Sustained Silent Writing

It happens every four months. The class is over. A group of people who sat together four days a week for nearly four months has scattered. Some will return next term, and some will not.

For the entire term, we had a morning ritual: sustained, silent writing. I felt a little hesitant about starting it, as a previous class had a lukewarm reaction, and we ended up quitting halfway through the term.

I needn't have worried. This class loved it.

The rules for SSW are simple:

• Write about whatever you want.
• Keep writing until the ten minutes is over.
• Do not go back to reread or correct spelling or grammar.
• Don't show anyone else what you've written unless you want to.
  

Every day at the end of the ten minutes, I asked the students to count the words they had written. Then I came round with my chart and recorded the numbers.

That in itself was impressive. Some people who started out under a hundred words could consistently generate three hundred by term end.

Even more interesting, several students told me that SSW had helped their grammar and expression. It also built their confidence, making them play and have fun with writing while they built skills.