Get hold of a real memo - perhaps one from your school office that has been approved for you to use. Assess it for ideas. Is it clear? Easy to follow? Identify three things you could do to improve it.

Break students into groups and give each group a different textbook. Ask them to identify a short passage that works well in terms of idea development. Rate it for ideas. Present it to the class (this can be done by reading it aloud) and ask the class to rate it for ideas. Then let the group present their rating and compare it with the rest of the class. Encourage the group to identify one very specific thing that makes idea development work within the passage.

Break students into groups, and give each a newspaper or section of a newspaper. Ask them to identify one passage strong in ideas and one passage weak in ideas. Ask each group to use their passages to teach a lesson on idea development. They might ask the class to rate the passages, to compare details or language - or to identify 3 strengths or 3 weaknesses for the passages.

Choose an article - a short newspaper article works well - that is missing some key information. Read it to students and ask them to identify questions they have. Use this to point out that writing that is strong in ideas does not generally leave readers with numerous questions.

Ask one or two students each day to dig up an interesting, little-known fact on a topic of their choice. The point of this lesson is to encourage students to dig for information that goes beyond the obvious.

Assemble research materials on several different topics. Break students into groups, and ask each to choose one of the topics. Before doing any research, ask them to brainstorm a list of "obvious, well-known" facts on their topic. Then, see if they can find, by digging through their research material, a list - just as long - of intriguing, interesting facts. Post the results - with the pairs of lists side by side - so every group can see what the others came up with. Talk about the differences and why it is important to go beyond the obvious.

Some bits of information are worthy of note-taking and some aren’t. Do your students know the difference? Pull a piece of informational writing from the Internet or from an encyclopedia. Ask pairs of students to very quickly read through the article and circle those things on which they would make notes IF they were doing research. Compare what various teams noted. What makes information noteworthy?

What makes a good interview question? Surely not Where were you born? Where do you live now? Boring! What about, What’s your favorite film? What would you like to be doing in 5 years? What do you fear most? What’s your first vivid memory? Did you ever have to eat something you weren’t sure you could eat? Brainstorm a list of 6-10 good interview questions. Then ask students to interview each other in pairs - give each person 4-5 minutes to ask questions. Then ask each to imagine he/she is doing a biography and to write an interesting lead based on the interview information. Read as many aloud as you have time for.

Begin with any object - or person or live animal. Whatever! Gather everyone around to observe and make notes. (Detailed artwork works well for this activity, too.) Brainstorm as many details as you can till the whole class is exhausted thinking up ideas. Rest assured - you have still missed something! What was it? Remember - good writers notice what others miss.

Ask each student to bring in one shoe - old, new, worn, from another time - whatever. Make a display. After 2-3 days of observing, ask each student to write one of the following:

• An advertisement for the shoe (as it would have appeared when the shoe was new)
• A poem about the shoe or its owner
• A brief description of the shoe’s owner
• A short story in which the shoe played and important part

Ask your students to imagine that they quit school today. What will they be doing 10 years from now? Twenty? Do a 10-15-minute quick write and read some of the results. Warning to student writers: Do NOT make your predictions too obvious (e.g., I should have stayed in school because I am unemployed now). Creativity is the name of the game here.

Do a 10-minute quick-write on any one of the following topics

Read some of the results aloud.

This lesson has two parts - both excellent for teaching ideas (conventions and voice, too!).

Part 1: Ask students to look through the want-ad section of the paper and then to write an advertisement for a job opening. They can be inventive, so long as it’s (conceivably!) a real job. Have them meet in groups to share their ads and offer one another suggestions on wording or the need for additional information that might not be clear. Rewrite the ads and post them - each with three tags numbered 1, 2, and 3.

Part 2: Each student must read through the want-ads, then take one tag from each of three of the want ads - their choice, though it will be first come, first served! Each will then write three short letters of application-one for each of the advertised positions they’ve selected. The letters should be signed with pseudonyms and turned into the want-ad writers anonymously (they can be pinned to a bulletin board on envelopes). Each want-ad writer should receive three letters. Each should read the letters carefully - and choose the one that will get the job. Ask several students - or more if time permits-to read their want - ads and their letter of choice - and to explain why that person would be chosen to receive the job. How important are the factors of

• Clarity
• Voice
• Conventions
• Detail