My Thoughts

Overview

Freewriting helps motivate students to develop clearer and more confident writing. My Thoughts contains74 writing tasks, each with a brief, open-ended written prompt and a colorful, evocative illustration. All the student has to do is fill the pages with words, sentences, and thoughts -- all without fear of a grade or lots of red marks.

A sampling of prompts: How do you feel on a rainy day? Describe an adventure you would like to have. What is your favorite game? How do you play it? Why are people afraid of snakes?

For each page/prompt, there is a small space for the teacher to write a brief response – e.g., "Is this true?" "What a beautiful scene!" "Very funny!"

Author Biography

Janet Morey began teaching ESOL in a large St. Louis public school over 35 years ago. Her enthusiasm for teaching and her friendship with fellow instructor Gail Schafers nudged her and Gail to collect their students' writings into two published books. Later Janet and Gail compiled their writing plans into books that other teachers can use. My Thoughts and its sister companion, More Thoughts, are the products of those endeavors! Janet earned her MAT from Webster University and taught at St. Louis Community College. She now teaches Creative Writing at a local prison.