This is an exercise I did on the first day of class. My experimental course dealt with the blurring of boundaries focusing on the following units--memory, truth vs. fiction, and rhetoric and poetics. Doing this on the first day of class helped to set the tone for the semester. It got the students writing and sharing their work immediately. Since a large part of the class (and any writing class) was negotiating the assignments, when the students read their pieces aloud they began to see there was no right or wrong way to write in this class. In order to reinforce this when the students read what they had written aloud, I also validated something in each person's piece. This exercise also began to raise the issues we dealt with throughout in the class. How accurate is memory? What is true? What is fiction? What makes something a story? A poem? An essay?

For this exercise you will need a bunch of postcards and/or pictures. I have a box in my office that teachers are free to borrow and add to. Begin the exercise by throwing the postcards and/or pictures on the floor. Tell the students that everything they write for this exercise will be shared with the entire class. Then ask the students to do the following one step at a time.

  1. Select a postcard or picture that triggers a memory. Write about that memory for 5-10 minutes. When everyone is done take a few minutes for everyone to read what they have written aloud. Depending on the size of the class there might not be time for everyone to read. Students could share what they have written in groups or half the class could read and then the other half could read during the next step.
  2. Select another postcard and write for about 5-10 minutes. Include something in the writing that is true. Include something that you have made up. Read aloud.
  3. Take the two pieces of writing that have been generated in Step 1 and Step 2 and combine them into one piece. Label the piece according to the genre it is. Is it a story? An essay? A letter? A poem? A journal entry? If time runs short in class this can be done as homework. Again these will all be read aloud.