Acting for Introverts

For better or worse, a new school year is around the corner (what am I saying? I’m a teacher…of course it’s for the BETTER! 😀📚🏫).

In the spirit of lifelong education, I wanted to do a few posts about some cool classroom activities I’ve done or seen that stuck with me. Feel free to adapt them to your subject or age range (or steal the ideas outright–all us teachers borrow from each other! 👍🏼👍🏼).

This first post is more of an observation than a lesson idea, but you could use it to help create some fun warm-ups or writing prompts. Here’s the premise:

“Writing is like acting for introverts.”

I know much of the time, writing feels like a chore. Some people don’t like it because it’s too slow (“My brain moves so much faster than my hand!”).

Some people don’t like writing because there are too many rules (“I keep making mistakes and everyone focuses on them instead of what I’m trying to say!”).

Some people don’t like writing because they just don’t have any ideas (“I don’t know what you want me to say!”).

Too all of these objections, I say….You’re right. You’re absolutely right.

Writing can feel very slow. If I could write as fast as I think, I would have 80 books written a year! It’s a lot of work to write anything worthwhile.

Writing does have a lot of rules. Can I tell you a secret? Even I don’t know all the rules, and I’m an English teacher. If you think people judge you harshly when you put a comma in the wrong place, imagine how embarrassing that is for me (because, trust me, I still do it sometimes!).

Writing requires ideas, and ideas aren’t always easy to find. I’ve gotten stuck on countless writing projects because I just didn’t have anything to say (or I couldn’t figure out what to say next). Not everything is worth writing about. You don’t have to finish everything you write.

Man… writing sounds like a drag, doesn’t it? Wasn’t the point of this post to inspire, to give ideas, to motivate people?

Fair enough. Writing does have some good points, too…

For instance, we all have a few kids who don’t say much in class. Kids who fade into the woodwork during group discussions. Kids who just shrug when you call on them. If you want to hook these shy souls, consider framing your next writing prompt with this in mind:

Writing can be a vacation from your life. Writing gives you the chance to be other people, to try out other voices, to go through life-like or fantastical experiences under the guise of anyone you want.

So instead of asking kids to share about themselves or their actual thoughts all the time, invite them to make things up. Assume another persona. Write like their best friend (or worst enemy). In short, give kids the chance to play a role when they write.

“Imagine you are 10 years older…” or “Pretend you have a million dollars…” or “What if you were born two hundred years ago?” Give kids those opportunities to let their guard down and write without feeling like it’s personal.

So give it a try and let me know what you think. If it doesn’t work… check back here for more writing tips that might just do the trick! 🧙🏼‍♂️