A Few Opening Prompts From @CWPFairfield's 1st Week of Summer Young Adult Literacy Labs

Because it's impossible to be in three or more places at once, I've made it a habit over the years to use whiteboard space on campus to spark a.m. writing tasks for our teachers and students attending Connecticut Writing Project summer programs. I move from room to room and simply sketch out a possibility for writing to align with writing objectives named by the lab teachers. One of my favorites began last year in Project Citizen - an acrostic of sorts to welcome kids into the morning with a poem written from the alphabet and offering them a bit of writing advice:

A nd it's Wednesday, somewhere
B etween Monday & Friday, where
C randall wants a fun
D isplay of creative imagination, 
E xcellent innovation, 
F antastic inspiration
G randiose contemplation of 
H ow words matter 
I n our lives ---
J ustifying stories, how he survives...
K nowing that 
L anguage  & notebooks is how the writer drives,
M eandering through Fairfield & Connecticut
N ights...challenging the wrongs, upholding
O ur nights, 
P romoting integrity, how the poet fights, 
Q uestioning falsehoods, 
R eaching for the moon, 
S aluting the universe
T hen watching a cartoon
U buntu ... togetherness...
V irtue & whether the Great 
W hatever will guide our way, 
X ploring our everything
Y es! We have another day
Z okie! K'plowie! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! 

The sports writers, too, had an a.m. challenge of writing several haikus about their favorite sport, as they have been writing across many genres to highlight the games they love to play. I drafted

Saucony road map,
landscaped pavement nirvana
sweating out a goal.

Morning sunlight kiss,
mist steaming from the grass
right foot, left foot, sprint.

Birds singing in trees, 
squirrels collecting those nuts,
dogs barking out back

Waking up each mile
breathing in another day
exhaling new hope...

muscles tightening 
leaping forward, miles add up
while some drink coffee.

No music, nature,
providing rhythmic lyrics,
running a new day.

It's not always easy to find writing time, but at 7:30 in the morning, it works! It's a great way to kick off the day.