“Quick-write”/ “Quick-draw” Activity Protocol
What is a Quick-write Activity?
A Quick-write Activity is a timed writing experience (usually 5-10 minutes), where a participant/student is asked to respond to a piece
of text (literary or expository) in writing. The notion is for students to write as much as they can during the timed period.
Participants/students should not preoccupy themselves with organizing their thoughts but rather writing as much as they can. The
emphasis, of course, is on content rather than correct grammatical structures, spelling and punctuation.
What is a Quick-draw Activity?
A Quick-draw Activity is a timed drawing experience (usually 5-10 minutes), where a participant/student is asked to respond to a
piece of text (literary or expository) through illustrations. Participants/students are encouraged to quickly draw as many simple
sketches as possible, without editing or altering their illustrations as they complete the task. Again, the notion is for students to draw
as many details as they can during the timed period.
Can I use Quick-write or Quick-draw with English Language Learners (ELLs)?
Yes. Depending on their proficiency level, ELLs can participate in this risk-free and non-threatening way to record immediate
thoughts on a piece of text (literary or expository). Quick-write is appropriate for ELLs who are at the High Beginning through
Advanced levels in writing in English as their Second Language (ESL). Quick-draw is encouraged for those ELLs that are at the
Low-Beginning and Mid-Beginning levels in writing in English as their Second Language (ESL). It is an excellent way to include
ELLs who are at the early stages of writing in their second language. During whole class sharing, it also allows for them to speak of
their illustrations in lieu of reading what they have written. Linking Oral Language to Writing would be the next step with students at
this early stage of writing, i.e., during a Conferring, a teacher can engage in a Language Experience with the ELL student. During this
time, the teacher takes a dictation of the ELL students’ oral description of his/her illustrations. Later, the teacher can revisit the
dictated text during another conferring to draw attention to the semantics and syntactical structures of the dictation, and can model
good writing through suggested revisions.
How do I implement Quick-write or Quick-draw into the classroom?
1.
The facilitator/teacher provides a topic/theme/question to the participants/students, written either on a white board/smart
board/chart paper/overhead transparency.
2.
The facilitator/teacher then directs the participants/students to write about the topic/theme/question in a continuous fashion
(without stopping), for a 5-10 minute period. The facilitator/teacher can set a timer as a way to monitor the exact time.
3.
The facilitator/teacher reminds the participants/students to not worry about the grammatical structures, punctuation or spelling,
but to write or draw as many ideas as quickly as they can without stopping. The facilitator/teacher also reminds the
participants/students to continue writing… even if they must continue to re-write the last sentence they have written or re-draw a
similar sketch to the previous one. The idea here is to stay focused on the topic/ theme/ question and to record as many ideas as
they can and is possible within the time frame.
4.
After the 5-10 minute time period is done, the facilitator/teacher asks the participants/students to voluntarily share their Quickwrite or Quick-draw through an oral presentation. Participants/students who have written a Quick-write read their responses
aloud. The participants/students, who have done a Quick-draw, are asked to orally discuss their illustrations in lieu of reading a
written response.
Developed By: Rosa Alcalde Delgado, Ed.M.
Education Consortium, LLC – Copyright: All Rights Reserved
Source modified from: 60 Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension in Grades K-8; Jonson (2006).