A Halloween Writing Marathon

I was first introduced to writing marathons during the summer of 2016 when I was going through the Red Cedar Writing Project Summer Institute at Michigan State University. I was invited to be a part of the summer institute homecoming, and I was so thrilled that I participated.  One of the things we did that day was participate in a writing marathon. For a few hours I found myself sitting on the banks of the Red Cedar writing a story that was a long time coming. The few other people who joined me wrote as well and after a period of time we spent time sharing. It was at that moment when I knew I would be including writing marathons into my classroom.

I dabbled with them last year a bit, but this school year I have made it a point to do one a month with my fifth grade writing students. In September we focused on sentence starters. We spent two to three minutes in various classrooms around the school noticing things. The students would write down sentences that could start a story. Our favorite were the kindergarten classrooms. What they had to say was so raw and frankly just funny.

In October the students were given photographs that dealt with Halloween. They could choose any photograph to write a story about. For two minutes they spent brainstorming ideas, wrote for four minutes, shared for six minutes, and wrote for four more. We then repeated this with another image.

Below are some thoughts about what my students felt about the October writing marathon:

• We could write about whatever picture we wanted.
• I liked that it was  Halloween themed.
• I liked everything because it was just writing. 
• I liked it because you could put your own thoughts into it. 
• I liked that we could tell each other the stories and our partners would give us feedback on them. 
• I liked everything about it because it was fun, quiet and calming.
• Even the boys liked it surprisingly!
• 
  

Now to come up with an idea for the one in November.