of the prompts is autobiographical.

“We have a basic subject that we’ve used for years which is ‘How I Came to New York’,” said Frazier.  “Usually we focus on personal stories, and a lot of other subjects come off of that personal story. The fact that someone is in a soup kitchen means that there’s a story there.”

Many of the prompts used at the HASK Workshops are used over and over again, in different forms, and all of them would work in a variety of different writing classrooms.  Below is a brief selection you might find helpful in your classroom.

• How I Came to New York
• My Best Mistake
• Where I’m From
• My First Love
• Things I Hide from Myself
• When One Door Closes, Another Opens
• My Worst Night

 

Supplement to Teaching Across the Curriculum

Two Writing Exercises 
for Cross Curriculum Classes
Combining Social Studies & Writing

 Below are two writing exercises used by T&W teaching artist David Andrew Stoler in his cross curriculum classes combining writing and social studies.  Both exercises suggest an approach that is easily adaptable to different historical periods.

Exercise 1: Choosing a Character

This list of possible characters can be changed to reflect the occupations of the people in the location and historical period you are studying, but it should give you an idea of the kinds of things you might want to include.  Since my students were from Queens, NY, I focused on that area.

There were fewer than 5,500 people in Queens, NY in the mid-1700s (today’s population: 2.2 million). Who were these people? What did the men do? What did the women do? What did the children do? Where are they from?  Once you decide on a character, use the character worksheet below to explore this character in more detail.

Farmers

Tradesmen

Shopkeepers

Kids

Slaves

Landowners

Lenape and Metoac Indians

Soldiers

Preachers

Missionaries

Governors

Assemblymen

Fishermen

Oystermen

Hunters

Traders

Schoolteachers

Students

Character Worksheet

Name______________________   
Class_______________________

Character’s Name:____________________________
Character’s Occupation:_______________________

Physical traits:
Age:	Gender:	Race:	Hair Color:
What are you wearing?
What is your most striking physical feature?
Describe your speaking voice:
Where are you from?
What is your favorite thing to eat?

Personality Traits:

What is your greatest personality strength?

What is your greatest weakness?

What do you want most in the world?

What are you most afraid of?

What would you want to be remembered for?

Where do you hide from the world?

What is your biggest concern?

What is your favorite thing to do? Your least favorite thing to do?

Exercise 2: Walt Whitman and The Sounds of Your Colonial Character

Though Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,” is a more recent poem, it sticks with the themes of 1750s America. The poem is basically a list of working people, and nearly none of it wouldn’t fit right in with the 1700s, though it was written more than a century later. Read the following excerpt from the poem:

I Hear America Singing  (excerpt)
by Walt Whitman 

I HEAR America singing, the varied carols I hear;

Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;

The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work;

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands;

The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;

The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else;

The day what belongs to the day—At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.

After reading this excerpt of Whitman’s poem, I want you to imagine you are waking up and going through your day as the character you invented last week. What sounds do you hear? What are the things going on around you? Who and what do you see? Write down these observations as a simple list, following the form of Whitman’s poem.